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Refugees & forced migration
RSS FeedDRC: 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.
Libya: Inquiry launched into 'betrayal' of Libyan asylum-seekers by MI5
2012-04-23, Issue 581
Evidence that British intelligence services colluded with Libyan spies by passing over details of refugees who fled the North African country is to be investigated by the UK Parliament. Allegations that MI5 housed two Libyan agents in a central London safe house, providing them with details of asylum claimants who could be coerced into working for Gaddafi's regime, will be examined by MPs on the Intelligence and Security Committee, the Home Office said.
Egypt: Stealth environmental influences on economic migration
2012-04-23, Issue 581
Policy makers and academics often pay little attention to environmental drivers of migration in Egypt. This paper demonstrates that environmental factors are often the hidden cause of the migration of Egyptians from one region to another. The analysis is situated in the broader studies on migration, and also shows why the findings of this study are significant. The paper makes recommendations that will hopefully help policy makers in understanding the causes of environmental migration and assist them in developing policies to address the problem of environmentally induced migration in a sustainable way.
Global: Has the Refugee Convention outlived its usefulness?
2012-03-27, Issue 579
Can an international convention drafted 60 years ago to protect a limited number of Europeans uprooted by World War II continue to provide protection to the millions of people around the world today forced to flee their countries for a variety of reasons? Today, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is providing assistance and protection to over 15 million refugees throughout the world and the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees remains the cornerstone of that protection. However, millions more people have fled their countries for reasons that the drafters of the Convention could not have predicted.
South Sudan: Israel seeks to return refugees
2012-03-28, Issue 579
Israel was swift to recognize the new state of South Sudan in July 2011, reports the LA Times. 'Following the formation of the state, Israel ended collective protection for those from South Sudan and wants asylum seekers to leave the country. The window for voluntary departure and a $1,300 incentive closes March 31; those still in Israel would be deported after that.'
Global: Asylum claims in industrialized countries up sharply in 2011
2012-03-28, Issue 579
A report released on Tuesday 27 March by the UN refugee agency shows that new conflicts and a rising outflow from older crisis spots such as Afghanistan together contributed to a 20 per cent rise in asylum claims in industrialized countries in 2011. UNHCR's report, 'Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries 2011', says that an estimated 441,300 asylum claims were recorded last year compared to 368,000 in 2010. The report covers 44 countries in Europe, North America, Australasia and north-east Asia.
Kenya: Refugees set conditions for return
2012-03-28, Issue 579
Post-election violence victims living in Uganda want the government to help them return home. The more than 1,500 Kenyans at Kiryandogo camp, about 300km from Kampala, however, want assurances of safety and that they will be given land. 'We have been in Uganda for four years and we believe there can never be peace and reconciliation when some of the affected people are languishing in poverty outside Kenya,' the group said in a memorandum to Special Programmes minister Esther Murugi.
Sahel: Malian refugees risk being 'forgotten'
2012-03-28, Issue 579
Mali is facing its 'worst humanitarian crisis for 20 years', brought on by a combination of food insecurity affecting around three million, some 93,500 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Mali, whose whereabouts and status is uncertain, and 113,000 refugees who have fled conflict in the north to neighbouring countries. Between 175,000 and 220,000 children will be acutely malnourished this year and access to northern Mali and the refugee destinations across the borders is problematic, all of which is topped off by a perennial lack of real interest in the Sahel.
Africa: Migrants left to die after catalogue of failures, says report
2012-03-28, Issue 579
A catalogue of failures by Nato warships and European coastguards led to the deaths of dozens of migrants left adrift at sea, according to a damning official report into the fate of a refugee boat in the Mediterranean whose distress calls went unanswered for days. A nine-month investigation by the Council of Europe – the continent's 47-nation human rights watchdog, which oversees the European court of human rights – has unearthed human and institutional failings that condemned the boat's occupants to their fate.
Mauritania: Civil society looks to bridge local, refugee divide
2012-03-29, Issue 579
With hundreds of thousands fleeing the conflict in northern Mali, civil society groups in Mauritania are working to ensure the refugee community integrates peacefully with local residents. 'Solidarity for all in Mauritania', a conglomerate of civil society organisations, held a Nouakchott seminar March 20th on activities to support the local population in the border towns of Fassala and Bassiknou. The forum discussed how best to reduce the repercussions of the poor living conditions in areas in light of the dual crises.
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