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Category: migration

  • ‘I had to drink my own urine to survive’: Africans tell of being forced into the desert at Tunisia border

    As EU prepares to send money as part of €1bn deal, people trying to reach north African country detail border ‘pushbacks’

    Migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have spoken of their horror at being forcibly returned to remote desert regions where some have died of thirst as they attempt to cross the border into Tunisia.

    As the European Union prepares to send money to Tunisia under a €1bn (£870m) migration deal, human rights groups are urging Brussels to take a tougher line on allegations that Tunisian authorities have been pushing people back to deserted border areas, often with fatal results.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • South African anti-migrant ‘vigilantes’ register as party for next year’s polls

    Operation Dudula changes tactics from evictions and violence, with plans to fight elections on platform of expelling foreigners

    An anti-migrant vigilante organisation in South Africa has registered as a political party and plans to contest seats in next year’s general elections.

    Operation Dudula, whose name means “to force out” in Zulu, wants all foreign nationals who are in the country unofficially to be deported.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • ‘How did he die and I didn’t?’: Hungary’s spate of car crashes involving police and migrants

    People injured in crashes involving Hungarian police are being pushed back to Serbia from hospital, say human rights groups

    When he woke up in the hospital, Karim* had no idea what had happened to him. All he remembered was that he had fallen asleep next to his friend, Yousef*, in the back of the car. Days before, in the summer of 2022, they had climbed the border fence between Serbia and Hungary and were heading towards Austria.

    Karim, 22, had left his home in northern Syria at the end of 2021. After making his way from Turkey through Bulgaria, he reached Serbia. From there he still had to cross Hungary and then on to Austria. “My dream was to reach Germany,” he says.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Colombian President Says Sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela Are Driving Migration

    In Part 3 of our interview with leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro, he describes how hard-line U.S. policies are preventing the Americas from addressing issues like migration, calling on the Biden administration to “open up a plural dialogue” to bring the region closer together. He notes many people moving through Latin America to seek asylum in the United States are from Venezuela…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Papuan academics accuse Indonesia of new ‘indigenous marginalisation’ strategy

    Jubi News in Jayapura

    Academics at Papuan tertiary institutions have accused Indonesian authorities of a new “indigenous marginalisation” programme through the establishment of the autonomous regions of Papua that poses a “significant threat” to the local population.

    The dean of the Faculty of Social Science at Okmin University of Papua, Octaviaen Gerald Bidana, said the new autonomous regions (DOB) established by the central government was a deliberate strategy aimed at sidelining the Indigenous Papuan population.

    This strategy involved the establishment of entry points for large-scale transmigration programmes.

    Bidana made these remarks during an online discussion titled “Demography, Expansion, and Papuan Development” organised by the Papua Task Force Department of the Catholic Youth Center Management last week.

    He said that the expansion effectively served as a “gateway for transmigration”, with indigenous Papuans being enticed by promises of welfare and development that ultimately would turn out to be deceptive.

    Echoing Bidana’s concerns, Nguruh Suryawan, a lecturer of Anthropology at the State University of Papua, said that the expansion areas had seen an uncontrolled influx of immigrants.

    This unregulated migration, he argued, posed a significant threat to the indigenous Papuan population, leading to their gradual marginalisation.

    Riwanto Tirtosudarmo, an Indonesian political demographer, analysed the situation from a demographic perspective.

    He said that with the establishment of DOBs in Papua, the Papuan population was likely to become a minority in their own homeland due to the increasing number of immigrants.

    The central government’s stated objective for expansion in Papua was to promote equitable and accelerated development in eastern Indonesia.

    However, the participants in this online discussion expressed scepticism, saying that the reality on the ground told “a different story”.

    The discussion was hosted by Alfonsa Jumkon Wayap, chair of the Women and Children Division of the Catholic Youth Central Board, and was part of a regular online discussion series organised by the Papua Task Force Department of the Catholic Youth Central Board.

    Papuan demographics
    Pacific Media Watch reports that the 2020 census revealed a population of 4.3 million in the province of Papua of which the majority were Christian.

    However, the official estimate for mid-2022 was 4.4 million prior to the division of the province into four separate provinces, according to Wikipedia.

    The official estimate of the population in mid-2022 of the reduced province of Papua (with the capital Jayapura) was 1.04 million.

    The interior is predominantly populated by ethnic Papuans while coastal towns are inhabited by descendants of intermarriages between Papuans, Melanesians and Austronesians, including other Indonesian ethnic groups.

    Migrants from the rest of Indonesia also tend to inhabit the coastal regions.

    Republished from Jubi News with permission.

  • Basic Needs Approach And Missing Refugee Label: Strengthening The Refugee Regime For Environmental Refugees In India

    International law guarantees certain inherent rights which cannot be violated by states. It imposes an obligation on states with regards to economic, social, and cultural rights that can be achieved through international cooperation and assistance. Such extraterritorial obligations on states are necessary for the protection of fundamental rights of refugees.

    However, as India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, it is only bound by the rules of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. Further, there is no formal refugee policy in India. These can be considered a major reasons for the improper treatment of refugees in India. Although bilateral agreements were entered into by India, such as with Bangladesh on the Chakma agreement,  there has been only ad-hoc and temporary standards for refugee protection, thus jeopardizing the human rights of refugees.

    Further, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has only one office in the entire country, in New Delhi, to determine the status of asylum seekers. Thus causing the agency to completely fall short of providing legal assistance to refugees in other parts of the country.  Though the Supreme Court has recognized the rights of asylum seekers to non-refoulment, the effect of this on environmental refugees remains unclarified and it is left to be determined by the UNHCR on a case-to-case basis.

    Climate change-induced displacements have caused grave violations of human rights all over the world. The missing refugee label has been apparent over the years following the Refugee Status Determination (RSD) system in India. Even worse, despite environmental refugees being recognized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), this recognition is not granted in India, causing them to be deprived of the benefits they ought to receive with the refugee label. This in effect forces people to reside in the country as illegal immigrants, denying them of their very basic rights.

    One of the prominent rights guaranteed to environmental refugees is the right to non-refoulment which provides that no-one should be returned to a country where they would face torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and other irreparable harm. Non-refoulment with regards to climate change was considered by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) in the landmark case of Ioane Teitiota v. New Zealand. The court held that the forcible return of a person to a place where there is threat to life due to climate change amounts to a violation of their human rights. Further, the UNHRC has stated that environmental degradation can be brought within the scope of the violation of the right to life under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Further, the UNHCR also held that environmental contamination with proven long-term health effects may be a sufficient threat, provided there is sufficient evidence showing that the harmful quantities of contaminants have reached, or will reach, the human environment to be a criterion for Article 6 cases, thus, identifying the aspects of right to a healthy environment.

    India has ratified the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), the ICCPR and other international treaties which obligate it to protect the human rights of environmental refugees. This not only includes addressing their needs and assisting them before and during the asylum-seeking process, and after being granted refugee status, but also includes: initiating action to mitigate climate change to prevent its negative impacts on human rights; ensuring all persons have the capacity and means to adapt; and ensuring accountability and effective remedies for harms caused by climate change.

    Basic needs include access to basic services and assistance in health, nutrition, food, shelter, energy, education, as well as domestic items and specialized services for people with specific needs. The UNHCR defines the basic needs approach as a ‘way to enable refugees to meet their basic needs and achieve longer-term wellbeing through means to survive and services based on their socio-economic vulnerabilities and capabilities’ (UNHCR). In addition, a ‘poverty lens’ should be taken, alongside the prioritization of refugees who are economically and socially disadvantaged.

    Refugees have a right to choose a country of residence, this in turn is linked to the states’ responsibility to receive them. This is considered as a form of partial compensation for injustice and trauma and loss and damage. Certain states have shown a positive response to this principle by incorporating legislation protecting environmental refugees. Bolivia has referenced climate change-induced asylum seeking and protection of rights of such refugees. Similarly, Kenya in its National Climate Action Plan has addressed seeking refuge to be a potential coping mechanism for climate change. Though India has a plethora of environmental laws, none of them have been aimed at dealing with the important aspects of climate change adaptation. Further India doesn’t have a national adaptation plan thereby leading adaptation programs to be fragmented, sector specific and small- scale. Thus, India’s action on climate mitigation still remains opaque.

    Issues regarding environmental refugees were raised in early 2022 when the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav claimed in a Parliamentary session that India was prepared to deal with environmental refugees. But no plan was presented to substantiate this. Further, India has no officially reported data related to environmental refugees or internal displacements related to climate change. If not recognized and accounted for, such displacements can have a negative impact on India’s already climate-vulnerable communities.

    The policy lacuna in recognizing refugees in India has already caused a situation of crisis in the country. Thus, as a first step, the Parliament of India must enact stringent climate adaptation legislation. Secondly, the Parliament has to form an inclusive policy or provide a domestic law for refugees providing them a legal pathway to enter the nation and enjoy the rights guaranteed to them under international law. This would also require the setting up of a decentralized system where the determination of refugee status is more systematic, transparent and accessible. The resettlement and adaptation plan must also include the implementation of a  basic standard of living and protection of fundamental rights. Thirdly, the state should enter into bilateral agreements with climate vulnerable countries to facilitate the safe movement of people. If the following continues to be unaddressed, the fundamental rights of the refugees are left in jeopardy.

    This post was originally published on LSE Human Rights.

  • Germany says it ended training of Saudi border forces after abuses reported

    Statement comes amid concern about allegations Saudi forces have killed hundreds of migrants

    Germany ended a training programme for Saudi border forces, who have been implicated in the mass killing of migrants at the country’s border with Yemen, after it was alerted to reports of “possible massive human rights violations”, the German interior ministry has said.

    In a statement to the Guardian, the ministry said training undertaken by the federal police service for the Saudi border force had been “discontinued after reports of possible massive human rights violations became known and, as a precaution, are no longer included in the current training programme [for Saudi security forces]”.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • First-time Asian voters embrace New Zealand’s democratic process

    By Blessen Tom, RNZ journalist, and Liu Chen , RNZ journalist, for IndoNZ

    The upcoming general election in Aotearoa New Zealand is poised to witness an unprecedented influx of around 250,000 first-time voters.

    Data from the Electoral Commission shows that around 60,000 individuals will be eligible to vote for the first time this year after turning 18 since the 2020 election.

    However, a more sizeable chunk of voters is expected to come from the roughly 200,000 individuals who will be eligible to vote for the first time after being issued fast-track residency visas in 2021.

    Public Interest Journalism Fund
    PUBLIC INTEREST JOURNALISM FUND

    Forty-nine-year-old Deepa Tripathi Chaturvedi is one such voter.

    Having arrived in New Zealand in 2017 after a 20-year career as a broadcast journalist in India, Chaturvedi is looking forward to voting for the first time outside of India.

    Deepa moved to New Zealand in 2017 and is excited to vote for the first time in October.
    Deepa Tripathi Chaturvedi moved to New Zealand in 2017 . . . “I’m really excited to vote. It’s my first time voting outside India.” Image: RNZ IndoNZ

    “I’m really excited to vote,” she says. “It’s my first time voting outside India. Secondly, I’d really like to see a change.”

    Chaturvedi is concerned about the mounting cost of living in New Zealand, describing it as an increasingly arduous endeavor.

    “Living in New Zealand is becoming incredibly difficult,” she says.

    Home hopes look dim
    Despite her reasonably steady income, the prospect of being able to purchase a home of her own looks dim.

    “I believe in having my own place, but I just can’t afford it,” she says.

    Chaturvedi is also concerned about the government’s immigration policies.

    “I think it’s important to value your migrants and the current policies don’t reflect that,” she says.

    Chaturvedi understands the importance of participating in the election.

    Although Chaturvedi is unfamiliar with New Zealand’s mixed member proportional (MMP) electoral system, she wishes to educate herself about it before voting.

    Chaturvedi also draws comparisons between voting in India and New Zealand.

    Long queues in India
    “There are voting booths in India I think every 2km, so it’s very convenient,” she says. “But the queues can be quite long. ”

    Unlike New Zealand, which allows advance votes to be submitted, voters can only cast their ballots on election day in India.

    She hopes that she won’t have to stand in long queues when she votes in Auckland for the upcoming October election.

    Suresh is worried about the cost of living and immigration.
    Aravind Narayan Suresh . . . “I have my wife over here and I can’t support her with one job.” Image: RNZ IndoNZ

    Aravind Narayan Suresh, a 28-year-old IT professional and 2021 resident visa holder, shares Chaturvedi’s excitement about the upcoming election.

    Having migrated to New Zealand as a student, Suresh is eager to take part in the democratic process once again.

    “I have only voted in India and, now that I have an opportunity here, I’d love to participate in the democratic process again,” he says.

    His optimism is tempered by the economic challenges he currently faces, including the high cost of living and petrol prices.

    “I have my wife over here and I can’t support her with one job, so I’m thinking of doing two,” he says.

    Awaiting a work visa
    Suresh’s wife is a civil engineer but cannot work in New Zealand because she is still waiting to receive a work visa.

    “We have been waiting for seven months,” he says.

    Suresh understands his right to vote gives him an opportunity to effect change – whether his preferred choices win or lose.

    He also emphasizes the importance of diverse and inclusive representation among candidates in Parliament, believing it reflects the values of the community.

    “I think it’s really important to see representatives of the community at the parliament.”

    Like Chaturvedi, Suresh is also educating himself about New Zealand’s MMP electoral system but says he has found the overall enrollment process to be relatively straightforward.

    Kanmani is concerned about New Zealand’s housing crisis.
    Jaikrishna Anil Kanmani . . . “There are members in Parliament [in NZ] who didn’t win their electorates. That seemed weird at first to me.” Image: RNZ IndoNZ

    Jaikrishna Anil Kanmani, another first-time voter, is looking forward to the election with a touch of nostalgia for the vibrant electoral atmosphere in India.

    NZ elections ‘a little dull’
    “I feel like the elections in New Zealand are a little dull compared to India,” he says. “It’s a public holiday (in India) and everybody is on the streets.”

    He describes New Zealand’s MMP system as confusing and wishes to learn more about the mechanics of it as the election draws near.

    “There are members in Parliament who didn’t win their electorates,” he says. “That seemed weird at first to me.”

    He says he’s learning more about the electoral system to better understand how it all works.

    Concerns about New Zealand’s housing crisis resonate with Kanmani, prompting him to dismiss the idea of purchasing a home due to exorbitant costs.

    “I’ve completely dropped the idea of buying a house,” he says. “With the current living costs and the wages, we earn, there’s no way I would be able to put a down payment for a house.”

    Auckland woman Serena Wei and her family. Wei says she feels excited about the right to vote in the 2023 general election, but she needs more information on how to vote.
    Auckland woman Serena Wei and her family . . . “If everyone is moving forward [ in education], our country is stagnant, and we may lose touch with the progressing countries.” Image: RNZ IndoNZ

    Serena Wei, who arrived in New Zealand from China in 2018, confesses to being overwhelmed by the array of political parties and candidates.

    “I’m still a little confused now,” Wei says. “On the day of the general election, should I vote for a political party or a person? Because I have never experienced it, and I don’t know how to vote.”

    As a mother of two, she worries about the country’s education system and its recent reforms.

    “The current reforms make the curriculum and exams less difficult,” she says. “If everyone is moving forward, our country is stagnant, and we may lose touch with the progressing countries.”

    Emma Chan has recently obtained her New Zealand residency and is looking forward to the election.

    “I believe that actively engaging in democratic voting is a fundamental responsibility as a member of the community, contributing to both my own future and the collective well-being of everyone,” Chan says, speaking on condition of using a pseudonym to protect her identity.

    Chan highlights the inherent relationship between key issues such as safety, economic development, education and race relations. She emphasises the government’s role in formulating holistic, long-term policies to address these concerns.

    Snowee Jiang, who has previously volunteered for elections but has never voted, wants to vote this year to have a say on social issues.

    Jiang, who received the fast-track residency visa in 2021, seeks genuine representation in elected officials rather than a political spectacle. She also urges greater Chinese voter participation through enhanced awareness campaigns.

    “I hope that the Chinese can increase the proportion of voting,” she says. “Many people will not vote, and many people don’t care. I hope there will be more publicity in this regard.”

    According to the Electoral Commission, 3,871,418 Kiwis are eligible to vote on both the general and Māori rolls in this year’s election and, as of August 2023, about 88 percent had already enrolled.

    Advance voting starts on October 2, and election day is Saturday, October 14.

    Official results for the general election will be declared on November 3.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

  • Video shows woman lying dead on floor of migration detention centre in Libya

    Footage provides latest shocking glimpse of conditions endured by refugees in north African country

    Footage has emerged showing a woman lying dead on the floor of a migration detention centre in Libya in the latest shocking glimpse of the conditions endured by refugees in the north African country.

    The clip, believed to have been filmed two weeks ago and shared with the Guardian by a group who arrived in Tunisia from Libya, shows a room inside the Abu Salim detention centre in Tripoli.

    Continue reading…

  • ‘Fired on like rain’: Saudi border guards accused of mass killings of Ethiopians

    Report by Human Rights Watch details alleged attacks using explosive weapons and small arms on Saudi Arabia-Yemen border

    Saudi border guards have been accused of killing hundreds of Ethiopians using small arms and explosive weapons in a targeted campaign that rights advocates suggest may amount to a crime against humanity.

    The shocking claims are made in a detailed investigation by Human Rights Watch, which interviewed dozens of Ethiopian people who said they were attacked by border guards while they tried to cross into Saudi Arabia from Yemen.

    Continue reading…

  • We risk being seen as the ‘nasty party’ again, warn senior Conservatives

    Moderate Tories fear the party’s attack on human rights will alienate many voters and damage the UK’s global standing

    The Conservatives risk being seen once again as the “nasty party” by trying to win votes with a divisive attack on human rights, senior party figures have warned.

    Rishi Sunak is under increasing pressure from his party this weekend over his pledge to stop the boats crossing the Channel. It follows another week that ended in Channel deaths after the capsizing of a boat, while the total number of people making the dangerous crossing since 2018 rose above the 100,000 mark.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • How the CBP’s “Prevention Through Deterrence” Policy Contributes to Migrant Deaths at the U.S./Mexico Border

    “We did believe that geography would be an ally for us. It was our sense that the number of people crossing through the Arizona desert would go down to a trickle once people realized what it’s like.” — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency head, Doris Meissner in 2000. 

    In 1994, United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) introduced a new policy that they termed “prevention through deterrence.” By blocking popular crossing spots and forcing migrants into the dangerous desert areas and river crossings, the agency believed they could reduce the number of crossing attempts. Since then, the strategy has not worked. But it has led to an increase in the number of migrant deaths. 

    CBP has clearly prioritized minimizing the number of people processed at the border over the loss of human life. They have the statistics of what the past 28 years of the “prevention through deterrence” policy have resulted in – 2022 was the deadliest year ever recorded for migrants attempting to cross the border, amounting to over 800 deaths. There have been 7,505 official migrant deaths recorded since 1998. More than 2,000 of those deceased are still unidentified. 

    Effects of CBP Policies and Dangers of Border Patrol

    A report found that a migrant who attempted an illegal border crossing in 2012 was eight times more likely to die trying than someone trying to cross in 2003. Despite the United States heavily leading global discussions on human rights, including those of migrants and refugees, their own border with Mexico is now one of the deadliest land borders in the world. 

    It is probable that the number of migrant deaths is higher than what is officially recorded – estimates also only include remains that have been recovered. In 2021, CBP officially changed how they record the deaths of migrants to only include those that occur in the custody or proximity of a CBP agent, yet another decision by agency leaders that deprioritizes and obscures the effects of their policies on human lives. 

    By increasing physical barriers along the border, increasing the number of agents on patrol near cities and towns, and integrating new technology into their monitoring, CBP has purposefully pushed migrants away from the safest crossing points. Border Patrol agents working as part of CBP have also expanded the area they patrol to up to 100,000 square miles, pushing migrants further away from populated areas. This decision places more value on reducing the number of people reaching the border and being processed than on the safety of the men, women, and children who are attempting to reach the United States.

    Effects of Trump-Era Policies (How Trump Worsened the Border)

    Lingering immigration policies from former President Donald Trump, including blocking legal recognition of asylum seekers and increasing deportations, continue to push migrants onto more dangerous routes. Medical experts working along the U.S.-Mexico border have noted that the increased height of the border walls have correlated with an increase in deaths and serious injuries from scaling attempts. For instance, one hospital in San Diego reported five times the intake for injuries resulting from the wall since these Trump-era height increases. 

    CBP agents often chase migrants through dangerous terrain. Groups of migrants traveling together can become separated, get (severely) injured, while others may become lost. Based on data from the crisis hotline of No More Deaths, an advocacy organization based in Arizona, Border Patrol is more than twice as likely to take part in directly causing a person to go missing by dangerous enforcement tactics than they are to participate in finding a distressed person.”

    In June 2022, the death of 51 migrants in San Antonio, Texas drew international attention to the lengths migrants have gone to in order to avoid CBP detection. “Stacks of bodies” were found in the back of an abandoned truck. The victims had been trapped with no air conditioning or water in temperatures that reached 39 degrees Celsius, covered in steak seasoning to mask any sign of human smuggling. The U.S. government claims that they “made the global fight against human trafficking a policy priority,” but it was their own policies which led to the deadliest human trafficking incident in modern U.S. history. 

    A similar incident in Texas occurred in 2007, when 19 migrants died after they were locked inside a truck. Temperatures inside reached up to 38 degrees Celsius and migrants were reported to have “clawed at the insulation and screamed for help.” In May 2022, one migrant was killed and five were injured after a CBP car chase. In 2012, a 16-year-old boy was killed through a border fence on Mexican territory by a Border Patrol Agent, shot ten times in the back in an act that would be ruled unconstitutional. 

    Conversely, these incidents allow CBP to justify increases in their budget and rapidly expand their number of personnel. Since 1998, the number of Border Patrol personnel has more than quadrupled from 4,200 to 19,555. CBP and the larger U.S. Homeland Security agency have leveraged the danger that they caused by making the area around the border more dangerous to justify rapidly expanding their resources. 

    The Trump campaign made border control a centrepiece of his policy plans. His implementation of a “zero-tolerance” policy regarding illegal border crossings directly led to the separation of almost 4,000 minors from their parents, according to the administration of President Joe Biden. 

    Although Trump’s tough-on-immigration policies shined a national spotlight on the issue, human rights violations at the U.S.-Mexico border have existed for a long time. The “prevention through deterrence” policy has been in effect since the Bill Clinton administration. Furthermore, border security tightened significantly after 9/11. These decisions to make the safest border crossing points heavily patrolled, as well as CBP’s decision to push migrants into more dangerous areas of the harsh desert borderlands, are clearly driving factors in the rising numbers of the dead and missing. 

    The Biden administration has also increased the CBP budget, although they have reversed some of Trump’s harshest immigration policies and publicly stated that they intend to build a “safe, orderly, and humane immigration system.” However, migrants continue to die in record numbers under Biden’s leadership. Roughly 800 people died during 2022, an increase from 557 people in 2021. Any changes that the Biden administration implemented or proposed are too slow. Every day that the “prevention through deterrence” strategy remains in place, more lives are lost, more families are destroyed, and more people will forever wonder what happened to their loved ones on their journey.

    A Two-Headed Snake

    Border Patrol would like the public to think of them as not only a security agency, but also as a search and rescue team. CBP has forced migrants into dangerous and deadly situations, including blocking attempts for humanitarian assistance. Officers have been filmed destroying supplies that humanitarian groups left in the desert for migrants. 

    In 2018, No More Deaths volunteer Scott Warren was arrested by CBP for offering food, shelter, medical attention, and directions toward safety for two migrants. The government considered this to be “felony concealing, harbouring or shielding from detection… in furtherance of illegal presence in the United States.” 

    In her closing argument, the prosecutor of this case said that “for four days, those illegal aliens were safe from Border Patrol.” Despite the fact that Border Patrol pushes migrants into dangerous areas and often fails to act as a competent search and rescue team, the people who fill the gaps in providing life-saving services are prosecuted. 

    A report led by the humanitarian organization La Coalición de Derechos Humanos found that in “63% of all distress calls that families and advocates referred to Border Patrol, the agency did not conduct any confirmed search or rescue mobilization whatsoever.” The primary mission of CBP has, and continues to be, the prevention of illegal entries into the United States, yet it maintains a monopoly on search and rescue decisions for missing migrants. 

    The combination of CBP’s capacity as an immigration enforcement agency and search and rescue team also discourages migrants from seeking help from them, even if they risk death by doing so.

    Some migrants also do not know that their 911 calls are passed off to CBP, even when they’re talking to them. 

    As long as CBP continues a policy of deterrence, migrants will continue to die. As long as CBP is responsible for rescuing migrants from the danger that they put them in, they will remain lost. These migrants risk everything to reach the United States, and it is the country’s sole responsibility to fix a system which shows zero concern for their survival.

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    Reports, S. (2022) The Border’s Toll: Migrants increasingly die crossing into U.S., Reuters. Thomson Reuters. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-immigration-border-deaths/ (Accessed: October 15, 2022). 

    Rose, J. and Peñaloza, M. (2022) Migrant deaths at the U.S.-Mexico Border hit a record high, in part due to drownings, NPR. NPR. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2022/09/29/1125638107/migrant-deaths-us-mexico-border-record-drownings#:~:text=More%20than%20560%20migrants%20died,border%20are%20largely%2%200to%20blame (Accessed: October 18, 2022). 

    Wang, A.B. (2021) Border Patrol agents were filmed dumping water left for migrants. then came a ‘suspicious’ arrest., The Washington Post. WP Company. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/01/23/border-patrol-accused-of-targeting-aid-group-that-filmed-agents-dumping-water-left-for-migrants/ (Accessed: October 20, 2022).

  • ‘Should we cheer?’: support for asylum seekers arriving at Dorset port

    Local campaigners deliver welcome packs for people transferred to Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland

    After weeks of local strife and national buildup, the sparsely filled coaches entering the Dorset port where the Bibby Stockholm is moored were a boost to pro-refugee demonstrators.

    “Should we cheer just in case?” asked Heather, a local campaigner and member of Stand Up to Racism Dorset as a fifth, seemingly empty, coach drove into the port.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Macron to ditch Noumea Accord for self-determination and introduce new statute for New Caledonia

    By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific contributing journalist

    French president Emmanuel Macron says he will forge ahead with processing a new statute for New Caledonia, replacing the 1998 Noumea Accord.

    New Caledonia held three referendums on independence from France under the Noumea Accord, and all resulted in a vote against it.

    But the last referendum result, held in December 2021, is disputed, as it was boycotted by the indigenous Kanak people due to the devastation caused by the covid-19 pandemic.

    The main body of the independence movement has been quiet during the trip, waiting to see what was put on the table.

    Islands Business correspondent Nic Maclellan told RNZ Pacific that Macron, speaking in Noumea yesterday, threw out a challenge to them.

    He said independence leaders, particularly from the Caledonian Union party, the largest pro-independence party boycotted the president’s speech.

    “Macron threw out a challenge to them, basically saying that the French state would forge ahead with the process to introduce a new political statute for New Caledonia, replacing the Noumea Accord, the framework agreement that’s lasted for three decades,” Maclellan said.

    The President of the New Caledonia territorial government, Louis Mapou, did welcome Macron.

    “[The French President] talked about the reform of political institutions. A major step which won large applause from the crowd was to unfreeze the electoral rolls for the looming provincial and congressional elections to be held in May next year,” Maclellan said.

    “That will allow thousands more French nationals to vote than are currently able to under under the Noumea Accord.

    “And he basically said that he would be moving ahead to review the Constitution in early 2024.

    “The Noumea Accord is entrenched in its own clauses of the French constitution, so there needs to be a major constitutional change. He suggested he was going to move forward pretty strongly on that.”

    French President Emmanuel Macron with the New Caledonia territorial President Louis Mapou
    French President Emmanuel Macron hugs a ni-Vanuatu child in Port Vila today . . . historic visit to independent Pacific states. Image: Vanuatu Daily Post

    Rebuilding the economy
    Maclellan said Macron also talked about the future role of the French dependency around two key areas.

    The first was about rebuilding the economic and social models of New Caledonia, addressing an inequality, particularly for poor people from the Kanak indigenous community, questions of employment.

    He said a major section of his speech focused on the nickel industry, and the need to solve the energy crisis that powered nickel with improved productivity in this key sector.

    France 1 television, the state broadcaster, reports Macron confirmed more than 200 soldiers for the armed forces of New Caledonia.

    But there will also be the creation of a military “Pacific academy, right here, to train soldiers from all over the region”.

    Emmanuel Macron is also visiting Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Mosquitos are moving to higher elevations — and so is malaria

    Climate Connections is a collaboration between Grist and the Associated Press that explores how a changing climate is accelerating the spread of infectious diseases around the world, and how mitigation efforts demand a collective, global response. Read more here.

    As the planet warms, mosquitoes are slowly migrating to higher places — and bringing malaria to populations not used to dealing with the potentially deadly disease.

    Researchers have documented the insects making their homes in higher places that are typically too cool for them, from the tropical highlands of South America to the mountainous but populous regions of eastern Africa. A recent Georgetown University study found them moving upward in sub-Saharan Africa at the rate of 21 feet per year.

    “The link between climate change and expansion or change in mosquito distributions is real,” said Doug Norris, a specialist in mosquitoes at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

    It’s difficult to pinpoint how these shifting mosquito populations will affect specific populations, Norris said, in part because people have gotten better at fighting malaria. 

    Global deaths from the disease declined by 27 percent between 2002 and 2021, as countries have adopted insecticide-treated nets, antimalarial drugs, and tests. Eighteen million doses of a new malaria vaccine are set to be distributed across Africa in the next two years. 

    But the world faces new threats: U.S. health officials say the first malaria cases in the United States since 2003 were found in Florida and Texas in May and June, and an invasive mosquito species is likely behind spikes in malaria in Djibouti and Ethiopia. Climate change presents another emerging threat, World Health Organization officials wrote in their latest global malaria report. 

    But scientists agree mosquitoes are on the move.

    One study published in 2016 found the habitat for malaria-carrying mosquitoes had expanded on the higher elevations of Kilimanjaro by hundreds of square kilometers in just 10 years. The densely populated region faces new risks from malaria as a result, the research found, especially considering the population has not faced much exposure before. Meanwhile, the study found fewer mosquitoes at warming lower elevations. 

    “As it gets warmer at higher altitudes with climate change and all of these other environmental changes, then mosquitoes can survive higher up the mountain,” said Manisha Kulkarni, a professor and researcher studying malaria in sub-Saharan Africa at the University of Ottawa.

    The region Kulkarni studied, which is growing in population, is close to the border of Tanzania and Kenya. Together, the two countries accounted for 6 percent of global malaria deaths in 2021.

    Map showing how temperatures have increased in Tanzania over time

    The mosquito’s migration has been seen elsewhere. For example, researchers in 2015 noticed native birds in Hawaii were squeezed out of lower elevation habitats as mosquitoes carrying avian malaria slowly migrated upward into their territory. 

    But given that 96 percent of malaria deaths in 2021 occurred in Africa, with children under 5 years old accounting for the majority of those fatalities, most research on the trend is found there.

    Jeremy Herren, who studies malaria at the Nairobi-based International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, said there is evidence that warming temperatures influence where mosquito populations choose to live. But it’s challenging to make sweeping predictions about how that will affect the spread of malaria, he said.

    For example, Herren noted the long-dominant mosquito species in Kenya fell off in the mid-2000s, around the same time that insecticide-treated nets were widely distributed. The species is now nearly impossible to find, he said, a shift that is likely not attributable to climate change. 

    Mosquitoes are also picky about their habitat, Norris said. The different malaria-carrying species have various preferences in temperature, humidity, and amount of rainfall. In general, however, mosquito larvae grow faster in warmer conditions, he said. 

    Rising temperatures are also not the only way a changing climate gives mosquitoes the upper hand. The bugs tend to thrive in the kind of extremes that are happening more frequently because of human-caused climate change.  

    Mosquitoes tend to thrive in the kind of extremes that are happening more frequently because of human-caused climate change.  

    Longer rainy seasons can create better habitats for mosquitoes, which breed in water. But conversely, while droughts can dry up those habitats, they also encourage people to store water in containers, creating perfect breeding sites. An outbreak of chikungunya, another mosquito-borne disease, between 2004 and 2005 was linked to drought in coastal Kenya for these reasons. 

    Researchers found malaria cases in the highlands of Ethiopia fell in the early 2000s in tandem with a decline in temperatures as global warming temporarily stalled.

    Pamela Martinez, a researcher at the University of Illinois, said her team’s findings on malaria trends in Ethiopia, published in 2021 in the journal Nature, lent more confidence to the idea that malaria and temperature — and therefore climate change — are linked. 

    “We see that when temperature goes down, the overall trend of cases also goes down, even in the absence of intervention,” Martinez said. “That proves the case that temperature has an impact on transmission.” 

    The researchers also noticed mosquito populations creeping upward to higher elevations during warmer years. 

    Ethiopia’s temperatures began to warm again in the mid-2000s, but public health officials also ramped up efforts to control malaria in the highlands around that time, which has contributed to a sustained decline in cases.  But even as the Ethiopian Ministry of Health drafted a plan to eliminate malaria by 2030, its authors laid out the threats to that goal: population shifts, a lack of funding, the invasion of a new mosquito species, and climate change.

    This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Mosquitos are moving to higher elevations — and so is malaria on Jul 20, 2023.

    This post was originally published on Grist.

  • UK illegal migration bill will have profound consequences, warns UN body

    Rishi Sunak’s legislation faces criticism as barge that will house asylum seekers arrives in Portland

    Rishi Sunak’s migration bill “will have profound consequences for people in need of international protection”, a UN body has warned, as protesters greeted the arrival of the first barge that will house asylum seekers under government plans.

    The criticism followed Monday night’s crushing of the final resistance in the House of Lords to the plans, as the Conservative frontbench saw off five further changes to the bill including modern slavery protections and child detention limits.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Guatemala’s War on Journalists

    Reveal revisits a story produced in collaboration with a Guatemalan journalist who is now in prison. José Rubén Zamora was jailed last summer after his newspaper, elPeriódico, published more than 100 stories about corruption within Guatemala’s government.

    Corruption is a longstanding problem in Guatemala, and it’s intertwined with U.S. policy in Central America. At times, the U.S. has had a corrupting influence on Guatemalan politics; at others, it has supported transparency. This week’s show looks at the root causes of corruption and impunity in Guatemala and how they have prompted generations of Guatemalans to flee their country and migrate north.

    Veteran radio journalist Maria Martin takes us to Huehuetenango, a province near Guatemala’s border with Mexico. For decades, residents have been migrating to the U.S. to help support families struggling with poverty. We then connect the migration outflow to U.S. policy during the Cold War and its support of brutal dictatorships in Guatemala that were plagued by corruption.

    Then Reveal’s Anayansi Diaz-Cortes introduces us to a crusading prosecutor named Iván Velásquez. In the early 2000s, Velásquez was tasked with running an international anti-corruption commission in Guatemala, known by its Spanish acronym, CICIG. Its mandate was to root out corruption and improve the lives of Guatemalans so they wouldn’t feel compelled to leave their homes. Velásquez had a reputation for jailing presidents and paramilitaries, but met his match when he went after Jimmy Morales, a television comedian who was elected president in 2015. Morales found an ally in then-U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration helped Morales dismantle CICIG.

    With CICIG gone, journalists were left to expose government corruption – journalists like Zamora, who was arrested last summer on trumped-up charges. Diaz-Cortes speaks with Zamora’s son about his father’s arrest and the state of journalism in Guatemala.

    This is an update of an episode that originally aired in September 2020.

    This post was originally published on Reveal.

  • Tunisia should not get ‘€1bn on a silver plate’ in migration deal, says MEP

    Critics of deal say EU funds should have conditions attached related to human rights and democracy

    The EU should not be allowed to sign off on a controversial migration pact with Tunisia without intervening over human rights breaches and a “breakdown” in its democracy, European parliamentarians have argued.

    The French MEP Mounir Satouri said it was not right that Tunisia should be given “€1bn on a silver plate”. “That cannot happen,” he said, outlining the European parliament’s role as co-legislator in the EU.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • French riots follow decades-old pattern of rage, with no resolution in sight

    ANALYSIS: By François Dubet, Université de Bordeaux

    Although they never fail to take us aback, French riots have followed the same distinct pattern ever since protests broke out in the eastern suburbs of Lyon in 1981, an episode known as the “summer of Minguettes”: a young person is killed or seriously injured by the police, triggering an outpouring of violence in the affected neighbourhood and nearby.

    Sometimes, as in the case of the 2005 riots and of this past week’s, it is every rough neighbourhood that flares up.

    Throughout the past 40 years in France, urban revolts have been dominated by the rage of young people who attack the symbols of order and the state: town halls, social centres, schools, and shops.

    An institutional and political vacuum
    That rage is the kind that leads one to destroy one’s own neighbourhood, for all to see.

    Residents condemn these acts, but can also understand the motivation. Elected representatives, associations, churches and mosques, social workers and teachers admit their powerlessness, revealing an institutional and political vacuum.

    Of all the revolts, the summer of the Minguettes was the only one to pave the way to a social movement: the March for Equality and Against Racism in December 1983.

    Numbering more than 100,000 people and prominently covered by the media, it was France’s first demonstration of its kind. Left-leaning newspaper Libération nicknamed it “La Marche des Beurs”, a colloquial term that refers to Europeans whose parents or grandparents are from the Maghreb.

    In the demonstrations that followed, no similar movement appears to have emerged from the ashes.

    At each riot, politicians are quick to play well-worn roles: the right denounces the violence and goes on to stigmatise neighbourhoods and police victims; the left denounces injustice and promises social policies in the neighbourhoods.

    In 2005, then Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy sided with the police. France’s current President, Emmanuel Macron, has expressed compassion for the teenager killed by the police in Nanterre, but politicians and presidents are hardly heard in the neighbourhoods concerned.

    We then wait for silence to set in until the next time the problems of the banlieues (French suburbs) and its police are rediscovered by society at large.

    Lessons to be learned
    The recurrence of urban riots in France and their scenarios yield some relatively simple lessons.

    First, the country’s urban policies miss their targets. Over the last 40 years, considerable efforts have been made to improve housing and facilities. Apartments are of better quality, there are social centres, schools, colleges and public transportation.

    It would be wrong to say that these neighbourhoods have been abandoned.

    On the other hand, the social and cultural diversity of disadvantaged suburbs has deteriorated. More often than not, the residents are poor or financially insecure, and are either descendants of immigrants or immigrants themselves.

    Above all, when given the opportunity and the resources, those who can leave the banlieues soon do, only to be replaced by even poorer residents from further afield. Thus while the built environment is improving, the social environment is unravelling.

    However reluctant people may be to talk about France’s disadvantaged neighbourhoods, the social process at work here is indeed one of ghettoisation – i.e., a growing divide between neighbourhoods and their environment, a self-containment reinforced from within. You go to the same school, the same social centre, you socialise with the same individuals, and you participate in the same more or less legal economy.

    In spite of the cash and local representatives’ goodwill, people still feel excluded from society because of their origins, culture or religion. In spite of social policies and councillors’ work, the neighbourhoods have no institutional or political resources of their own.

    Whereas the often communist-led “banlieues rouges” (“red suburbs”) benefited from the strong support of left-leaning political parties, trade unions and popular education movements, today’s banlieues hardly have any spokespeople. Social workers and teachers are full of goodwill, but many don’t live in the neighbourhoods where they work.

    This disconnect works both ways, and the past days’ riots revealed that elected representatives and associations don’t have any hold on neighbourhoods where residents feel ignored and abandoned. Appeals for calm are going unheeded. The rift is not just social, it’s also political.

    A constant face-off
    With this in mind, we are increasingly seeing young people face off with the police. The two groups function like “gangs”, complete with their own hatreds and territories.

    In this landscape, the state is reduced to legal violence and young people to their actual or potential delinquency.

    The police are judged to be “mechanically” racist on the grounds that any young person is a priori a suspect. Young people feel hatred for the police, fuelling further police racism and youth violence.

    Older residents would like to see more police officers to uphold order, but also support their own children and the frustrations and anger they feel.

    This “war” is usually played out at a low level. When a young person dies, however, everything explodes and it’s back to the drawing board until the next uprising, which will surprise us just as much as the previous ones.

    But there is something new in this tragic repetition. The first element is the rise of the far right — and not just on that side of the political spectrum. Racist accounts of the uprisings are taking hold, one that speaks of “barbarians” and immigration, and there’s fear that this could lead to success at the ballot box.

    The second is the political and intellectual paralysis of the political left. While it denounces injustice and sometimes supports the riots, it does not appear to have put forward any political solution other than police reform.

    So long as the process of ghettoisation continues, as France’s young people and security forces face off time and time again, it is hard to see how the next police blunder and the riots that follow won’t be just around the corner.The Conversation

    Dr François Dubet, professeur des universités émérite, Université de Bordeaux. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

  • I know firsthand the torture of offshore detention. How can Labor maintain such a racist system? | Elahe Zivardar

    Evacuating the last refugees but paying $350m of Australian taxpayers’ money to keep the gates open? That’s plucking defeat from the jaws of victory

    The trauma and torture of Australian border violence and its offshore detention centre has never left me, even though it’s been four years since I left Nauru and came to the US to start my new life here.

    I became a refugee when I naively assumed that Australia was a nation that respected human rights and international law. I came seeking freedom under a democratic system, where my opinions could be expressed without fear of persecution or prosecution. I had so much faith in that ideal that I boarded a boat bound for Christmas Island. But instead, I was transferred to Nauru, a place without hope.

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  • Braverman says appeal court ruling on Rwanda ‘disappointing for majority of British people’ – as it happened

    Home secretary says government will seek leave to appeal against judgment as she gives statement to MPs

    Jacob Rees-Mogg declined to comment on the privileges committee report when he was doorstepped by reporters this morning. He told ITV he was going to church, and then to the Test match.

    The Suella Braverman statement in the Commons on the court of appeal judgment on the Rwanda deportations policy will take place at about 5pm.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • The ‘triumph of cruelty’ in Australia’s asylum seeker policy – podcast

    The last refugee has now been evacuated from Nauru. Yet the Australian-run detention centre remains ‘ready to receive and process’ any new unauthorised maritime arrivals at an annual cost of $350m.

    Guardian Australia chief political correspondent Paul Karp and reporter Eden Gillespie tell Jane Lee about what refugees and asylum seekers detained for more than a decade make of the decision, and what it means for Australia’s deterrence policy

    You can subscribe for free to Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast Full Story on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google podcasts

    Read more:

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • ‘Other people’s wars’, climate crisis – South Pacific not in good shape, warns Fiji leader

    By Kalinga Seneviratne in Suva

    In a keynote speech at the annual Pacific Update conference the region’s major university, Fiji deputy Prime Minister Professor Biman Prasad has warned delegates from the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand that Oceania is not in good shape because of problems not of their own making.

    Professor Prasad was speaking at the three-day conference at the University of the South Pacific where he was the former dean of the Business and Economic Faculty,

    He listed these problems as climate change, geopolitics, superpower conflict, a declining resource base in fisheries and forests, environmental degradation and debilitating health problems leading to significant social and economic challenges.

    He asked the delegates to consider whether the situation of the South Pacific nations is improving when they take stock of where the region is today.

    “What is clear, or should be clear to all of us, is that as a region, we are not in entirely good shape,” said Professor Prasad.

    Pacific Update, held annually at USP, is the premier forum for discussing economic, social, political, and environmental issues in the region.

    Held on June 13-15 this year, it was co-hosted by the Development Policy Centre of the Australian National University (ANU) and USP’s School of Accounting, Finance and Economics.

    Distant wars
    In his keynote, Professor Prasad pinpointed an issue adversely affecting the region’s economic wellbeing.

    “Our region has suffered disproportionally from distant wars in Ukraine,” he said. “Price rises arising from Russia’s war on Ukraine is ravaging communities in our islands by way of price hikes that are making the basics unaffordable.

    “Even though not a single grain of wheat is imported from this region, the price increase for a loaf of bread across the Pacific is probably among the highest in the world.

    “This is not unbelievable, not to mention unjust,” he noted, adding that this is due to supply chain failures in these remote corners of the world where the cost of shipping goods and services have spiralled.

    Though he did not specifically mention the collateral damage from economic sanctions imposed by the West, he did point out that shipping costs have increased several hundred percent since the conflict started.

    “In the backdrop of all these, or should I say forefront, is a runaway climate crisis whose most profound and acutest impacts are felt by small island states,” said Professor Prasad. “The impacts of climate change on our economies and societies are systematic; they are widespread, and they are growing”.

    Rather than focusing on the problems listed by Professor Prasad, this year’s Pacific Update devoted a significant part of the event to the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, where Australia has opened its borders to thousands of workers from the Pacific island countries with new provisions provided for them to acquire permanent residency in the country.

    Development aid scheme
    Australia is presenting this as a development assistance scheme where many academics presenting research papers showed that the remittances they send back help local economies by increasing consumption(and economic growth).

    Hiroshi Maeda, a researcher from ANU, said that remittances play a crucial role in the economy of the Kingdom of Tonga in the Pacific, a country of just over 106,000 people.

    According to recent census data from Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America quoted in a UN report, 126.540 Tongans live overseas. According to a survey by Maeda, temporary migration has helped to increase household savings by 38.1 percent from remittances sent home.

    It also increases the expenditure on services such as health, education and recreation while also helping the housing sector.

    There was a whole session devoted to the PALM scheme where Australian researchers presented survey findings done among Pacific unskilled workers, mainly working in the farm sector in Australia, about their satisfaction rates with the Australian work experience.

    Dung Doan and Ryan Edwards presented data from a joint World Bank-ANU survey. They said there had been allegations of exploited Pacific workers and concerns about worker welfare and social impacts, but this is the first study addressing these issues.

    They have interviewed thousands of workers, and the researchers say “a majority of the workers are very satisfied” and “social outcomes on balance are net positive”.

    Better planning needed
    When IDN asked a panellist about PALM and other migrant labour recruitment schemes of Australia such as hiring of nurses from the Pacific and the impact it is creating — especially in Fiji where there are labour shortages as a result — his response was that it needs better planning by governments to train its workers.

    But, one Pacific academic from USP (who did not want to be named) told IDN later, “Yes, we can spend to train them, and Australia will come and steal them after six months”. She lamented that there needed to be more Pacific academics who made their voices heard.

    One such voice, however, was Denton Rarawa, Senior Advisor in Economics of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) from the Solomon Islands. He pointed out that a major issue the Pacific region needed to address to reach the sustainable development goals (SDGs) was to consider reforms and policies that strike a balance between supporting livelihoods and reducing future debt risks.

    “Labour Mobility is resulting in increasing remittances to our region,” but Rarawa warned, “It is having an unintended consequence of brain drain with over 54,000 Pacific workers in Australia and New Zealand at the end of last year.”

    All Pacific island nations beyond Papua New Guinea and Fiji have small populations — many have just about 100,000 people, and some, like Nauru, Tuvalu and Kiribati, have just a few thousand.

    Rarawa argues that even though “we may be small in land mass, our combined exclusive economic zone covers nearly 20 percent of the world’s surface as a collective, we control nearly 10 percent of the votes at the United Nations.

    “We are home to over 60 percent of the world’s tuna supply — therefore, we are a region of strategic value”.

    Rarawa believes that good Pacific leadership is needed to exploit this strategic value for the benefit of the people in the Pacific.

    “The current strategic environment we find ourselves in just reinforces and re-emphasize the notion for us to seize the opportunity to strengthen our regional solidarity and leverage our current strategic context to address our collective challenges,” argues Rarawa.

    “We need deeper regionalism (driven by) political leadership and regionalism (with) people-centred development (that) brings improved socio-economic wellbeing by ensuring access to employment, entrepreneurship, trade, finance and investment in the region.”

    Dr Kalinga Seneviratne is a Sri Lanka-born journalist, broadcaster and international communications specialist. He is currently a consultant to the journalism programme at the University of the South Pacific. He is also the former head of research at the Asian Media Information and Communication Center (AMIC) in Singapore. In-Depth News (IDN) is the flagship agency of the non-profit International Press Syndicate.

    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

  • ‘My heart is full of pain’: hotel detention is ruining lives – I’ve seen the damage up close | Lorraine Finlay

    Australians would be shocked to learn about the plight of people detained in hotels under Australia’s immigration system

    The plight of people detained in hotels under Australia’s immigration system usually goes unnoticed, though it would probably shock most Australians. Last year, when I inspected one such hotel and interviewed people who had been detained in hotels in Melbourne and Brisbane, I knew what to expect but found it confronting nonetheless.

    The first thing that struck me was the proximity. Other guests stayed in the same hotel, coming and going without ever realising they shared the place with people who were imprisoned – who looked out their windows as the world went by in the city centre but were unable to join it. The invisibility of detainees within hotels themselves emphasised their political invisibility.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • What happens when you read an article about climate migration?

    After months without rain, your crops have withered away and died, and you’re thirsty. Or maybe you have the opposite problem, and relentless rains flooded your home  — not for the first time. 

    There are lots of reasons people move, and climate change increasingly numbers among them. News headlines warn of a coming “climate refugee crisis,” with rising sea levels spurring mass migration on a “biblical scale.” Provoking anxiety is sort of the default mode for talking about climate change, but is this the best way to discuss people trying to move out of harm’s way?

    A new study — among the first to test how Americans react to learning about climate migration — suggests that these kinds of articles might trigger backlash. Both Republicans and Democrats reported colder, more negative feelings toward migrants after reading a mock news article about climate migration, according to research published this spring in the journal Climatic Change.

    “There’s a real potential of stories invoking a nativist response, making people view migrants more negatively and possibly as less human,” said Ash Gillis, an author of the study and a former psychology researcher at Vanderbilt University. Depending on how they’re told, stories about climate migration might not only provoke xenophobia, but also fail to rally support for climate action, research suggests.

    Gillis had been looking for ways to try to reduce polarization around climate change and wondered if pairing the subject with migration might make people more concerned about the changing planet. Instead, Gillis, along with researchers in Indiana and Michigan, found that reading a Mother Jones–style article with the headline “In U.S., Climate Change Driving Immigration Rise” led to more of a backlash toward migrants than reading an article about the country’s foreign-born population rising without an explanation of what was driving it. “There’s something going on with this added climate change component,” Gillis said.

    With roughly 20 million people moving in response to floods, droughts, and wildfires every year since 2008, climate migration is already a reality. Most of the time, that movement happens within national borders, with only about a quarter of migrants relocating to new countries. Whether governments respond to those hopeful newcomers by arming their borders or creating pathways for refugees depends to a large degree on compassion. Estimates of how many people will decide to move in the coming decades because of environmental threats range widely, but the stakes could be as high as 1.2 billion lives. 

    “Figuring out what is the right way to get these messages across is hugely important,” said Sonia Shah, the author of The Next Great Migration. Shah has said that the so-called “migration crisis” is better described as a “welcoming crisis,” suggesting that the real problem lies with how countries respond to the inevitability of migration.

    Moving is a destabilizing experience, even under good circumstances, and climate migration is often borne of a traumatic event, like when your home burns down in a fire. But migration isn’t inherently bad: For those on the move, it can be an economic opportunity, or a way of finding safety on a hotter, more unpredictable planet. 

    “The takeaway shouldn’t be, ‘Let’s avoid [talking about] migration altogether,’” said Stephanie Teatro, director of climate and migration at the National Partnership for New Americans, in response to Gillis’ study.

    A pink, boat-shaped item at a protest says "migrant justice is climate justice."
    Protesters take part in a demonstration by the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion, calling for justice for migrants, outside of Britain’s Home Office in central London, April 23, 2023. Susannah Ireland / AFP via Getty Images

    Teatro attributes the subjects’ defensive responses to the way politicians and the media have primed them to react. “The study didn’t happen in a vacuum,” she said. Republican politicians peddle myths that migrants steal American jobs or are more prone to commit crimes. But Democrats could be undermining support for immigrants, too, by positioning migration as one of the many distressing outcomes of climate change. 

    Consider how John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, has approached the subject. “We’re already seeing climate refugees around the world,” he said at an energy conference in Houston last year. “If you think migration has been a problem in Europe, in the Syrian War, or even from what we see now [in Ukraine], wait until you see 100 million people for whom the entire food production capacity has collapsed.” Kerry also once warned that drought in northern Africa and the Mediterranean will lead to “hordes of people … knocking on the door.” 

    It’s much more difficult to identify with masses of people than a single person, said Kate Manzo, who studies imagery and international development at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. As an example, she pointed to an anti-migrant poster from that country’s Brexit era showing a snaking line of thousands of refugees that critics said incited “racial hatred.” Describing a group of asylum seekers as a “flood” or “invasion” causes a similar distancing effect, Manzo said.

    Even well-intentioned climate advocates like Kerry — in the hopes of bolstering support for reducing carbon emissions — can wind up inadvertently tapping into people’s fears about an increase in migration, Teatro said. “That’s been the default frame: ‘If you want to stop migration, you better get serious about climate change.’”

    Research suggests that that type of message may not be effective for motivating policy support for tackling carbon emissions. Learning about climate migration did not increase people’s support for policies such as mandating utilities to get 50 percent of electricity from renewables by 2030 or for making fossil fuel companies pay fees for the pollution they emit, according to Gillis’ study. That finding gels with previous studies showing that framing global warming as a national security issue failed to increase support for climate action, and sometimes even backfired.

    Scientists and environmentalists are beginning to recognize that there’s another way of talking about people on the move. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations’ leading body of climate experts, has acknowledged that migration can be a viable way for people to adapt to a hotter, more chaotic world — provided that the relocation happens in a “voluntary, safe and orderly” manner. A guide from the climate acitivist group 350.org and other environmental groups calls for reframing the issue (Do: Say migration is “part of the solution.” Don’t: Say “mass migration”). Common Defense, a grassroots organization of progressive veterans, advises against calling climate migration a “crisis” or a threat to national security. 

    “Migration is a resilient, adaptive response to crisis. It’s not the crisis,” Shah said. “And if we cast it as a crisis, I mean, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.”

    Shah theorized that the wording of the mock news article in Gillis’ study could have prompted a nativist reaction among the study’s participants. It explained that climate change was linked to worsening heat waves, drought, floods, and hurricanes, fueling immigration to the United States. In developing countries, the article said, farmers were going bankrupt, rates of civil unrest were increasing, and people were considering moving abroad — and “Americans should plan for these changes well in advance.” Readers might have taken those ideas and made the trip from “something really scary is happening” to the fearful notion that “brown people are going to come take your stuff,” Shah said.

    The mock news article about climate migration from the recent study. Gillis et al.

    Shah thinks the framing that climate migration is mostly about poor people moving to rich countries is a “biased way of looking at it.” After all, Americans are moving, too, to escape hurricanes along the East Coast and wildfires in California. Gillis said that the wording of the mock news story was inspired by research that colleagues were conducting on migration and farmers in Southeast Asia.

    There are other theories that could explain the backfiring effect. For example, climate change might be viewed as a less legitimate reason for immigrating to a new country than war or famine, Gillis speculated, potentially casting climate migrants in a poorer light. Polling from Pew Research Center shows that nearly three-quarters of Americans generally support the United States accepting refugees from countries where people are trying to escape violence and war, but migration prompted by climate disasters hasn’t yet figured into the polling center’s questions.

    “Migration, of course, is a very risky thing to do,” Shah said. “The fact that we’ve done it all along despite the great cost to us in the short term” — from leaving behind our families and friends to getting lost in a new landscape — “what that tells me is that this is something that over evolutionary time, the benefits have greatly outweighed the cost.”

    This story was originally published by Grist with the headline What happens when you read an article about climate migration? on Jun 16, 2023.

  • Climate Crisis Could Push a Third of Humanity From Most Livable Environment

    Climate change is remapping where humans can exist on the planet. As optimum conditions shift away from the equator and toward the poles, more than 600 million people have already been stranded outside of a crucial environmental niche that scientists say best supports life. By late this century, according to a study published last month in the journal Nature Sustainability, 3 to 6 billion people…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Emerging Issues and Concerns in Providing Education to Migrant Children in India

    The Education-Migration Nexus

    Humans have always been on the move. The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) conceptualises a migrant as a person who moves away from his or her place of usual residence, whether within a country or across an international border, temporarily or permanently, and for a variety of reasons. Some people migrate in search of work, economic opportunities, to join family, or to study. Others migrate to escape conflict, persecution, terrorism and/or human rights violations. Migration can also occur in response to the harmful effects of climate change, natural disasters and/or other environmental factors. Children migrate accompanied or unaccompanied, according to UNESCO’s 2013 Report on Social Inclusion of Internal Migrants, which estimated that there were 15 million seasonal migrant children in India who encounter many obstacles, including a limited access to education, amongst many others. Although education is undeniably one of the foundations of children’s well-being, child migrants often suffer from the lack of it.

    India, being a diverse nation, has witnessed successive waves of migration, resulting in an increasing number of children and adolescents. Internal migration in this country has significantly surged due to population pressure and scarcity of resources. As per the latest Census conducted in 2011, the count of domestic migrants in India stood at 450 million. Across India, 20% of internal migrants were children in 2011, i.e., 92.95 million, according to UNICEF. Hence, the exodus of child migrants was notably higher than the growth of the children population during the same period, i.e., 18.5% between 1991-2001 and 6.3% between 2001-2011. Since then, there is a lack of current information regarding migrant children. In 2021, the Supreme Court urged India’s governments to furnish details about migrant children. Nevertheless, there has been negligible advancement since then, and the issue remains unresolved. Based on the Economic and Political Weekly (2022), migration discussions often overlook children from migrant families in India with low income. The lives of children were under greater vulnerability of missing out on the most developmental aspect, i.e., education. Studies indicate that migrant children in India between the age group of 6-18-years-old are more exposed to child labour, child trafficking and ceased educational opportunities. Around 22.1% of migrant children in this age were not enrolled in any educational institution in 2011.

    Addressing Unequal Access to Education for Migrant Children in India

    In 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) is aimed at addressing the global education crisis, which affects millions of children and young people around the world who do not have access to quality education. SDG 4 has several targets, including the following: (1) ensuring that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education; (2) ensuring that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education (3) increasing the number of adults who have relevant skills for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship and (4) securing equal access to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education. SDG 4 also aims to eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access for all, including people with disabilities, indigenous peoples and refugees. Achieving SDG 4 is critical for migrant children’s access to education, as it is a fundamental human right and a key driver of economic growth, social development and environmental sustainability.

    In the past five years, India has provided an array of solutions for migrant children. The enactment of the Right to Education Act of 2009 (RTE), passed by the Indian Parliament in 2009 and came into force on April 1, 2010, provides for free and compulsory education for all children between the ages of 6 and 14-years-old. The RTE Act mandates that every child in this age group has the right to education in a neighbourhood school and prohibits discrimination on the grounds of gender, caste, religion and disability. The RTE Act has been instrumental in expanding access to education in India and improving the quality of education in government schools. However, there are still several challenges in its implementation, including inadequate infrastructure, shortage of teachers and a lack of monitoring and accountability. Moreover, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) are two major government initiatives in India that promote education and child development, particularly for marginalised and vulnerable populations, including migrant children. Under Poshan 2.0, the government is currently prioritizing the provision of Anganwadi services to all, including migrant families, meaning the arrangement of a network of centers for the holistic development of children. For instance, SSA has developed special modules on migration and education, providing training to teachers and education administrators on addressing the needs of migrant children in the country. Overall, SSA and ICDS are crucial in ensuring that migrant children have access to education and development opportunities, significantly contributing to improving the education outcomes of migrant children in India.

    Challenges in Delivering Education to Migrant Children in India

    Despite the attention conveyed to the issue, the education of migrant children in India remains a very difficult issue of paramount importance to India’s development. It is compromised due to several reasons, such as the frequent mobilities, socio-economic backgrounds and several exclusionary school experiences of these children. Indeed, children are subjected to hazardous travel between villages and work sites. India Today writes that the villages of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Delhi, which are mostly migration hubs, migrant children are not accepted in schools or the larger community, and are constantly viewed as outsiders. Consequently, according to the Global Monitoring Report, 80% of children of seasonal workers in India do not have access to education. Furthermore, because of the nature of their parents’ labour patterns, these children are difficult to trace and are, therefore, easily left out of the standard systemic interventions of the education system. Children often end up dropping out of school or struggle with learning gaps due to prolonged absence, which ultimately affects children’s psychosocial and cognitive abilities, depriving them from having a correct exposure to socialisation. Migrant children lose the protection of their social networks back home and their well-being is often sidelined as they migrate. As a matter of fact, rooted away from their homes and villages, the first thing that migrants lose is their identity as citizens and all of their basic entitlements, including access to schooling facilities, free services in public health centres. They are also prevented from participating in panchayat (village council) activities, and are sometimes unable to cast their vote or participate in the census, as these usually take place during the first half of the year and coincide with the migration period.

    Cultural differences and language barriers become a disadvantage for migrant children, hindering their educational attainment. Ernst Georg Ravenstein’s laws on migration (1885) deals with the impact of rural-urban labour migration on the education of children. As migration has wide-ranging impacts on children whether they are left behind by one or both migrating parents, move with their parents, are born abroad, or migrate alone, the educational performance of children is highly compromised when migrating. Due to this process, many children suffer from depression, abandonment, low self-esteem and several behavioural disorders due to the unavailability of education (Virupaksha et al., 2014). There is a dire need to focus on and develop a mixed-methods research agenda, referring to the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods for child migration to understand their plight in a better way and provide solutions. Hence, there is a need to make a regular assessment of the number of child migrants in India in order for them to be protected from any form of vulnerability, such as kidnapping, trafficking, etc. Eventually, we would think that research, policy and advocacy efforts undertaken on behalf of migrant children in India would help in raising awareness on the issue concerning their access to education.

    Nevertheless, these have commonly focused on those living in situations that are dangerous, abusive and/or exploitative, either inherently or because of their young age. They are often represented as passive victims of these crimes, perpetuating this idea of the innocent and at-risk child who can be easily instrumentalized. In consequence, they start to reflect dominant notions of trauma and victimhood. It would be a matter of investigating the issue with children rather than on them.

    Conclusion 

    Migrant children are deprived of education, which is a major threat to their social well-being. The conditions under which mobility takes place are often unsafe and risky,  putting migrant children, especially unaccompanied and separated children, at an exponential risk of economic or sexual exploitation, abuse, neglect and/or violence as well as being prevented from education. Policy responses to protect and support migrant children are often limited. While children on the move have become a recognised part of today’s global and mixed migration flows, they are still largely discreet in debates on migration, child protection and empowerment. It is necessary to identify mechanisms on how to enhance migrant childrens’ capabilities by providing a better quality of education and preventing them from every form of exploitation, inequalities, discrimination and/or marginalisation.

    The effects of migration on children are diverse, and there are numerous concerns that require attention. It’s crucial to support the families of migrant workers who live and work in precarious conditions. To ensure the well-being of their children, policy perspectives must be re-evaluated and a greater emphasis must be placed on policy implementation. Despite the availability of educational opportunities, many migrant children do not pursue formal education, making it necessary to consider the overall social well-being of these families, including their living conditions, in order to empower their children. Policies aimed at improving educational conditions of migrant children migrants must be tailored to their special needs. Unfortunately, migrant children are somehow ignored in the educational attainment process, for sometimes migration is inevitable and an important process to develop India.

    References

    Crépeau, F. (2013). Children on the Move. Switzerland: International Organization for Migration (IOM)

    Desk, I. T. W. (2018, December 11). How seasonal migration of Indians is destroying educational opportunities for children. India Today. Retrieved June 24, 2022, from https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/featurephilia/story/how-seasonal-migration-of-i ndians-is-destroying-educational-opportunities-for-children-1406369-2018-12-11

    Ensor, Marisa & Gozdziak, Elzbieta. (2010). Migrant Children: At the Crossroads of Vulnerability and Resiliency. Palgrave MacMillan

    Pandey, P. (2022). Always on the move: The troubling landscape of the right to education for migrant children in India. [Online] Times of India Blog. Available at: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/always-on-the-move-the-troubling-lands cape-of-the-right-to-education-for-migrant-children-in-india/

    Peddie, F. and Liu, J. (2021) Education and Migration in an Asian Context. Germany: Springer Singapore

    Tumbe, C. (2018). India Moving: A History of Migration. India: Penguin Random House India Private Limited

    United Nations. (n.d.). Migration. United Nations. Retrieved June 24, 2022, from https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/migration

    Virupaksha, H. G., Kumar, A., & Nirmala, B. P. (2014, July). Migration and Mental Health: An Interface. Journal of natural science, biology, and medicine. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4121889/

    Understanding child migration in India – unicef.org. (2020). Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.unicef.org/india/media/3416/file

    What is right to education act (RTE act)? Times of India Blog. (2021, May 15). Retrieved March 18, 2023, from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/igoravsharma/what-is-right-to-education-a ct-rte-act-32034/

    Internal migration in India grows, but inter-state movements remain low. World Bank Blogs. (2019). Retrieved March 18, 2023, from https://blogs.worldbank.org/peoplemove/internal-migration-india-grows-inter-state-movements-remain-low#%3A~%3Atext%3DThe%20number%20of%20internal%20migrants%2C2001%20to%2037%25%20in%25 

    The laws of migration – Ravenstein – 1885 – Journal of the statistical (1885). Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://rss.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2307/2979181

    Vikaspedia domains. Vikaspedia. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://vikaspedia.in/social-welfare/women-and-child-development/child-development-1/in tegrated-child-development-scheme

    Unesdoc.unesco.org. (2021). Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379875.locale=en

    United Nations. (n.d.). Goal 4 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs. United Nations. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4

    Home : Women and child development department, govt. of Maharashtra, India. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://womenchild.maharashtra.gov.in/content/

    Roy, E. (2022, June 19). Centre focuses on access to Anganwadi services for migrants. The Indian Express.   Retrieved March  20,  2023, fromhttps://indianexpress.com/article/india/centre-focuses-on-access-to-anganwadi-services-for-migrants-7977880/

    Always on the move: The troubling landscape of the right to education for migrant children in India. Times of India Blog. (2021, April 19). Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/always-on-the-move-the-troubling-landsc ape-of-the-right-to-education-for-migrant-children-in-india/

    A case for functional social protection portability to address vulnerabilities of migration-affected children. Economic and Political Weekly. (2022, November 10). Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.epw.in/engage/article/case-functional-social-protection-portability

    Bashir, S. (2023, February 11). How education remains out of reach for India’s Invisible Migrant Children. Scroll.in. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://scroll.in/article/1041923/how-education-remains-out-of-reach-for-indias-invisible-mi grant-children

    Home. International Organization for Migration. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.iom.int/

    This post was originally published on LSE Human Rights.

  • French minister says FLNKS ‘willing to discuss’ election roll changes

    By Walter Zweifel, RNZ Pacific reporter

    New Caledonia’s pro-independence parties are prepared to negotiate changes to the provincial electoral rolls, according to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.

    On his second visit to Noumea in less than four months, the minister announced the apparent change in the stance of the pro-independence FLNKS movement, which until now has ruled out any willingness to open the roll.

    As yet, there has been no official statement from the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), which is still demanding comprehensive discussions with Paris on a timetable to restore the sovereignty lost in 1853.

    It insists on a dialogue between the “coloniser and the colonised”.

    The restricted roll is a key feature of the 1998 Noumea Accord, which was devised as the roadmap to the territory’s decolonisation after New Caledonia was reinscribed on the United Nations’ list of non-self-governing territories in 1986.

    Under the terms of the accord, voters in the provincial elections must have been enrolled by 1998.

    In 2007, the French constitution was changed accordingly, accommodating a push by the Kanaks to ensure the indigenous population was not at risk of being further marginalised by waves of migrants.

    ‘Enormous progress’
    However, anti-independence parties have in recent years campaigned for an opening of the roll to the more than 40,000 people who have settled since 1998.

    Darmanin hailed the FLNKS’ willingness to negotiate on the issue as “enormous progress”, saying the issue surrounding the rolls had been blocked for a long time.

    He said after his meetings with local leaders the FLNKS considered 10 years’ residence as sufficient to get enrolled.

    The minister said he had proposed seven years, while anti-independence politicians talked about three to five years.

    In March, Darmanin said the next elections, which are due in 2024, would not go ahead with the old rolls.

    However, a senior member of the pro-independence Caledonian Union, Roch Wamytan, who is President of the Territorial Assembly, said “they had started discussions but that they had not given a definite approval”.

    For Wamytan, an agreement on the rolls was still far off.

    Impact of the Noumea Accord
    Darmanin tabled a report on the outcomes achieved by the Noumea Accord, whose objectives included forming a community with a common destiny following the unrest of the 1980s.

    It found that “the objective of political rebalancing, through the accession of Kanaks to responsibilities, can be considered as achieved”.

    However, the report concluded that the accord “paradoxically contributed to maintain the political divide that the common destiny was supposed to transcend”.

    It noted that the three referendums on independence from France between 2018 and 2021 “confirmed the antagonisms and revealed the difficulty of bringing together a majority of qualified voters” around a common cause.

    Darmanin also presented a report about the decolonisation process under the auspices of the United Nations.

    It noted that “with the adoption of the first plan of actions aimed at the elimination of colonialism in 1991, the [French] state endeavoured to collaborate closely with the UN and the C24 in order to accompany in the greatest transparency the process of decolonisation of New Caledonia”.

    It said that France hosted and accompanied two UN visits to New Caledonia before the referendums, facilitated the visit of UN electoral experts when electoral lists were prepared as well as at each of the three referendums between 2018 and 2021.

    Kanaks reject legitimacy
    From a technical point of view, the three votes provided under the Noumea Accord were valid.

    However, the FLNKS refuses to recognise the result of the third referendum as the legitimate outcome of the decolonisation process after the indigenous Kanaks boycotted the vote and only a small fraction cast their ballots.

    As French courts recognise the vote as constitutional despite the low turnout, the FLNKS has sought input from the International Court of Justice in a bid to have the outcome annulled.

    The FLNKS still insists on having more bilateral talks with the French government on a timetable to restore the territory’s sovereignty.

    Since the controversial 2021 referendum, the FLNKS has refused to engage in tripartite talks on a future statute, and Darmanin has again failed to get an assurance from the FLNKS that it would join anti-independence politicians for such talks.

    Last month, Darmanin evoked at the UN the possibility of self-determination for New Caledonia being attained in about 50 years — a proposition being scoffed at by the pro-independence camp.

    In Noumea, he said he was against a further vote with the option of “yes” or “no”, and rather wanted to work towards a vote on a new status.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fifteen Pasifika people on NZ King’s Birthday Honours List

    RNZ Pacific

    Paediatrician Dr Teuila Percival heads the list of Pacific recipients in the New Zealand King’s Birthday Honours List for 2023.

    Dr Percival is one of at least 15 Pasifika people in New Zealand who are on the list. She is to be a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to health and the Pacific community.

    For the past three decades she has been a strong advocate for Pacific children’s health in New Zealand and the Pacific.

    Dr Teuila Percival.
    Dr Teuila Percival . . . “It’s important for Pacific people to be recognised in the work they do.” Image: Pasifika Medical Association/RNZ

    Dr Percival said she felt honoured to get the award after getting over the initial surprise.

    “I think it’s important for Pacific people to be recognised in the work they do, so it’s really nice in that respect,” she said.

    “It’s just a great job, I love working with kids. I think children are the most important thing.”

    Dr Percival was a founding member of South Seas Healthcare, a community health service for Pacific people in Auckland since 1999.

    She has also been deployed to Pacific nations after natural disasters like to Samoa in 2009 after the tsunami and to Vanuatu in 2015 following cyclone Pam.

    Education
    Sacred Heart school counsellor Nua Silipa is to be an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to Pacific education.

    Silipa said her experience struggling in the education system after immigrating from Samoa in 1962 had motivated her to help Pacific people in the classroom.

    “When I look back now I think my journey was so hard as a minority in Christchurch,” Silipa said.

    “It was a struggle because we weren’t in the classroom, the resources at that time were Janet and John . . .  so as a learner I really struggled.”

    She said the “whole experience of underachievement” motivated her to help “people who are different in the system”.

    “It’s not a one size fits all in education.”

    Nua Silipa said she felt humbled to be a recipient on the King’s Birthday Honours List.

    She said the award also honoured the people who had been involved in improving education for Pasifika.

    “I know there’s so, so many other people who are doing work quietly every day, helping our communities and I’m really in awe of them.

    “There are many unsung heroes out in our community doing work for our people.”

    Technology
    Mary Aue is to be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to education, technology and Pacific and Māori communities.

    Mary Aue is to be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to education, technology and Pacific and Māori communities
    Coconut Wireless creator Mary Aue . . . “There was no communication back then, so I created an e-newsletter.” Image: RNZ Pacific

    Mary Aue is to be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to education, technology and Pacific and Māori communities Photo: Supplied

    In 1999, she launched Coconut Wireless as an e-newsletter for Pasifika reaching 10,000 subscribers. It relaunched in 2014 as a social media platform and now has over 300,000 Facebook followers.

    “There was a disconnect between community and government agencies and there was a disconnect between our communities,” she said.

    “There was no communication back then, so I created an e-newsletter.”

    The name Coconut Wireless was based on the island concept as a fast way of communicating through word of mouth.

    Aue has also been an advocate for more Pacific and Māori learners in science, engineering, technology and mathematics (STEM).

    Aue said she was originally going to decline the award as there were a lot of people in the community who do not get recognised behind the scenes.

    “I have to thank my family, my friends and the amazing community that we’re all part of.”

    Sport
    Teremoana Maua-Hodges said she “just about choked” on her cup of tea when she found out she had received the Queen’s Service Medal.

    Maua-Hodges has been given the award for her contribution to sport and culture.

    She said the award was the work of many people — including her parents — who travelled to New Zealand from the Cook Islands when she was a child.

    “I’m very humbled by the award, but it’s not just me,” Maua-Hodges said.

    “I stand on the shoulders of different heroes and heroines of our people in the community.

    “It’s not my award, it’s our award.”

    Maua-Hodges said the most important thing she had done was connect Cook Islanders.

    “Uniting Cook Islanders who have come over from different islands in the Cook Islands and then to come here and be united here within their diversity makes me very proud.

    “They’ve taken on the whole culture of Aotearoa but still as Cook Islanders . . .  to show their voice, to show their flag, in the land of milk and honey.”

    The Queen’s Service Medal will be renamed the King’s Service Medal once the necessary processes are done, and the updated Royal Warrant is approved by King Charles.

    Pasifika recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for 2022:

    Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit: Dr Teuila Mary Percival — for services to health and the Pacific community.

    Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit: Nua Semuā Silipa — for services to Pacific education.

    Honorary Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit: Meleane Pau’uvale — for services to the Tongan community and education.

    Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit:

    Mary Puatuki Aue — for services to education, technology and Pacific and Māori communities.

    Dr Ofanaite Ana Dewes — for services to health and the Pacific community.

    Fa’atili Iosua Esera — for services to Pacific education.

    Dr Siale Alokihakau Foliaki — for services to mental health and the Pacific community.

    Keni Upokotea Moeroa — for services to the Cook Islands community.

    Talalelei Senetenari Taufale — for services to Pacific health.

    Dr Semisi Pouvalu Taumoepeau — for services to education and tourism.

    Honorary Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit: Fa’amoana Ioane Luafutu — for services to arts and the Pacific community.

    Queen’s Service Medal:

    Joseph Davis — for services to the Fijian community.

    Reverend Alofa Ta’ase Lale — for services to the community.

    Teremoana Maua-Hodges — for services to sport and culture.

    Putiani Upoko — for services to the Pacific community.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Human rights and wrongs: the Australian calling out oppression at home and around the world

    Undeterred by the scale of challenges in her in-tray, the new head of Human Rights Watch, Tirana Hassan, says ‘We need to be standing with those people’

    Tirana Hassan may be responsible for calling out abuses around the world, but the new global head of Human Rights Watch remains shocked by her home country of Australia’s “dehumanising” treatment of asylum seekers and refugees.

    Hassan visited the notorious Woomera immigration detention facility in central Australia when she was in the final year of a law degree and found “hundreds and hundreds of Iraqis, Iranians and Afghans who had just been wallowing without access to legal representation”.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.