Tag: Migration & Refugees

Worlds Deadliest Earthquake Leaves over 33,000 Dead — Global Issues

“A street of local markets in a residential area in North Syria that has been blocked by the ruins of collapsed buildings.” Credit: Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
  • by Sania Farooqui (new delhi, india)
  • Inter Press Service

NEW DELHI, India, Feb 13 (IPS) – Almost over 33,000 people have been killed and thousands injured by the 7.8 earthquake which struck south-eastern Turkey and Syria in the early hours on Monday, February 6th. The first images that came out were of collapsed buildings, rubble strewn across streets, people trapped under rubbles, screaming for help. What followed was the unusually strong aftershock – including one quake which was almost as large as the first.

Rawan Kahwaji was fast asleep in her apartment in Gaziantep, in Turkey when she woke up to the sounds of people screaming. The first two minutes, she says, did not make sense to her. “It was a nightmare, I remember waking up not knowing what was going on. My apartment was shaking really hard and it went on for sometime, we didn’t expect it to be this bad, we just thought we would get out of the apartment for a few hours because earthquakes happen quite regularly. But this time with each hour that we spent waiting outside, following the aftershocks, we realised the situation was much worse,” Kahwaji said.

War in Syria had displaced Kahwaji and her family once, before they moved to Gaziantep in 2015. For many displaced like her, documents which included ID, educational degrees and travel documents meant more than anything for survival. “In the middle of that chaos, we realised we needed our documents in case we had to leave the city. Our apartment was full of cracks and everything inside was destroyed, we somehow managed to get our documents.

“A street of local markets in a residential area in North Syria that has been blocked by the ruins of collapsed buildings.” Credit: Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

After spending two days in a shelter in Gaziantep, Kahwaji and her family were amongst the few who managed to get to Ankara safely, but she describes the experience as something she has never seen before. “There were people on the road screaming, we could hear people crying for help, I saw people collapsing because they were having heart attacks. I don’t know if they made it through or not, but it was complete chaos. We lost a lot, we lost our business, our lives, physically we are safe, but mentally we are not fine. I am still imagining the earth shaking and we are all simply sitting, waiting in anticipation that something is going to happen to us again,” Kahwaji said.

It has been almost a week of relentless search and rescue operations, as workers across these regions are still trying to pull survivors from the rubble – there have been some harrowing stories of success and also of heartbreak. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a three-month state of emergency in 10 provinces worst-affected by the earthquake.

“Buildings in North Syria completely destroyed.” Credit: Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

Syria Civil Defence – also known as White Helmets have been in news since the beginning of the earthquake for their immediate call to action to rescue those trapped under rubbles and for saving lives.

Almost 3000 White Helmet volunteers have been on the ground searching for survivors and pulling the dead from collapsed buildings. It’s been a race against the clock, those who have made it through for them the challenge has been to survive the cold weather, toxic smoke as people burnt plastic to stay warm, lack of water and basic necessities.

“A small truck loaded with a family’s basic items, who are seeking shelter after they lost their home amidst the disastrous earthquake in North Syria.” Credit: Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

Cities closest to the epicentre of the earthquake, as per this report, when the temperatures rose on Sunday and it became warm, “odour of rotting bodies became discernible. It was the smell of death.”

“The situation has been very catastrophic, both personally and also collectively,” says Muzna Dureid, Senior Program Manager, White Helmets in an interview given to IPS said, “One of the worst impacted regions is North West Syria, home to almost 4.5 million people who have been forcefully displaced multiple times, they have witnessed the siege, the chemical attacks, bombardments, all types of suffering and now this earthquake.

“A muddy road in North Syria with, and a car damaged by the ruins.” Credit: Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

“Unfortunately the situation has been beyond the capacity of our team, we are working with very limited resources as cities and villages have been completely destroyed. Families have been destroyed, so many are living on the streets in dire weather conditions,” Dureid said.

The possibility of finding survivors continues to decrease as the hours pass. A UN liaison officer warned that the two countries are nearing the end of the search and rescue window. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates up to 23 million people could be affected by the earthquake across both the countries.

“People gathered around the search and rescue team, trying to help them rescue families stuck under the rubble, in one of the neighborhoods that was completely destroyed in North Syria.” Credit: Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has been working on the ground across Syria providing relief, water, and support to those affected by the earthquake. In a statement issued here, NRC says, “The quake happened at the worst time of the night at the worst time of the year. The destructive extent of the shock hit a number of cities in Syria, including Aleppo, Idlib, Homs, Hamah and Lattakia, including internally displaced people across Syria’s north.”

“We are now entering a new phase with search and rescue operations largely coming to an end. The real scale of the disaster will start to crystallise in the coming days,” says Emilie Luciani, Country Director, Syria Response Office, Norwegian Refugee council in an interview to IPS.

“Syrians waiting for the search and rescue team to help people stuck under the rubble, where an entire flattened by the earthquake in North Syria.” Credit: Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

“Thousands of families are without shelter in open areas or seeking refuge in damaged buildings, existing internally displaced people’s (IDP) sites, reception centres, collective centres or beings temporarily hosted by other families. Communication has been very difficult, and roads around the main affected areas are damaged.

“People in North West Syria are in a desperate situation. They have already spent many years displaced and reliant on humanitarian assistance, and now unfortunately, the aid reaching them is also restricted as the United Nations can only utilise one crossing-point to reach them from Turkey which only just reopened – 5 days after the earthquake,” says Luciani.

According to this report, the Syrian government in Damascus has been receiving aid from international donors, but there is a lot of uncertainty about whether that will be equitably distributed to all the affected parts of Syria including the rebel held North West.

“People trying to help the search and rescue team in rescuing families buried under the rubble in North Syria.” Credit: Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

The Red Cross has called for urgent access in Northern Syria to help people who need urgent support. “Impartial humanitarian assistance should never be hindered, nor politicised,” it says.

Avril Benoit, Executive Director, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) USA said: “The massive consequences of this disaster will require an equally massive international response. People urgently need shelter, food, blankets, clothes, heating materials, hygiene kits, and medical assistance – including access to mental health support. For Syrians living the earthquake zone, this is catastrophe layered on top of crisis after crisis. People have endured more than a decade of war, an economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and a recent cholera outbreak, benoit said.

UNHCR has warned that according to its preliminary data, as many as 5.3 million people in Syria may have been affected by the recent earthquake and will need some form of shelter assistance. A huge number and this destruction comes to a population already suffering mass displacement.

“We are really worried, as we have seen in the past, the world has the habit of replacing a crisis with a new crisis and so on. Right now everyone is opening their doors, giving donations, opening relief camps and emergency response which is needed, no doubt but what after that? We are worried that after a week or so when everyone goes back to their routine life, we will forget about those impacted by the earthquake, especially women and children, says Anila Noor, Managing Director of Women Connectors and a policy expert on refugees and migration.

“These are poor people, who have suffered due to war, they live with very limited resources especially in Syria. Emergency response is the first step, but we need to see how we can help them later, make an ecosystem and a system of accountability to track where the money and aid goes, and also see the local efforts,” says Noor.

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Afghan Refugees Fear Return as Pakistan Cracks Down on Migrants — Global Issues

Moniza Kakar gets thumb impressions of Afghan women on the legal document called Wakalatnama, which is a document filed by a party in order to appoint a lawyer to plead on their behalf. Credit: Moniza Kakar
  • by Zofeen Ebrahim (karachi)
  • Inter Press Service

KARACHI, Feb 01 (IPS) – “If I return to Afghanistan, the Taliban will kill me; I’m prepared to stay in a prison in Karachi than face those ruthless people,” said 24-year-old Afghan refugee, Sabrina Zalmai*, referring to the recent crackdown on hundreds of Afghans residing without proper documents in the metropolis, who are being arrested and then deported back to Afghanistan.

Having taken refuge in Pakistan for almost a year without a visa, she said she was feeling extremely unsafe. “We are trying to remain as invisible as possible,” she said.

But, said 45-year-old Naghma Ziauddin*, a former broadcast journalist working in Kabul, and having fled to Karachi, living under the radar, illegally, in the city was difficult. If arrested and deported, she said, she would instantly be recognized since she had been “very vocal in my hatred for the Taliban, and they know my voice.”

She, her husband, two sons, and a sick daughter-in-law came to Karachi in March 2022. “If they put us behind bars, how will we take care of my daughter-in-law?” she said, adding: “Because of the recent arrests, we have become caged in our home. I hardly go out; I am always anxious about being apprehended when I take my daughter-in-law to see the doctor for her monthly check-up.”

According to official reports, about 250,000 Afghans have fled to Pakistan after the Taliban seized power in August 2021.

But the amnesty extended to those fleeing Afghanistan and entering Pakistan with valid visas that have expired, terminated in December 2022.

To renew their visas, they have to re-enter Afghanistan, which they still find a dangerous place.

A majority of those who fled feared they would find themselves in the crosshairs of the Taliban. These included soldiers, judges, journalists, human rights defenders, and those whom the Taliban despised, the Shia Hazaras, the LGBTQIA+, and those who were musicians and singers. The economic immigrants who were without work in Afghanistan were also among the refugees.

Ziauddin finds deportations “very inhuman”.

Not only is it inhuman, said Umer Ijaz Gilani, an Islamabad-based lawyer, it is a violation of the non-refoulement (forcibly returning refugees or asylum seekers where they may be persecuted) principle. Acting on behalf of 100 Afghan human rights defenders seeking asylum, he has urged the government’s National Commission on Human Rights to direct state authorities not to deport them. “We may have to take them to the court otherwise,” he told IPS in a phone interview.

According to Moniza Kakar, a Karachi-based young human rights lawyer, Afghan refugees are being arrested across Pakistan. “They get deported immediately in other provinces, but in Sindh, the arrested Afghans are put behind bars for months, treated badly in prisons, fined, and then deported,” she said.

Kakar is helping in the release of the Afghan refugees in Sindh. “So far, of the 1,400 arrested (including 200 women and 350 children), 600 have been released and deported,” she told IPS.

“If a person lives illegally in any country, the government takes action and deals with them according to the law,” Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said, justifying the arrests. “Nobody has been sentenced to jail for more than two months,” he added. He also denied that children were put behind bars.

Kakar said because Pakistan had not adopted the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, “which stops states from punishing people who enter a country illegally”, it is able to invoke the domestic Foreigners Act 1946 to use against Afghans residing in Pakistan illegally, to punish and deport them.

Of the imprisoned Afghans, Kakar said, nearly 400 had been arrested wrongfully as they had valid documents that allowed them to stay in Pakistan. They remained incarcerated for months till their cases were heard.

“Some Afghans arrested in Jacobabad have been sentenced to as much as six months rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 imposed on all males, and Rs 1,000 each on all minors and females,” she said, contradicting Memon’s statement to media. “Why were minors fined when the government claims they were not offenders or imprisoned?” she asked.

Kakar said because Pakistan had not adopted the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, “which stops states from punishing people who enter a country illegally”, it is able to invoke the domestic Foreigners Act 1946 to use against Afghans residing in Pakistan illegally, to punish and deport them.

Amnesty International has urged the Pakistani government to stop the deportations and extend support to the refugees so they can live with dignity and free of fear of being returned to Afghanistan. In a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, said she found it alarming to note the country lacked national legislation for the protection of refugees and asylum seekers.

Pakistan may not have signed the international refuge protocol, but, argued Lahore-based Sikander Shah, who teaches at the law school at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, there were several international human rights conventions that Pakistan had adopted, like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Interna­t­i­­onal Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Con­ve­n­­tion on the Rights of the Child, the Convention aga­inst Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, that can be “turned to, to help the hapless refugees”.

“My experience has been that the judges in Sindh do not empathize with the Afghan refugees,” pointed out Kakar. “In fact, one judge said in the open court that the refugees did not deserve to be looked at from a humanitarian lens; that they were criminals who were involved in terrorist activities in our country,” said the young rights activist bemoaning the open hostility prevalent not just among other segments of society, but even her own legal fraternity.

She also said the Afghans were especially ill-treated both by prison authorities and the inmates. “They complain of being lugged with more than their share of work and not always provided with meals,” said Kakar.

Many say they face constant discrimination.

Armineh Nasar* 21, another refugee, who came to Karachi last year, in December 2021, with her mother and three siblings, said she had experienced much suspicion. “I have witnessed how Pakistani mothers pull away their children when they find out their kids are playing with Afghan kids. I’ve heard them say, we are terrorists,” she said.

Before the Taliban took over Kabul, Zalmai was working in Kabul in a nongovernmental organization. But the reason she would find herself on the wrong side of the Taliban if she were deported was that, like Ziauddin, she had been “very vocal in my dislike of the Taliban, and they know who I am.” She fled with her grandmother in January 2022 after her family got hold of a hitlist of Taliban which had her name on it as well.

With a BA in economics, her dream of opening a boutique in Kabul’s upscale market has been dashed. “Right now, I work as a domestic help, sweeping floors, earning up to Rs 300 (USD 1.30 cents) for half a day’s work,” because she cannot find any office work as it would require her to show an identification card. “I had never done this kind of work even at home as I was either studying or working outside. “We are a family of seven; I’m the eldest, and I was the main bread earner of my family, earning Afghani 15,000 (USD 166) per month,” she told IPS. Her father, a security guard in an office, earned less.

Like the other two, Nasar, too, cannot find work, so she keeps hopping from one job to the other till the issue of documents comes up. “I’ve worked in an office and in a supermarket, each lasting three months, and then had to leave as I was unable to show any identity card.” Having studied till 12 grade in Kabul, she wanted to enroll in higher studies. “But the university administration wants to see a refugee card before giving me admission. I’ve missed a year because of that!” said Nasar, who wants to study computer sciences and enter the profession of banking.

But it is not just that they cannot work; without documentation, Afghans cannot access housing or open bank accounts (to be able to receive money). They also cannot obtain a SIM card or seek medical treatment at a government facility.

With no one in her family able to earn, Ziauddin said she was worried the family would soon run out of money. The cash they had after selling her jewelry and household items to flee to Pakistan is drying up fast, as are all their savings.

“I am under a lot of anxiety that has caused my blood pressure to rise,” said Ziauddin. Her doctor had suggested she begin walking as a form of exercise, which she did, but she gave it up after she got robbed last month.

“If only the UNHCR could provide us with the documents stating we are refugees, we would not face so many problems,” she said.

But it seems even the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ hands are tied.

Since 2021, the UNHCR has been in discussion with the government on measures and mechanisms to support vulnerable Afghans. “Regrettably, no progress has been made,” said UNHCR spokesperson Qaiser Khan Afridi.

He said the refugee agency was ready to work with the government of Pakistan in identifying Afghans in need of protection and to seek solutions to their plight. But the latter has yet to agree to recognize the newly arriving Afghans as refugees. “It does, however, allow Afghans in possession of a valid passport and visa to cross into Pakistan; the online visa application process is also available to those with passports.”

In addition, said Afridi, in line with its mandate, the UNHCR strives to find durable solutions for refugees. “But the realization of such solutions is beyond its control.” It all depends on countries to offer third-country resettlement opportunities or to allow refugees to naturalize as citizens in the country where they sought asylum. “Resettlement, unfortunately, cannot be available for the entire refugee population as the opportunities are limited,” he agreed but said the refugee agency was urging RST (Refugee Status Determination) countries (like Pakistan) to increase the resettlement quotas.

*Names have been changed to protect their identity. 
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On International Day of Education, We Must Prioritize Girls in Humanitarian Crisis — Global Issues

Yasmine Sherif pictured in Lebanon speaking to a young child at an ECW-supported facility. Credit: Education Cannot Wait (ECW)
  • Opinion by Yasmine Sherif, Stephen Omollo (new york)
  • Inter Press Service

NEW YORK, Jan 24 (IPS) – “Is it a sin to be a girl? We don’t want to be at home and illiterate. We want to go to school, study and be intelligent.”

In just a few words, this plea for education from a young Afghan girl has captured the world’s attention. Her heartbreaking question shows how the Taliban’s recent ban on girls attending secondary school and university – effectively ending education opportunities for all Afghan girls and women – is not only violating their fundamental human right to education but shattering countless hopes and dreams in an instant.

Elsewhere in the world, millions of other girls living through humanitarian crises are also being deprived of the right to go to school. In their case, it isn’t necessarily a proclamation that bars them from learning, but hunger, conflict or the consequences of extreme weather induced by the climate crisis, sometimes a combination of all of these. And underpinning this, gender inequality means that the sheer fact they are girls means their education and rights often aren’t prioritized.

For example, at present, hunger is causing huge damage to girls’ education opportunities in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, Haiti and other hotspots around the word.

Yasmine Sherif and Stephen Omollo. Credit: Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

The reasons for this are many and interconnected. When food is scarce, it is often girls who shoulder the responsibility of travelling long distances to find sustenance, or caring for siblings while their parents do so, leaving little time for their studies. When small quantities of food are shared amongst a family, evidence shows girls often eat least and last, making it difficult for them to focus and truly benefit when they do go to school.

Elsewhere, from Ukraine to South Sudan, conflict is disrupting girls’ education as families are forced to flee for their safety – indeed, half of all refugee children are out of school.

Whatever the reason, when girls are forced to drop out of school, it isn’t just their education and life opportunities that suffer. Adolescent girls in particular then become even more vulnerable to violence, exploitation, early pregnancy and harmful practices, from child marriage to female genital mutilation. Indeed, the chances of a girl marrying as a child reduce by six percent with each year she remains in secondary education.

Inclusive, quality education is a lifeline which has a profound effect on girls’ rights. But more needs to be done to make this a reality.

Girls in crisis settings are nearly 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than those living in countries not in crisis. One reason for this is that in emergencies and protracted crises, education responses are severely underfunded. The total annual funding for education in emergencies as a percentage of global sector-specific humanitarian funding in 2021 was just 2.9%.

Yasmine Sherif pictured in Lebanon speaking to a young child at an ECW-supported facility. Credit: Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

Together with partners, Plan International and Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, are calling for this proportion to be increased to at least 10% of humanitarian financing. This must include increased multi-year investments in the institutional capacities of local and national actors.

Today, on International Day of Education, we stand in solidarity with girls in Afghanistan and in all other crisis affected countries to say “education cannot wait.” Education is not only a fundamental human right, but a lifesaving and life-sustaining investment for girls affected by crisis. We must stand with girls as they defend this right.

Next month, when world leaders will gather in Geneva at the Education Cannot Wait High-Level Financing Conference, we urge donor governments to immediately increase humanitarian aid to education. We must translate our promises into action through bold, courageous and substantive financing.

This funding is essential if we are to build resilience in the most climate-exposed nations, where the consequences of extreme weather will all but certainly pose a threat to girls’ education in the years to come. Education budgets – which declined by two-thirds of low- and lower-middle-income countries after the onset of COVID-19 – must be protected and increased, especially in crisis-affected countries.

Investments should be geared towards building stronger education systems and tackling gender inequality and exclusion, with girls’ needs prioritized at every stage of programming. Governments should also ensure that refugee and internally displaced children aren’t overlooked, and make concrete commitments towards inclusive quality education for displaced children and youth at the Global Refugee Forum in December of this year.

Right now, 222 million crisis-affected children and adolescents are in need of urgent education support and more than half of those are girls. It is critical that Education Cannot Wait is fully funded with a minimum of US$1.5 billion in additional resources over the next four years, so that partners such as Plan International and others can deliver the critical programmes needed.

Too often, girls’ voices are silenced during emergencies, leaving their experiences invisible and their needs ignored and overlooked. It’s up to us to change this, for a more just, equal and peaceful world.

About the AuthorsYasmine Sherif is the Director of Education Cannot Wait, the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises.

Stephen Omollo is Chief Executive Officer of Plan International, a child rights and humanitarian organisation active in more than 80 countries globally.

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Delivering On Our Promise of Universal Education — Global Issues

  • Opinion  new york
  • Inter Press Service

NEW YORK, Jan 24 (IPS) – Our investment in education – especially for children caught in crisis and conflict – is our investment in a better future.

The following statement is Co-Signed by: Federal Councillor of the Swiss Confederation, Ignazio Cassis; Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany, Svenja Schulze; Minister of Education, Niger, Ibrahim Natatou; Minister of International Development, Norway, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim; Minister of General Education and Instruction, South Sudan, Awut Deng Acuil; Minister of Education, Colombia, Alejandro Gaviria; Former UK Prime Minister, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of ECW’s High-Level Steering Group The Rt. Hon. Gordon BrownAs we mark the International Day of Education, world leaders must make good on their promise of providing quality education for all by 2030.

Education is our investment in peace where there is war, our investment in equality where there is injustice, our investment in prosperity where there is poverty.

Make no mistake about it, there is a global education crisis that threatens to unravel decades of development gains, spur new conflicts, and upend economic and social progress across the globe.

As UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted at last year’s Transforming Education Summit: “If we are to transform our world by 2030 as envisaged by the Sustainable Development Goals, then the international community must give this (education) crisis the attention it deserves.”

When Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, was founded in 2016, we estimated that 75 million crisis-impacted children required education support. Today, that number has tripled to 222 million.

Of the 222 million children whose right to an education has been ripped from their hands by the multiplying impacts of conflict, climate change and other protracted crises, an estimated 78 million are out of school all together – more than the total populations of France, Italy or the United Kingdom.

Even when they are in school, many are not achieving minimum proficiencies in reading or math. Think about this terrifying statistic: 671 million children and adolescents worldwide cannot read. That’s more than 8% of the world’s total population. That’s an entire generation at risk of being lost

As we have seen from the war in Ukraine, the challenges of the Venezuelan migration to Colombia and South America, the unforgiveable denial of education for girls in Afghanistan, and a devastating climate change-driven drought in the Horn of Africa that has created a severe hunger crisis for 22 million people, we are living in an interconnected world. The problems of Africa, the Middle East, South America, and beyond are the problems of the world that we share together.

Every minute of every day, children are fleeing violence and persecution in places like Myanmar, the Sahel, South America and the Middle East. Every minute of every day, boys are being recruited as child soldiers in Somalia, the Central African Republic and beyond. Every minute of every day, the climate crisis brings us closer to the end of times, and children go hungry because they are denied their right to go to school, where they might just have their only meal of the day. And amid conflict, migration and climate change, governments like Colombia are struggling to secure the most basic living and education conditions for children in hard-to-reach borders.

It’s an assault on our humanity, a moral affront to the binding promises outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and a giant step backwards in our persistent efforts – against all odds – to find peace in our times.

There is hope. By embracing a new way of working and delivering with humanitarian speed and development depth, ECW and its strategic partners have reached 7 million children in just five years, with plans to reach 20 million more of the next four years.

Imagine what an education can mean for a child of war? In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 13-year-old Nyota lost her father and brothers in a brutal attack on her village. Her family’s home was burnt to the ground.

In a country where 3.2 million children are out of school, Nyota’s future was bleak. Would she be a child bride, the victim of sexual violence, another tragic statistic in a forgotten crisis?

No. She did not give up. With the support of an innovative programme funded by ECW, Nyota is back in school. “When I have completed my studies, I dream of becoming the President of my country to end the war here. That will allow children to study in peace and not endure the same horrible things that I have.”

Nyota is not alone: we have received inspiring letters from girls and boys in over 20 crisis-affected countries across the world that underscore the amazing value of education in transforming lives and creating a better future for generations to come.

On February 16, world leaders are gathering for the Education Cannot Wait High-Level Financing Conference in Geneva. Hosted by ECW and Switzerland – and co-convened by Colombia, Germany, Niger, Norway and South Sudan – the conference provides world leaders, businesses, foundations and high-net-worth individuals with the opportunity to deliver on our promise of education for all. The aim is to raise US$1.5 billion for the next four years.

As the co-conveners of this seminal event, we are calling on the people of the world to invest in the promise of an education. It’s the best investment we could make in delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Nyota and millions like her are not giving up on their dream, and we shouldn’t give up on them. We have promises to keep.

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The Climate Conversations — Global Issues

The Gabura union, a small island adjacent to the Sundarbans forest, is expected to be submerged in seawater by 2050. Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan
  • by Mohammad Rakibul Hasan – and AI Artificial Intelligence (dhaka, bangladesh)
  • Inter Press Service

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Jan 18 (IPS) – Climate change is a global problem that requires a global solution. However, negotiating a solution has been challenging due to several factors. One of the main reasons that recent COP Climate summits and other international climate talks have not been able to resolve climate change is that there is a lack of consensus among countries on how to address the issue. Developed countries, which have historically been the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, are often unwilling to take on significant emissions reductions or to provide financial assistance to developing countries to help them adapt to the effects of climate change.

The Gabura union, a small island adjacent to the Sundarbans forest, is expected to be submerged in seawater by 2050. Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

Another significant barrier to progress on climate change is the need for more political will among leaders of countries. In some cases, leaders may not see climate change as a priority or may be reluctant to take on the economic and political costs of reducing emissions or investing in clean energy due to political reasons. Some countries may be influenced by powerful fossil fuel lobbies that push against climate action. Developed countries must be willing to take on more significant emissions reductions and provide financial assistance to developing countries to help them adapt to the effects of climate change. Developing countries, in turn, need to be willing to take on emissions reduction measures and invest in clean energy and other climate mitigation measures.This can happen through more effective multilateral negotiations such as United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where all countries agree to set emissions reduction targets and support developing countries.

Bangladesh is located in the low-lying delta region of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers, making the country particularly susceptible to flooding and rising sea levels. Bangladesh is also prone to cyclones and other extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change. The country has a long coastline, much of which is low-lying and vulnerable to flooding. As sea levels continue to rise, the risk of coastal flooding is increasing, devastatingly impacting the lives and livelihoods of the people in these areas. These events are causing widespread damage to homes and infrastructure and affecting the country’s agricultural sector, a significant source of income for many people in Bangladesh. Many people in the coastal areas have lost their homes and livelihoods due to sea level rise and coastal flooding. They face food and water insecurity due to increased soil and water salinity.

Globally, rich countries can assist Bangladesh cope with climate change in several ways. One crucial way is by providing financial assistance to help the country adapt to the impacts of climate change. This may include funding for building sea walls and other flood protection infrastructure and programs to help people in coastal areas relocate to higher ground. Another way rich countries can help is by providing technical assistance to Bangladesh to develop and implement clean energy and other climate mitigation measures. This could include funding and expertise to help the country develop renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power, as well as to improve energy efficiency and to reduce emissions from the industrial and transportation sectors.

The Sundarbans forests, located in the coastal belt of Bangladesh, is one of the most vulnerable areas in the country to the impacts of climate change. The forests span over 10,000 square kilometres and is home to various plant and animal species, including the Royal Bengal tiger. Sea level rise is one of the most significant threats to the Sundarbans forest making it particularly susceptible to flooding and rising sea levels. According to a study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, sea levels in the Bay of Bengal are projected to increase by up to 1 meter by the end of the century. This would devastate the Sundarban forests, as seawater would submerge large areas.

The impacts of climate change on the Sundarban forests are also likely to have knock-on effects on the people living in the surrounding areas. The forests are a significant source of livelihood for many people in the region, who rely on it for fishing, agriculture, and other activities. As the forests are damaged by sea level rise and extreme weather events, these people will also be affected by food and water insecurity and the loss of their homes and livelihoods. Many people who lost their homes and land to flooding, were forced to relocate to higher grounds.

The health impacts of climate change on people living around the Sundarban are also significant. As a result of sea level rise and increased flooding, many are at risk of waterborne diseases such as cholera and diarrhea. Extreme weather events are accelerating salinity across the coastal belt of Bangladesh. Women are experiencing uterus cancers, infertility, and skin diseases, and men, too, are experiencing fertility problems and other health issues. Due to the loss of livelihoods and displacement, many people face food insecurity and malnutrition. In addition to these immediate impacts, climate change exacerbates the region’s existing social and economic inequalities. People living in poverty and marginalized communities are disproportionately affected by climate change, as they have fewer resources to cope with the impacts and less access to services and support.

Climate change has led to a growing number of people migrating from these areas, searching for better opportunities and escaping the impacts of climate change. Most climate migrants from coastal belt areas of Bangladesh are moving to urban areas, such as the capital city of Dhaka and other major cities. These migrants often seek better job opportunities and access to services and support. However, many migrants face challenges in their new locations, such as a lack of affordable housing, discrimination, and limited access to services and support. The future is uncertain for those still living in coastal areas of Bangladesh and fighting the climate crisis. Many of the people living in these areas are among the country’s most vulnerable and marginalized communities, making them particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change. Climate conversations worldwide by world leaders and major organizations have been occurring every year. But they must see the severity of the situation for the people suffering and take concrete actions beyond being in a room to converse about the effects of climate change.

Climate conversations by world leaders are occurring worldwide but how much is changing ? Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan
Many indigenous communities across the Sundarbans forest have been experiencing extreme weather conditions. Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan
Fishing communities face extreme poverty due to the lack of fish available in the rivers. Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan
Women around coastline areas of Bangladesh face increased salinity, a major cause of uterus cancer. Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan
Due to climate change, extreme heat and salinity are declining birth rates across the coastal belt in Bangladesh. Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan
Climate change is accelerating the displacement of inhabitants across the coastal belt of Bangladesh. Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan
Four families are sitting with what remains in their food storage. Due to high salinity, agricultural products cannot grow well anymore. Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

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War, Famine, Disease, Disasters 2022 a Year Staring at Apocalypse — Global Issues

  • Opinion by Farhana Haque Rahman (toronto, canada)
  • Inter Press Service

TORONTO, Canada, Dec 23 (IPS) – A year that started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and is ending with famine in Africa, while still spreading death and misery through an enduring pandemic and a deteriorating climate crisis — 2022 has been an apocalyptic warning of the frailty of our planet and the woeful shortcomings of humankind.

Farhana Haque RahmanBeyond the stark statistics of millions of people displaced by war and natural disasters, it has been a 12 months that tragically highlighted our global interconnections and how a confluence of events and trends can bring another year of record levels of hunger.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians (numbers given by the UN and involved parties vary enormously) have been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched war on February 24. More than 7.8 million Ukrainians have fled the country. Billions of dollars have been spent on armaments.

But the impact of the war has been felt worldwide, driving up prices of basic commodities such as oil, gas, grain, sunflower oil and fertilisers. Somalia, now in the grip of the worst drought to hit the Horn of Africa in 40 years, used to import 90 per cent of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine.

Commodities have been weaponised. Countries slipped back into recession, just as they were slowly recovering from the economic distress of Covid-19 lockdowns. A deepening relationship between sanctioned Russia and an energy- hungry China exacerbated existing tensions with the US over Taiwan. The result? China broke off climate cooperation efforts with the US in the run-up to the COP27 climate conference hosted by Egypt in November with 200 countries and 35,000 people attending.

Against the backdrop of devastating floods in Pakistan and West Africa, and with 2022 on its way to becoming one of the five hottest years on record, agriculture and food security joined the COP27 agenda. Talks ran into extra time, as they tend to, and countries of the global South emerged with the landmark creation of a special fund paid by wealthier countries to address the Loss and Damage caused by climate change in the most vulnerable nations.

“After 30 contentious years, delayed tactics by wealthy countries, a renewed spirit of solidarity, empathy and cooperation prevailed, resulting in the historic establishment of a dedicated fund,” said Yamide Dagnet, director for climate justice at the Open Society Foundations, reflecting a sense of hard fought victory among developing countries.

Still unresolved however is which countries will give money and to whom. China in particular seems uneasy over which category it belongs to. However COP27 joined its 26 forerunners since 1995 in not reaching a binding agreement on cutting fossil fuel burning which has continued to rise globally, except for a brief pandemic dip. For this, many branded it a failure. “Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish. It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact – or a Collective Suicide Pact,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the opening plenary session. By the end, many felt the conference had concluded with the latter. Rather than falling, the latest estimates from the Global Carbon Project show that total worldwide CO2 emissions in 2022 have reached near-record levels.

Victims of devastating floods, heatwaves and forest fires, and severe drought in Central Sahel and East Africa surely needed no confirmation from the final decision text of COP27 which recognises “the fundamental priority of safeguarding food security and ending hunger” and the vulnerability of food production to climate change.

In this respect, COP27 recognised the importance of nature-based solutions – a theme driven by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in ringing alarm bells on the degraded soil, water sources and eco-systems caused by intensive agriculture with overuse of fertilisers and pesticides. According to FAO, more than 25 percent of arable soils worldwide are degraded, and the equivalent of a football pitch of soil is eroded every five seconds. The planet’s bio-diversity is being devastated as a result. As highlighted by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in stressing the vital connections between Nature and people, a landmark report in July found that 50,000 wild species provide food, osmetics, shelter, clothing, medicine and inspiration. Many face extinction. As international agencies and NGOs (and media outlets) jostled and competed for funding to deal with the fallout from wars and climate emergencies, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) which is active in the Sahel cautioned that only 1.7 per cent of all climate finance reaches small-scale producers in developing countries and as little as 8% of overseas aid goes to projects focused primarily on gender equality. Women’s empowerment has been made a major focus of ASAP+, IFAD’s new climate change financing mechanism.

Women and girls are paying “an unacceptably high price” among communities hit by severe drought in the Horn of Africa, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). It launched a $113.7 million appeal to scale-up life-saving reproductive health and protection services, including establishment of mobile and static clinics in displacement sites.

Also overshadowed by wars and pandemics in 2022 were marginalised communities lacking a voice, suffering diseases such as leprosy or exploited in the form of child labour.

Yohei Sasakawa, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, says many issues have been sidelined because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Society has the knowledge and means to stop and cure leprosy, he says in the ‘Don’t Forget Leprosy’ campaign by the Sasakawa Leprosy Initiative.

“When people are still being discriminated against even after being cured, society has a disease. If we can cure society of this disease—discrimination—it would be truly epoch-making,” he told IPS.

A similar message was delivered by Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi who told the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour that a mere $53 billion per annum – equivalent to 10 days of military spending – would ensure all children in all countries benefit from social protection. International Labour Organisation and UNICEF statistics from 2020 show at least 160 million children are involved in child labour, a surge of 8.4 million in four years. Children denied education became a burning issue in Afghanistan in March when the Taliban declared that girls would be banned from secondary education. The UN said 1.1 million girls were affected. The late-night reversal of a decision by Taliban authorities to allow girls from grades 7 to 12 to return to school was met with outrage and distress, inside and outside Afghanistan. Denial of human rights to girls and women has fuelled the desire of many to get out of Afghanistan and seek a better life elsewhere, adding to the millions around the world forced to flee their homes because of conflict, repression or disaster. The Ukraine conflict has displaced more than 14 million people, about a third of the population.

A UN Office on Drugs and Crime report on trafficking warns that refugees from Ukraine are at risk of including sexual exploitation, forced labour, illegal adoption and surrogacy, forced begging and forced criminality.

As they come over border crossings into Poland, refugees – including victims of rape – are greeted with posters and flyers carrying warnings about jail terms for breaking local abortion laws, images of miscarried foetuses, and a quote from Mother Theresa saying: “Abortion is the greatest threat to peace”.

UNDP, which is assisting the Ukraine government in getting access to public services for IDPs, says in its 2022 report, Turning the tide on internal displacement, that earlier and increased support to development is an essential condition for emerging from crisis in a sustainable way.

“More efforts are needed to end the marginalization of internally displaced people, who must be able to exercise their full rights as citizens including through access to vital services such as health care, education, social protection and job opportunities” said Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator.

Nearly one million Rohingya refugees languishing in refugee camps in Bangladesh after being driven out of Myanmar in waves since 2016 would surely agree.

Asif Saleh, executive director of BRAC, said to be the world’s largest NGO and founded by Sir Fazle after the independence of Bangladesh in 1972, says work needs to “shift towards a development-like approach from a very short-term umanitarian crisis-focused approach”. But the only solution for the Rohingya refugees is their sustainable and voluntary repatriation to Myanmar. As 2022 closes, that unfortunately looks highly unlikely as the military junta that seized power in 2021 fights ethnic armed organisations on multiple fronts.

There was one seismic milestone event that happened in late 2022 although no one is quite sure exactly where and when. The few people to witness it were not aware either – not that it prevented the UN from declaring it a special day. The birth of the 8 billionth person was celebrated on November 15. The world’s population has doubled from 4 billion in 1974 and UN projections suggest we will be supporting about 9.7 billion people in 2050. Global population is forecast to peak at about 10.4 billion in the 2080s.

Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN environment programme, sent a message to the baby, and the rest of the world, as countries meet in Montreal for the COP15 biodiversity conference this month.

“We’ve just welcomed the 8 billionth member of the human race on this planet. That’s a wonderful birth of a baby, of course. But we need to understand that the more people there are, the more we put the Earth under heavy pressure,” she said.

Farhana Haque Rahman is Senior Vice President of IPS Inter Press Service and Executive Director IPS Noram; she served as the elected Director General of IPS from 2015-2019. A journalist and communications expert, she is a former senior official of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

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A Journey from Afghanistan to Europe — Global Issues

Some Afghan women put their lives at risk by migrating to Europe. Along the way, and even at the destinations, they face sexual violence at the hands of traffickers, but they often take the risk so that they can live free from the constraints of the Taliban. This photo shows a woman from the Hazara minority in Bamiyan. She used to be a singer and appeared on local TV but is now forced to stay at home. Credit: Sara Perria/IPS
  • by Sara Perria (kabul & athens)
  • Inter Press Service

KABUL & ATHENS, Dec 22 (IPS) – Maliha looks confident in a café in Athens as she tells the story of her journey from Afghanistan to Europe. But as she starts recounting how a smuggler assaulted her in Turkey two years ago, she pauses, looking the other way and fiddling with her loose hair.

It makes her anxious when she remembers it. She was traveling alone and soon realized she was the only woman on board a bus to the border with Greece.

“[The smuggler] told me to get off. He wanted me to himself.” With unusual strength, the young woman managed to escape as the man was trying to rape her. Still shaken, she tried to report the crime to the local police, but she felt they were more concerned about her status as an illegal migrant than the attempted rape. “Luckily, I had a contact on Facebook a cousin who I knew lived in Turkey but whom I never met.” He happened to live near that police station, and he convinced the officials to let her go.

Afghan refugees picnic in a park in Athens. Their journeys to Europe are often dangerous. Credit: Sara Perria/IPS

Now Maliha lives in Athens as a “free woman” – a fact that she remarks upon while wearing leggings and no head covering.

The violence experienced by Mahila is not an isolated case. An investigation into the journey of Afghan women from their home country to Europe carried out in Afghanistan, Turkey and Greece has revealed a pattern of systematic violence throughout, their vulnerability heightened by lack of documents and money. Women, some traveling alone or only with their children, pay to get to Europe only to become victims of trafficking and sex slaves.

According to 31-year-old Aila, an Afghan refugee and former Médecins sans Frontières worker in refugee camps in Athens, “some 90% of women suffer a form of violence during the journey.”

“When your life is in the hands of smugglers,” continues Aila, “it’s not up to you to decide whom to stay with, what to do, where to go: it’s the smuggler who decides. Even if you are with your family or the members of your family, he can still threaten you with a weapon, and if he wants to separate you from them, he’ll do it”.

Afghans are now the second largest group of asylum seekers in the EU after Ukrainians, but the flow of asylum seekers started well before the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021. According to the International Organization for Migration, nearly 77,000 women and girls were registered at arrival by sea and by land in Europe between 2018 and 2020, making up 20 percent of total arrivals. Women make up an increasing percentage of asylum requests globally, all facing gender-based risks.

The reasons behind Afghans’ search for a safe place run deep in a country torn by decades of war. Social and financial restrictions within a deeply patriarchal society and the hope for a better life abroad had already pushed many to leave the country even before the arrival of the Taliban.

However, the challenges of the journey can be harrowing. “I remember traveling with a 10-year-old and her grandmother,” Aila recalls. “During the journey, her grandmother died, and she was handed over to the trafficker,” says Aila, describing one of the most traumatic episodes she witnessed.

“Was she raped? Of course. For them, she was a woman”.

Women escaping from the increasingly restrictive Taliban regime in Afghanistan find their journeys to freedom are fraught with dangers. This week the Taliban banned women from universities. They are increasingly forced to remain at home. Credit: Credit: Sara Perria/IPS

The risks are so stacked against women that word of mouth has led to the development of ‘survival’ techniques, such as dressing up as a man. Aila says she put on a similar short jacket, jeans, and sneakers to that of other boys. “I kept my hair hidden under my cap. And when the trafficker gave me his hand to get on the boat, he said, “Hey, boy.” I didn’t answer. “Never talk to traffickers,” is the second ‘tip’ dispensed by Aila.

Acceptance rates of Afghan asylum seekers are now high, especially in countries such as Spain and Italy, with 100% and 95% in 2021, respectively, and 80% in Greece, the first EU frontier for the many who come after spending months or years in Turkey or Iran.

Yet getting adequate assistance after suffering abuse, rape and forced prostitution is a different story. The violence suffered often doesn’t get denounced by the police due to cultural or linguistic barriers and the stigma surrounding rape or forced prostitution. Lack of adequate protection in Europe is also a reason, so NGOs set up by fellow Afghans try to step in.

Months of interviews with Afghan asylum seekers in Afghanistan, Turkey, and Europe expose the extent of the danger for women who embark on a journey organized by smugglers. Direct witnesses’ accounts and NGO transcripts, seen exclusively by this reporter, reveal a pattern of how women – and in particular Afghans belonging to ethnic minorities – fall into a ‘trap’ of violence.

Freshta spent years between Iran and Turkey with a sick brother before eventually succeeding in reaching a refugee camp in Greece and then a place in Athens hosted by a friend. However, her attempts to find a job and become independent soon turned into a prolonged series of tortured experiences. The possibility of asking for help was radically reduced by her illegal status and lack of documents.

“One day, I was in a café with my friend, and she introduced me to this man. We only knew that he was a trafficker of Iraqi nationality.” He, himself a refugee, knew very well how vulnerable women like Freshta are. “He started following me and kept saying that I should go with him.” Her constant rejections didn’t work. On the contrary, he threatened to kill her brother, who was still in the refugee camp – a sign of the long reach of influence traffickers can call upon.

One day, despite attempts to protect herself, hiding for days at a friend’s house, the man managed to kidnap her and take her to her apartment. He then hit her on the head, threatening her with a knife pointed at her stomach and forcing her to get into his car. At that moment, Freshta became a slave, first suffering violent rape, with beatings that made her pass out because she also suffered from asthma.

“When I woke up, he wasn’t there. I was full of pain and didn’t know what to do; I was in shock. I went to the bathroom, got washed, dressed, and cried.”

Upon his return, the trafficker told her that she now belonged to him. If she went out and told anyone what had happened, then he would kill her.

Freshta managed to hide at her friend’s again, but again the man managed to take her by force, beating her and locking her up at home for weeks, repeatedly raping her. Freshta got pregnant. “He told me I couldn’t do anything because he had become a Greek citizen, and I was nothing; I didn’t have any document.”

It took many weeks and the help of an association to allow her to report the incident. She had an abortion. The woman has since been moved by the Greek government to a secure facility in an undisclosed location.

To add to Freshta’s tragic testimony is the fact that, as the operator of an NGO in Athens explains, “There are many cases of sexual slavery like this, which are not reported by the victims because they are afraid of being stigmatized and of their lack of documents.” The perpetrators of the violence can be fellow nationals, generally belonging to a different ethnic group and, to a lesser extent, other nationalities.

The lack of support is accentuated by a form of class distinction within the refugee community and by the way resources are thus distributed, according to some of the Afghan women interviewed in Athens. “The refugees who arrived in Europe through the evacuation program consider themselves ‘different’ from those who arrived here on foot, with the traffickers. And they are also treated differently by the authorities,” says Aila.

While for men, the lack of documents, money, and a family network leads more easily to labor exploitation, women can often fall victim to sexual exploitation. Some women are “passed from trafficker to trafficker,” says Aila, while the local association also reports cases of forced prostitution just outside the camps. But even in the aftermath of a violent attack, NGOs are worried about the short time women are allowed to spend in safe structures, as well as the limited space available there. Resources do not meet the seriousness and extent of the problem.

“When they asked me if I wanted to report the man , I said yes, but only if I had a safe place to stay first,” says Freshta. “I was so desperate that I left behind everything I had.”

This project on trafficking has been developed with the financial support of Journalismfund.eu

https://www.journalismfund.eu/

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Migrants? Dont You Dare Come Here, Unless — Global Issues

“There is no migration crisis; there is a crisis of solidarity” says UN Secretary-General, António Guterres. Credit: Credit: UNOHCR
  • by Baher Kamal (madrid)
  • Inter Press Service

MADRID, Dec 19 (IPS) – When tens of thousands of Europeans had to flee the horrors of two born-in-Europe devastating armed conflicts that attracted other powers: the World Wars I and II, they migrated to the Americas and other Western countries in search of safe haven.

Upon their arrival at their destination, they were checked at the border and admitted to enter as useful workforce.

Seldom, if ever, anybody classified them as “illegal” migrants. Those human beings were fleeing the horrors of those wars.

Now that millions of people are forced to flee the horrors not only of wars but also of additional waves of devastation, from a climate emergency they did not create to a train of world’s financial crisis originated in and by the world’s most industrialised -and richest- powers, these migrants are classified as “illegal.”

There have been different approaches to get around what the right to far-right political parties in Europe, the United States, Australia, among several others, call “invasion,” a “threat to our civilisation,” “our democracy,” and “our religion,” let alone that they represent a “high risk of terrorism.”

Here, there is an open message from the rich West to these poor migrants: ‘don’t you dare come here, unless….’

  • Unless you bring money: in the aftermath of the 2008 world financial crisis, several industrialised countries followed the example of the by then United Kingdom’s government, i.e., migrants were admitted provided they have money enough to buy a property and open a sound bank account;
  • Unless you are highly skilled: another criteria used to admit migrants depends on their professional, useful capacity;
  • And unless you are “like us”: such is the case of the tens of thousands of human beings attempting to escape the horrors of another, absolutely condemnable war, the European proxy war unfolding in Ukraine. Hungarian President, Viktor Orban, referred to Ukrainians as “they look like us… they are like us.”

If migrants do not enjoy these conditions, they are immediately called “illegal,” and thus non-admitted. And those who had already arrived are being sweept away from the US and Europe.

Why such a race to expel migrants?

The trend to expel migrants has steadily increased in this year 2022, coincidently –or not– proxy war in Ukraine started in February, pushing millions of Ukrainian citizens to flee the horrors of this condemnable armed conflict.

All Western countries, in particular Europe, have opened their doors to those millions of migrants and refugees, to whom all sorts of humanitarian assistance are rightly provided.

In contrast, millions of other human beings are fleeing horror, looking for ways to survive and a job that allows their families and themselves to stay alive.

Migrants workers “dehumanised”

“Migrant workers are often dehumanised”, said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Volker Türk, reminding that “they are human beings entitled to human rights and full protection of their human dignity”.

No one should have to surrender their human right to migrate in order to find a living wage, the UN human rights office, OHCHR said in a new report published on 16 December 2022, highlighting the importance of temporary migratory labour programmes.

The report, We wanted workers, but human beings came, published just two days ahead of the International Migrants Day, zeroes-in on schemes in operation across the Asia-Pacific region – the largest single migrant-producing region in the world.

The report points to just some of the abuse, discrimination, and inhuman treatment of migrants: as part of some seasonal schemes, migrants are expected to work on Saturdays and Sundays, leaving them no time to attend religious services.

Migrant domestic workers in other States have reported being told they would be fired, if they prayed or fasted while at work.

Some migrant construction workers report receiving sub-standard medical care in clinics provided by their employers.

Enforced disappearances

Migrants are particularly at risk during what are often arduous journeys just trying to reach their destination, warn UN-appointed independent?human rights experts.

The experts stressed that States must coordinate in “preventing the yearly disappearances of thousands of migrants en route.”

Citing International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates, they said that over 35,000 migrants have died or disappeared since 2014.

“However, there are no exact figures on the proportion of enforced disappearances in cases involving State agents or people acting with the authorisation, support or acquiescence of countries.”

But information indicates that most disappearances occur “during detention or deportation proceedings or because of migrant smuggling or trafficking,” said the UN-appointed human rights experts.

Blanket refusals, detention, expulsions

They blamed States’ rigid border management and migration policies for many disappearances, citing policies that include “blanket refusals of entry; criminalization of migration; and mandatory, automatic, or extensive use of immigration detention; and arbitrary expulsions.”

“These factors encourage migrants to take more dangerous routes, to put their lives in the hands of smugglers and to expose themselves to a higher risk of human rights violations and enforced disappearance”, the experts spelt out.

Misleading promises

Every year, millions leave their countries under temporary labour migration programmes that promise economic benefits for destination countries and development dividends to countries of origin.

The report details how in many cases temporary work schemes impose a range of “unacceptable human rights restrictions.”

It highlights how migrant workers are “often forced to live in overcrowded and unsanitary housing, unable to afford nutritious food, denied adequate healthcare, and face prolonged and sometimes mandatory separation from their families.”

Moreover, policies that exclude them from government support in some countries put migrants at a disproportionate risk of COVID-19 infection, the report says.

“They should not be expected to give up their rights in return for being able to migrate for work, however crucial it is for them and their families, and for the economies of their countries of origin and destination”, Türk underscored.

Are all the “other migrants” illegal?

One day a year –18 December–, the world is expected to observe the International Migrants Day.

On it, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, stated that today, over 80% of the world’s migrants cross borders in a safe and orderly fashion.

On this International Migrants Day, “we reflect on the lives of the over 280 million people who left their country in the universal pursuit of opportunity, dignity, freedom, and a better life,” he said.

“Today, over 80 per cent of the world’s migrants cross borders in a safe and orderly fashion.” This migration is a powerful driver of economic growth, dynamism, and understanding.

Over the past eight years, at least 51,000 migrants have died – and thousands more have disappeared. Behind each number is a human being – a sister, brother, daughter, son, mother, or father.

“Migrant rights are human rights” the United Nations chief reminded. “They must be respected without discrimination – and irrespective of whether their movement is forced, voluntary, or formally authorised.”

Is there a ‘migration crisis’?

Guterres also highlighted the urgent need to expand and diversify rights-based pathways for migration – to advance the Sustainable Development Goals and address labour market shortages.

“There is no migration crisis; there is a crisis of solidarity.” Today and every day, let us safeguard our common humanity and secure the rights and dignity of all.”

How many migrants?

In recent years, conflict, insecurity, and the effects of climate change, war and conflict have heavily contributed to the forced movement whether within countries or across borders.

In 2020 over 281 million people were international migrants while over 59 million people were internally displaced by the end of 2021.

The UN underlines that regardless of the reasons that compel people to move, migrants and displaced people represent some of the most vulnerable and marginalised groups in society…,

… and they are often exposed to abuse and exploitation, have limited access to essential services including healthcare, and are faced with xenophobic attacks and stigma fueled by misinformation.

On the other hand, many migrant workers are often in temporary, informal, or unprotected jobs, which exposes them to a greater risk of insecurity, layoffs, and poor working conditions.

“Due to persistent lack of safe and regular migration pathways, millions continue to take perilous journeys each year. Since 2014 more than 50,000 migrants have lost their lives on migratory routes across the world.”

Despite all the above, and of all World and International conventions, declarations, and commitments which have been adopted by all States, reality shows that some migrants are more equal –and human– than others.

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The case of Congo and Ukraine — Global Issues

  • Opinion by Jan Lundius (stockholm, sweden)
  • Inter Press Service

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Dec 15 (IPS) – During November, soldiers of the March 23 Movement (M23) have been approaching Goma in the eastern territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), close to the Rwandan border. About 180.000 people are now leaving Goma, a city with a million inhabitants. Many stakeholders are involved in the conflict and there is an apparent danger that the overall carnage that affected the Congolese eastern border areas fifteen years ago will resume. At the same time, war is ranging in Ukraine, which name likely comes from the old Slavic term for borderland.

Disputed border areas have often been hotbeds for horrific and widespread wars. World War I began with border conflicts between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia, while World War II was ignited through German allegations of Czech and Polish mistreatment of Germans living on their side of the border. Tensions are constantly brewing along borders between India and Pakistan, Israel and Palestine, Ethiopia and Sudan, Armenia and Azerbaijan – just to mention a few border conflicts present all over the world.

Throughout history, borderlands have suffered from looting, massacres and ethnic violence, generally triggered off by incursions from neighbouring countries, causing chaos and destruction. Borderlands are generally speaking a result of clearly defined borders between European nations, established after the Westphalian Peace Agreements in 1648, ending the Thirty Years’ War, a conflagration between religious factions that devastated Germany, killing 30 per cent of its population.

Before mid-17th century, European borders were quite diffuse. A royal realm had its heartland, a centre from which it could expand through wars, treaties and negotiations. In medieval Europe the more or less undefined areas between different sovereignties were called marks, or marches, words deriving from an Indo-European term meaning edge. A mark/march often served as a buffer zone, more or less independently governed by a marquis/margrave.

As a result of the Westphalian Peace, national borders became demarcated by border markings and lines drawn upon maps. Such boundaries were eventually introduced to the rest of the world. In Africa, border demarcations became common after the Berlin Conference, 1884-1885, when leaders of fourteen European nations and the United States agreed upon a “partitioning” of Africa, establishing rules for amicably dividing resources among Western nations. Notably missing was any representative from Africa.

One of the proclaimed aims of the Berlin Conference was to bring “civilization” to Africa, in the form of free trade and Christianity. Accordingly could King Leopold II of Belgium, by playing the part of a beneficent monarch, succeed in convincing his counterparts that he would personally bring order, faith and prosperity to the heart of Africa. Congo was thus formally recognized as Leopold’s personal possession. An extraordinarily rich territory, with ivory, minerals, palm oil, timber and rubber, was used by Leopold to increase his personal wealth. Missionary stations and trade routes were established, while slave labour extracted the natural resources. If production targets were not met, the autochthonous population risked severe punishment, ranging from having their families held hostage in concentration camps, to torture, the severing of a hand, and eventual execution.

Between 1900 and 1930, European colonial powers completed cartographic surveys of African territories. However, surveys focused solely on land control while disregarding the impact recently established borders might have on the well-being of the original population. Local communities suffered limitations to their daily activities and nomadic practices. Traditional life, administrative structures, and economic safety were negatively affected. Furthermore, colonial rule tended to instigate conflicts. Imposed borders gradually set off hostile relations among borderland dwellers and eventually enabled post-independent governments and political elites to use such divisions for political means.

The sheer size of the territory, which eventually became the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), made its governance extremely challenging. This vast nation is about the same size as Western Europe and has 10,500 kilometres of external borders. In the middle of the country is an almost impenetrable and vast jungle area. Border control is largely non-existent, providing neighbouring countries with an opportunity to exert influence into remote peripheries. For many Congolese, it is easier to reach the capital of a neighbouring state than travelling to the capital city, Kinshasa.

As in other areas of the world, people on both sides of Congolese borders exchange goods, spouses, languages and customs. Nevertheless, in spite of all this mixture and exchange, most people living along borders generally continue to be aware of their roots in different cultural settings. Even if they might share a lingua franca, several of them tend to maintain their original language and specific customs. Border communities thus find themselves in a precarious balance, which might be upheld for centuries but also runs the risk of becoming swiftly overturned by armed attacks from national armies, warlords, or hordes of bandits and uprooted former soldiers, as well as massive influxes of refugees.

During the so called First– and Second Congo Wars, and their aftermath, approximately 5.4 million died between 1994 and 2008, deaths mainly caused by disease and malnutrition, though massacres committed by all the warring factions also killed staggering numbers of civilians. Nine African nations and around twenty-five armed groups were involved in the wars. The mayhem began in April 1994, when about 1.5 million Rwandans settled in eastern DRC. These refugees included Tutsis fleeing Hutu mass murderers, and eventually one million Hutus fleeing the Rwandan Patriotic Front’s (RPF) subsequent retaliations.

The shooting down of a plane carrying Rwandan President Juevénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, served as catalyst for a genocide lasting for approximately 100 days. Between 500,000 and 1 million Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were in Rwanda killed during well-planned attacks, ordered by an interim government. This genocide ended when the Tutsi commanded Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) gained control and took over the Rwandan Government, making approximately two million Hutus fleeing across the border into neighbouring Zaire. Estimates of the number of Hutu civilians killed in subsequent revenge massacres by the RPF range from 25,000 to 100,000.

Rwandan incursions into Zaire occurred after years of Congolese internal strife, dictatorship and economic decline. Zaire, as the country was called at the time, was in 1994 a dying State. In many areas, increasingly corrupt state authorities had in all but name collapsed, with infighting militias, warlords, and rebel groups wielding local power.

International response to the Rwandan genocide had been lame and limited, though this time international opinion reacted immediately. Massive relief support was directed to refugees in eastern Zaire. In the meantime, several, heavily armed Rwandan g?nocidaires, genocide perpetrators, organized themselves among Hutu refugees. In their attacks on Banyamulenge, a Tutsi minority who for centuries had been living in Congo, the g?nocidaires were often joined by local militia. Banyamulenge were resented by several Congolese agriculturists, who suspected them of planning to take over their land.

Currently it is the rebel group M23, which is the main aggressor. The rebel group was in 2012, according the UN, created and commanded by the Rwandan army. The Rwandan Government did in 2013 officially cease its support to M23; its members surrendered and were transferred to a refugee camp in Uganda. However, M23 reappeared in 2017, evidently with renewed Rwandan support. The Congolese mayhem is just one example of what might happen in border areas when control and peaceful interaction between neighbours collapse under the pressure of foreign interventions and enter a bloody, anarchic chaos.

Like in central Africa, Ukraine border conflicts have at several occasions triggered massacres and bloody chaos. For more than 500 years, Ukraine was divided and ruled by a variety of external powers, including the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Cossack Hetmanate, Poland, the Tsardom of Russia, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany

From the beginning of the last century to 1921, millions fled Ukraine, including more than 2 million Jews. Ukrainians were killed en masse by Austrians, Poles and warring political factions, while approximately 110,000 Jews were murdered during so called pogroms. Worse was yet to come when Nazi invaders within the same areas murdered approximately 1.7 million Jews. In Nazi-occupied Ukraine, 5.7 million locals died between 1941 and 1945. And now, during Russia’s aggressive invasion, the suffering and slaughter of innocents have been resumed.

The curse of borders, between nations and people, continues to haunt us. To safeguard the future – for our earth and children – we have to learn that general well-being depends on collaboration between nations and peoples, regardless of ethnicity, gender, and ideologies. Wars, like Russia’s ruthless attack on a sovereign nation and the central African mayhem, are crimes against humanity and must be stopped through peaceful solutions. Time is running out and cannot be wasted on armed conquests and bloodshed.

Sources: Stearns, Jason K. (2011) Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa. New York: PublicAffair and Veidlinger, Jeffrey (2021) In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust. London: Picador.

IPS UN Bureau


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The Humanitarian Rescue Fleet Faces Hurricane Meloni — Global Issues

Migrants somewhere in the central Mediterranean are contacted by the Open Arms crew. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza / IPS
  • by Karlos Zurutuza (barcelona)
  • Inter Press Service

BARCELONA, Dec 13 (IPS) – It was a hellish journey aboard a crammed boat amid three-meter waves. It had started on a Libyan beach, and at the gates of winter. On December 11, the last 500 migrants rescued from the waters of the Mediterranean disembarked exhausted but relieved in the south of Italy. They had all been rescued by vessels run by NGOs Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and SOS Humanity.

The response to the humanitarian emergency in the Central Mediterranean is one of the challenges for the new Italian far-right government led by Giorgia Meloni, its prime minister.

As it happens, a serious diplomatic crisis broke out last November between Rome and Paris after Italy prevented the landing of the SOS Humanity’s ship, the Ocean Viking and diverted it to the port of Toulon, in the south of France.

About the same time, the Geo Barents (run by MSF) refused to comply with a partial disembarkation order from Rome, which would have allowed only some of the 572 rescued to leave the ship. MSF ended up winning the fight and all those rescued finally got to set foot in Catania (Sicily).

“The selective disembarkation does not have any regulatory framework. It is nothing more than a new attempt to block the NGOs,” Juan Matías Gil, head of the MSF Search and Rescue mission in Italy, told IPS over the phone.

However, all those rescued on the 11th landed without facing any further administrative obstacles. Gil cited the recent crisis with France as a possible motivation for the Meloni government finally allowing the ship to dock and let the rescued people disembark.

Lunchtime aboard the crowded deck of the Open Arms. Delays in granting a safe harbour only contribute to the exhaustion of those rescued. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza / IPS

The Italian Ministry of the Interior claimed it was the weather, “the imminence of a storm and the need not to saturate the reception centres.” There has been no change whatsoever in Rome’s policies, Italian officials stressed.

Successive Italian governments have been the Mediterranean rescued fleet’s fiercest adversary since 2017, two years after it went to sea.

Closed ports, requisitioned ships, judicial processes: Rome has resorted to every tool at its disposal to block a fleet that today has nine ships operated by different NGOs.

“Under the previous government of Mario Draghi, we already had a glimpse to those policies that Meloni subscribes to today, but there was hardly any talk about it,” recalls Gil, an Argentine today based in Rome. “Back then, we could easily spend up to ten or twelve days waiting until we were granted a safe port.”

Migrants in Zuwara (Libya), shortly before jumping into a boat and trying to reach Europe. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza / IPS

According to UNHCR data updated on December 4, more than 94,000 people arrived in Italy by the sea in 2022. Most departed from Libya, almost always aboard fragile rafts and skiffs run by human traffickers.

Although international law requires the granting of a safe port as soon as possible to any ship with vulnerable people on board, the rescue fleet faces waits that can exceed two weeks.

Gil sees it as yet one more ingredient in a campaign against the rescue fleet.

“On the one hand, there is the use of resources which lack a legal basis, such as selective landing. Making us go to France or Spain means tripling the distances and drastically reducing the time we spend in the rescue zone”, says Gil.

Migrants somewhere in the central Mediterranean are contacted by the Open Arms crew. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza / IPS

He also points to the “criminalization” of NGOs by the Italian government. They are often accused of collusion with the trafficking mafias, and even of posing a “pull factor”. However, Gil stresses that the fleet as a whole is only responsible for 14% of the landings in Italy, according to data from the Italian Institute for International Political Studies.

“What stings in Rome is that we make the problem visible, that’s all,” said Gil.

“A cheating game”

That the vast majority of the rescued arrive from Libya results from instability caused by the absence of a stable government since the 2011 war. Rival factions in the east and west are still fighting for control of the country.

To contain the migratory flow, Europe began training and equipping a Libyan coast guard fleet in 2016. But the force is widely accused of using violence against migrants and being infiltrated by trafficking mafias.

Iñigo Mijangos poses next to the Aita Mari, an old Basque fishing boat converted into a rescue boat. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza / IPS

NGOs say that many of those migrants returned to land end up being victims of human rights abuses in the same Libyan detention centres managed by the two Libyan governments.

According to International Organization for Migration data, more than 25,000 people have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean since 2014. As the southern border of the European Union turns into a mass grave, the humanitarian rescue fleet faces all kinds of obstacles to avoid more drownings.

Draconian inspections by the Italian Coast Guard can block ships in port for months. With an old Basque fishing boat converted into a rescue ship, Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario (SMH), a Spanish NGO, knows this first-hand.

SMH coordinator Iñigo Mijangos spoke to IPS from Vinarós in eastern Spain, where the rescue ship is currently docked.

“Just missing a fire extinguisher can have an impact on the qualification of the entire Spanish merchant fleet that makes international voyages,” explained the 51-year-old Basque. They undergo inspections by the General Directorate of the Spanish Merchant Marine before leaving port, to prevent problems with Italian officials.

The remains of a shipwreck on a beach in western Libya. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza / IPS

“As the total calculation is done on a triennial basis, we have postponed our next mission until next January, just after the start of the new year,” Mijangos clarified.

Italian politicians have on occasion faced consequences for overreach against the fleet. Matteo Salvini, who served as Italy’s Interior Minister between June 2018 and September 2019, currently faces a judicial inquiry into his efforts to block a hundred migrants rescued by Open Arms, a Spanish NGO, from disembarking in Italy. They were forced to stay aboard for 19 days, in apparent violation of Italian and international sea laws.

Salvini faces 15 years in prison in a process that started in November 2021 but which defence lawyers have so far managed to stonewall. Matteo Piantedosi, formerly Salvini’s right hand, now has his old job, as minister of Interior in the Meloni government.

From the port of Barcelona, David Lladó, head of the Search and Rescue mission with Open Arms, spoke to IPS while his crew struggle to set sail for the central Mediterranean on December 24.

“We are counting on the delays in granting us a port, so this time we are carrying food for 30 days and 300 people. We don’t know how long they will have us waiting,” said the 38-year-old sailor.

Delays can get even longer when rescue operations are carried out in Maltese territorial waters, which are near Libya. Lladó recalls that the government in Valletta rarely allows rescue ships to disembark— the last time was in July 2020. But international sea rescue protocols dictate that they first try the island, before contacting Rome.

“It’s like a cheating game in which those in charge change the rules as the game progresses,” claims Lladó. “At sea, on land, in court… You never know what will come next, but you can’t just wait in port.”

© Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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