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Refugees & forced migration
RSS FeedAfrica: Israelis attack African migrants during protest against refugees
2012-05-28, Issue 586
Demonstrators have attacked African migrants in Tel Aviv in a protest against refugees and asylum-seekers that indicates an increasingly volatile mood in Israel over what it terms as 'infiltrators'. Miri Regev, a member of the Israeli parliament, told the crowd 'the Sudanese are a cancer in our body'. The vast majority of asylum-seekers in Israel are from Sudan and Eritrea. Around 1,000 demonstrators took part in the demonstration on Wednesday night, waving signs saying: 'Infiltrators, get out of our homes' and 'Our streets are no longer safe for our children.'
DRC: Refused asylum seekers at risk on return to DRC
2012-05-28, Issue 586
The petition available through the web address provided calls for the suspension of removals of failed asylum seekers in the United Kingdom until there has been a full inquiry into the safety of failed asylum seekers on return to the DRC, in order to prevent future ill-treatment of vulnerable Congolese asylum seekers.
Zimbabwe: Group threatens SA crimes unit with international legal action
2012-05-15, Issue 585
A Zimbabwean human rights group has threatened South Africa's chief crime fighting unit with international legal action, over on ongoing probe into the illegal renditions of Zimbabwean citizens from South Africa. Several senior officials in the Hawks criminal unit and the South African police were last year accused of conducting the renditions, in partnership with Zimbabwean police. This has reportedly led to a number of Zimbabwean 'suspects' being arrested in South Africa and then sent across the border illegally, and killed. The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) has also threatened to refer the Hawks members involved to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if they are not brought to justice, explaining that a thorough, credible investigation needs to done.
South Africa: SA urged to deal with ‘chaos’ at Zim border
2012-05-16, Issue 585
South Africa has been urged to deal with the situation at its border with Zimbabwe, which an activist has described as ‘chaos’. There are ongoing reports of victimisation and violence at the border where thousands of Zimbabweans cross between the two countries every week. While many of the crossings are legal, others continue to be done illegally, with Zimbabweans still risking jumping the border into South Africa to flee the situation back home.
Liberia: Fisherman returns to lost family as refugee status deadline looms
2012-05-16, Issue 585
During almost 20 years of exile in Guinea, Joseph did not know if his family was alive or dead. When he recently found out by chance that they had survived the attack that caused him to flee his native Liberia, he decided he must go back. 'For the first time, I am eager to return home. I want to see my family,' said the 55-year-old fisherman, who is joining a growing number of Liberian refugees who are returning home with UNHCR help before they lose refugee status.
Africa: Saudi Labor Ministry began steps to abolish sponsorship system, paper says
2012-05-17, Issue 585
The Saudi Labor Ministry has begun taking steps toward canceling the highly controversial individual kafala, or sponsorship, system, the Saudi newspaper Al-Eqtisadia reported on Monday, quoting a ministry official. The sponsorship system, which is applied in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, raises concerns over foreign workers’ rights.
Haiti: Families at risk of forced eviction
2012-05-17, Issue 585
Hundreds of families living in a camp for internally displaced people in Carrefour, in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, are being harassed and intimidated and are at imminent risk of forced eviction. Residents at Grace Village camp, in the Carrefour area of Metropolitan Port-au-Prince are at imminent risk of forced eviction. At least 30 families have already been forcibly evicted, after their shelters and belongings were destroyed during the night of 28 April. They were forced to leave their properties without any due process and without being offered any alternative accommodation.
Ghana: Ghana says it will get tough on immigrants
2012-05-21, Issue 585
Ghana’s Immigration Service is getting tough with illegal immigrants drawn to the country by the robust economic growth and its stability and has now set a deadline to start flushing them out. Most of the illegal immigrants are said to have entered the retail business and gone into illegal gold mining whilst others have targeted oil services, irking many locals who accuse them of stealing their jobs.
Global: Asylum seekers mapped
2012-05-21, Issue 585
The UN has found asylum-seekers increased by 20 per cent in 2011. The Guardian UK has mapped the countries where asylum-seekers are coming from and the countries they are going to.
DRC: UNHCR starts cross-river repatriation of refugees in Republic of Congo
2012-05-09, Issue 584
The UN refugee agency has launched a repatriation programme for tens of thousands of refugees who want to return to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from neighbouring Republic of the Congo. In a low-key start to the operation, a small convoy of boats took 79 refugees down the Oubangui River from the town of Betou in Republic of the Congo (ROC) to Dongo in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo's Equateur province. UNHCR and senior officials of the two countries are expected to take part in a formal ceremony later.
Global: Over 26 million displaced in 2011
2012-05-10, Issue 584
This global overview from the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre looks at internal displacement resulting from conflict and violence during 2011. 'In 2011, the number of people internally displaced by these causes stood at 26.4 million. The world in 2011 was an unsafe place for millions of people. From criminal violence including attacks by armed groups in sub-Saharan Africa or by drug cartels in Latin America, to armed clashes such as those associated with the conflict in Côte d’Ivoire or the uprisings across the Arab world: such events caused hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Many risked their lives as they sought refuge in unfamiliar environments while facing a constant struggle to meet their basic needs.'
Chad: Deserting refugees in the Sahara
2012-05-14, Issue 584
As dusk settles over the isolated Saharan town Kufra, young guards order a few hundred migrants lined up at a detention centre to chant 'Libya free, Chadians out', before they kneel down for evening prayers. Most of the prisoners in the small, squalid compound called the Freedom Detention Centre – run by Kufra’s military council – are from Chad. Hundreds more, from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, were moved to bigger facilities due to overcrowding.
Sudan: South Sudan refugees await airlift
2012-05-14, Issue 584
The first group of ethnic South Sudanese among up to 15,000 camped in crowded conditions in Sudan has begun their journey home. Roughly 400 people, mostly adults, travelled to Khartoum by bus on Saturday (12 May) from a town 300 kilometres south of the capital ahead of a major airlift that had been planned for early Sunday, said Jill Helke, country director for the International Organisation for Migration.
Kenya: Investigate security force abuses against ethnic Somalis
2012-05-06, Issue 583
The Kenyan security forces have committed widespread human rights abuses against ethnic Somalis with total impunity, Human Rights Watch said in a report. Between November 2011 and March 2012, Kenyan police and soldiers arbitrarily arrested and mistreated Kenyan citizens and Somali refugees in North Eastern province in response to attacks by militants suspected of links to Somalia’s Islamist armed movement al-Shabaab.
South Sudan: The right to nationality and the secession of South Sudan
2012-05-06, Issue 583
In January 2011, after years of civil war, the people of South Sudan voted overwhelmingly for separation from the Republic of Sudan. As part of the process of separation of the two states, people of South Sudanese origin who are habitually resident (in some cases for many decades) in what remains the Republic of Sudan are being stripped of their Sudanese nationality and livelihoods. This is happening irrespective of the relative strength of their connections to either state, and their views on which state they would wish to belong to. This summary of a forthcoming detailed legal commentary from the Open Society Initiative for East Africa (OSIEA) and AfriMAP looks at the issues created by the respective nationality laws of the two Sudans.
Africa: Asylum procedures in Israel
2012-05-06, Issue 583
A new asylum seeker process has been established in Israel, but a new report from The Hotline for Migrant Workers notes in it's conclusion that the picture emerging from the analysis of the new system 'is bleak'. 'It would seem that a system that was established not with the declared goal of providing protection to refugees, but rather with the intent of enabling the deportation of as many people as possible as quickly as possible, is a system that is bound to be unfair and degrading.'
Sahel: Aid efforts under strain as refugees numbers mount
2012-05-06, Issue 583
Sahelian governments and local and international aid groups are struggling to cope with both the continual arrivals of people fleeing the regions of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal in northern Mali, and the mounting number of hungry people across the region as the lean season gets underway. Altogether some 284,000 Malians have fled the north according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 107,000 of them thought to be displaced within Mali; 177,000 in neighbouring countries.
DRC: Congolese refugees flee fighting into Rwanda
2012-05-06, Issue 583
Renewed heavy fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) North Kivu Province has pushed some 3,000 Congolese refugees into northern Rwanda where they are in need of humanitarian assistance, says a senior UN official. 'The situation is worsening since humanitarian volunteers are now overwhelmed by the influx of Congolese refugees who are arriving in Rwanda,' Neimah Warsame, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) representative in Rwanda, told reporters on 3 May.
South Africa: Zille issues apology over 'refugees' comment
2012-04-24, Issue 582
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille has apologised for referring to Eastern Cape pupils who flocked to the Western Cape for better education as 'refugees', it was reported. 'I am] very sorry because it was never meant in that context at all and it was never said in that way at all,' she was quoted as saying in the Cape Times.
Angola: Botswana declares cessation of Angolans’ refugee status
2012-04-24, Issue 582
Botswana’s has confirmed a cessation clause with respect to Angolan refugees in the country. The ministry said the decision was taken after consultations with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. 'Taking into consideration the recommendations by UNHCR, the government of Botswana hereby declares, pursuant to article 1C (5) and (6) of the 1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees, Article I (4) (e) of the 1969 Organisation of African Unity Governing the specific aspects of the refugee problems in Africa and Botswana’s refugee Act that the refugee status of Angolan refugees who fled Angola as a result of the armed conflicts between 1961 and 2002 will cease as of 30 June 2012,' read part of a statement.
Sudan: Southerners in Khartoum increasingly fearful
2012-04-24, Issue 582
The weekend ransacking of a church compound in Khartoum illustrates the increasing hostility faced by some of the hundreds of thousands of residents of the Sudanese capital whose origins lie in what is now the independent state of South Sudan. Seven years after southern rebels and Khartoum signed a deal to end decades of civil war and nine months after the country split in two, recent borderland clashes have given rise to fears of a return to all-out conflict.
Africa: French military held to account over Med refugee deaths
2012-04-25, Issue 582
One year after events that led to the deaths of 63 migrants in a boat in the waters off the coast of Libya, 4 survivors, with the support of a coalition of NGOs, filed a complaint in France concerning the responsibility of the French military for failing to assist persons in danger.
Libya: The bittersweet experience of coming home
2012-04-25, Issue 582
This policy brief from the International Organisation of Migration looks at the situation of migrants who have returned home to several West African countries as a result of the conflict in Libya. It aims to provide an understanding of the factors that led to migration to Libya, in the first place; the migrants’ journey to Libya and their efforts to make a new life; the hasty return home; and the current needs of returnees and context to which they are returning.
Africa: Europe's lockdown
2012-04-25, Issue 582
Migreurop, a coalition of organisations from thirteen European, African and Middle Eastern countries, has produced an extremely useful and powerful report which describes in detail ways in which the policy of preventing the entry of undocumented migrants is implemented. The first part of 'At the margins of Europe: the externalisation of migration controls', looks at the outsourcing of control at the eastern border area of Turkey (the main overland route to the EU via Greece), the high mountains, snowy and treacherous, crossed by ‘illegal’ travellers who might be from Iran or Afghanistan, Somalia or Eritrea.
Côte d’Ivoire: Displaced in west feel 'forgotten'
2012-04-30, Issue 582
President Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire promised paved roads, an end to power cuts and water shortages, better mobile phone coverage, and a new university in the country’s west as part of an 'emergency plan' to develop a region that has been steeped in violence and insecurity for a decade. But for some displaced Ivoirians still unable to return to their homes, the promises ring hollow.
Somalia: Refugees in Ethiopia's Dollo Ado exceed 150,000 as rains hit camps
2012-04-30, Issue 582
The UN refugee agency has said that heavy rains have hit Somali refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, damaging tents, flooding roads and affecting aid delivery. This comes as the refugee population in southern Ethiopia swells to more than 150,000. 'In recent weeks, Dollo Ado in southern Ethiopia has been receiving a weekly average of 450 new Somali refugees. More than 8,500 have been registered so far this year, pushing the refugee population in the area's five camps past the 150,000 mark,' said a UNHCR spokesman.
Mozambique: Mozambique aims to lure back exiles
2012-04-17, Issue 581
Mozambique is addressing its chronic skills shortages with a campaign to lure back more than 25,000 nationals living abroad, who fled the country during its deadly civil war. The country is also expanding its skills-training programmes, while hundreds of Mozambican students are in China attending technical training programmes.
South Africa: Refugees - Welcome to Hell
2012-04-17, Issue 581
While many Capetownians were running through leafy suburbs from one ocean to another and while others drank and/or sang themselves to stupor in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a unique group of about fifty people staged their second annual Welcome to Hell 'Crucession' from Gugulethu to Khayelitsha. Drenched by the pouring rain despite wearing black garbage bags, we walked, sang and danced a full 16.3 kilometres without even a peep of attention from the local newspapers. I participated in the march, which was organised by the controversial Way of Life Church based in Mandela Park in Khayelitsha because of its message that reminds all of us that 18 years since the fall of the National Party, the ghettoised townships where the poor majority are forced to live, remain a living hell.
Burundi: Dutch asylum policy blamed for suicide
2012-04-17, Issue 581
The Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) in the Netherlands stands accused of being responsible for the suicide of a man who died trying to protect his children from deportation. Alain Hatungimana (36), an asylum seeker from Burundi, took his own life the day before he and his two children were due to be sent back to their homeland. According to friends in the Dutch town of Culemborg, Hatungimana had become very depressed as the deportation date drew near and he had told them his life would be in ruins if he returned to Burundi.
Global: A community guide to rebuilding the lives of LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers
2012-04-23, Issue 581
Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration has released its newest publication, 'Rainbow Bridges: A Community Guide to Rebuilding the Lives of LGBTI Refugees and Asylum Seekers'. Rainbow Bridges is the first guide of its kind directed at US LGBT and accepting communities. It is a 48-page guide developed in a pilot project to resettle LGBT refugees in San Francisco. Rainbow Bridges offers practical step-by-step guidance on welcoming new refugees, ensuring their mental and physical well-being, and helping them find support in their new communities.
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