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Italy approves temporary changes to issue temporary work permits for migrants (refugees) to work on farms and as careers

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Italy's governing coalition parties have finally agreed to introducing changes to employment permits for migrants in the country. The four coalition parties hope the measures will benefit migrants as well as help sectors hit by the coronavirus.

A cabinet meeting to pass the final approval of the decree is expected to take place as early as later on Wednesday. It will to allow temporary work permits to be issued to migrants to work at farms and as carers.

The draft law had been ready for approval for at least a week following several weeks of negotiations. But it kept getting delayed amid growing disagreement between Italy's four governing coalition parties.
Exploitation at the heart of the issue
Three of the four parties in the governing coalition, the Democratic Party (PD), Italia Viva (IV) and the Free and Equal Party (LeU), supported the scheme designed to support Italy's agricultural sector in particular, which was hit by the COVID-19 epidemic due to a lack of access to cheap labor from abroad.

However, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement coalition party expressed its opposition to the measure up until the last minute, arguing that it would benefit exploitative employers who might, in the past, have perpetuated illegal labor practices.

"The latest draft of the decree still includes an amnesty for those who admit to previous illegal employment practices," said 5-Star leader Vito Crimi on the weekend, insisting that this form of pardon would not be acceptable to his party.

Read more: Fears of mafia exploitation as Italy opens labor market to farm workers The coalition parties in favor of the move meanwhile argued all along that such a temporary change in labor policy would actually help protect workers, especially foreigners, by giving them access to healthcare if they were to catch the novel coronavirus and actually help undocumented migrants from facing exploitation through illegal work. Human rights organizations meanwhile have criticized the fact that migrants were being viewed as mere commodities in the debate about the change in law.

Italian farmers have long raised an alarm, sayingtheir crops could end up rotting in the ground if they could not attract  additional foreign laborers for the harvest season. Under the current lockdown conditions and border closures across the EU, however, the prospect of importing laborers from Eastern Europe -- as normally is the case each spring in Italy -- was increasingly proving to be difficult.
Fierce political quarrelling
With a recession on the horizon, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's office announced yesterday alreadythat various ministers had reached a deal on the migrant work permits but that they were still waiting for support from the 5-Star Movement, which had requested an extension.

The Democratic Party (PD) called the request "absurd," with Italian Agriculture Minister  Teresa Bellanova even threatening last week to resign  if the proposal was rejected. Following the coalition agreement on the issue on Wednesday morning, Bellanova told RAI public radio that move was "a victory for the dignity of men and women and for the respect of people who have been living in great difficulty," adding that it would benefit hundreds of thousands of people in Italy.

Other senior politicians, however, believe that the legal changes cannot benefit the broad majority of migrants in the country. With the row nowtentatively resolved, the Italian parliament hopes to move on to approving further details to a comprehensive stimulus package to the tune of 55 billion euros designed to jumpstart the country's ailing economy.
Italy's migration dillema
Italy remains divided on the issue of migration, as it has at times eclipsed Greece as the main country of arrival for migrants crossing Mediterranean waters.

Right-wing parties such the League Party have made immigration a key issue in recent years, advocating hardline policies to curb the influx of migrants coming to Italy from northern Africa.

Until August 2019, the 5-Star Movement was in a government coalition with former Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini's League Party, which has been growing in popularity with tis anti-migrant stance since the onset of the so-called refugee crisis in 2015. After that coalition collapsed, the 5-Star Movement entered a new coalition with three centre-left parties, but has remained at odds with most liberal policies championed by its coalition partners.

Italy is currently trying to address two major crises at the same time. The coronavirus has killed almost 31,000 people in Italy as of mid-May, 2020. It is the second-highest death toll in Europe, which the Italian government countered with a widespread lockdown. As an economic repercussion, the country could now face its worst recession since World War II.

At the same time, Italy is still trying to address the issue ofdealing with more than 560,000 migrants living in the country without a work permit or residency papers, according to the Ismu Foundation think-tank.
With Reuters, dpa

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Italy approves temporary changes to migrant work permits after weeks of political disagreement

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Italy's governing coalition parties have finally agreed to introducing changes to employment permits for migrants in the country. The four coalition parties hope the measures will benefit migrants as well as help sectors hit by the coronavirus. A cabinet meeting to pass the final approval of the decree is expected to take place as early as later on Wednesday.

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Due to the increasing issue of refugees in Greece, Portugal is taking in 500 children currently housed in camps on Greek islands as soon as restrictions due to coronavirus are lifted.

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Migration is ticking up due to mounting unrest in the eastern Mediterranean, putting Southern Europe - and Greece especially - under increased strain. Since February, tens of thousands of migrants have attempted to cross into Europe's borders after Turkey reneged on an agreement with the EU to prevent them from doing so. Turkey hosts 3.5 million refugees while Greece is a haven for more than 120,000 migrants whose asylum applications are pending.

In a show of solidarity to the Mediterranean country, Portugal is taking in 500 children currently housed in camps on Greek islands as soon as restrictions on movement due to the coronavirus are lifted. The move is part of a larger voluntary scheme to help relocate 1,600 migrants and asylum seekers who have reached European shores. Other EU states, including Germany, Ireland, France, and Luxembourg, are involved in the initiative. Luxembourg has already taken in 12 children, while Germany has taken in 50. Finland has also agreed to take in 100 undocumented children currently waiting in Greece.

"The commitment to take in 500 of the (over) 5,000 unaccompanied minors in camps in Greece remains and it will happen as soon as restrictions due to the pandemic allow us," Portugal's Foreign Minister Santos Silva told a parliamentary committee, according to local news agency Lusa. Last week's announcement regarding the increase comes after a previous statement that 60 unaccompanied minors from Greek refugee camps were awaited in Portugal over the next few weeks, though specific dates have yet to be confirmed.

Many migrants in Greece are unaccompanied minors - totalling approximately 5,200 children adrift without parents, guardians, or other family to care for them. Refugees who succeeded in making the treacherous Mediterranean crossing now endure harsh conditions in Greek refugee camps. Close quarters and lack of hygienic resources are of marked concern as the coronavirus pandemic continues on. Most of refugees and asylum seekers in Greece hail from Syria and come to Europe via Turkey, though a number also migrate from Afghanistan, Iraq, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Earlier this month, Silva pointedly accused the rest of Europe of failing to uphold the relocation scheme, which is a critical component to Europe's overall migration response. " These children live under bad conditions. They live in refugee camps with [the] triple, quadruple and in many cases up to five times the population they are able to accommodate."

Overcrowding Concerns

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Portugal has ensured that the migrants already in the country have been properly supported. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has said it is planning to " take advantage of the reduced pressure on the housing market in the capital" to move some of these asylum seekers into hostels and apartments left empty due to a decrease in the tourists who would normally be using them.

Outbreaks in a hostel late last month - where many migrants were living - led the government to test over 500 for infection and move some individuals into empty hotel rooms, deserted by tourists when the outbreak first began. In late April, a single confirmed case of Covid-19 in a different hostel in Lisbon revealed that out of 175 residents, 138 were infected.

The hostel outbreak has prompted inquiries into overcrowded housing conditions that are ideal for spreading the disease. This concern is still at play when discussing housing for the 500 children Portugal has volunteered to take in, especially as the country already hosts more than 800 migrants in hostels across the country while their applications for asylum - which have nearly tripled over the past five years - are pending processing.

The Council for Refugees (CPR), a Portuguese organisation responsible for housing individuals whose applications are being processed, only has the capacity to accommodate 150 people. The remainder are placed in hostels or social housing, but those conditions are often crowded with several people to a room - a potentially deadly setup while in the midst of a global pandemic. Health Minister Marta Temido confirmed that an analysis of Portugal's coronavirus situation indicated that co-habitation and contagion in concentrated spaces like care homes or hostels were a major cause of virus transmission.

Even so, Portuguese housing conditions are generally considered a step above Greece's migrant camps. Human Rights Watch has accused the Greek authorities of not doing enough to address the " overcrowding and lack of health care, access to adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene products" in the camps to limit the spread of coronavirus.

A Novel Approach

Portugal has earned international applause for its novel approach to immigration during the pandemic as migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees with pending cases were granted temporary citizenship rights in March for the duration of the pandemic.

In an interview with Newsweek, Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, the Associate Director of the Migration Policy Institute's International Program, told Newsweek that she believed the decision came down to Portugal's overall goals and values. "I think all countries are facing some practical questions and some value-related questions in terms of how they approach immigration right now," she said.

Despite being near some of the hardest hit frontline countries, Portugal has not been a major destination for migrants and asylum seekers the way Italy and Greece have. This means that Portugal also has not faced the anti-immigration rhetoric and eurosceptic backlash seen in several other eurozone countries, and instead has been looking for ways to increase immigration. "Portugal had been exploring ways to open itself up to immigration in the past few years and since the 2015-2016 European migration and refugee crisis, it had already veered in a different direction than other countries," Banulescu-Bogdan noted.

The country's deliberate move to ensure that asylum seekers received the same medical coverage as their citizens and permanent residents is part of Portugal's cultivated pro-immigrant attitude. It also ensures that there are fewer risks to public health overall by reducing the vectors available for the virus to spread. "It comes out of this already deep history of being quite open to immigration in a way that other countries weren't," Banulescu-Bogdan commented.

" Every country is facing a trade-off between enforcement, management goals, and public health goals. They have to balance those trade-offs and also achieve some of the objectives that relate to a country's prior goal and values. So, I think in some places where we've seen a lot of restrictions, those really do reflect things that political parties had wanted to achieve in terms of immigration restrictions even before the crisis. A public health emergency gave them the cover they needed to push through pretty draconian restrictions and in some cases, all-out halts on certain streams of immigration or all-out border closures," Banulescu-Bogdan said. But in Portugal, the same cost-benefit analysis brought about the opposite result.
Other Cities Get on Board
Since stepping forward to house some of these unaccompanied and undocumented children, ten European cities have joined Portugal in this initiative - including Amsterdam, Barcelona and Leipzig - and have also pledged shelter to unaccompanied migrant children living in desperate conditions on Greek island camps or near the Turkish border. However, the kind gesture remains just that if the national governments do not agree, and seven of the ten cities are in countries that have not yet volunteered to take in children under the European Commission's relocation effort first launched in March.

"We can provide these children with what they now so urgently need: to get out of there, to have a home, to be safe, to have access to medical care and to be looked after by dedicated people," the cities declared in a joint letter.

The Dutch government is one EU country that has not volunteered. Rutger Groot Wassink, Amsterdam's deputy mayor for social affairs, said he was disappointed in his government's decision, as he believes the Netherlands could house hundreds of children in need - just like Portugal. "It's not that we can send a plane in and pick them up, because you need the permission of the national government. But we feel we are putting pressure on our national government, which has been reluctant to move on this issue," Wassink said. A fierce and ongoing debate in the Netherlands exists over refugees, with a large portion of the nation's citizens feeling that their state has done enough to house asylum seekers within their borders.

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Migrant Children Find Home in Portugal - South EU Summit

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Migration is ticking up due to mounting unrest in the eastern Mediterranean, putting Southern Europe - and Greece especially - under increased strain. Since February, tens of thousands of migrants have attempted to cross into Europe's borders after Turkey reneged on an agreement with the EU to prevent them from doing so.

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A Syrian man in the process of completing his seeking asylum application to the UK was found deceased in his hotel room in Glasgow on May 5th 2020. This latest suspected suicide highlights the negative impact mandatory detention has on an individuals mental health and that authorities must take responsibility for protecting these vulnerable people who have already fled unimaginable atrocities.

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A Syrian man has been found dead in a Glasgow guesthouse after outreach workers raised significant concerns about the spiralling mental distress of hundreds of asylum seekers who were moved en masse into hotels at the beginning of lockdown.

The man, who was 30 and had been living in Glasgow for the past six months while he completed his asylum application, was found dead in his room at McLay's Guest House in the city centre on 5 May. A postmortem will take place to establish the cause of death, but a friend said the man had been experiencing suicidal thoughts for several weeks.

Last month the Guardian reported that more than 300 asylum seekers housed in the city - the UK's largest dispersal area - had been given less than an hour's notice to pack up their flats before being moved into city centre hotels, where they claimed physical distancing was "impossible". In a move condemned by campaigners, they also had all financial support withdrawn.

The private housing provider Mears, which is subcontracted by the Home Office, moved them from mainly self-contained apartments into hotels where residents and campaigners describe continuing difficulties with maintaining physical distancing.

Mears said people were being "safely and appropriately" housed in accordance with health authority guidance, while a Home Office spokesperson said it was "totally incorrect" to suggest that there were problems with physical distancing.

Since then, outreach workers have identified increasing fear, stress and anxiety among this vulnerable population, who have no information about future housing arrangements and no money to top up their phones to continue communication with lawyers, or buy extra food, hand sanitiser or period products for women.

A friend of the dead man said that since the move into the guesthouse, he had spoken of worsening flashbacks to torture he had experienced on his journey through Libya to the UK.

Ako Zada, the director of Community InfoSource, an asylum housing charity, has been visiting hotel residents regularly. He said: "I've been shocked to see people so mentally unwell. They are worried about cleaning of shared areas, and they don't know when they will be moving again because they keep getting told different stories."

Hotel residents have complained about the quality of food provided, the fact that windows cannot be opened, as well as the psychological isolation. A number of hotel workers have also contacted the Guardian to raise concerns about large numbers of asylum seekers congregating in enclosed areas.

Robina Qureshi of Positive Action in Housing said the "hotel asylum seekers" were being treated as "less than human". "Many people, men and women are suffering from severe mental health conditions. The fact that Mears and the Home Office see fit to dump hundreds of people in hotels where there is no social distancing, people cannot keep their personal environment aired or hygienic, and have had their meagre card payment of £35 a week cut to £0 deserves further investigation."

Sabir Zazai, the chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council, said: "This tragic death must be a chilling reminder of the chronic vulnerabilities of those going through the complexities of the asylum system."

A Mears spokesperson said: "We are deeply sad to confirm the death of an asylum - seeker who had been in Mears-supported accommodation. Mears are working with the Home Office to contact the asylum seeker's family before disclosing more information."

A home office spokesperson said: "We are aware of an incident resulting in an individual sadly losing his life. It would be inappropriate to comment before all of the facts have been established and his family have been notified."
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. Topics

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Syrian man dies in Glasgow amid fears over refugees' mental health

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A Syrian man has been found dead in a Glasgow guesthouse after outreach workers raised significant concerns about the spiralling mental distress of hundreds of asylum seekers who were moved en masse into hotels at the beginning of lockdown.

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Migrant attempts to get into the UK have increased predominantly. The country is looking for help on how to prevent anymore migrants from crossing the borders.

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An estimated 3,200 crossings have been attempted in the Channel from the start of 2018 until early this month according to Migration Watch UK. Double the number of people arrived in the first two months of 2020 as arrived during the corresponding period in 2019. With the UK looking to help control its crisis over migrant sea crossing, the Home Office has allegedly contacted Roman Quaedvlieg, former head of Australia's border force to consult on potential measures.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Quaedvlieg said the UK must implement similar measures used in Australia's Operation Sovereign Borders operation to control the number of migrant crossings.

Under the operation, Australia saw its patrol force turn migrants back and return to their port of origin.

Initially, Mr Quaedvlieg said the UK could give the Border Force, Royal Navy and other immigration agencies further powers to return migrants.

Mr Quaedvlieg said: "The problem is that under your current law, you can't turn them back and UK immigration policy is such that if they are close enough to UK territorial waters, you have to take them, process them and/or resettle them.

"We had that same legislative challenge in Australia.

"So what the Conservative Government did - and Priti Patel is thinking about in the UK - was to introduce a maritime powers act.

"This authorised our border protection minister and the officials from the various agencies to be able to intercept a boat and to make a reasonable determination that it was intending to breach Australian law whether customs, immigration or biosecurity and so turn them around.

"All of the elements of sovereign borders were unified under a single taskforce with a single commander reporting to the minister.
JUST IN: Britain using helicopters and drones in bid to detect migrants
"We appointed a three star general with overall command and control who unified all the disparate elements into a whole.

"These are three primary mechanisms that the UK can introduce that will go to significantly reduce the flow of migrants across the Channel.

"It won't stop them but it will significantly reduce them."

In order to combat the problem, Mr Quaedvlieg said Australia utilised aerial surveillance and maritime assets to intercept boats.
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There were also bilateral agreements made with Sri Lanka, Australia and Vietnam to accept the migrants back.

This would, however, force the Government to rewrite the Dublin Agreement between Britain and France.

The Dublin Agreement states: "Every single asylum application lodged within EU territory needs to be examined - each EU country must be able to determine if and when it is responsible for handling an asylum claim.

"The objective of the Dublin Regulation is to ensure quick access to asylum procedures and the examination of an application on the merits by a single, clearly determined Member State."

Although Australia's policy did see migrant arrivals drop to 207 a month from 2,629, it also drew criticism.

Some stated the policy was in contradiction to some refugee conventions due to its hardline return enforcement.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Every single asylum application lodged within EU territory needs to be examined - each EU country must be able to determine if and when it is responsible for handling an asylum claim.

"The objective of the Dublin Regulation is to ensure quick access to asylum procedures and the examination of an application on the merits by a single, clearly determined Member State."

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UK migrant crisis: British officials approach former Border Force chief for urgent help

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Sign up for FREE now and never miss the top Royal stories again! We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights. An estimated 3,200 crossings have been attempted in the Channel from the start of 2018 until early this month according to Migration Watch UK.

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Canada has volunteered to help South America with the Venezuelan refugee crisis and COVID-19 pandemic by pledging $27 million dollars to the cause

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Canada outspends Ireland, Norway in new pledging on Venezuelan refugee crisis

Canada outspends Ireland, Norway in new pledging on Venezuelan refugee crisis

OTTAWA - Canada outbid its two rivals for the United Nations Security Council at Tuesday's international pledging conference to help South American countries coping with the Venezuelan refugee crisis and COVID-19.

Canada increased its support for the cause by $27 million, compared with a $1.5-million pledge by Ireland and Norway's $6.7 million.

The pledges were broadcast during a three-and-a-half-hour password-protected video conference, where each country's representatives talked in turn about the importance of the cause. Millions of Venezuelans have fled into neighbouring nations, away from the repressive government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Patrick Haughey, the humanitarian director of Irish Aid, said on the broadcast that the "solidarity and generosity of neighbouring countries who continue to offer refuge to Venezuelan people in their time of need" was commendable. "But it is not for them alone to address this crisis."

He said that Ireland's $1.5-million pledge was in addition to the $45 million it had already contributed in "core support" to international agencies dealing with the crisis.

It was a rare victory for Canada in an international spending metric: its bid for a temporary seat on the UN's powerful Security Council is regularly criticized by experts who point out that Norway and Ireland both spend far more, per capita, on international development.

The two European countries also deploy more peacekeepers to UN missions than Canada, another area that is seen as crucial in showing a commitment to the UN.

All three countries are competing for two non-permanent seats on the council, for a two-year term starting next year. The UN General Assembly is to vote on the matter next month.

The Trudeau government has touted its post-pandemic international leadership on a variety of fronts as its campaign for the council. It says Canada will be a key player in the post-COVID-19 reconstruction of the world, which will include spurring economic recover yin rich and poor countries alike.

International Development Minister Karina Gould announced the additional Canadian contribution, which brings Canada's spending on the humanitarian crisis in its Western Hemisphere neighbourhood to $80 million over the past two years.

"We would be doing it whether we were in the race for the Security Council or not," Gould said in an interview.

"In the context of the UN Security Council, what it demonstrates is Canada is a leader when it comes to responding to international crises but also when it comes to providing innovative solutions and innovative ideas in terms of how we can get broader support for these regional crises," she added.

"We've been a strong partner for countries in the region and that's exactly what we would keep doing, and it's the kind of action countries can expect from us on the security council."

The European Union and Spain hosted the conference, seeking to alleviate the strain on countries such as Colombia, Peru and Ecuador that have borne the brunt of the second-worst refugee crisis on the planet.

Canada has agreed to host the next pledging conference expected for early next year.

The health and education systems of Venezuela's neighbouring countries are under increasing strain as they absorb five million refugees while coping with COVID-19.

Colombia's Foreign Affairs Minister Claudia Blum said her country has welcomed 1.8 million Venezuelan refugees, giving them access to health care and allowing children to attend public schools. But the demand on its public systems is going to grow with the Venezuelan refugee count expected to increase to 6.5 million by year's end, including 2.4 million people in Colombia.

"Our country has welcomed them with a spirit of solidarity," said Blum, noting that 370,000 Venezuelan children are enrolled in Colombian public schools, and 800,000 migrants have been treated in its health-care system.

"Colombian agencies are addressing great challenges in providing social services to this population. However, my country cannot cover the cost of assisting the great number of Venezuelan migrants alone, particularly under the COVID-19 emergency."

Rema Jamous Imseis, the UN refugee agency's Canadian representative, said the pandemic has created obstacles to helping refugees because of closed borders and physical distancing measures.

"The support is welcomed because we have needs that existed as a result of the Venezuela displacement crisis which predate COVID but, as you can imagine, those needs have been greatly exacerbated by the pandemic. Our funding remains critically low."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2020.

Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press

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Canada outspends Ireland, Norway in new pledging on Venezuelan refugee crisis - Sylvan Lake News

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Canada outspends Ireland, Norway in new pledging on Venezuelan refugee crisis OTTAWA - Canada outbid its two rivals for the United Nations Security Council at Tuesday's international pledging conference to help South American countries coping with the Venezuelan refugee crisis and COVID-19.

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This article updates the current conditions and solutions facing the health crisis in Kenya Refugee camps. The UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency, humanitarian agencies and the Government of Kenya are working on fixing the current health crisis due to COVID-19, after two individuals were tested positive in the Dadaab refugee camps. Over 217,000 refugees and 320,000 host communities live in the camp. Positive progress has been made, and calls upon communities to support the vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya.

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Nairobi/Geneva - UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, humanitarian agencies and the Government of Kenya are strengthening their COVID-19 response, after it was confirmed by the Government that two individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 in the Dadaab refugee camps.

In line with the Government of Kenya's directives, the two individuals were placed in quarantine and then moved to isolation centres after positive results were received. The Ministry of Health's Disease Surveillance and Response team has initiated contact tracing.

The crowded conditions in the Dadaab refugee camps, where health services are already under pressure, raise serious concerns about the vulnerability of over 217,000 refugees and 320,000 host communities living in the camp and its surrounding areas.

UNHCR, partners and other UN sister agencies have been supporting the Government-led countrywide response plan to mitigate risks and prevent further spread of the virus in the refugee camps.

In Dadaab, health facilities have been enhanced, with the construction of isolation and quarantine centres providing beds for an additional 955 people. An additional 125 hand-washing stations have been installed at food distribution sites, schools and markets.

Health centres have been provided with 68 personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline staff, 450 pairs of gloves, 45,000 surgical masks and four oxygen concentrators. Refugee-led groups have produced more than 150,000 cloth masks which will be ready for distribution in the coming days. All health workers have been trained on COVID-19 prevention and response. There are currently 18 medical doctors, 150 nurses, 52 clinicians, 11 lab technicians and 336 community health volunteers working in the Dadaab refugee camps.

Hygiene awareness campaigns on COVID19 prevention have reached more than 200,000 refugees, including through local radio, posters, leaflets, WhatsApp messages, social media and dedicated websites in Somali, Oromo, Dinka, Swahili, Nuer, French and English.

UNHCR, World Food Programme (WFP) and partners have provided double rations of food and hygiene products such as soap and jerrycans, to minimise the need for large gatherings and queues.

Refugee community leaders and outreach workers have received training and are regularly sharing key messages with the refugee population in the camp. UNHCR and partners have also enhanced psycho-social support structures and strengthened existing dedicated helplines to ensure that refugees and asylum-seekers have access to information and guidance on available assistance.

UNHCR's Global COVID-19 Response Appeal has so far received 31 per cent of the US$745 million needed to assist refugees impacted by COVID19. UNHCR is calling on the international community to continue and step up its support in order to ensure that vulnerable refugees, asylum-seekers and host communities in Kenya have access to adequate health services and care.
For more information on this topic, please contact:

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United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

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UNHCR and humanitarian agencies strengthen health response in Kenya refugee camps

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Nairobi/Geneva - UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, humanitarian agencies and the Government of Kenya are strengthening their COVID-19 response, after it was confirmed by the Government that two individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 in the Dadaab refugee camps.

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Syrian refugees residing in Turkey have been discovered to be so desperate for money that they are selling their organs on the black market in order to pay for necessities.

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Syrian refugees residing in Turkey have been discovered to be so desperate for money that they are selling their organs on the black market in order to pay for necessities such as rent, the US-based media channel CBS has revealed.

In a documentary aired by CBS, the channel used hidden cameras in an investigation into Facebook posts offering money to Syrian refugees in exchange for their kidneys and livers, with many being cheated, earning less than the organs are worth on the illegal black market.

The investigation found that one refugee named Abu Abdullah, who fled the ongoing civil war in his country four years ago and now earns a meagre $300 per month as a metal worker, made a deal with an organ broker to sell one of his kidneys for $10,000.

Following the procedure, however, the broker only paid him half the agreed amount and then disappeared, leaving Abu Abdullah with no medical care and in ongoing pain.
Europe appears to be powerless to tackle the migrant issue
In Turkey, as in many countries, it is illegal to buy and sell organs on the black market and police have reportedly said that they are clamping down on the practice which has proven popular as a result of the refugee crisis. Donors must usually prove that they are close family members of the recipient in order for hospitals to approve the donor. However, forged documents can be purchased for $200.

Another case cited in the documentary is that of Umm Mohammed, a single mother of three who sold half of her liver for $4,000. "I made enough to pay the year's rent I owed, and another year in advance," she told CBS

Though the trade is illegal, it comes as no surprise to many due to the economic hardships that the refugees often face after they flee from their country's conflict, with their struggle continuing even after reaching safety.

According to Syrian-American businessman, Yakzan Shishakly: "They have no options. So they're thinking, if we die it's fine. At least I'll get some money to give to my family."
Turkey FM: Global response needed to support Syria refugees

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Syria refugees in Turkey resort to selling organs to survive

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Syrian refugees residing in Turkey have been discovered to be so desperate for money that they are selling their organs on the black market in order to pay for necessities such as rent, the US-based media channel CBS has revealed.

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President Donald Trump's administration issued the initial 30-day order in March. Immigrant rights advocates said the order violates obligations the US has towards asylum seeker This 30 day order has been seen as a way for Trump to o achieve a long-held goal of ending asylum at the borders of the US by exploiting a world wide pandemic.

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The Trump administration on Tuesday indefinitely extended its policy of urgently expelling most migrants and asylum seekers crossing the border irregularly in a move rights groups said is an effort to "exploit a health crisis" to effectively end asylum at the US-Mexico border.

Robert Redfield, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), issued the extension of the order that authorises Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to immediately remove migrants and asylum seekers in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus while in custody.

More:

President Donald Trump's administration issued the initial 30-day order in March, and it was extended for another month in April. The new version notably has no fixed end date, though it said the CDC will review public health data every 30 days to ensure it is still necessary.

Immigrant rights advocates said the order violates obligations the US has towards asylum seekers.

"These now indefinite restrictions have nothing to do with curbing the spread of COVID-19," said Andrea Flores, deputy director of immigration policy for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

"The administration refuses to heed the advice of public health experts to protect immigrants, government employees, and the general public from sickness and death, including by releasing people from ICE and CBP detention and suspending civil immigration enforcement," Flores said in a statement. "Instead, the president is hellbent on exploiting a public health crisis to achieve his long-held goal of ending asylum at the border ... Do not be fooled: Trump's goal is not to protect our health, it's to sow division and advance his political agenda."

Charanya Krishnaswami, the Americas advocacy director of Amnesty International, added on Twitter that "every which way you look at it, from public health to human rights, from our domestic laws to our international treaty obligations, this order is ill-advised and unlawful - pure xenophobia masquerading as a public health measure."

So there you have it. Every which way you look at it, from public health to human rights, from our domestic laws to our international treaty obligations, this order is ill-advised and unlawful - pure xenophobia masquerading as a public health measure.
- Charanya Krishnaswami (@charanya_k) May 19, 2020

'Endangering, not saving lives'

Under the Trump administration's policy, CBP has been sending Mexican and Central American migrants they encounter along the southwestern border back to Mexico in about two hours. Many Central American asylum seekers have previously told Al Jazeera they are fleeing gang and domestic violence, extreme poverty and political prosecution.

The Trump administration is also turning people from other countries over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for rapid repatriation, removing people who might have remained in the country for months, or even years, to pursue asylum claims.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, who announced the extension, defended the order, saying it the restrictions were one of the most critical tools his department has to "prevent the further spread of the virus and to protect the American people, DHS front-line officers, and those in their care and custody from COVID-19."

But Human Rights First, a nonpartisan human rights organisation, said the CDC order has already been used to block and expel thousands of asylum seekers to dangerous places.

"This new extension of the CDC order will end US refugee and child protections at the border indefinitely, endangering rather than saving lives," said Eleanor Acer, the group's senior director for refugee protection. "There is little doubt that the Trump administration will wield this indefinite ban to expel and block asylum-seekers and children for many months or longer, possibly until this administration is no longer in office."

As of last week, the US had only given refuge to two people on humanitarian grounds since March 21, the Washington Post reported.

Last week, Democratic chairs of three US House committees, wrote a letter to Secretary Wolf, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, rejecting the administration to effectively asylum processing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Protecting public health and protecting individuals from persecution or torture are not mutually exclusive - the United States must do both. As such, we are deeply concerned that the Administration appears to be using the COVID-19 outbreak as a pretext to expel asylum seekers in clear violation of its obligations under domestic and international law to protect individuals fleeing persecution or torture," wrote Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Bennie G Thompson, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary, and Ranking Member Bob Menendez of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Separately, dozens of heath experts from across the US wrote to the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this week, urging the administration to not extend the asylum order.

"The nation's public health laws should not be used as a pretext for overriding humanitarian laws and treaties that provide life-saving protections to refugees seeking asylum and unaccompanied children," the letter said.

40 leading public health experts - epidemiologists, public health school deans, former @CDCgov - urged CDC to NOT extend its order indefinitely

But @CDCDirector just issued an indefinite extension, meaning families, children & adults seeking protection will be expelled to danger https://t.co/FhbvpoGNYb
- Eleanor Acer (@AcereEleanor) May 19, 2020

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Rights groups: Trump's 'exploiting a health crisis' to end asylum

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The Trump administration on Tuesday indefinitely extended its policy of urgently expelling most migrants and asylum seekers crossing the border irregularly in a move rights groups said is an effort to "exploit a health crisis" to effectively end asylum at the US-Mexico border.

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The Syrian refugee crisis has become the largest refugee and displacement crisis of our time, affecting about 17.6 million people and spilling into surrounding countries.

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Their saga shows America's deep malaise about the civil war in Syria and the resulting refugee crisis. Will anything change in 2020?

BULENT KILIC / AFP via Getty

Angela and Leen Albaka have dreamed of America since they were little girls. Daughters of a liberal-minded couple in Damascus, they spent their summers learning English and imagined attending college in the United States. Angela planned to be an engineer. Leen, five years her junior, had already fashioned herself into an American preteen, skateboarding, playing electric guitar, speaking with a flawless accent, and using Millennial slang. Then, like millions of Syrians, the civil war turned them into refugees, and their family ended up in a cramped apartment in Istanbul. Their next move was obvious: They went to a United Nations office and applied for resettlement, hoping to be selected by the U.S.

This set them on a Kafka-esque saga that is reflective of America's long-running failure to address the conflict in Syria-which enters its 10th year today-and the migrant crisis it's fueling. After waiting for years during the Obama administration, the family's application was accepted by the U.S. just before Donald Trump all but halted its efforts to resettle Syrians, and they've been trapped in limbo since. The sisters stand out for how they've refused to give up on their idealized vision of America as the years pass, relentlessly trying to get their case heard, even attempting to reach U.S. presidents and celebrities. They're also a reminder that even as a war that has killed hundreds of thousands recedes from the minds of most Americans, millions of Syrians are still dealing with the fallout from the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe. In just the last month, new fighting in Syria's northwestern Idlib province has sent 1 million people fleeing and reignited the migrant crisis in Turkey and Europe.

Read: The world's worst game of Risk is playing out in Syria

Trump, who once obsessed over the threat from ISIS in Syria, has largely ignored the underlying civil war amid abortive attempts to pull U.S. troops from the country. Yet the war and migrant crisis are among the most pressing national security issues America faces-calling into question its ability to grapple with two uniquely difficult and destabilizing problems while also helping to define its values as a country. These are among the stakes of the presidential election in 2020. Interviews with Joe Biden's top foreign-policy adviser and a senior aide to Bernie Sanders laid out visions-for addressing the war, the migrant crisis, and refugees like the Albaka family-that are strikingly different from Trump's.

When the Albaka family applied for resettlement in 2014, millions of Syrians were already spread across Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. The U.S. government under the Obama administration was deeply involved in the war, sending weapons and supplies to rebels and propping up the political opposition, but it accepted few Syrian refugees; in 2013, just 36 had been resettled in America. The family held out hope, though, and in 2016 they were accepted for a placement in Chicago as U.S. resettlement numbers ticked up to more than 12,000 Syrians. The family completed medical exams and a cultural orientation. Angela checked the weather in Chicago every morning on her phone, and on Google Maps, Leen virtually walked the streets of the neighborhood where they'd be living. Then it all went terribly wrong.

First, their departure was held up by the Turkish government, which was arbitrarily preventing some well-educated refugees from leaving. Crucial months passed. The family was still waiting to receive their tickets to Chicago when they were blocked by the first version of Trump's travel ban, which barred people from seven Muslim-majority countries and temporarily suspended the resettlement of all refugees. "When they told us we were going to the U.S. in 2016, we just left. Our bodies are in Turkey, but our souls are in America," Angela told me. "I don't know how many more years we need to wait."

Trump, however, has shown no indication of changing his policy. A former senior official in his administration told me that Syria is "not a political priority for the president. I think he's like, 'Why am I fixing this Humpty Dumpty equation? I didn't break this thing.'" The migrant crisis, meanwhile, is viewed as "a European problem" in the White House.

When I spoke with the sisters last week, the latest eruption of bloodshed in Syria and rush of migrants to Europe were evoking little more than a global shrug. These stories are so worn that journalists chronicling the futility of covering them has become something of a subgenre. Around 3 million Syrians had been living in Idlib, under Turkish protection, until the Syrian and Russian militaries launched an offensive to recapture it, creating a new surge of displacement. The fighting drew in Turkish troops; 33 were killed in an airstrike blamed on the Syrian government; and the Turkish military responded with days of retaliatory strikes, drawing the NATO member precariously close to a confrontation with Russia. At the same time, Turkey opened its borders with Europe, injecting further chaos into a migrant crisis that has seen the number of people fleeing violence reach its highest point since World War II. Greek authorities have fired warning shots at migrant boats and tear gas at those attempting to cross its land border and herded new arrivals into detention centers. All of this has been just a blip on the news radar.

Read: The world's refugee system is broken

Speaking by phone from Istanbul, Angela and Leen told me they hope a new American president will lift restrictions on Syrian refugees or Trump will change his mind. As Muzaffar Chishti of the Migration Policy Institute explained, refugee resettlement is the one area of immigration policy where the president has total control, and Trump has used that power to cut the U.S. program to historic lows and erect new barriers to Syrians. "The fact that a president has a lot of leeway in this area," Chishti told me, "means that you can reverse it very quickly." Even a resuscitation of America's resettlement program, though, would do little to address the underlying issues of the wider refugee crisis and civil war. Tackling them would take sustained American focus on what are obviously difficult, long-term issues at a time when the electorate is tired of the idea of devoting U.S. money and resources to problems overseas.

Yet aides to the two main Democratic contenders say the U.S. can still lead the way in finding solutions.

Antony Blinken, Biden's top foreign-policy adviser, who held senior posts in the Obama administration, told me the failure of U.S. policy on Syria is "something everyone who was responsible has to live with." Trump's tenure has made these problems "infinitely worse," he said, but there are ways to reestablish American influence. Some U.S. troops remain in Syria, where they control important oil reserves, and the Kurdish-led force that assisted America's anti-ISIS campaign still claims thousands of fighters. A Biden administration would leverage these assets and work with U.S. allies to try to negotiate a political solution to protect vulnerable Syrians, Blinken said, and also focus on reconstruction. "Our greatest leverage is our ability to mobilize other countries to support diplomacy and rebuilding in a post-settlement Syria," he said. "We're left with a lot of really bad solutions to a complicated and long-enduring problem. I can tell you that we will be caught trying, if nothing else. This administration won't even be caught trying."

To address the refugee crisis, Blinken said, a Biden administration would prioritize sending aid to Syrians in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan while also leading by example in reviving America's own resettlement program.

This brings us back to the case of the Albaka family. It's hard to get other countries to develop substantive policies for helping refugees, Blinken noted, when the U.S. is shunning them. A Biden administration would raise the annual ceiling for all refugees to 125,000. (The highest under the Obama administration was 85,000, in 2016, and the number fell to 18,000 this year.) The travel ban would be lifted. The special immigrant visa program for Iraqis and Afghans who have assisted U.S. forces would be boosted, and Syrians would be added to it. But would refugees like the Albaka family be fast-tracked? "The short answer is yes," Blinken said. "Especially for people who have already been cleared-we would make it a priority for them to get resettled."

Matt Duss, the top foreign-policy adviser for Sanders, said in an email that the senator would take similar measures on cases like the Albaka family as well as "immediately rescind the Trump travel ban, restore our refugee resettlement programs and increase them significantly, [and] speed up the processing of asylum applications from Syria."
Read: The Sanders doctrine
Without U.S. efforts to address the underlying problems in Syria, he added, the refugee crisis will only continue: "The United States cannot solve these problems, but we can use our considerable power and influence to help focus regional actors and the international community on developing some solutions."

In Istanbul, from their small apartment, Angela and Leen have done everything they can think of to take matters into their own hands, even as they gradually give up hope of finding relief. "Maybe I wrote more than 800 emails," Angela told me. "Angelina Jolie. Oprah. I can't remember them all now. I wrote to Obama. I wrote to Trump. I wrote his daughter." They emailed Dick Durbin, the senior senator from Illinois. Angela sent her messages to Trump on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. "I told him that I would love to help him and help Americans to keep America great as it is," she said. "We will work. We will study. We don't want help from any organization or any charity."

Last year, the sisters came up with the idea of making a music video. "I was thinking, with my sister, that we need to do something to grab the world's attention," Angela told me. "If I write a message, maybe no one will care. But if we make a song about it, maybe they will feel it, you know?"

Leen wrote the lyrics. "It took me, like, two days. I was just so angry and mad," she told me. Angela recorded her sister lip-synching around Istanbul. The song and video mimic the style of American pop songs, reflecting two refugees who've spent years living out their U.S. dreams on the internet: Damn I just passed 20 / They say I got plenty of time, but I'm just a number on the line.

The video got more than 8,000 views but has done nothing to change their fortunes.

Angela is 29 now, and just months from getting an engineering degree from an Istanbul university, though she is hesitant to graduate, fearing that the degree might inspire Turkey to block her from leaving. Leen, 22, rarely leaves the family's apartment. She has given up on going to school in Turkey; she was bullied, she said, by the other students in her conservative neighborhood, Turks and Syrians alike, which only furthered her conviction that she's stuck in the wrong place. She has all but abandoned hope in her campaign to get the family to the U.S. "I'll keep trying. But deep inside of me, I know people won't care," she told me. "Because nobody did. If you're dying or not, if you're struggling or not, no one cares. Cruel world."

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Mike Giglio is a staff writer at The Atlantic, covering intelligence and national security. He is the author of Shatter the Nations: ISIS and the War for the Caliphate.

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muzaffar chishti of the migration policy institute

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The Syrian Sisters Who Refuse to Give Up on America

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Their saga shows America's deep malaise about the civil war in Syria and the resulting refugee crisis. Will anything change in 2020? Angela and Leen Albaka have dreamed of America since they were little girls. Daughters of a liberal-minded couple in Damascus, they spent their summers learning English and imagined attending college in the United States.

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Refugees from Nigeria fleeing violence from Boko Haram are living with local populations in the Diffa Region, Niger. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) estimates that as many as 1,000 refugees a week are crossing the border into from Nigeria to Niger's Diffa region. Four out of five are women and girls.

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Joshua Meservey is assistant director of the Atlantic Council's Africa Center. Follow him on Twitter at @jmeservey.

Boko Haram, the terrorist organization that controls vast swaths of territory in northeastern Nigeria and has expressed support for the Islamic State, has grabbed headlines around the world for recent outrages, including what may have been one of the worst terror attacks of the modern era and attacks using bombs strapped to girls, one perhaps as young as 10.

Little attention, however, is being paid to another humanitarian crisis spawned by Boko Haram that, if left unattended, has the potential to destabilize the region and bolster the group for years to come.

As Boko Haram has advanced, tens of thousands of people have fled into fragile neighboring countries that are ill equipped to provide shelter. This influx of refugees is sowing the seeds of a prolonged humanitarian and security crisis. The United States should lead an urgent international response to address the emergency and prevent greater damage.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 135,000 Nigerians have fled into Cameroon, Chad and Niger to escape Boko Haram's rampages. The Jan. 3 massacre in Baga, where as many as 2,000 people were killed, caused a surge in displacement. More than 12,000 people have fled to Chad since the attacks, including hundreds who were trapped for days on an island in Lake Chad.

Cameroon, Chad and Niger are struggling to cope with the influx of refugees. These countries are poor - Niger is last and Chad fourth from last in the U.N. Human Development Index, which measures countries' economic and social development - prompting all three and the UNHCR to issue urgent calls for help. Cameroon already has nearly 200,000 refugees who fled unrest in the Central African Republic. Niger, an important U.S. ally that hosts a drone base, faced a food crisis in the Diffa region even before it took in more than 87,000 Nigerian refugees.

If the world fails to respond, the crisis spawned by Boko Haram will extract a high price. When refugees have no place to go, they form settlements wherever they start congregating, often in areas inadequate for hosting them. It is normally too difficult to relocate these settlements, so they turn into permanent camps, leaving their occupants to live in inhospitable environments.

Unplanned camps are often not far enough from conflict and become long-term sources of instability. Refugees may remain within reach of armed groups that find camps a convenient source of prey, recruits and succor. Boko Haram frequently conducts raids into neighboring countries and has the ability to reach any camp near the border. The group would not hesitate to exploit the camps, strengthening itself at a time when the world should be rallying to defeat it.

While the immediate needs are critical, the world must also respond to this crisis as a long-term humanitarian and security problem and build the capacity to cope with future floods of refugees. Despite Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's recent optimistic assessment, Boko Haram is becoming more powerful and routinely humiliates an outmatched Nigerian army. Regional cooperation has thus far been stillborn, and the Nigerian government has rebuffed critical assistance offered by the United States. To complicate matters, national polls are scheduled for Feb. 14, and Nigeria has a history of violent elections. With no end in sight to the instability, more refugees are certain to stream out of Nigeria.

Nigeria is a prickly partner that has largely frustrated the few international efforts made to fight Boko Haram, but acting quickly on the refugee crisis would not require Nigerian cooperation and would be an effective way for nations to join the battle. The United States should rally the world to fund appeals by the refugee-hosting governments and relief organizations. The UNHCR is asking for about $25 million, a rounding error in most developed countries' budgets. Meeting these appeals would have the added benefit of tangibly assuring U.S. allies in the region of America's commitment.

The United States and others should also lend their expertise to help Nigeria's neighbors provide sufficient security to ensure that the camps do not become dangerous for refugees or a source of relief for Boko Haram. Humanitarian workers and the camps themselves will need military protection, and a strong police force will be necessary to keep order. Since it is impractical to monitor Nigeria's long and porous borders, the United States should help Nigeria and its neighbors establish humanitarian corridors to protect and guide fleeing refugees while also providing security forces an opportunity to screen for militants moving with the refugees.

Boko Haram is a terrible threat to a fragile region important to U.S. interests. The international community - partly because of the Nigerian government's profound insufficiencies - has thus far failed to treat it with the urgency it deserves. The refugee crisis and its humanitarian and security implications are yet another call to action that we cannot afford to ignore.

Read more on this topic:

Colbert King: There's nothing secular about Boko Haram

The Post's View: Boko Haram's campaign of terror is only getting worse

The Post's View: Bring back the urgency to fight Boko Haram's attacks

Karen Attiah: Stop being angry at the media for 'ignoring' Boko Haram

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Nigerian refugees fleeing Boko Haram are a crisis in the making

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Joshua Meservey is assistant director of the Atlantic Council's Africa Center. Follow him on Twitter at @jmeservey. Boko Haram, the terrorist organization that controls vast swaths of territory in northeastern Nigeria and has expressed support for the Islamic State, has grabbed headlines around the world for recent outrages, including what may have been one of the worst terror attacks of the modern era and attacks using bombs strapped to girls, one perhaps as young as 10.

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Decades of conflict and widespread violence have resulted in more than 3.3 million Iraqis displaced across the country. It is estimated that approximately 6.7 million - approximately 18 percent of the population- are currently in need of humanitarian assistance, including 3 million children.

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Iraqi refugees.Picture Credit: ccun.org The US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 caused many civilian casualties, but it did not immediately create a major humanitarian crisis or set off mass migration. Soon after, however, Coalition's counter-insurgency operations, including massive attacks on cities like Falluja, led to substantially increased mortality and large displacement, affecting hundreds of thousands of people.

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The Bangladeshi government didn't want to accepting the Rohingya refugees, arguing that it has already taken in many Rohingya and borne a far greater share of the burden in the refugee crisis than any other nation due to this the boat had nowhere to dock and on April 15th they were rescued by malasyan coast guards where they had found over 400 malnourished and dehydrated refugees and it was unclear how many had died on the journey as their bodies where tossed overboard. Those that survived are in quarantine for COVID-19.

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Hundreds of Rohingya Refugees Stuck at Sea With 'Zero Hope'

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At least three boats carrying Rohingya refugees have been adrift for more than two months. As of this week, rights groups that had been tracking the boats lost sight of them.

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Due to COVID-19 inda. has had to face the fact that their country is run by migrants and without them their economy is collapsing with made their government realise that 'This isn't just a migrant problem but a refugee issue' as the number of migrants/refugees is a lot higher then what they presumed.

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The Covid-19 crisis has forced India to finally acknowledge the migrant.

For decades, millions of workers have moved from state to state and some to shores abroad, looking for opportunities and livelihoods. The international scope of this pandemic has ensured that no section of people is left unaffected. The scale of the issue may vary from state to state or city to city, but none is left unscathed.

Images of millions of Indians trudging across hundreds of kilometres-some even losing their lives in the attempt-back home have brought forth the severity of the ruthless lockdown. Similarly, the economic impact of Indians being forced to return from abroad amidst collapsing economies and a widening health scare is expected to be felt in the coming months.

"In a sense, this is a refugee crisis now and not merely a migrant crisis," Irudaya Rajan, faculty at the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram, told Quartz during an extensive interview. Rajan has tracked India's migration trends for over 35 years. "We are finally acknowledging that migrants exist in huge numbers," he said.

Edited excerpts from the interview:
What's your general sense of India's migrant crisis today?
We see them everywhere. Yet, we never imagined migrant workers as a group big enough to be taken seriously.

In this context, I consider only migrant workers to have been affected directly as a group by Covid-19 because they make money only by moving. That has completely stopped. I don't think policymakers visualised the extent of the issue. We see them everywhere: hotels, small industries, construction, metro stations, tourism. Yet, we never imagined migrant workers as a group big enough to protest or to be taken seriously. We underestimated their ability to unite or organise. They were not allowed to unionise even in states like West Bengal or Kerala.

Now they have come under the limelight. Governments, policymakers, economists, and others now know they cannot take migration lightly or migrants for a ride.
You're saying India grossly underestimated its migrant labourers?
That's right. We have underestimated the role migrants played in the Indian economy. We have failed to recognise their contribution. We knew they existed but never acknowledged their quantum.

My estimate is that close to 500 million Indians are today internal migrants-either living in a place they were not born in or did not live in six months ago. Of these, the ones mainly affected by this lockdown are the worker migrants. These would be at least 30% of the total migrant population. So we are talking about 150 million-plus people in the country who move from their home state to another for work. They move to a place, earn there, send back money home, and move on to a new place.

We have no studies on this segment. They weren't covered in policy circles. We talk only about smart cities...now we realise that cities need migrants.
How will this battle faced by India's migrant labourers ultimately turn out?
In the short term, they will lose. In the long term, they will win. Because can you imagine a city like Mumbai without migrants? In fact, migrants constitute some 30%-40% of the economies of many cities. You cannot run the economy without them. You can reopen industries, but how will they function without migrant workers. One can already feel the scarcity in Kerala.
Have the state and central governments responded well to migrants'plight?
The response has not been systematic. It's been a piecemeal approach. We are still talking about the immediate outcome of Covid-19: live or die. Only after a while will we talk about livelihood. Then automatically migrant activities will become an important topic.
Do you see migrants receiving monetary help from the government?
Every migrant in the country ought to be paid at least Rs20,000 ($264) for two months for the time and wages lost. No questions should be asked. They should only have to prove their migrant status.

This need not be done by only the central government. It should be a tripartite measure: the central government, the receiving states to which the migrants have travelled, and those from where they hail.

The relief money contributed to various relief funds is not only for ventilators. People also die when they don't have anything to eat. Nobody should go without a proper meal because they had no work.
Once things normalise, do you see migrants returning to cities, given their disillusionment?
Migrant labourers now have an opportunity to punish their employers.

I think post-Covid-19, the normal migration corridors are likely to change. Long-distance migration will be affected. Somebody coming from the northeast to Kerala in the south may not come anymore. Because distance is now an issue. It will also depend on how they were treated during the lockdown.

Migrant labourers now have an opportunity to punish their employers. Can you give them a proper salary when they come back? Employers have to decide, not migrants. Acknowledge your mistakes.
Can private employers afford to make such offers, given the huge blackout they are facing?
They should look for help from the government. There is supposed to be a Rs20 lakh crore package announced by the prime minister. They (private employers) should not exploit workers, exploit the government instead.

Why should migrants travel to faraway cities and starve there? They would rather starve in their own villages. Don't underestimate the migrants' intelligence. They are risk-takers. They are war heroes in their homes, just that they are fighting poverty.
Now I'd like to shift the focus to those returning from abroad. What are their numbers?
India has somewhere close to 20 million international migrants. Half of these are in six Gulf countries: Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, UAE, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Out of these some 2.5 million are from the southern state of Kerala. So Kerala will be badly affected. The other states are also likely to be affected, but Kerala has more concentration.

India received $80 billion as remittances from abroad, yet only the chief minister of Kerala wrote to the central government for help to the external migrants.
You had once explained how gaps left by people leaving India were filled by internal migrants-or replacement migrants. Now that this process is in reverse, how will things unfold?
Overall, I expect some 300,000 Indians to return from the Gulf by September-December because of the Covid-19 crisis. Of these, at least 100,000 will be what I call the eventual returnees. These are people who feel they have made enough money and now it is time for them to return for good. They probably will have some money. They need viable projects to invest and earn returns for the remaining part of their lives. That is missing.

Another 100,000 of these will re-migrate. I have seen this happening post the 2008 crisis, during the Gulf wars, during the Nitaqat crisis in Saudi Arabia. Now, this re-migration need not be to only the Gulf. There are 200+ countries in the world. Why only talk about the Gulf? The government should train these people to think beyond the Gulf.

After all, Covid-19 doesn't mean the end of migration itself. It will also open fresh opportunities for migration in interesting new destinations, including America. Because economies will always need migrants, irrespective of all the election-time talk by people like Donald Trump.

And if people want to re-migrate, they need upgraded skills. The Skill India project can be helpful there. So suppose someone returns in September from the Gulf, they will have, say six months to upgrade their skills, and then they can re-migrate to, say, Japan or Indonesia or Kenya, by next summer.

These are the new ideas to draw, lessons for us to learn from the Covid-19 crisis.
How prepared is India to handle the returning migrants?
I don't think we are prepared. A big package has to come from the central government for the returning migrants' rehabilitation, re-migration, and reintegration-the last one because some people might have lost everything in the crisis. No state is talking about all this, except Kerala.

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The internal and external migrants, together, pose a refugee crisis that India is ill-prepared for

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The Covid-19 crisis has forced India to finally acknowledge the migrant. For decades, millions of workers have moved from state to state and some to shores abroad, looking for opportunities and livelihoods. The international scope of this pandemic has ensured that no section of people is left unaffected.

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Due to the overpopulation of camps in Greece, Cyprus, Italy and  Greece Finland has decided to take a number of refugees "to alleviate the humanitarian situation". Finlands minister is also sending containers to Samos, Greece which is one of he most overcrowded refugee camps in the world to help with housing and medical facilities.

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Athens: Greece's Migration Ministry says Finland has agreed to take in 100 unaccompanied refugee children and 30 adults, expanding the number of European countries which have begun taking in young asylum-seekers from Greece.

The children, and the adults who will be reunited with family members already in Finland, will be relocated by the end of May, the ministry said, adding this was "a decision of practical solidarity" by the Nordic country.

Unaccompanied children from overcrowded refugee camps on the Greek islands are transferred to Germany last month. Credit:Getty Images

Tens of thousands of refugees and migrants, including thousands of unaccompanied children, are living in squalid conditions in overcrowded camps on several Greek islands after arriving from the Middle East, Asia and Africa via the nearby Turkish coast. Many more are housed in camps, apartments and other shelters across the mainland.

The ministry said the agreement came in a call between Deputy Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos and senior Finnish Interior Ministry official Olli-Poika Parviainen.

In February, the Finnish Interior Ministry said it would take up to 175 asylum-seekers from camps in Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta "to alleviate the humanitarian situation" of refugees in the Mediterranean members of the European Union.

The Greek government has reached out to other EU countries to help with the relocation of 1600 unaccompanied, and in recent weeks 12 children were flown to Luxembourg and 47 to Germany.

Separately, the ministry said it had received a shipment from Austria of 60 specially adapted containers to be used for housing, health facilities and quarantine in case of suspected coronavirus cases. It said the containers were part of an Austrian pledge of 181 such units.

Forty of the newly arrived containers are to be shipped to the eastern Aegean island of Samos, where Greece's most overcrowded refugee camp is located. Ten will be used to cover urgent needs after a recent fire burnt down accommodation, while the other 30 will be used as part of a new camp being built on the island, the ministry said.

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Finland to take 130 refugees, mostly children, from Greece

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Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Athens: Greece's Migration Ministry says Finland has agreed to take in 100 unaccompanied refugee children and 30 adults, expanding the number of European countries which have begun taking in young asylum-seekers from Greece.

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Due to the armed conflict in the country and the harsh restrictions due to COVID-19 asylum seekers and refugees, who are now unable to find work and earn to support themselves. The UNHCR has decided to start has begun a series of extra emergency distributions in Tripoli.

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UNHCR has begun a series of extra emergency distributions in Tripoli, to assist some of the most vulnerable people during Ramadan, and as war and COVID-19 present new threats.

The first distribution got underway on Sunday, targeting more than 100 asylum seekers and refugees living in overcrowded conditions with insufficient water and sanitation, in a popular neighbourhood of Tripoli. Many among them had been previously held in detention and were only recently released. People here have told staff that while they had managed to find basic daily labouring work before, this had dried up because of movement restrictions related to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The assistance package being distributed includes hygiene kits, purification tablets, provided by sister agency, UNICEF, and a food basket (designed for one month).

The distribution is the first of a series planned during Ramadan. In the first week, nearly 500 people will be reached with assistance. The aim is to reach up to 4,000 persons during the Ramadan period.

"We recognise that daily life in Libya is terribly difficult, for Libyans as well as for refugees and asylum-seekers, because of the armed conflict, and the situation has become even more challenging because of the curfew and movement restrictions induced by the fight against COVID-19", said Jean-Paul Cavalieri, Chief of Mission for UNHCR in Libya.

"This has especially affected refugees and asylum seekers, who are now unable to find work and earn to support themselves. Ramadan is an important moment to show solidarity at a time when people are really struggling with their daily needs."

Distributions have been organised in co-ordination with the local relevant authorities and partners, LibAid, the International Rescue Committee, and UN OCHA, to ensure social distancing and the security and safety of individuals receiving assistance.

Meanwhile, UNHCR also continues its ongoing support to the Libyan authorities and displaced Libyans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ongoing conflict has severely impacted the country's health system and medical services, which have limited resources and face shortages of basic equipment and medicines. Many hospitals or health facilities, located in areas close to the conflict, have also been damaged or closed.

UNHCR and partners have been providing generators, ambulances, prefabcontainers and tented clinics in support of local healthcare services across the country. Core relief items have been distributed to the health authorities in Misrata, and soap has been distributed in settlements to reach 20,000 displaced people in Benghazi as well as in several detention centres, where hygiene conditions are very poor. Other distributions have taken place for displaced communities in Tripoli.

UNHCR and partners have conducted public health awareness amongst refugees, asylum seekers and Libyans, through posters, text messages and social media, aimed at mitigating the risks of exposure to COVID-19.

UNHCR echoes the appeal of the UN Secretary-General António Guterres urging warring parties across the world to cease their fighting in support of the response to the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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UNHCR steps up help during Ramadan for displaced Libyans, refugees and asylum seekers, as war and Coronavirus make life harsher - Libya

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UNHCR has begun a series of extra emergency distributions in Tripoli, to assist some of the most vulnerable people during Ramadan, and as war and COVID-19 present new threats. The first distribution got underway on Sunday, targeting more than 100 asylum seekers and refugees living in overcrowded conditions with insufficient water and sanitation, in a popular neighbourhood of Tripoli.

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The South African government’s Covid-19 aid programs, have overlooked refugees and asylum seekers. The government needs to facilitate aid programs for refugees.

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(Johannesburg) - The South African government's Covid-19 aid programs, including food parcels, have overlooked refugees and asylum seekers. They include many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people who fled to South Africa to escape persecution.

The government should take urgent steps to facilitate support, including from donors, for refugees and asylum seekers with little access to food and other basic necessities during the ongoing nationwide lockdown.

"The Ramaphosa administration should either ensure access to food for thousands of refugees and asylum seekers, or say that it can't meet the need and seek donors to step in and provide assistance," said Dewa Mavhinga, southern Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The government is ignoring the plight of refugees and asylum seekers currently confined in their homes and unable to work to provide for themselves."

Undocumented migrants and asylum seekers live on the economic margins, a situation exacerbated by the government's stringent lockdown measures. After receiving numerous pleas from refugees and asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch raised the issue with the South African Human Rights Commission, which confirmed receiving similar reports and pressed the authorities to ensure that everyone in South Africa can realize their rights.

On May 12, 2020, the rapporteur for South Africa of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Solomon Ayele Dersso, sent an urgent appeal to the government to protect the rights of vulnerable groups, including refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants in the context of the lockdown.

South Africa is a common destination for LGBT people fleeing their home countries due to persecution on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression. The Refugees Amendment Act of 2008 expressly includes persecution on the basis of sexual orientation as a ground for seeking asylum in South Africa. Thirty-three out of the 70 countries that criminalize adult consensual same-sex conduct are in Africa. Across the continent, discriminatory laws and hostile social attitudes lead many LGBT people to flee their countries of origin - including many from Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, and Nigeria - and travel to South Africa, often against considerable odds, to seek asylum and a better life.

Victor Chikalogwe, director of the LGBT refugee advocacy group People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression, and Poverty (PASSOP), has said that the lockdown has made life incredibly difficult for many undocumented LGBT migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, as they are unable to work in the informal trades that have sustained them, including restaurants, bars, or sex work. They are not eligible to receive government social grants or food parcels, which are distributed only to those with South African identity cards and Social Security cards.

Thomars Shamuyarira, a transgender man from Zimbabwe who is the director of The Fruit Basket, a Johannesburg-based group that provides support to African LGBT migrants, said that the Covid-19 lockdown measures have had a severe impact on LGBT refugees and asylum seekers who do not have access to informal employment, food, medicine, and accommodation.

Human Rights watch spoke with a gay man from the Democratic Republic of Congo who fled to South Africa following a targeted attack on the basis of his sexual orientation by an armed group in South Kivu. He said he has tried unsuccessfully since 2014 to get refugee status and that the lockdown makes it even more difficult for him to survive from one day to the next.

A gay man who fled Zimbabwe in 2014 after his family members threatened to kill him when they discovered his sexual orientation said that he has been unable to do sex work due to the lockdown, therefore unable to pay rent or buy food.

On March 24, The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights expressed concern about the vulnerability of refugees and asylum seekers under Covid-19 regulations and addressed a letter to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who currently serves as African Union Chairperson, urging the South African government to adequately address human rights issues in its responses to Covid-19. This should include ensuring that undocumented refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa have access to basic services.

The South African authorities should ensure that essential goods and services are provided to everyone in need without discrimination, Human Rights Watch said. Special arrangements should be made to protect the rights of vulnerable groups, including refugees, asylum seekers, and the homeless, who may not normally have access to basic goods, including food, water - potable and washing - and health care.

The national lockdown will be most effective if carried out not only in accordance with the law, but also hand-in-hand with the fulfillment of the government's obligation to provide basic goods and services to vulnerable community members. Services should be available to all who are in need, including those living in areas under movement restrictions or under quarantine, those infected with Covid-19, and marginalized groups such as refugees, migrants, and people with disabilities. The government should take special measures to protect women and girls from physical and sexual abuse and exploitation and provide timely help to victims.

"South Africa should make special efforts to protect the most vulnerable in the country and ensure that refugees and asylum seekers are not overlooked or forgotten," Mavhinga said. "The authorities should act and seek donor support to avert an imminent humanitarian catastrophe."

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South Africa: End Bias in Covid-19 Food Aid

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(Johannesburg) - The South African government's Covid-19 aid programs, including food parcels, have overlooked refugees and asylum seekers. They include many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people who fled to South Africa to escape persecution.

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Dozens of refugees who have spent years in Australihave been flown to the United States for resettlement, despite COVID-19 travel restrictions and are due to land in LA and be resettled across 18 cities within the country

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Dozens of refugees who have spent years in Australia's offshore processing regime have been flown to the United States for resettlement, despite COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Transfers from Papua New Guinea and Australian immigration detention centres under the US resettlement program are continuing as the US struggles to contain the pandemic that has killed more than 93,000 people there.

Thirty-five refugees departed Port Moresby on Thursday morning bound for the US via Singapore, and one refugee is due to fly to Finland, according to sources and documents obtained by SBS News.

A handful also departed Australia for the US this week, including several from the Kangaroo Point hotel being used as an "alternative place of detention" (APOD) in Brisbane and from community detention in Melbourne.

Sudanese refugee Omar Muhammed Jack farewelled Australia in a social media post.

"Finally after 7 dark years, I'm leaving to USA today," he posted before boarding the flight in Port Moresby.

"I'm going to be free forever and it's amazing and exciting for me but still the happiness (is) incomplete because as long (as) many innocent refugees and asylum seekers (remain) in unlawful indefinite detention for 7 years in offshore and onshore.

"To all beloved brothers and sisters in Australia... allow me to thank you for all your efforts and support for the last 7 years."

The men are due to arrive in Los Angeles and then be resettled in 18 cities across the US.

A network of Australians in the US called Ads-Up For Refugees has been preparing for their arrival and fundraising to support their resettlement with the added complication of the coronavirus pandemic.

"It's an absolutely brutal time to be arriving in America," Ben Winsor, co-founder of Ads-Up, told SBS News.

"These guys are landing with barely more than the clothes on their backs and they'll be looking for work alongside millions of recently unemployed Americans.

"Since COVID-19 hit, more than 100 refugees reached out to us for help, they've lost jobs and are struggling to pay rent and for basic supplies.

"Refugee resettlement agencies were already overstretched and providing only very basic support, now they're at breaking point."

Many of the refugees have underlying health conditions after years of detention and medical neglect on Manus Island and Nauru.

"Their condition puts them at higher risk from COVID-19," Mr Winsor said.

"We are in daily contact with two refugees in Texas who have contracted COVID-19."

On Tuesday, a number of refugees in Port Moresby celebrated their imminent resettlement under the Australian-US scheme with priest Giorgio Licini, the general secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands.

"They were relaxed but had mixed feelings, especially that there are still some left behind, many are those who were never given refugees status and could not go home," Father Giorgio said.

"We understand that somehow the Australian government wants to finish the US option, they should finish this thing as soon as possible, it makes no sense to prolong this agony."

Father Giorgio said the men did not undergo coronavirus isolation in preparation for their departure.

"They were in the hotel where they stayed most of the time, they underwent the regular medical procedures, but no COVID-19 quarantine," he said.

"PNG is in quite a good situation and there is no trace of the virus. Life here is 95 per cent normal."

A Home Affairs spokesperson did not comment on the latest departures, saying that Australia remained fully committed to the US resettlement program.

Asked what COVID-19 quarantine measures and checks were undertaken, the spokesperson responded: "Refugees are required to undertake a range of US mandated pre-departure preparations."

In Senate estimates in March, the Home Affairs Department said 702 refugees had been resettled in the US under the agreement reached by then Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and US president Barack Obama in 2016.

Under the deal, up to 1,250 refugees who were in offshore processing on Manus Island and Nauru could be resettled in the US at its discretion after clearing "extreme vetting" procedures.

The department said a further 260 were approved but had not yet departed, and some were transferred to Australia under the now-repealed medevac laws for medical treatment.

Home Affairs told the Senate committee that 211 refugees and asylum seekers remained on Nauru, 228 in Papua New Guinea, and about 1,220, including their dependents, were in Australia to receive medical treatment.

Officials said the US aimed to finalise interviewing candidates by "mid-year".

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Dozens of refugees flown from Australia and PNG to US despite coronavirus travel bans

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Dozens of refugees who have spent years in Australia's offshore processing regime have been flown to the United States for resettlement, despite COVID-19 travel restrictions. Transfers from Papua New Guinea and Australian immigration detention centres under the US resettlement program are continuing as the US struggles to contain the pandemic that has killed more than 93,000 people there.

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Sahrawi Refugees receive aid from the Algerian Red Crescent during the Islamic Holy month of Ramadan. The aid mainly comprises of food, water, PPE, and pharmaceuticals.

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Sahrawi refugees receive solidarity aid from Algerian Red Crescent

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Shaheed Al Hafed (Sahrawi refugee camps), 2 May 2020 (SPS) - A total of 154 tons of solidarity aid was delivered Friday by the Algerian Red Crescent (CRA) to the Sahrawi refugees on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan.

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Syrian Refugees, composed mainly of women and children, have been forcibly sent to Turkey from Cyprus.

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On 15 May 2020, the administration of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) forcibly sent 100 Syrian refugees, including unaccompanied children, to Mersin, Turkey. They have been transferred to Kilis, near the Syrian border, where they are now. Most of the 100 Syrian refugees - 56 - are children and women and girls are in the majority.

On 24 April 2020, the TRNC had already forcibly sent 75 Syrian refugees, including unaccompanied children, to Mersin, Turkey, from where they have been reportedly moved to a camp in the province of Kahramanmaraş. All 175 Syrian refugees have expressed their intent to apply for asylum and find protection in an EU member state. Syrians forcibly returned to Turkey face a risk of onward refoulement to Syria.

This group of 175 refugees arrived by boat on 20 March and were pushed back to the sea by the coastguard of the republic of Cyprus as the boat was approaching the southern part of the island, which is under the jurisdiction and control of the government of the Republic of Cyprus. Many of these refugees were trying to join their families already settled in the Republic of Cyprus, which is a member of the European Union. The boat went north, capsized and the refugees were rescued by the "Turkish Cypriot administration" which has effective control over the northern part of the island. The refugees were housed in an apartment complex for a 14-day quarantine period due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of the quarantine period, they continued to be detained - this time arbitrarily, in violation of the law of the "Turkish Cypriot administration" which authorises the detention of irregular migrants for eight days extendable only by a court order.

We, the undersigned organisations condemn the push-back of the vessel from Cypriot waters by the government of Cyprus, which amounts to refoulement in violation of the prohibition of non-refoulement set out under the 1951 Geneva Convention and EU law on asylum, and infringes Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights

We, the undersigned organisations also condemn the return of 175 refugees to Turkey and the arbitrary detention of these persons by the "Turkish Cypriot administration". These acts also violate the 1951 Refugee Convention and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The detention of minors additionally violates the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular Articles 9, 10, 22 and 37 on detention of children, the right to reunification with members of the family and the right of every child to be with both parents. States are obliged to provide appropriate care to unaccompanied children. On April 13, UNICEF said that all governments should impose a moratorium on detaining children and urgently release children where alternatives are possible, due to heightened risks of Covid-19 in detention.
Recommendations
We call on the "Turkish Cypriot administration" and Turkey to:

Respect the principle of non-refoulement and international human rights law, including the European Convention on Human Rights, by stopping the forced return of refugees and asylum seekers to Turkey and/or Syria;

We call on the government of the Republic of Cyprus to:

1. Abide by EU and international obligations to respect the right to seek asylum and the principle of non-refoulement, and provide assistance to boats in distress at sea by carrying out search and rescue operations;

2. Cooperate with the UN and the "Turkish Cypriot administration" with a view to allowing the asylum seekers access to territory under control of the government of the Republic of Cyprus to apply for asylum and reunify with their families;

3. Terminate the suspension of access to asylum by those arriving by sea to the territory of the Republic of Cyprus in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

AEDH European Association for the defence of Human Rights

Amals Healing & Advocacy Center

AMERA International

ANTIGONE - Information and Documentation Centre on Racism, Ecology, Peace and Non Violence

Arab Network for Migrants' Rights

ARDD Arab Renaissance for Democracy & Development

Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)

Center for Legal Aid - Voice in Bulgaria

CRLDHT Comité pour le Respect des Liberté et des Droits de l'Homme en Tunisie

Croatian Centre for Peace Studies

Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies

EuroMed Rights/EuroMed Droits

Greek Council for Refugees

Help Refugees / Choose Love

HRW - Human Rights Watch

HumanRights360

İnsan Hakları Derneği / Human Rights Association (IHD)

KISA - Action for Equality, Support, Antiracism

Liga voor de Rechten van de Mens / Dutch League for Human Rights

LTDH - Ligue Tunisienne des Droits de l'Homme

Mobile Info Team

Refugee Rights Europe

RLS - Refugee Legal Support

Tamkeen for Legal Aid and Human Rights

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Joint Statement: Syrian Refugees in Cyprus pushed back to Turkey

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On 15 May 2020, the administration of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) forcibly sent 100 Syrian refugees, including unaccompanied children, to Mersin, Turkey. They have been transferred to Kilis, near the Syrian border, where they are now. Most of the 100 Syrian refugees - 56 - are children and women and girls are in the majority.

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Over the last 30 years, hundreds of thousands of people have fled Somalia because of political instability and a dangerous civil war that broke out in the 1990s. Today over 750,000 Somali refugees remain in neighbouring countries and over 2.6 million Somalis are internally displaced in Somalia.

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Thousands of Somali refugees who were pressured into leaving the Dadaab camp in Kenya are now facing drought, starvation and renewed displacement in Somalia, Amnesty International said today.

Returns to Somalia from Dadaab have massively accelerated since the Kenyan government announced plans to close the camp in May 2016. In a new briefing, Not Time to Go Home, Amnesty International researchers interviewed returnees living in dire conditions in overcrowded cities or displacement camps in Somalia.

In its zeal to return refugees the Kenyan government has made much of small security improvements in Somalia, but the grim reality is that many parts of the country are still plagued by violence and poverty

Charmain Mohamed, Head of Refugee and Migrants Rights at Amnesty International

Many returnees said they had left Dadaab because of dwindling food rations and services, or because of fears, stoked by Kenyan government officials, that they would be forced back with no assistance.

"In its zeal to return refugees the Kenyan government has made much of small security improvements in Somalia, but the grim reality is that many parts of the country are still plagued by violence and poverty," said Charmain Mohamed, Head of Refugee and Migrants Rights at Amnesty International.

"Refugees who fled drought, conflict and hunger in Somalia were coerced into returning in the midst of a severe humanitarian crisis, and many now find themselves back in the same hopeless situation from which they fled and still unable to go home.

"Until there is a significant improvement in humanitarian conditions, the Kenyan government must focus on providing continued protection to Somali refugees. Otherwise it risks riding roughshod over international standards stating that refugees can be returned only when their safety and dignity can be guaranteed."

The huge Dadaab complex in eastern Kenya is currently home to nearly 240,000 people. In May 2016 the Kenyan government announced that it would close the camp, citing national security concerns and insufficient support from the international community. This triggered a huge acceleration in returns to Somalia which continued even after the Kenyan High Court ruled the camp closure was illegal in February 2017.

In November 2016 Amnesty International documented government officials threatening refugees and telling them they had to leave, raising serious questions about whether returns were voluntary.

A humanitarian crisis

Somalia has been blighted by conflict for decades, and between January 2016 and October 2017 there were about 4,585 civilian casualties. The armed group Al-Shabaab maintains control over a significant portion of the country and carries out indiscriminate attacks which have killed or injured hundreds of civilians in the past year alone.

In the midst of this insecurity, the humanitarian situation in Somalia continues to deteriorate. The country is currently experiencing a devastating drought and there is a persistent threat of famine. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) more than half the population is in need of humanitarian assistance.

This combination of factors has led to a huge internal displacement crisis. As of November 2017, there were 2.1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia, many of whom have crowded into urban areas, placing a huge strain on resources. The lack of clean water in Somalia has also triggered a cholera outbreak which killed at least 1,155 people between January and July 2017.

In this context, Somalia is clearly not ready for the large-scale returns that have accelerated since 2016. Nearly all the returnees interviewed by Amnesty International stated that they and their families were facing serious hardship in Somalia.

Amina, a woman in her thirties, fled to Dabaab in 2011 as a result of drought. She was repatriated to the city of Baidoa with her husband and seven children in August 2016. She told Amnesty International that the water available in Baidoa is both unsafe and prohibitively expensive:

"The biggest problem that we have in the area is water. We buy a jerry can of dirty water 7,000 shillings [(US$12)]. We can go for some days without water," she told Amnesty International.

Somalia is also experiencing serious food insecurity and most returnees rely on assistance packages and humanitarian aid to obtain food.

Igal, 40, also went to Baidoa after leaving Dadaab with his six children. He told Amnesty International: "If you visit our homes you will see people who have eaten nothing for at least three days."

Because many returnees cannot return to their original homes, accessing shelter is also a major problem. Nearly all the returnees interviewed by Amnesty International said that they had been unable to secure adequate shelter, and many were living in or around IDP settlements.

An international failure

A key factor behind the Kenyan government's push to return Somalis is the failure of the international community to provide adequate support. Funding for the refugee response in Kenya has declined sharply since 2011, far outpacing the reduction in refugee numbers.

In November 2017, the UN refugee agency UNHCR's appeal for its refugee response in Kenya was only 29% funded. In the same period, the World Food Programme (WFP) also experienced regular and chronic underfunding, forcing it to repeatedly reduce the value of the food rations given to refugees.

As hunger, disease and violence close in on returnees in Somalia, the need for true responsibility sharing has never been clearer

Charmain Mohamed

Amnesty International is calling on the international community to provide adequate technical and financial assistance to the government of Kenya, to support sustainable and long-term solutions for the integration of refugees in the country. This includes fully funding UNHCR's appeal for the Kenya response, as well as increasing resettlement places and alternative pathways for Somali refugees.

"As the situation of returnees in Somalia becomes increasingly desperate, large scale returns from Dadaab are simply not viable. Rather than pushing to return refugees into a humanitarian crisis, the Kenyan government should be looking for sustainable solutions, including offering opportunities for local integration in Kenya," said Charmain Mohamed.

"But it cannot do this alone. The international community needs to step up its response, which so far has been woeful and contributed to the suffering of refugees and returnees. As hunger, disease and violence close in on returnees in Somalia, the need for true responsibility sharing has never been clearer."

Background

This report builds upon a report Nowhere Else to Go published by Amnesty International in November 2016. It assessed the conditions under which refugees took the decision to return to Somalia from Kenya in 2015 and early 2016 and the levels of insecurity and humanitarian challenges the returnees faced in Somalia.

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Somalia: Refugees pressured to leave Dadaab return to insecurity, drought and hunger

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Thousands of Somali refugees who were pressured into leaving the Dadaab camp in Kenya are now facing drought, starvation and renewed displacement in Somalia, Amnesty International said today. Returns to Somalia from Dadaab have massively accelerated since the Kenyan government announced plans to close the camp in May 2016.

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The struggles refugees are facing to get to the island and on the island. The issues that the locals have with new refugees arriving to the island and their views on the situation.

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EU fortifies Greek border against refugee influx | DW News

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Uganda has a refugee law and policy regime where it allows refugees to start a  free movement, it gives them employment opportunities and land for building new homes or farming. More than 1,000,000 refugees from neighbouring countries, including Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, have settled in Uganda.

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Uganda is one of the top refugee-hosting countries in the world, with a protracted refugee situation and ongoing influxes of refugees from neighboring countries. The country hosts 1,423,740 refugees as of 30 April 2020, with nearly 94% of refugees living in settlements primarily in the West Nile and Southwest regions of Uganda.

Due to the changing situation since the Ugandan government introduced COVID-19 containment measures in mid-March 2020, there is a risk that markets could be significantly affected and beneficiaries receiving cash assistance may not be able to access critical goods. The main objective of this market monitoring assessment is to understand the impact of COVID-19 on commodity prices and functionality of markets in refugee communities across Uganda and provide timely information to actors on a regular basis.

Data was collected remotely through key informant telephone interviews with traders, individuals selling key commodities, in markets across 13 refugee settlement locations from 15-30 April 2020. Key informants were purposively sampled, meaning the findings are indicative only. The figures represented in this factsheet are presented at the national and regional level, unless stated otherwise.

While limitations in remote data collection (for more details see textbox on page 2) made it impossible to calculate a reliable estimation of the April 2020 MEB price, this market monitoring excercise aims at providing accurate figures of MEB prices in future rounds.

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Uganda Market Analysis Task Force: COVID-19 Market Monitoring - Refugee Settlement Price and Market Functionality Snapshot, 15-30 April 2020 - Uganda

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Uganda is one of the top refugee-hosting countries in the world, with a protracted refugee situation and ongoing influxes of refugees from neighboring countries. The country hosts 1,423,740 refugees as of 30 April 2020, with nearly 94% of refugees living in settlements primarily in the West Nile and Southwest regions of Uganda.

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Ethiopia has an open door policy meaning it welcomes refugees and humanitarian access and protection  from countries such as Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan. Ethiopia has the highest refugee population in an African country.

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148,981 as of 30 April 2020 PERSONS OF CONCERN in the Afar and Tigray region

9,463 NEW ARRIVALS in the first quarter of 2020

32.86% as of April 2020 OF THE NEW ARRIVALS ARE Children
Operational context
New Arrivals - In the first quarter of 2020, 9,463 new asylum seekers from Eritrea have sought refuge in Ethiopia, placing a significant strain on registration and reception conditions in Endabaguna, Berhale and Aysaita, and increasing the already dire shelter shortages within the existing camps. With an average of over 3,000 new refugees arriving every month, available resources are prioritized to cover immediate basic needs and prevention of COVID-19 pandemic.
With limited resources and health infrastructure to contain COVID-19, resources have been redirected to support the efforts of the government of Ethiopia in the health sector and to ensure that refugees are included in national and regional plans. At present, WASH and Health sectors are prioritized while gaps remain across all sectors. By the end of April 2020, the registered population under Sub-Office Shire's area of operation stands at 148,981 persons. This includes 94,145 refugees in the four camps in Tigray, and 53,703 refugees in the two camps and settlements within the host communities in Afar, and 1,133 out of camp refugees.
On 24 March 2020, the Ethiopian authorities have closed all border crossings into the country to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. ARRA has suspended asylum seekers reception and screening activities at the border, and registration activities in Afar and at Endabaguna centre in Tigray are also suspended.
COVID-19 Pandemic Preparedness and Response
Since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Ethiopia on March 13, UNHCR amplified measures to curtail the impact of the pandemic on the Persons of Concern (PoC) to UNHCR. The COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan and mapping of camps' specific preparedness activities for worst case scenario were finalized jointly with the government counterpart ARRA and humanitarian partners. Awareness raising campaigns are well underway in all the six camps through home to home visits, mini media and use of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials. Teams comprised of a total of 338 community/incentive workers, health promotors and members of the refugee structures across all camps are disseminating WHO recommended messages on COVID-19 prevention to refugees. To date the Sub-Office Shire has printed and dispatched to field a total of 6,160 IEC materials translated into local languages (6,000 broachers and 160 large flex banners).

WASH facilities are reinforced at camp level through establishment of hand washing facilities at points of delivery, pertinent locations in camps and at household level. A total of 131 communal/shared and 1,658 household hand washing facilities have been established across the six camps. In order to further strengthened hygiene practices among the PoC, UNHCR has doubled the quantity of soap (from 250gm to 500gm) for distribution to refugees along with increase in water supply to camps. UNHCR and partners modified delivery of assistance to maintain continuation of essential services and humanitarian assistance to refugees in the pandemic situation. Distribution of two months food ration (April and May) was conducted with COVID-19 preventive measures in place at the distribution points. Distribution of sanitary material (three months entitlement) also went along with food distribution. UNHCR in collaboration with Regional Health Bureau conducted COVID-19 related trainings for camp-based health staff. Procurement of medical equipment and supplies initiated to upgrade camp-based isolation centers.

The lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and hygiene materials for frontline staff of partners providing protection and assistance remains a major concern and hiccup in the COVID19 response. UNHCR has placed an order for international procurement of drugs, hygiene items and PPE especially for health centers. In the items when these items are in the pipeline, SO Shire has initiated local procurement of these items to serve partner staff for two months.

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Eritrean Refugees in Ethiopia: Tigray & Afar Regions : Situational Update (as of 30 April 2020) - Ethiopia

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148,981 as of 30 April 2020 PERSONS OF CONCERN in the Afar and Tigray region 9,463 NEW ARRIVALS in the first quarter of 2020 32.86% as of April 2020 OF THE NEW ARRIVALS ARE Children Operational context New Arrivals - In the first quarter of 2020, 9,463 new asylum seekers from Eritrea have sought refuge in Ethiopia, placing a significant strain on registration and reception conditions in Endabaguna, Berhale and Aysaita, and increasing the already dire shelter shortages within the existing camps.

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Lebanon has the highest number of Syrian refugees per capital and that number is continuously growing which is taking a tole on the small country as they can hardly provide for their own due to  their economy.

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As of March, the US transferred non-Guatemalan asylum seekers to Guatemala whilst denying them the right to lodge asylum claims in the US. 30 of these asylum seekers were interviewed about their experiences and gross treatment which were dangerous, violent and unjust.

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(Washington, DC) - An agreement between the United States and Guatemala effectively compels Salvadoran and Honduran asylum seekers to abandon their claims, Refugees International and Human Rights Watch said today.

The joint report by Refugees International and Human Rights Watch, " Deportation with a Layover: Failure of Protection under the US-Guatemala Asylum Cooperative Agreement," shows that the US-Guatemala Asylum Cooperative Agreement, or ACA, does not meet the criteria in US law for a Safe Third Country Agreement that would enable Salvadorans and Hondurans to seek asylum in a safe country other than the US.

Under the agreement, the United States has rapidly transferred non-Guatemalan asylum seekers to Guatemala without allowing them to lodge asylum claims in the US. Given Guatemala's inability to provide effective protection and the risk that some transferees face the threat of serious harm either in Guatemala or after returning to their home countries, the US violates its obligation to examine their asylum claims by implementing the agreement, the report says.

Refugees International and Human Rights Watch interviewed 30 Hondurans and Salvadorans who had been transferred to Guatemala. They described abusive conditions at the US border before their transfer and danger, insecurity, and a lack of support upon arrival in Guatemala that made them feel pressure to return to their home countries despite fear of what they would face there.

"All the transferees we interviewed said the US never gave them an opportunity to seek asylum in the US or to explain why they fled their home countries," said Ariana Sawyer, US border researcher at Human Rights Watch and one of the report's authors.

A Salvadoran man said that a US Department of Homeland Security official told him "there is no asylum" and "there are no Central Americans allowed into the United States." Two women showed Refugees International evidence of abuse by domestic partners - pictures of physical injuries from brutal beatings and a copy of a protective order from a court in El Salvador - that they said US officials at the border refused to let them present to support their claims of fear of return there.

Those interviewed said that while detained at the US border before their transfer, they were denied meaningful access to an attorney and only allowed to make between one and three rushed, non-private phone calls.

They said that when they arrived in Guatemala, they waited hours on the tarmac with no food, water, or adequate medical attention, including for those with small children. The registration process itself took a cursory two-to-three minutes, during which Guatemalan authorities did not provide any information about what would happen to them in Guatemala. Once transferees were registered at the airport, they had 72 hours to make the decision about whether they would remain in Guatemala, return to the countries they fled, or try to find refuge elsewhere.

"People transferred to Guatemala were thrust into a high-pressure situation in which they lacked adequate time and resources to make truly informed, voluntary choices about what to do," said Rachel Schmidtke, Latin America advocate for Refugees International and another of the report's authors.

Those interviewed said they had no family or support networks in Guatemala and that they feared for their safety there because some of the gangs who threatened them had a presence or connections in Guatemala. Many indicated they would return to El Salvador and Honduras despite their fear of persecution there.

"We interviewed people with well-founded fears of persecution who were not allowed to seek asylum in the United States and who believed they could not be protected in Guatemala," said Yael Schacher, senior US advocate at Refugees International and another of the report's authors. "The United States has shirked its responsibility and violated its international obligations by transferring people under the ACA."

Transfers of non-Guatemalans to Guatemala under the agreement were suspended on March 16, 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Before that date, the US had transferred 939 people to Guatemala. Although local nongovernmental partners for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) found that the vast majority of transferees they interviewed had international protection concerns, only 20, about 2 percent, had applied for asylum in Guatemala.

The US and Guatemalan governments should rescind the Guatemalan agreement rather than plan for its resumption, Refugees International and Human Rights Watch said. The US should also halt plans to begin transferring non-national asylum seekers to El Salvador and Honduras under similar agreements.

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US: Abusive Transfers of Asylum Seekers to Guatemala

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(Washington, DC) - An agreement between the United States and Guatemala effectively compels Salvadoran and Honduran asylum seekers to abandon their claims, Refugees International and Human Rights Watch said today.

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Since late April Greek authorities have been illegally deporting refugees across the Turkish border. Refugees have been deceived, tricked and abused into the process of being deported with no freedom or choice to oblige.

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"Come with us and we will issue you new papers," a Greek police officer told Bakhtyar on a Wednesday morning in late April. The 22-year-old Afghan man believed the offer was the key to realizing his dream of starting a new life in Europe.

Two months earlier Bakhtyar had crossed the Evros River, a border between Turkey and Greece, and a key route for refugees seeking to reach the European Union. He continued onward to Diavata, the official refugee camp set up on the outskirts of Greece's second-largest city, Thessaloniki. Upon arrival he was careful to register with the Greek police, the precursor to seeking international protection - and a first step in the asylum process. A photograph of his document shows the date to be February 12, 2020.

The coronavirus lockdown had closed most public services, and Bakhtyar says he had been anxious for the office to reopen so he could make an official asylum claim. He would not get the chance to do so.

Recalling his encounter with police in April, Bakhtyar says he was put in a white van and taken to a police station in the center of Thessaloniki. Instead of getting the crucial papers as he was promised, Bakhtyar says the police confiscated all his belongings, including his phone. He was later relocated to another police station where, he says, officers slapped and kicked him before putting him onto the back of a truck. Bakhtyar remembers a sheet being pulled down to prevent anyone seeing who was inside the truck. He did not realize it at the time, but the truck was heading east - retracing his arduous journey back towards Turkey.

When the truck stopped, Bakhtyar realized he was not alone. Other asylum-seekers like him were lined up along the banks of the Evros River. He recalls seeing young men loaded onto dinghies, 10 at a time. The boatman, Bakhtyar says, spoke in Greek to people he assumed were police, and to the asylum-seekers in their native Dari. DW could not independently verify that the men were Greek police officers. For Bakhtyar, he says it was clear it was not the boatman's first such crosing to Turkey.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the border between Greece and Turkey is closed. All official deportation procedures have been put on hold. When Bakhtyar and other asylum-seekers reached the far bank on the Turkish side, there was nothing and no-one waiting for them.

DW meets pushback victims

When DW met with Bakhtyar for this report, he was staying in Istanbul's Esenler district, home to a substantial Afghan population. The city was under lockdown at the time and it was hard to move around. Wearing a red T-shirt with "New York" written across the front, Bakhtyar appeared sad and upset. He wants to get back to Greece as soon as possible to pursue his dream of living in Europe.

Read more: Greece exploits coronavirus in refugee dispute with Turkey

Bakhtyar's experience is not an isolated story. In a joint investigation between DW, the Dutch news publication Trouw, media nonprofit Lighthouse Reports, and the independent verification collective Bellingcat, we were able to locate Bakhtyar and other young men in Turkey and verify that they had been forcibly returned after previously being in Greece. Their accounts, all given separately, establish a clear pattern: male, under 30 and traveling by themselves. Most of them are from Afghanistan, some of them are from Pakistan and North Africa. They were either arrested in the Greek camp of Diavata or picked up seemingly at random by local police near the camp.

Together with our news partners, we met with and interviewed multiple eyewitnesses in Greece and Turkey, collected Greek police documents and established a chain of evidence, from the refugee camp in Diavata to the streets of Istanbul. Using publicly available data, including refugees' social media posts, which were time-stamped and featured photographs of landmarks in Greece that were geolocated, we were able to corroborate key elements of witness testimony.

In total we contacted six people in Istanbul who recounted their experiences with "pushbacks" - the forceful return of refugees and migrants across a border - and located another four elsewhere in Turkey, all of whom could prove their previous stays in Greece.

Pushbacks are deportations carried out without consideration of individual circumstances and without any possibility to apply for asylum or to put forward arguments against the measures taken, according to the European Convention on Human Rights.
'Modern slavery'
One of the other men we met in Istanbul is Rashid, who fled his native Afghanistan three years ago and made his way to Turkey. He worked as a packer and mover in Ankara, the Turkish capital, before heading to Istanbul where he found work as a welder. He has temporary protection status in Turkey but is not provided with medical assistance or housing.

"In Turkey, life is full of uncertainties for young Afghan men who lack access to basic healthcare and social services," Zakira Hekmat, co-founder of the Afghan Refugees Solidarity Association in Turkey, told DW. "They are precariously employed in low-paid jobs without permits. It is modern slavery." Afghan men in Turkey mostly toil in the underground economy working tough, physical jobs in construction, transportation or textiles.

Hoping for a better future, Rashid left Turkey for Greece at the beginning of 2020. He recalls crossing the Evros River with about 20 other people on a boat. He says he stayed in a tent for roughly two months next to the refugee camp at Diavata. But everything changed for him in late March when he was returning from Friday prayers.

Rashid says he was stopped by Greek police who told him to wait. He then describes to DW how a white van pulled up and armed men without uniforms appeared. They told him to get in. Rashid says he did not even know who the men were and that he only found out later that they were working with Greek police after he was taken to a police station. DW could not verify the connection between the men and the police.

His Greek documents, originally valid for one month, had expired but renewal during the coronavirus outbreak had not been possible as immigration offices were closed. At the station, Rashid says, the police confiscated all his belongings.

"They didn't even give me a glass of water at the police station," he recalls. Rashid was not asked to sign any papers by the Greek authorities. He says he was later driven for hours in a van across Greece and then forced onto a small boat to cross the Evros River back into Turkey.
Recognizing a pattern
Reports on alleged pushbacks, especially at the Evros border, are numerous. The witness accounts we have gathered with our news partners corroborate reports from human rights organizations working with the Border Violence Monitoring Network, an independent database. They indicate that there were at least five police raids carried out in Diavata camp between March 31 and May 5, resulting in the seemingly illegal deportation of dozens of migrants. In almost all cases, police appear to have targeted young, single men from Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Africa.

Vassilis Papadopoulos, president of the Greek Council of Refugees and a migration official in a previous administration, sees a clear pattern in the pushbacks.

"Police vans come to the camp and the officers carry out a brief check of the people who are not yet registered. They ask for their papers  [...] they detain them and tell them that they will be taken to the station, to either check their papers or to provide them with new papers and instead of that, according to the complaints, [these people] are returned to Turkey," he says.

"What is important and unprecedented in these allegations, if proven valid, is that we are talking about pushbacks from [deep] inside the country and even so from a camp without any formal deportation procedure being followed."

When DW confronted the Ministry of Migration and Asylum with the reports of illegal pushbacks, Alternate Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos denied them. "The allegations about human rights violations by Greek law enforcement personnel are fabricated, false and uncorroborated," he said.

Sealing the borders

Greece has been under intense pressure at its borders since the end of February when Turkey signaled the end of its 2016 agreement with the EU over restricting refugee and migrant flows. Ankara had encouraged migrants to head towards the land and maritime borders with Greece. Athens responded by sealing its borders and suspended access to asylum during March. While the asylum system officially resumed in April, the number of arrivals is 97% below levels for the previous April, according to statistics from the Ministry of Migration and Asylum.

In early May, Greek media reported that the government was said to be pursuing "aggressive surveillance" aimed at preventing refugees from arriving. The government has not specified what this entails.

DW approached the Ministry of Migration and Asylum for further details on the extent of the government's activities. Alternate Minister Koumoutsakos said, "measures taken so far have been proportionate to the gravity of the situation and pursued legitimate aims, such as, in particular, the protection of national security, public order and public health."
Read more: Greek civilian militias patrol border amid migrant and refugee crisis
Notis Mitarakis, the Greek Minister on Migration and Asylum, has defended the government's harder line on asylum and migration. Speaking to state television during a visit to Samos on April 28, he said: "There have been zero arrivals to our country in April 2020 thanks to the very big efforts made by our security forces."

On the same day, however, residents of the Aegean island reported on local media and Facebook that they had seen newly arrived migrants in the village of Drakei. Lighthouse Reports and Bellingcat analyzed video footage from the Turkish coast guard and refugees that indicated a boat carrying 22 asylum-seekers arrived at a cove on Samos at around 7:30 a.m. that day.

Pushed back from Samos island

Jouma was among the refugees who climbed the steep path up from the remote cove on Samos to the village. This was the fourth time the young man from Damascus, Syria had tried to reach Greece. For a few hours on the morning of April 28 he believed he had finally made it.

In a detailed account, Jouma recalls what he experienced after the refugees reached Samos. He says that a girl from the group who spoke a little English asked a local to notify Greek police that they had arrived. The new arrivals expected that they would be taken to the Samos' refugee camp. Instead, the police who came detained them and took their phones. They were driven to a port where they were transferred between boats before being loaded onto a black-orange life raft without an engine or paddles. Jouma says they were towed towards Turkish waters. The raft was set adrift in the open sea with the waves pushing them back towards Greece and a Greek vessel pushing them towards Turkey.

The worst thing, Jouma says, was a Greek power boat maneuvering around them trying to push them into Turkish waters, while the Turkish coast guard was just observing. "The Greek coast guard would retreat to make room for their Turkish counterparts to come and take us, but they wouldn't come, and it went on all night," Jouma says.

The group was eventually picked up at noon the next day by the Turks. The port authorities on Samos told DW that there were no arrivals of asylum seekers to the island on April 28. The apparent use of orange life rafts in previous pushback operations was reported by Greek national newspaper Efimerida Ton Syntakton on April 7.
Are pushbacks in compliance with EU law?
Greece, like other EU border states such as Croatia, has long been dogged by accusations of pushbacks. Dimitris Christopoulos, who was until recently the president of the International Federation for Human Rights, says that the new intensity of incidents and the number of witnesses raises questions to what extent Greek authorities have been authorizing these pushbacks and how much the EU is aware of what is happening on the Greek border.
Read more: Refugee crisis in Greece: Anger and foreboding grow on Lesbos
"Obviously, these tactics are violating the Greek Constitution and customary international law, yet they seem to be tolerated by the EU since they serve the purpose of preventing further people from crossing the Aegean or the River Evros into Europe," says Christopoulos.

When DW again questioned the Ministry of Migration and Asylum about the legality of the government's tactics, Alternate Minister Koumoutsakos categorically denied that such operations were taking place. "Greece has been complying, and will continue to do so, with its obligations under international law, including all relevant human rights treaties to which it is a party, also mindful of its obligations under the borders, migration and asylum EU legal framework, as enshrined in the EU Treaties."

Jürgen Bast, Professor of European Law at the University of Giessen in Germany, calls such a pushback strategy a clear violation of the law "This goes against everything European law stipulates." The pushbacks, as described by the refugees, break all the rules of the official return directive, Bast says, referring to the orderly procedure that an asylum request entails, including a personal interview and the right of the individual to stay in Greece until a decision is made. The destination country, Bast continues, must also be informed and may have the right to refuse rejected asylum-seekers from third countries.
Desperate to get to Europe
None of the young men DW met said they had been notified ahead of time that they would have to leave Greece; nor did they give the impression that they had been informed of their legal rights. Instead, the experiences recounted by Bakhtyar, Jouma, Rashid, and the others interviewed suggest that forceful pushbacks across the Greek-Turkish border have become an increasingly common pattern.

Rashid now lives in a cramped Istanbul flat with 10 other young Afghans. As an undocumented migrant in Turkey, he faces the threat of being deported back to Afghanistan. According to official statistics, 302,278 Afghans have been apprehended by security forces in Turkey in the last two years. Since 2018 it has become extremely difficult for Afghans to register for asylum in Turkey.
Lighthouse Reports, a media nonprofit that runs investigative newsrooms, the independent verification collective Bellingcat and the Dutch news publication Trouw contributed to reporting on this piece.
Surrounded by what appear to be dead ends for him in Turkey, Rashid is desperately searching for a way to once again reach Europe. "I do not know what I will do here. We are not guilty. Of course, I want to cross the border again," he says. "I have to."

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Migrants accuse Greece of forced deportations | DW | 21.05.2020

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"Come with us and we will issue you new papers," a Greek police officer told Bakhtyar on a Wednesday morning in late April. The 22-year-old Afghan man believed the offer was the key to realizing his dream of starting a new life in Europe.

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The small pacific island nation of Nauru declares 'state of emergency' on March 17th as a preventative measure to the Coronavirus pandemic. The island is home to over 200 refugees and asylum seekers remanded in Australian offshore processing centres. This drastic measure calls into question the safety of the detained people and demonstrates the lack of empathy and sense of responsibility Australian Government displays towards Asylum seekers. Nauru is tiny island that will already struggle to provide medical care and attention for its own citizens, it is easy to see that foreigners who the Australian government pays to put there will not be a priority if COVID-19 hits the region.

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The tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru has declared a state of emergency to "manage and minimise" the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The declaration signed by President Lionel Rouwen Aingimea on Monday was posted on the government's website on Tuesday and is effective immediately for 30 days.

"Nauru is particularly vulnerable to the threat of the coronavirus," the Nauru government tweeted adding, "the global impact indicates that should this virus enter Nauru, the results could be devastating."

"This is a risk your Government is not willing to take. Our first and foremost objective is to protect our people."

The tiny former Australian-British-New Zealand protectorate has a population of about 11,000 people and more than 200 refugees and asylum seekers undergoing Australian off-shore processing.

The government has suspended all international passenger flights to Nauru - except one a fortnight to Brisbane where the national carrier has its headquarters - but air freight will continue with strict quarantine measures.

"All persons travelling to Nauru will be required to spend up to 14 days in approved transition accommodation before being allowed back into the community," the government said on social media.

The Asia Development Bank describes Nauru as "the world's smallest island nation, facing acute development challenges including distance from international markets, uncertain sources of future revenue, and inadequate infrastructure".

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Nauru declares 'state of emergency' to manage coronavirus pandemic

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The tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru has declared a state of emergency to "manage and minimise" the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The declaration signed by President Lionel Rouwen Aingimea on Monday was posted on the government's website on Tuesday and is effective immediately for 30 days.

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The United Nations has requested the Croatian government launch an investigation into allegations of abuse carried out by border police against asylum seekers crossing the Croatian border from Bosnia. The article stipulated that officers spray painted their heads, took their shoes and belongings, in a cruel tactic of humiliation and psychological abuse towards the vulnerable refugees and migrants crossing the border. This is not the first time border protection officers in the region have been accused of police brutality and the abuse of power, with the Bosnian border often referred to as the most tough in Europe. It is often speculated that this show of unnecessary force and brutality is to demonstrate to the European Union the ability of Croatia to protect its borders, and gain respect from neighbouring counties who often struggle with illegal immigrants entering.

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Croatian police are allegedly spray-painting the heads of asylum seekers with crosses when they attempt to cross the border from Bosnia.

The Guardian has obtained a number of photographs of what has been described by charities as the "latest humiliation'' perpetrated by the Croatian authorities against migrants travelling along the Balkan route.

The UN has asked the Croatian government to investigate all the allegations of abuse.
'Blood on the ground' at Croatia's borders as brutal policing persists
"It is obvious that one of the intended effects of this behaviour is to humiliate refugees and migrants attempting to cross the border," said Jack Sapoch from No Name Kitchen (NNK), an NGO that operates in Velika Kladuša, 2km from the border, and is a member of watchdog organisation the Border Violence Monitoring Network.

"As far as I see it, this is the result of either one of two motivations. Either the Croatian authorities committing these acts are using spray paint to identify and humiliate repeat border crossers or, more worryingly, they are using this as a tactic to psychologically traumatise these men - the majority of whom are Muslim - with a religious symbol," Sapoch said.

On 6 May in Poljana, Bosnia, sources reported to the NNK that a group of people had been pushed back and sprayed with orange paint. The group had also had their money and mobile phones stolen; several had their shoes taken.

On 7 May, a different group returned to Miral camp outside Velika Kladuša describing similar treatment.

The Croatian police have been contacted for a comment. Previously, the authorities have stressed the need to protect their borders.

Every night groups of asylum seekers attempt to cross from Bosnia into Croatia, where squadrons of police await them at the border. Armed with truncheons, pistols and night vision goggles, they patrol the EU's longest external border. Asylum seekers call crossing the border "the game," but it is a dangerous undertaking.

Aid workers, doctors, border guards and UN officials have documented systematic abuse and violence perpetrated by police, with migrants often beaten, shot, robbed and even stripped of their clothes.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said it was ''deeply concerned about reported violence and treatment of migrants and refugees by Croatian police''.

''Our organisation has previously received and subsequently shared with the authorities credible reports of people who claim they have been unlawfully returned from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia," Zoran Stevanović, UNHCRregional communications officer for central Europe, told the Guardian.

"These reports highlight problems regarding the identification of asylum claims, violence and excessive use of force, identification of vulnerable individuals, treatment of unaccompanied children," he said.

"UNHCR has requested the Croatian government to investigate all claims of violations and abuse and to establish an independent assessment mechanism to establish the facts of the border situation.''

Between September 2019 and January this year, the UNHCR reported to the Croatian authorities 100 cases of alleged unlawful returns from Croatia to Bosnia and Serbia.

Despite this, Sapoch said that in the last two months his organisation has continued to receive reports of violence on the Bosnian border.

He added: "Hearing reports of increased brutality during pushbacks is worrying due to the increased autonomy that state authorities have gained during these times of the [coronavirus] pandemic. Now, more than ever, it is important for us to keep these forces accountable for their own actions.

"Pushbacks are illegal and the spread of Covid-19 is not an excuse to confront vulnerable people with even more violence. It is unacceptable."

Last month, authorities in Bosnia ordered the transfer of thousands of migrants to a remote camp in Lipa, a village about 25km from the border with Croatia, due to the coronavirus outbreak in the country. The construction of the new camp prompted panic among asylum seekers and volunteers, who fear the measure will not guarantee any assistance to migrants.
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Croatian police accused of spray-painting heads of asylum seekers

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Croatian police are allegedly spray-painting the heads of asylum seekers with crosses when they attempt to cross the border from Bosnia. The Guardian has obtained a number of photographs of what has been described by charities as the "latest humiliation'' perpetrated by the Croatian authorities against migrants travelling along the Balkan route.

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The largest refugee camp in the world has recorded its first 2 cases of the deadly virus COVID-19 on May 14th. Cox's Bazar camp is located in Bangladesh and houses almost 1 million Rohingya Refugees that have been there since 2017 after they were forced to flee their home country of Myanmar due to military persecution and systematic violence towards their community. According to the ABC article (2020), there are between 40,000 and 70,000 people living per square kilometre within the camp. We have seen thousands of people die from the virus in wealthy western states who have access to healthcare and good hygiene practices, it is concerning to think of the consequences and loss of life that would occur if COVID-19 was to spread through this refugee camp.

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The first cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed among Rohingya refugees in the world's largest refugee camp, Bangladesh and UN officials have said.

Bangladesh has reported 18,863 cases of coronavirus and 283 deaths

The country has 2,000 ventilators for a population of 160 million

More than 730,000 Rohingya fled from a military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017

Two refugees tested positive at Cox's Bazar camp in Bangladesh, where 1,900 other refugees - who may have been in contact with them - are being isolated for tests.

About 1 million Rohingya refugees are living in the crowded Cox's Bazar after fleeing persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.

The camps have been under lockdown since March 14, and humanitarian groups warned the infection could devastate the crowded settlement.

"Today they have been taken to an isolation centre after they tested positive," Mahbub Alam Talukder, the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, said by phone.

One of the patients was from the "host population", a term usually referring to local residents outside the camps, a UN spokeswoman said.

Coronavirus update: Follow all the latest news in our daily wrap.

One million Rohingya refugees are living in the crowded Cox's Bazar.(Reuters: Mohammad Ponir Hossain)

'Thousands of people may die'

Coronavirus infections have been gathering pace in recent days in Bangladesh, which has reported 18,863 cases of coronavirus and 283 deaths.

Rohingya at risk

The main refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, referred to as the "megacamp", is the biggest and most overcrowded in the world. People live shoulder-to-shoulder in makeshift shelters that have less than a metre between them.

Read more

Dr Shamim Jahan, Save the Children's health director in Bangladesh, said in a statement that the virus had already overwhelmed the country.

"There are only an estimated 2,000 ventilators in all of Bangladesh, serving a population of 160 million people," he said.

"In the Rohingya refugee camps - home to nearly a million people - there are no intensive care beds at this moment.

"Now that the virus has entered the world's largest refugee settlement in Cox's Bazar, we are looking at the very real prospect that thousands of people may die from COVID-19. This pandemic could set Bangladesh back by decades."

Read more about coronavirus:

US ambassador at large for international religious freedom, Sam Brownback, told US reporters by phone: "I've been to the refugee camp. It is [so] incredibly crowded that the COVID virus will spread through there very rapidly, unfortunately. They have to have access to adequate healthcare."

Rohingya refugee children in Cox's Bazar have fled violence in their homeland and now face coronavirus.(Reuters: Mohammad Ponir Hossain)

Health facilities lack staff and space, while people in the camps do not have enough soap and water or space to protect themselves, said Manish Agrawal, Bangladesh Country Director at the International Rescue Committee.

"Here, people are living 40,000 to 70,000 people per square kilometre," he said.

Stay up-to-date on the coronavirus outbreak
"That's at least 1.6 times the population density on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where the disease spread four times as fast than in Wuhan at the peak of the outbreak."

Why are the Rohingya stateless?

In Bangladesh they are a burden; in Myanmar they are despised. Where did the Rohingya come from and where do they belong?

Read more

"Without efforts to increase healthcare access, improve sanitation, isolate suspected cases and decongest the camp, the disease will devastate the refugee and local population here, where there is a much lower standard of living and a higher rate of existing illness that make refugees more susceptible to the virus," he said.

More than 730,000 Rohingya arrived from Myanmar in late 2017 after fleeing a military crackdown.

Myanmar is facing charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice in the Hague over the violence.

The army denies genocide, saying it was fighting a legitimate battle against Rohingya militants who attacked first.

This chart uses a logarithmic scale to highlight coronavirus growth rates. Read our explainer to understand what that means - and how COVID-19 cases are spreading around the world. What you need to know about coronavirus:
ABC/wires

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'Thousands may die': Coronavirus detected in world's largest refugee camp

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The first cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed among Rohingya refugees in the world's largest refugee camp, Bangladesh and UN officials have said.

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On April 17 the Malaysian government refused to allow two boats carrying between 200 and 500 Rohingya refugees aboard to seek asylum in their state. The government has been accused of using Covid-19 as an excuse to blatantly violate international laws and their humanitarian obligations. Malaysia's home minister also stated that his Government did not officially recognise refugees, including those from the Rohingya community, and said that they remained "illegal immigrants in the eyes of Malaysian law". (Lim 2020) This statement comes after the state has already accepted 101,584 thousand Rohingya refugees in the past, the only difference is that these boats landed during a global pandemic and the Malaysian government is using this as a loophole to violate international law and ultimately fail these vulnerable people.

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KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 - Malaysian authorities turned away a boat with ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar only after providing them with food to continue their journey elsewhere, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said today.

Hamzah was referring to a recent news report of the Royal Malaysian Navy intercepting a boat carrying about 200 Rohingya that was spotted 70 nautical miles away from Langkawi, with the crew of a navy ship providing food to them on humanitarian grounds before ensuring the boat left the country's waters.

"Referring to the action of Malaysian authorities disallowing a boat carrying ethnic Rohingya from entering the country's waters on April 17, the Home Ministry stresses that that measure is in line with the law to prevent the sovereignty of the country's borders from being intruded.

"However, on a humanitarian basis, Malaysian authorities had distributed food supplies before escorting that boat out from the country's waters," he said in a statement today.

Hamzah also highlighted that Malaysia had closed its borders to all foreigners to fight the Covid-19 outbreak.

"The action of tightening borders including illegal entryways to block the intrusion of illegal immigrants is in line with the government's measure to close the country's entry points to foreigners to break the chain of transmission of the Covid-19 disease.

"The Home Ministry wishes to stress that the authorities remain ready to block any intrusion to the country's borders and waters," he said.

In the same statement, Hamzah also said the Malaysian government does not officially recognise refugees including those from the Rohingya community.

He said the non-recognition also encompassed those holding the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card that the global agency issues to those refugees, saying they remained illegal immigrants in the eyes of Malaysian law.

Hamzah said Malaysia only allowed such "illegal immigrants" with UNHCR cards to stay in the country temporarily until UNHCR finds a third country to accept them.

Saying there are currently 101,584 Rohingya in Malaysia with the UNHCR card, Hamzah said they have no right to make demands of the Malaysian government and reminded the "illegal immigrants with UNHCR cards" to respect and obey the country's laws.

The Malaysian authorities' move to turn away the boat of 200 persons from the Rohingya community has been criticised by several groups, including the Human Rights Watch's deputy Asia director Phil Robertson who said the Covid-19 pandemic does not justify risking the lives of refugees on overcrowded boats and pushing them back to sea.

Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) highlighted that the Rohingya community still faced persecution, discrimination and violence in their home country, criticising the act of pushing refugees back to sea as being in violation of international human rights law and conflicting with Malaysia's past generosity to the Rohingya community.

Stressing that Covid-19 pandemic risks can be managed without pushing refugees back to sea, LFL pointed out that Malaysia had previously taken a humane approach that still managed to protect the health of both the local and Rohingya community by isolating 250 Rohingya refugees who landed at Langkawi on April 5 to test them for Covid-19.

Others such as the National Human Rights Society(Hakam) and European Rohingya Council ambassador to Malaysia's Tengku Emma Zuriana Tengku Azmi had also weighed in on the issue.

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Home minister: Malaysia sent Rohingya boat away with food as borders closed due to Covid-19 | Malay Mail

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KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 - Malaysian authorities turned away a boat with ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar only after providing them with food to continue their journey elsewhere, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said today. Hamzah was referring to a recent news report of the Royal Malaysian...

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Coronavirus threatens indigenous Venezuelans seeking safety in Brazil. The Covid-19 pandemic has taken a devastating toll on the citizens of Brazil. Their poor living conditions has exposed them to the deadly disease. With '26 members' displaying the 'tell-tale symptoms of the disease' (United Nations, 2020) the UN Refugee Agency is working closely with the government in order to provide basic sanitation for the affected communities.

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Thai authorities have arrested 12 Rohingya and has sent them to immigration detention facilities with over 200 people. Condemning them to confined spaces, prompting the spread of COVID-19 on the 20th of May 2020.

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(Bangkok) - Thai authorities should allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) unhindered access to Rohingya from Myanmar to determine whether they qualify for refugee status, Human Rights Watch said today. The government's inhumane policy of holding Rohingya arriving in Thailand in indefinite detention should be immediately repealed.

The latest group of Rohingya arrived in Thailand by land, crossing from Myanmar into Mae Sot district of Tak province on May 20, 2020. Thai authorities arrested at least 12 Rohingya and sent them to the Mae Sot immigration detention facility. Approximately 200 Rohingya are being held in immigration detention and other facilities across Thailand.

"The Thai government should scrap its policy of summarily locking up Rohingya and throwing away the key, condemning them to indefinite detention in cramped and unhygienic detention centers now susceptible to a Covid-19 outbreak," said Brad Adams, Asia director. "The Rohingya have been brutally persecuted in Myanmar. Thailand should permit the UN refugee agency to screen all Rohingya arriving in Thailand to identify and assist those seeking refugee status."

Refugee screening is crucial for protecting Rohingya asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch said. The Myanmar government and military have long persecuted the Rohingya, members of a Muslim minority group who have lived in Myanmar's Rakhine State for generations. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, who have been effectively denied citizenship in Myanmar, have fled repression and dire poverty. Human trafficking gangs have abused and exploited many of those who eluded death during their dangerous journey.

The situation has significantly worsened since August 2017, when the Myanmar military committed ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya, driving as many as 740,000 into exile in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Responsibility for the security of the Rohingya rests primarily with the Myanmar government, but extends to the countries where they seek refuge, Human Rights Watch said. Like its predecessors, the government of Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha has treated Rohingya arriving at the border as illegal immigrants, subject to detention in squalid immigration lockups. The government has not permitted UNHCR to conduct refugee status determinations for them. Thailand also discriminates against Rohingya by refusing to allow them to register as legally documented migrant workers, unlike other people coming from Myanmar.

Thai authorities have for years said they do not want to treat Rohingya as asylum seekers. However, under international law, Thailand cannot summarily disregard the claims of asylum seekers who arrive at its borders. Thailand is obligated to allow them to enter the country and seek protection.

The Thai government should ensure that its laws, policies, and practices recognize the protection needs of Rohingya asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch said. UNHCR has the technical expertise to screen for refugee status and the international mandate to protect refugees and stateless people. Effective UNHCR screening of all Rohingya arrivals would help the Thai government determine who is entitled to refugee status.

Under international law, everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution. Immigration detention should be an exceptional measure of last resort, for the shortest period, and only if justified by a legitimate purpose. Detention imposed automatically or otherwise not pursued for a legitimate purpose is considered arbitrary.

"Thailand should help the oppressed Rohingya from Myanmar, not worsen their suffering," Adams said. "The Thai government should recognize the plight of Rohingya and allow them access to desperately needed protection."

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Thailand: Let UN Refugee Agency Screen Rohingya

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(Bangkok) - Thai authorities should allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) unhindered access to Rohingya from Myanmar to determine whether they qualify for refugee status, Human Rights Watch said today. The government's inhumane policy of holding Rohingya arriving in Thailand in indefinite detention should be immediately repealed.