The Trump administration is seeking sweeping changes to the rights of asylum seekers that experts say would “decimate” the global refugee system established after World War II, a new report finds. Reuters, citing internal documents from the State Department and an agency spokesperson, finds the administration is proposing a framework in which asylum seekers would be forced to apply for…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Veterans For Peace unequivocally condemns President Trump’s unlawful deployment of the National Guard to Washington, DC. This follows the outrageous deployment of National Guard and U.S. Marines to the streets and parks of Los Angeles in support of ICE terror tactics in a city where as many as one in ten residents are undocumented workers. Even U.S. military veterans have been targeted and deported.
The crime rate in Washington, DC, is at a 30-year low. The claim that an emergency exists requiring military policing is a blatant lie. The use of the U.S. military for domestic policing violates the Posse Comitatus Act, which reserves law enforcement for civilian authorities, not federal troops.
Is it a coincidence that the cities targeted for occupation by federal forces are Democratic-led and often with Black mayors? Furthermore, the deployment of National Guard units without the consent of state governors, as in California, is highly questionable and likely illegal.
Equally disturbing is the role of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in terrorizing entire communities. Wearing masks, without identification, often in plain clothes and unmarked vans, ICE personnel are becoming shock troops more reminiscent of fascist, totalitarian regimes. In recent days, at least one man was killed when he ran into traffic to avoid being detained by masked men. There are now reports of women being abducted and assaulted by violent criminals posing as ICE. How can anyone tell the difference?
The ICE budget in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” is larger than that of any branch of the armed services and larger than the entire federal prison system. New prisons—such as “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, effectively concentration camps—are being built to imprison nonviolent immigrants with no criminal records whatsoever. Meanwhile, Trump brands undocumented workers as violent criminals and drug-dealing gang members—another blatant lie.
The deployment of tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers to the border with Mexico threatens border communities and Mexico itself, with Trump even claiming the right to invade with drones and the U.S. military in pursuit of “cartels.” U.S. leaders have leveled unsubstantiated claims, such as accusing Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro of running a drug cartel, while dangling multimillion-dollar bounties. These are the hallmarks of regime-change propaganda.
Veterans For Peace stands opposed to racist violence in our communities. Behind the masks and lies of the Trump administration, we see the face of White Supremacy—and a growing trend of domestic repression. As the old warning goes: First they came for the immigrants and communities of color…
The U.S. Supports Genocide in Gaza and Escalates Toward Global War
At the very same time, the U.S. government continues to provide bipartisan support for the genocide and starvation of Palestinian men, women, and children in Gaza. The U.S. supplies the bombs that fall on Palestinian neighborhoods and the political cover for the systematic destruction of an entire people.
The U.S. has bombed Yemen and Iran, both countries that sought to aid Palestinians. The Pentagon is openly planning war against China, simply because the Chinese economy challenges U.S. dominance. Military planners even discuss using tactical—or first-strike strategic—nuclear weapons. The U.S. is also fueling a devastating proxy war in Ukraine, where the priority should be to cease hostilities and pursue genuine negotiations. Meanwhile, escalating threats toward Iran risk plunging the region into another catastrophic war.
When Veterans For Peace and antiwar activists protest, will we find ourselves in ICE’s concentration camps?
Military Members: “This Is Not What We Signed Up For!”
As veterans of the U.S. military—and too many questionable wars—we stand with our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters in today’s armed forces. They did not enlist to chase immigrants around parking lots or into traffic. They did not sign up to invade Mexico or Venezuela. They do not want to stand on the front lines of a nuclear war. Increasingly, we are hearing from GIs questioning their deployments and seeking advice on their legal rights and alternatives.
Veterans For Peace will continue to support members of the military who are questioning whether their orders are morally or legally justified. We encourage military personnel and their families to call the GI Rights Hotline at 877-447-4487 to learn more about their rights and how to seek a discharge.
Peace at Home, Peace Abroad!
Veterans For Peace joins the majority of people in the U.S. who reject the deployment of National Guard, U.S. troops, and ICE to terrorize our communities and prepare the ground for fascist repression. We will work with civil society organizations resisting these illegal, authoritarian measures.
We call for peace at home and abroad: an end to U.S. support for genocide in Gaza, an end to provocative military actions against China, Iran, Venezuela, and Mexico, and a permanent peace agreement in Ukraine.
We invite like-minded people—especially fellow veterans—to join us in defending our communities and building a future of Peace at home and peace abroad.
The post Veterans For Peace Condemns the Deployment of National Guard in Washington, DC, and the Misuse of U.S. Troops and ICE to Create Terror in Our Cities first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
Over the last two decades, Australia has made a name for itself by pursuing barbaric policies towards refugees and asylum seekers arriving by sea. Priding these moves as noble and humanitarian, cruelty born of kindness, these have entailed attacking the right to seek asylum guaranteed under the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951 and the obligations of a state signatory not to penalise, discriminate or return (refoul) those to a place which would imperil them.
From these policies grew the Pacific gulag – offshore refugee centres where desperate human beings were treated like hunks of undifferentiated meat to be “processed”. In such centres, sexual abuse, self-harm, mental ruin and suicide flourished with weedlike vigour, described by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre as “cruelty by design”. The final, rather damaged product was never to enter Australia, to be resettled in less than accommodating places as the Pacific Island state of Nauru, or Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. Fractious locals in either case were not impressed by cultural incompatibilities. Periodically, Australia might also get a helping hand from New Zealand, always more willing to pull its weight on the issue of accepting desperate boat arrivals.
Over time, the number of people finding themselves in indefinite detention grew. As Australia lacks any constitutional protections against indefinite detention without charge, judges once saw fit to see this outcome as perfectly appropriate for refugees and asylum seekers. The shameful 2004 High Court case of Al-Kateb v Godwin saw the Commonwealth Solicitor-General argue, successfully, that a stateless Palestinian born in Kuwait, having arrived in Australia by boat without a visa, having also failed to get a protection visa, and having no prospect to be returned to Gaza or Kuwait, could be detained indefinitely.
This was a remarkable finding, enabling the Commonwealth to exercise punitive functions normally associated with the judiciary. The cold words of Chief Justice Murray Gleeson are worth remembering: “A person in the position of the appellant might be young or old, dangerous or harmless, likely or unlikely to abscond, recently in detention or someone who had been there for years, healthy or unhealthy, badly affected by incarceration or relatively unaffected. The considerations that might bear upon the reasonableness of a discretionary decision to detain such a person do not operate.”
Then came the NZYQ decision in November 2023, in which the Australian High Court reversed itself. The judges found it unlawful for the government to continue detaining people in immigration detention where there was no real prospect of their practicable removal from Australia in the reasonably foreseeable future. To do so contravened the Constitution as such detention was not reasonably capable of being seen as necessary for a legitimate and non-punitive purpose. As such individuals could not be returned to their countries of origin for reasons of persecution or because of a refusal to accept them, release had to be granted.
A feverish panic broke out in the Albanese government. The government had lost one of its most important, sadistic weapons in the policy armoury. Hysterical demonisation followed regarding some 200 non-citizens who had to be released into the community. They were seen as exceptional in their defects, remarkable in their criminality (murderers, rapists, child molesters). They were to be treated as singular offenders, bound to reoffend and therefore in need of some form of permanent invigilation, incarceration or both. That recidivism remains a feature of Australians who are also released did not merit discussion, nor did the fact that many in the cohort in question had never been convicted of an offence.
The Albanese government, egged on by a yapping conservative opposition, went about the business of subverting the High Court’s decision as best it could. In November 2024, new laws were introduced permitting payment to third countries to accept unlawful non-citizens. Those refusing could be returned to detention. With utmost secrecy, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke reached out to Nauru, yet again, as Canberra’s favourite refugee dunghill. A bribe was in the offing.
In February, with sketchy details, the Albanese government revealed that it had reached an agreement with the Pacific nation to resettle three members of the NZYQ cohort of non-citizens, one of them convicted of murder, for an undisclosed sum. All had been granted 30-year resettlement visas and “would reside in individual facilities with a shared kitchen space, be free to move around the island and would have working rights”. They were deemed good enough for Nauru, whose government was keen on ruddy cash but not good enough for Australia, a country founded, most ironically, as a penal colony.
The transfer was also arranged despite the findings by the UN Human Rights Committee in two cases the month prior that Australia remained responsible for asylum seekers arbitrarily detained in offshore facilities in Nauru. Committee member Mahjoub El Haiba stated at the time that State parties cannot avoid their human rights responsibilities “when outsourcing asylum processing to another State”. Obligations remained “firmly in place” where states exercised “effective control over an area […] and cannot be transferred.”
The small arrangement was a taster of things to come. On August 29, timing the matter with the end-of-week lull in political interest, the Albanese government and Nauru signed a memorandum of understanding allowing the deporting of 280 members of the NZYQ cohort. Burke, who signed the MOU with Nauru’s President David Adeang, had done so after meeting the cabinet and the country’s entire Parliament. A wretchedly brief statement from the Australian Home Affairs office promised that the MOU contained “undertakings for the proper treatment and long-term residence of people who have no legal right to stay in Australia, to be received in Nauru.”
The staggering cost of the agreement involves the immediate payment of a vast and seedy sum of A$400 million, with A$70 million to follow in annual payments for associated costs. The enticing nature of these sums for Nauru’s government becomes even clearer given that this small state of under 12,000 people has an annual GDP, according to 2024 figures, of US$160 million. The misery of some can prove to be very profitable for others.
Jana Favero, deputy chief executive of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, had an appropriate response to the latest arrangements. “This deal is discriminatory, disgraceful and dangerous.” The Albanese government had “launched yet another attack on migrants and refugees. An attack that will result in the most significant of outcomes – mass deportation.” Greens Senator David Shoebridge also remarked that the government, instead of “building partnerships in the Pacific based on equality and respect” had preferred to force “our smaller neighbours to become 21st-century prison colonies.” For Nauru’s venal politicians, seduced would have been a more accurate word.
The post Refugee Dunghills: Australia Makes Another Nauru Deal first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Two Hong Kong pro-democracy advocates have announced that they have been granted asylum: former lawmaker Ted Hui in Australia and activist Tony Chung in the U.K.
Both men were convicted of violating Hong Kong’s restrictive national security law, which has quashed dissent after being imposed by Beijing in 2020 in the wake of massive pro-democracy protests. They are among dozens of activists who have fled Hong Kong authorities.
Hui, a former member of the Legislative Council who left Hong Kong while he was out on bail in 2020, was tried in absentia and given a nearly four-year jail term in 2022. He told RFA at the time that his trial was “a political trial, which was entirely predictable and unsurprising. The real culprits are the tyrannical regime, not those who protest against it.”
Since Hui’s conviction, Hong Kong officials have questioned his relatives, placed a HK$1 million ($128,211 USD) bounty on his capture, and, earlier this year, seized his assets.
Chung, who as a teenage secondary school student convened a group that advocated for Hong Kong’s independence from China, was also sentenced to a nearly four-year term. He was released early for good behavior.
In an interview with RFA after he fled to Britain in 2023, Chung said that after his release, national security police tried to hire him as an informant, and would seek him out for a meeting every two to four weeks, driving him in an SUV with drawn curtains to be interrogated in an unknown location.
“They wanted me to confess, and prove to them that I had nothing to hide and that I wasn’t engaging in any further secessionist activities,” he said.
Chung has also been put on a wanted list, and anonymous letters touting the HK$1 million reward for his capture were sent to his U.K. neighbors earlier this year.
Hong Kong’s government did not comment directly on the cases, but a spokesperson said Saturday that “any country that harbors Hong Kong criminals in any form shows contempt for the rule of law, grossly disrespects Hong Kong’s legal systems and barbarically interferes in the affairs of Hong Kong.”
Includes reporting from Agence France-Presse.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
The US State Department’s latest Human Rights Report condemns Venezuela for serious abuses. Weaponizing human rights, accusations are selectively applied to serve a destabilization campaign. In this article, a mirror is held up to Uncle Sam to see how well “America the beautiful” holds up to the same charges, while also exposing the role of sanctions, compliant NGOs, and military threats in Washington’s hybrid war on Venezuela.
The carceral state
The US report indicts Venezuela for “arbitrary or unlawful killings.” Meanwhile, in the land of the free, police killings hit a record high in 2024. Impunity is high with charges brought against offending officers in fewer than 3% of cases. The FBI itself admits that transparency is hampered.
Prolonged solitary confinement, recognized as torturous, is widespread in US prisons and ICE detention centers, affecting over 122,000 people daily. A US Senate report on torture documented CIA abuses, yet meaningful accountability has failed. Hundreds of political prisoners languish in penitentiaries in the US and in Guantánamo, the majority of whom are people of color. Roughly 70% of local jail inmates are held in pretrial detention, often pressured with coercive plea deals, undermining equality before the law.
The US has the largest prison population in the world (about 1.8 to 2 million) and an incarceration rate over 2.5 times greater than Venezuela’s. Even after release, about four million citizens remain disenfranchised due to felony convictions, disproportionately affecting Black communities.
Freedom to protest
Washington faults Venezuela for limiting freedom of expression. Yet, numerous US states have passed or considered anti-protest laws (e.g., “critical infrastructure” bills) that civil-liberties groups warn chill peaceful assembly.
Reporters without Borders (RSF) observes, “the country is experiencing its first significant and prolonged decline in press freedom in modern history.” This accusation is particularly notable because RSF is strongly biased in support of the US and receives funding from the State Department and the National Endowment for Democracy. Arrests and detentions of journalists surged in 2024; schoolbook bans spiked across 29 states. In April 2024, Congress reauthorized and expanded FISA §702, enabling warrantless surveillance according to legal scholars.
As the US-based Black Alliance for Peace observes, “domestic repression in the US colonial/capitalist core is imperative to support the aggressive militarism abroad.”
This coupling of domestic subjugation with the international is painfully evident with the US imperialist/Israeli zionist aggression abroad in Gaza, while pro-Palestine advocates are suppressed at home. Zionist curricula are being imposed at all levels of education; at least half of the US states now require so-called “Holocaust education.” Pro-Palestine faculty, students, and staff are being purged.
Washington’s accusation of Venezuelan antisemitism cites President Nicolás Maduro calling Israel’s assault on Gaza “the most brutal genocide” since Hitler. Its charge of antisemitism conflates Venezuela’s political criticism of the zionist state with hatred of the Jewish religion. If “antisemitism” includes Muslim Arabs, US culpability is so blatant that it requires no additional documentation.
Meanwhile, the US accuses Venezuela of failing to protect refugees and asylum seekers. This projection does not deserve any rebuttal other than to mention that the US has a documented history of family separation of migrants and deaths in custody.
Likewise, the world’s rogue nation does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and similar institutions, while reproaching Caracas for attempting to “misuse international law.” If anything, the Maduro government has gone out of its way to defend international law with initiatives upholding the UN Charter.
Social welfare
The US report scolds Venezuela for a minimum wage “under the poverty line.” Yet, its own federal minimum wage has been $7.25/hour since 2009; insufficient to lift a full-time worker out of poverty.
A UN special rapporteur for human rights estimated that sanctions – more properly “unilateral coercive measures” – by the US and allies have caused over 100,000 excess deaths in Venezuela. Yet purported human rights NGOs Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRC), and the Washington Office on Latin American (WOLA) omit this glaring human toll in their reports on human rights in Venezuela.
Predictably, they make nearly identical evaluations of the Venezuelan human rights situation as does the US-dominated Organization of American States (OAS) and the US State Department itself. Their reports (AI, HRW, WOLA, US, OAS) either ignore or, at best, make passing references to the sanctions. No mention is made of the illegality of sanctions under international law – they are a form of collective punishment.
In other contexts, the NGOs have acknowledged the horrific human impact of sanctions. Regardless, they were in a panic that the Trump administration might ease sanctions over the Chevron license, thus rewarding bad behavior. For these soft power apparatchiks of the US imperial project, the pain endured by the Venezuelans is worth it. WOLA has been particularly vocal about counseling against direct US military intervention, when sanctions afford an equally lethal but less obvious form of coercion.
Hybrid war on Venezuela
In his first term, Donald Trump levied a $15m bounty on Maduro, framing the Venezuela government as a transnational criminal enterprise tied to terrorism. This lowered the potential threshold for extraordinary US measures. Joe Biden seamlessly upped the bounty to $25m, which Trump then doubled on August 7.
Evidence-free allegations linking the Venezuelan president to the dismantled Tren de Aragua drug cartel, the fictitious Cartel of the Suns criminal organization, and the actual Sinaloa Cartel (which is in Mexico) were conveniently used to justify invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which is supposed to be a wartime measure. This is coupled with the designation of drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and periodic threats of US military intervention.
This is from the country that is the world’s biggest launderer of illicit drug money and the largest consumer of illicit drugs. Even US agencies recognize that very few of these US-bound drugs move through Venezuela.
Most recently, the US deployed an additional 4,000 troops and warships to the Caribbean and around Latin America. Venezuela responded by mobilizing its navy in its territorial waters.
Leading Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado expressed her “immense gratitude” for the imperialist measures against her country. In contrast, thousands of her compatriots took the opposite stance and marched in protest. Venezuela-American Michelle Ellner calls the US policy “a green light for open-ended US military action abroad, bypassing congressional approval, sidestepping international law.”
Weaponizing human rights for regime change
Venezuela is caught in a hybrid war that is as deadly as if it were being bombed. Washington’s strangling of its economy, making wild accusations against its leaders, sponsoring opponents, and threatening armed interventions are all designed to provoke and destabilize. Venezuela’s response is best seen as self-defense against an immensely powerful foreign bully that exploits any weakness, imperfection, or lapse in vigilance.
The US weaponizes human rights to overthrow Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution. Its exaggerated or outright fabricated allegations are echoed by the “human rights industry.” Where problems exist, they must be viewed in the context of US economic warfare, which has strained Venezuelan institutions. North Americans genuinely concerned about Venezuelan human rights should be highly skeptical of corporate media reports and recognize the need to end US interference. Escalating provocations will only necessitate Venezuela’s greater defensiveness.
The post US Human Rights Report on Venezuela Doesn’t Pass the Mirror Test first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
The US State Department’s latest Human Rights Report condemns Venezuela for serious abuses. Weaponizing human rights, accusations are selectively applied to serve a destabilization campaign. In this article, a mirror is held up to Uncle Sam to see how well “America the beautiful” holds up to the same charges, while also exposing the role of sanctions, compliant NGOs, and military threats in Washington’s hybrid war on Venezuela.
The carceral state
The US report indicts Venezuela for “arbitrary or unlawful killings.” Meanwhile, in the land of the free, police killings hit a record high in 2024. Impunity is high with charges brought against offending officers in fewer than 3% of cases. The FBI itself admits that transparency is hampered.
Prolonged solitary confinement, recognized as torturous, is widespread in US prisons and ICE detention centers, affecting over 122,000 people daily. A US Senate report on torture documented CIA abuses, yet meaningful accountability has failed. Hundreds of political prisoners languish in penitentiaries in the US and in Guantánamo, the majority of whom are people of color. Roughly 70% of local jail inmates are held in pretrial detention, often pressured with coercive plea deals, undermining equality before the law.
The US has the largest prison population in the world (about 1.8 to 2 million) and an incarceration rate over 2.5 times greater than Venezuela’s. Even after release, about four million citizens remain disenfranchised due to felony convictions, disproportionately affecting Black communities.
Freedom to protest
Washington faults Venezuela for limiting freedom of expression. Yet, numerous US states have passed or considered anti-protest laws (e.g., “critical infrastructure” bills) that civil-liberties groups warn chill peaceful assembly.
Reporters without Borders (RSF) observes, “the country is experiencing its first significant and prolonged decline in press freedom in modern history.” This accusation is particularly notable because RSF is strongly biased in support of the US and receives funding from the State Department and the National Endowment for Democracy. Arrests and detentions of journalists surged in 2024; schoolbook bans spiked across 29 states. In April 2024, Congress reauthorized and expanded FISA §702, enabling warrantless surveillance according to legal scholars.
As the US-based Black Alliance for Peace observes, “domestic repression in the US colonial/capitalist core is imperative to support the aggressive militarism abroad.”
This coupling of domestic subjugation with the international is painfully evident with the US imperialist/Israeli zionist aggression abroad in Gaza, while pro-Palestine advocates are suppressed at home. Zionist curricula are being imposed at all levels of education; at least half of the US states now require so-called “Holocaust education.” Pro-Palestine faculty, students, and staff are being purged.
Washington’s accusation of Venezuelan antisemitism cites President Nicolás Maduro calling Israel’s assault on Gaza “the most brutal genocide” since Hitler. Its charge of antisemitism conflates Venezuela’s political criticism of the zionist state with hatred of the Jewish religion. If “antisemitism” includes Muslim Arabs, US culpability is so blatant that it requires no additional documentation.
Meanwhile, the US accuses Venezuela of failing to protect refugees and asylum seekers. This projection does not deserve any rebuttal other than to mention that the US has a documented history of family separation of migrants and deaths in custody.
Likewise, the world’s rogue nation does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and similar institutions, while reproaching Caracas for attempting to “misuse international law.” If anything, the Maduro government has gone out of its way to defend international law with initiatives upholding the UN Charter.
Social welfare
The US report scolds Venezuela for a minimum wage “under the poverty line.” Yet, its own federal minimum wage has been $7.25/hour since 2009; insufficient to lift a full-time worker out of poverty.
A UN special rapporteur for human rights estimated that sanctions – more properly “unilateral coercive measures” – by the US and allies have caused over 100,000 excess deaths in Venezuela. Yet purported human rights NGOs Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRC), and the Washington Office on Latin American (WOLA) omit this glaring human toll in their reports on human rights in Venezuela.
Predictably, they make nearly identical evaluations of the Venezuelan human rights situation as does the US-dominated Organization of American States (OAS) and the US State Department itself. Their reports (AI, HRW, WOLA, US, OAS) either ignore or, at best, make passing references to the sanctions. No mention is made of the illegality of sanctions under international law – they are a form of collective punishment.
In other contexts, the NGOs have acknowledged the horrific human impact of sanctions. Regardless, they were in a panic that the Trump administration might ease sanctions over the Chevron license, thus rewarding bad behavior. For these soft power apparatchiks of the US imperial project, the pain endured by the Venezuelans is worth it. WOLA has been particularly vocal about counseling against direct US military intervention, when sanctions afford an equally lethal but less obvious form of coercion.
Hybrid war on Venezuela
In his first term, Donald Trump levied a $15m bounty on Maduro, framing the Venezuela government as a transnational criminal enterprise tied to terrorism. This lowered the potential threshold for extraordinary US measures. Joe Biden seamlessly upped the bounty to $25m, which Trump then doubled on August 7.
Evidence-free allegations linking the Venezuelan president to the dismantled Tren de Aragua drug cartel, the fictitious Cartel of the Suns criminal organization, and the actual Sinaloa Cartel (which is in Mexico) were conveniently used to justify invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which is supposed to be a wartime measure. This is coupled with the designation of drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and periodic threats of US military intervention.
This is from the country that is the world’s biggest launderer of illicit drug money and the largest consumer of illicit drugs. Even US agencies recognize that very few of these US-bound drugs move through Venezuela.
Most recently, the US deployed an additional 4,000 troops and warships to the Caribbean and around Latin America. Venezuela responded by mobilizing its navy in its territorial waters.
Leading Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado expressed her “immense gratitude” for the imperialist measures against her country. In contrast, thousands of her compatriots took the opposite stance and marched in protest. Venezuela-American Michelle Ellner calls the US policy “a green light for open-ended US military action abroad, bypassing congressional approval, sidestepping international law.”
Weaponizing human rights for regime change
Venezuela is caught in a hybrid war that is as deadly as if it were being bombed. Washington’s strangling of its economy, making wild accusations against its leaders, sponsoring opponents, and threatening armed interventions are all designed to provoke and destabilize. Venezuela’s response is best seen as self-defense against an immensely powerful foreign bully that exploits any weakness, imperfection, or lapse in vigilance.
The US weaponizes human rights to overthrow Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution. Its exaggerated or outright fabricated allegations are echoed by the “human rights industry.” Where problems exist, they must be viewed in the context of US economic warfare, which has strained Venezuelan institutions. North Americans genuinely concerned about Venezuelan human rights should be highly skeptical of corporate media reports and recognize the need to end US interference. Escalating provocations will only necessitate Venezuela’s greater defensiveness.
The post US Human Rights Report on Venezuela Doesn’t Pass the Mirror Test first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
For the first time in the history of the United States, asylum seekers will have to pay to file an asylum application. The so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” or OBBA, mandates new minimum fees for immigration and visa applications. The legislation authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Attorney General to raise fees above the minimum…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
This content originally appeared on VICE News and was authored by VICE News.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on VICE News and was authored by VICE News.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on VICE News and was authored by VICE News.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Sanctuary activists face new challenges under Trump’s second term—but their work has always entailed great personal risk.
This post was originally published on Dissent Magazine.
This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
New guidance from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which oversees the immigration court system, calls for immigration judges to expedite reviews for asylum seekers by means that legal experts say would violate their due process rights. The new directive, authored by EOIR acting director Sirce Owen and issued on April 11, tells judges to take…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
WASHINGTON – Twelve U.S. House representatives have introduced a bipartisan bill that would expedite the ability of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities facing persecution in China to seek asylum in the United States.
The Uyghur Human Rights Protection Act would lend further American support to the 12 million Uyghurs in the northwestern Xinjiang region who are suffering under what Washington has labeled a “genocide.”
“The brutal persecution of Uyghurs by the Chinese government is a human rights crisis,” said Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, a Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill who represents the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, home to one of the largest Uyghur diaspora populations in the United States. The bill was introduced on Tuesday.
“I have personally heard from Uyghur constituents in my district about their deep concerns for their relatives attempting to flee atrocities,” he said. “I’m proud to lead this bipartisan initiative to provide those enduring unthinkable oppression with a pathway to expedited refugee status and asylum.”
Since 2017, China has rounded up an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs in concentration camps and subjected many to forced labor, forced sterilization and torture, based on the accounts of Uyghurs who have escaped and investigations by the United Nations.
Beijing denies committing human rights abuses against the Uyghurs and says the camps are vocational training centers that have mostly been closed.
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican who also sponsored the bill, called the Uyghur genocide “one of the most horrific crimes against humanity we have ever witnessed.”
“Our refugee system is designed to provide protection to those who need it most,” she said. “We should prioritize those that are able to escape the systematic persecution and torture Uyghurs and other oppressed minorities are suffering from in Xinjiang.”
The legislation would give a higher priority designation — called Priority 2, for refugees of special humanitarian concern — to Uyghurs seeking asylum in the United States so that their cases might be handled more quickly.
The bill also seeks to protect Uyghurs who have fled to countries besides the United States by directing the U.S. secretary of state to prioritize diplomatic efforts in those countries, which often face pressure from Beijing to deport Uyghurs to China.
Last month, Thailand deported 40 Uyghurs, who had been in an immigration detention center for a decade, to China, where activists say it is likely they will face punishment and imprisonment.
The United States has taken various steps to punish China for its treatment of the Uyghurs.
Under the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, the United States has banned a total of 144 Chinese companies suspected of using Uyghur slave labor from exporting to America.
A third sponsor, Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat and a ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said, “the U.S. has a responsibility to help Uyghurs seeking to escape these atrocities by expanding refugee pathways and resolving the backlog in Uyghur asylum cases.”
The bill has to overcome many legislative hurdles before it becomes law. Despite the bipartisan backing, its hopes of passage remain uncertain. The current U.S. administration is looking to scale back immigration to the United States and suspended the refugee admissions program on its first day in office.
Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Uyghur.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
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Thousands of Syrian Alawites continue to seek sanctuary at a Russian air base, fearing for their lives in the wake of a series of horrific sectarian massacres carried out by Syrian government-affiliated extremist armed groups.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that about 9,000 people were seeking refuge at Hmeimim, an air base established by Russia as part of its 2015 intervention in the US-backed war that began in 2011 to topple the Syrian government of former president Bashar al-Assad.
Thousands of people have been sheltering at the Hmeimim Air Base near the coastal city of Jablah since 7 March, when extremist militants went from house to house in predominantly Alawite towns and villages, killing residents and looting and burning their homes.
The post Thousands Of Syrian Alawites Shelter At Russian Base appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
If Indi Tisoy has a single dream, it is to reach the United States. Her desire is so strong, in fact, that she waits at the border because it makes her feel closer to that dream. Tisoy, who is a member of the Inga Indigenous community, left the Colombian Amazon’s Putumayo department with her family when she was 12 to seek better economic opportunities in the city of Bucaramanga.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
In 2015, hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and repression were trying to reach safe havens in Europe. From his home in Norway, Tommy Olsen decided to travel to Greece, a major gateway for migrants and refugees. He joined hundreds of volunteers helping the new arrivals and later created an NGO, the Aegean Boat Report, which monitors the plight of asylum seekers in Europe.
Today, Olsen is a wanted man in Greece, caught up in a crackdown on refugees and people trying to defend their right to asylum.
“I didn’t know what I walked into,” Olsen says.
Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, has condemned Greece’s harsh migration policies and the way its government is targeting activists like Olsen. But she says Europe as a whole is also to blame.
“The whole notion of migration is a dirty word now,” she says. “The whole notion of refugees is a dirty word now.”
This week on Reveal, reporters Dinah Rothenberg and Viola Funk from the Berlin podcast studio ACB Stories take us to Greece, where refugees and human rights defenders face legal and sometimes physical attacks from authorities trying to seal the country’s borders.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
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As we move into 2025, we look at how the world is cracking down on migrants and asylum seekers, and the dangers they face when trying to flee their countries due to persecution, economic conditions, the climate crisis and more. As Greek prosecutors open a murder investigation of “unknown perpetrators” following a damning exposé of the deadly crackdown on asylum seekers by the Greek coast guard, we revisit the BBC film, Dead Calm: Killing in the Med? The investigation revealed evidence the coast guard routinely abducted and abandoned asylum seekers in the Mediterranean Sea. The film found the Greek coast guard caused the deaths of dozens of migrants over a period of three years, including of nine asylum seekers who had reached Greek soil but were taken back out to sea and thrown overboard. “We really have no real clue about the true numbers of the people that are crossing [the Mediterranean Sea]. Many people don’t make it,” producer Lucile Smith told Democracy Now! in an interview last year, when the film was released. “And when people do arrive, they tend to disappear, because … if you are caught by the authorities in Greece, you will be most likely subjected to some very serious violence.”
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This content originally appeared on International Rescue Committee and was authored by International Rescue Committee.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
The right to asylum has been enshrined in US law since the 1950s. It’s meant to provide a safe haven for people fleeing violence and government persecution.
Laura Ascencio Bautista and her family have faced both in Mexico, where her brother Benjamin disappeared along with 42 others in 2014 after police stormed a bus from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College.
In the years since, violence in her home state of Guerrero left Bautista desperate. She heard asylum was created for people like her. So she traveled north, headed for the perceived safety of the United States.
“I was told that if I went to the US border and told my family’s story and how it’s not safe back home, the United States could protect me,” she said.
Despite all the political hand-wringing about a crisis at the border, many Americans don’t understand what’s driving so many people from Mexico and other countries to come to the US in the first place. This week, Reveal senior reporter and producer Anayansi Diaz-Cortes takes us to a part of Mexico that many families are leaving behind—a place where fear is a part of daily life—and unwinds US policies that helped trigger the cycle of violence and migration that continues to this day.
This post was originally published on Reveal.
The Biden administration is reportedly considering making temporary changes to asylum rules issued earlier this summer harder to undo by increasing threshold numbers needed to end the rules to likely unattainable levels — effectively causing them to be permanent. President Joe Biden signed an executive order in June changing how migrants coming to the U.S. could apply for asylum. Previously…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
In June 2021, Kamala Harris was on her first foreign trip as vice president, to Mexico and Guatemala. During a press conference with then-Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, she issued a warning to Guatemalans and others who were considering trying to enter the United States without proper documentation: “Do not come. Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.