Tag: politics of immigration

Southeast Asia

UN official: ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Rohingya continues

UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour said that the "ethnic cleansing of Rohingya from Myanmar continues," after a four-day visit to Bangladesh. During his visit, he focused on the situation of thousands of refugees who have fled from Burma (Myanmar). Recently-arrived Rohingya gave credible accounts of continued violence against their people, including killings, rape, and forced starvation, Gilmour reported. Burma has been saying that it is ready to receive returning Rohingya refugees, but Gilmour maintains that safe returns are impossible under current conditions. (Photo: EU/ECHO via Flickr)

North America

Judge dismisses challenge to Trump’s border wall

US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego granted summary judgment for the Trump administration, allowing construction of a border wall between the US and Mexico to proceed. Plaintiffs, including several environmental groups and the state of California, were challenging waivers to public oversight issued by the Department of Homeland Security that designated San Diego and El Centro as "high areas of illegal entry" in need of replaced border fences. This new San Diego border fence would of course be but the first leg of Trump's proposed border wall.  (Photo: BBC World Service via Flickr)

Syria

Tragedy: Rojava Kurds close ranks with Assad

In a political tragedy that bodes more poorly than ever for any eventual return of peace to Syria, Assad regime forces joined the Kurdish militia defending the northern enclave of Afrin from Turkish aggression. This obviously heightens the threat of Arab-Kurdish ethnic war, as the regime continues its savage bombardment of rebel-held Idlib and Ghouta. And with the entry of regime forces into Afrin, there is now risk of NATO member Turkey directly engaging Assad’s troops, with obvious threat of international escalation. Of course, with Orwellian irony, Ankara is calling the offensive Operation “Olive Branch.”  (Photo: BasNews)

The Andes

Colombia: ELN ‘armed strike’ as talks break down

Colombia's ELN guerillas carried out a string of attacks in a new offensive aimed at shutting down the South American country, mostly targeting transportation infrastructure.  The four-day "armed strike" was called weeks after a ceasefire broke down and days after the government suspended peace talks with the ELN. Bogotá has responded to the campaign by issuing arrest warants for ELN leaders, including two top negotiators at the suspended Quito talks. The new violence has also occasioned the latest inflammation of Colombia's ongoing tensions with Venezuela, as Bogotá's defense minister Luis Carlos Villegas charged migrants from the neighboring country with involvement in the ELN attacks. Caracas, in turn, accused Colombia of preparing a "military invasion." (Photo: Colombia Reports)

Southeast Asia

Rohingya refugees face forced repatriation

Bangladesh and Burma agreed to complete the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees within two years, establishing a system of camps and "reception centers" along the border zone to facilitate their transfer. But humanitarian and human rights organizations are warning that this time frame is insufficient to guarantee a safe and voluntary return. A representative of the Burma Campaign UK stated: "Bangladesh and Burma are effectively playing ping-pong with the Rohingya, while the rest of the international community stands by. They will be returned to giant prison camps, have no rights, and be at constant risk of further attacks by the Burmese military." (Photo: European Commission via Flickr)

North America
Otay Mesa

Trump’s vision for USA: shithole of racism

With his "shithole" comment, Trump makes clear he would bring the United States back nearly a century to the 1920s, when immigration "quotas" were imposed for countries whose inhabitants were deemed undersirable, essentially cutting off immigration of Jews, Italians and Slavs. But deepening the insult, today Haitians and Salvadorans are being driven from their homelands by poverty and instability which is itself the bitter fruit of "free trade" policies foisted upon their governments by pressure from Washington. (Photo: Homeland Security's Otay Mesa Detention Center, BBC World Service via Flickr)

North Africa
Libya

Libya: Europe ‘complicit’ in horrific abuses

European governments are knowingly "complicit" in the torture, abuse and exploitation of tens of thousands of refugees and migrants detained by the Libyan immigration authorities or criminal gangs in appalling conditions, Amnesty International charges in a new report.  Dozens of migrants and refugees told Amnesty about collusion between detention center guards, the Libyan Coast Guard and smugglers. European countries and especially Italy have been aiding Libyan authorities in migrant interception, as well as striking deal with local militias.

North Africa

Libya slave trade becomes political football

Propagandists of the isolationist right and anti-war “left” alike are exploiting the chilling emergence of a slave trade in abducted Black African migrants in Libya’s remote desert south as evidence that the NATO intervention of 2011 only led to nightmares. The popular uprising that ousted Qaddafi is invisible to them—as is the dictator’s own culpability in the social collapse that followed his rule.

North Africa

UN calls for joint tribunal over Libyan war crimes

The head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Ghassan Salamé, suggested to the United Nations Security Council that a joint tribunal should be considered to try individuals suspected of war crimes in Libya. Salamé warned that Libya is in a state of lawlessness, with crimes being committed each day. Salamé stated, "If Libyans alone cannot combat impunity for war crimes, it is time for the international community to consider mechanisms that can help them do so."

Syria

Conviction in Syrian regime war crime —at last

For the first time, after six years of war and escalating atrocities, a member of the Syrian regime’s military has been convicted of a war crime—a low-level soldier now in Sweden as a refugee, and tried in that country’s courts. Yet there have been several convictions of Syrian rebel and ISIS fighters in European courts. This gross imbalance in convictions persists despite the fact that Assad has killed far more Syrians than ISIS or any other “terrorist” outfit in the country.

The Caribbean

Puerto Ricans to become climate refugees?

Hurricane Maria’s destruction on Puerto Rico could spawn one of the largest mass migrations in US history. Some 97% of the island’s residents are still without power, and half do not have running water. Thousands now awaiting flights from San Juan’s airport might be permanently displaced and become the planet’s newest “climate refugees.”

North America

Federal judge halts Texas anti-sanctuary law

A federal judge in San Antonio issued a preliminary injunction against most of SB4, the anti-Sanctuary Cities law that would have effectively forced every police agency in Texas to allow its officers to question the immigration status of anyone stopped for any reason. It would have also have forced agencies to send information on undocumented detainees to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.