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Category: migration

  • Workers who helped NZ migrant fraud inquiry gutted to be told to leave

    By Lucy Xia, RNZ News reporter

    A group of migrants who have been helping a New Zealand investigation into immigration fraud may soon be forced to leave the country.

    The group were some of the 50 Chinese construction workers who claimed a New Zealand-based recruiter had misled them about their pay and working rights.

    Last year an arrest warrant was issued for Li Wenshan, also known as Peter Li, who fled New Zealand before charges were laid.

    Li still faced charges for immigration fraud.

    Meanwhile, two other people associated with Li face a trial in December this year.

    Ten workers are expected to give evidence in court, claiming they were duped.

    But last week, the workers were told by Immigration authorities that they would be expected to leave the country within a month of the trial ending.

    Undermining probe efforts
    Green Party immigration spokesman Ricardo March said the treatment of this group undermined efforts to combat migrant exploitation.

    “These workers are not pieces of evidence, they are human beings, and so to put them in a situation where they are treated as expendable once they’re not deemed useful to provide evidence is unjust,” March said.

    “And, actually [it] will undermine the government’s intent to create a supportive environment , where workers are able to come forward and participate in processes to hold employers to account.”

    March called for the immigration minister to intervene, and to send a strong message that workers holding employers to account would be supported.

    One of the men due to give evidence in court, 50-year-old carpenter Sheng Canhong, felt he had been punished for doing the right thing.

    “The New Zealand government doesn’t like people who speak up and affect New Zealand’s reputation. Such people are not welcome here,” he said.

    Sheng arrived on a work visa in 2018, but was left with no work for the initial months, and was consequently moved to a limited visa to assist with the investigation.

    ‘No option but to speak up’
    “Because of the work situation, we had no option but to speak up. Think about it, we were in Tauranga for three months without work, we had to pay for food and accommodation, where do we get that money?

    “When I came here I only had $200. So I owed people money for the living costs, and could only pay back later when I found work,” he said.

    The ten workers had also missed out on the chance to apply for one-off residency.

    Many of them had tried to move back onto work visas, but their applications failed despite having full time jobs, and they struggled to understand why.

    Unite Union director Mike Treen, who has assisted the men since 2019, is also calling for a pathway to residency for this group.

    “We ought to be giving them something to compensate them for the hurt, humiliation and exploitation that they’ve suffered while they’re here,” he said.

    Treen said the system of temporary visas had fuelled migrant exploitation and needed to change.

    System of ‘migrant exploitation’
    “Immigration New Zealand [INZ] created a system of migrant labour exploitation, and they throw out the people who have helped expose it,” he said.

    “Ten percent of workers in New Zealand were on temporary visas, 30 to 40 percent of workers in construction and hospitality and agriculture and horticulture were on temporary visas.”

    INZ referred RNZ News to the minister for comment on the workers’ situation.

    Minister Michael Wood said due to legal and privacy reasons he was unable to comment on the circumstances of the workers and the case.

    Meanwhile, Li Wenshan is still on the loose and it is uncertain when he will make an appearance in court.

    INZ declined to answer questions on whether they were looking to extradite Li.

    An INZ spokesperson said for legal and privacy reasons, they would not make further comment on Li.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Coalition used private contractor to collect intelligence on Nauru asylum seekers

    Exclusive: asylum seekers in the offshore detention centre who had contact with Australian journalists, lawyers and advocates were closely watched, documents reveal

    The Australian government used private security contractors to collect intelligence on asylum seekers on Nauru, singling out those who were speaking to journalists, lawyers and refugee advocates, internal documents from 2016 reveal.

    Intelligence officers working for Wilson Security compiled fortnightly reports about asylum seekers “of interest”, including individuals flagged as having “links with [Australian] media”, “contact with lawyers in Australia” or “contacts with Australian advocates”.

    Continue reading…

  • A new wave of migration is coming – Europe is not ready | Simon Tisdall

    Britain and the EU responded dismally to the 2015 migrant crisis. The number of ‘irregular entries’ is up by 84% this year – and the ways to deal with the issue now range from limited to bizarre

    In a week when Russia threatened to annex more territory in Ukraine, gas shortages loomed, and inflation and Covid surged across Europe, it seems almost unkind to remind EU and UK leaders of another crisis that is unfolding, largely unremarked, right under their noses. As Claudius laments in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, / But in battalions.”

    As if defeating Russian aggression was not enough of a challenge, Europe now also faces rapidly rising new “waves” of undocumented asylum seekers. Given the sociopolitical upheavals that ensued after 1 million refugees, mostly Syrians, arrived on Europe’s shores in 2015, the EU and UK might be expected to be better prepared this time.

    Continue reading…

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

  • ‘Dreaming of sunlight’: federal court to hear refugee’s claim of unlawful imprisonment in Melbourne hotel detention

    Mostafa Azimitabar was held in immigration detention for 15 months in Melbourne’s Park and Mantra hotels

    A refugee detained for more than a year in two Melbourne hotels has spoken out about the enduring trauma of his ordeal, saying the nightmare of his prolonged unlawful detention left him “dreaming of sunlight”.

    The federal court will on Tuesday begin hearing a case brought by Mostafa “Moz” Azimitabar against the Australian government, in which he alleges he was unlawfully detained for 15 months in Melbourne’s Park and Mantra hotels.

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    Continue reading…

  • NZ health sector may see influx of US doctors after abortion ruling

    By Leah Tebbutt, RNZ News reporter

    An Aotearoa New Zealand health workforce recruiting agency is fielding calls from senior US doctors who say they can no longer live in their own country.

    Accent Health Recruitment has been flooded with inquiries from US doctors wanting to come to New Zealand following the US Supreme Court’s decision overturning abortion rights last Friday.

    The ruling has made access to abortions all but impossible in at least 18 states.

    Accent Health Recruitment managing director Prudence Thomson said she normally got about 30 inquiries a day but that had doubled since the ruling.

    “The emotion and frustration attached to their email, you could just feel it. They’re saying, ‘we can no longer live in this country, we need to come, will you have us in New Zealand?’

    “It was quite an emotional tug, as far as of people really wanting to leave and throwing their hands in the air.”

    Thomson said most inquiries were from GPs and obstetricians.

    ‘A spike in inquiries’
    “There has been quite a spike in inquiries from them — they’re really passionate about looking after their patients and now they no longer are able to provide the healthcare they want,” she said.

    “So they want to come to New Zealand to practise, which is good for New Zealand.”

    Thomson said while it was sad these health workers felt forced morally to leave, it would help this country’s health worker “crisis”.

    However, she said it would take at least six months before the American health professionals could work in New Zealand.

    “Every medical professional needs to get their qualifications verified to come to New Zealand and that takes from three to six months.

    “While we want to speed it up we don’t want to cut corners because in a crisis that’s when the weaknesses will be exposed and that’s when the people who want to commit identity fraud could get through.”

    However, she said it should still give the chronically understaffed health sector some hope that help was coming.

    Messaging about jobs
    US nurse McKenzie Mills recently moved to New Zealand and said former colleagues had been messaging her about jobs ever since the US Supreme Court ruled against abortion.

    She said she was heartbroken and angry after the ruling.

    However, she said she was even more sure now that her decision to move to New Zealand in January was the right one.

    “I take care of people and it just really broke my heart that there is so much health care that will be denied to millions of women.”

    Mills said she felt like she had “escaped” her own country as a result of the ruling.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • First UK deportation flight to Rwanda cancelled after European court intervention – as it happened

    This blog has now closed, you can the full story on the government’s failed first deportation flight here

    You can watch the Sturgeon press conference here.

    Sturgeon is now taking questions.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Map of Hope and Sorrow by Helen Benedict and Eyad Awwadawnan review – celebration of resilience

    In a moving series of interviews with those fleeing persecution, the authors expose the appalling conditions in Greek refugee camps

    In this timely book, Helen Benedict, a British-American professor, and Eyad Awwadawnan, a Syrian writer and refugee, expose the appalling conditions of the overcrowded Greek camps where desperate people fleeing war, persecution, poverty and violence are confined and denied their legal rights under the watch of the west.

    As a consequence of the 2016 deal the EU made with Turkey, Greece has become “a trap” for those detained in camps while they wait to be granted refugee status or returned to Turkey, which many consider unsafe. Since 2020, thousands have been left in limbo in a country that does not want them and cannot accommodate them.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Afghans ‘largest group’ fleeing to the UK by crossing the Channel – figures

    People fleeing Afghanistan made up almost a quarter of the migrants crossing the Channel in the first three months of the year.

    Out of 4,540 people detected arriving by small boats between January and March 2022, some 24% (1,094) were Afghan nationals, according to Home Office figures.

    This was the most out of any nationality recorded, followed by 16% who were Iranian (722) and 15% (681) Iraqi – which both typically outrank Afghans in the numbers.

    Taliban takeover

    The rise has prompted concerns from campaigners that the Government’s resettlement scheme in the wake of the Taliban takeover is failing and raised questions over whether Afghans could be at risk of being deported to Rwanda because they could be deemed to have arrived in the UK illegally under new immigration rules.

    Average number of arrivals per small boat crossing the English Channel
    (PA Graphics)

    It comes as separate figures showed the number of asylum claims made in the UK has climbed to its highest in nearly two decades, while the backlog of cases waiting to be determined continues to soar.

    Dangerous routes

    Marley Morris, from think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), said:

    Today’s migration stats show a shocking rise in the number of Afghans arriving in the UK on small boats. The government has said it is giving Afghans a ‘warm welcome’, but these figures reveal that many have felt they have been left with no option but to take this dangerous route to make it to the UK.

    Morris also added:

    Now the government’s new plans in response to the Channel crossings could mean that Afghan asylum seekers will be sent to Rwanda. This would be an unimaginably awful outcome for people who have already faced such great hardship.

    Contrary to the government’s claims, there are few safe routes for people forced into small boats to make it to the UK.

    Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said:

    The sharp increase in the numbers of people fleeing Taliban atrocities in Afghanistan, having no choice but to make desperate journeys over the Channel to find safety here in the UK, is concerning but unsurprising.

    This increase is the inevitable consequence of the restrictive nature of the Afghanistan resettlement schemes, for which the vast majority of Afghans are simply ineligible.

    Solomon continued:

    The government must honour the promises they made to the people of Afghanistan by immediately ensuring the most vulnerable people in the country are able to access a safe route to the UK, so they are not forced to risk their lives in order to find safety here.

    Dr Peter William Walsh, senior researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford said:

    The arrival of Afghans in small boats on the UK coast indicates that many more wish to find protection here than are able to do so under the UK government’s existing schemes.

    Questions remain

    The Government pledged to resettle 20,000 refugees, with as many as 5,000 in the first year under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS).

    It relocated the first people on January 6 2022 once the scheme opened some six months after the Taliban took over the country’s capital Kabul in August. But questions remain over its progress to date.

    Meanwhile, an estimated 7,000 people have been relocated under the existing Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) which launched in April last year and offers priority relocation to the UK for current or former locally employed staff who had been assessed to be under serious threat to life.

    The official Government figures on Channel crossings also show most of the people who made the crossing (89%) were male, the same as the average between 2018 and 2021.

    Some 3,448 men were recorded to have made the journey in the three-month period, as well as 342 women and 743 children, of which 594 were boys and 142 were girls, with seven recorded as unknown.

    But information on age, gender and nationality was not available for some arrivals.

    The average number of migrants on board each boat crossing the Channel almost doubled in the first three months of this year compared to the same period in 2021, up from 18 to 32.

    Crossings took place on 30 out of the 90 days.

    Some 9,330 migrants have reached the UK after navigating busy shipping lanes from France in small boats such as dinghies since the start of 2022, according to analysis of Government data by the PA news agency.

    A total of 28,526 people made the crossing in 2021, compared with 8,466 in 2020, 1,843 in 2019 and 299 in 2018, according to official figures.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Europe silent on plight of refugees in Libya, says IOM mission chief

    Federico Soda said there needed to be ‘more condemnation’ of the conditions in state-run detention centres in Libya

    Europe has been accused by a senior international official of acquiescence in the plight of thousands of migrants in Libya held in arbitrary detention in “deplorable conditions”.

    Federico Soda, chief of mission at the International Organisation for Migration’s mission in Libya, said not enough was being done by outside actors to try to change the war-torn country’s “environment of arbitrary detention and deplorable conditions” for migrants.

    Continue reading…

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

  • A Cause for Concern: Legislative Threats to Human Rights in the UK

    On 14/04/2022, the Home Secretary Priti Patel announced a new initiative to combat the incorrectly named ‘illegal’ crossings in the English Channel: those that cross the Channel seeking to claim asylum will be removed from the UK and placed in Rwanda, where they will then have the chance to claim asylum. During the announcement speech, Johnson referred to the November 2021 tragedy, where 27 people lost their lives crossing the Channel, in order to promote and rationalise this new policy. This is not the first-time fatalities in the Channel have been used to justify cruel and inhumane policies. Over the last decade, Channel crossings have been weaponised, used to push a political agenda that advocates for a harsher and more restrictive immigration system. Across government and the general public, we have witnessed a growing appetite to default on the moral and legal obligations we have towards those fleeing war, persecution and destruction. Successive governments have created policies (like the Rwanda initiative) to deter refugees and contain them in the Global South, thereby denying refugees their human right to claim asylum.

    In this immoral crusade against our obligations to refugees, the Johnson government’s most prominent strike is the extremely controversial Nationality and Borders Bill. Amnesty International has shown explicit concern about this bill, drawing attention to the following provisions (Amnesty International, 2022):

    • It would penalise and criminalise asylum seekers depending on the way they arrive in the UK. (e.g., crossing the Channel)
    • It would give government the power to strip people’s British citizenship without notice.

     

    This bill has been widely condemned for its likelihood to violate human rights, international and domestic law. Despite the already problematic nature of this Bill, the November 2021 tragedy was used by several Conservative MPs to not only advocate for further-reaching provisions to be added, but also to attack human rights (Riley-Smith, 2021). Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh said that “We have to be tough. We have to face down the human rights lawyers. If governments are weak, people die.” (Riley-Smith, 2021).

    Leigh’s statement reflects a sentiment select Conservative MPs have expressed. They argued that if the UK forcefully repels refugees and continues to perpetuate the hostile environment created by then-Home Secretary Theresa May, less people would try to cross the Channel. Subsequently, fatalities would fall. However, the refugee’s human rights prevent them from doing this. Effectively, these MPs have argued that if the government continues to respect the human rights of refugees and their legitimate claims to asylum, we are actively perpetuating dangerous and fatal Channel crossings.

    This rhetoric displayed by these MPs leads us away from a universal understanding of rights to an exclusionary position where they can be given and taken in pursuit of political goals. Here, these Conservative MPs are advocating for an exclusionary interpretation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, where Article 14 can be suspended for some in order to ‘stop’ Channel crossings. This interpretation of human rights is not isolated to the issue of the refugees. In their 2021/22 International Report, Amnesty International has warned that several pieces of the government’s proposed legislation have the potential to erode human rights for all of us here in the UK (Amnesty International, 2022, pg.388-389). In addition to the Nationalities and Borders Bill, Amnesty mentions the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill (PCSB) and proposed changes to the Human Rights Act (HRA) (Amnesty International, 2022, pg.388-389). Within these Bills, Amnesty highlights two potential breaches to human rights law: (1) the PCSB’s threat to our Freedom of Assembly and ability to protest and (2) how the proposed changes to the HRA would make it harder for UK citizens to make Human Rights claims, diminishing the UK’s accountability (Amnesty International, 2022, pg.388-389).

    These potential breaches of human rights law alone have grave consequences for all UK citizens. The Johnson government want to silence those who wish to challenge the government by restricting our right to protest. They want to restrict our ability to make human rights claims to supernational bodies (e.g., Council of Europe) when we have exhausted domestic means. This diminishes the UK’s accountability to the international community, an analysis shared by Amnesty UK’s campaign manager, Laura Trevelyan. Trevelyan stated that the proposed changes to the HRA are an attempt to take away the power of the general public, to suffocate their ability to challenge the government and the decisions they make (Badshah, 2022).

    By advocating for this exclusionary and restrictive interpretation of human rights, we demote these rights to mere privileges that can be taken and given at the will of governments (Bhambra, 2017, pg.404). Human rights were based upon the model of natural rights where they are derived from our shared humanity (Donnelly, 1982, pg.391). This interpretation adopted by Johnson’s government contradicts the very nature of human rights. This is why human rights must exist outside the law and remain inalienable: to ensure their universal enjoyment without the threat of governments or states. Without these protections, we will see oppression flourish, leaving some without the basic rights that enable them to live full, human lives.

    But alas, the government has landed a devastating blow. Since I started writing this article, the Nationality and Borders Bill and the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill have now been passed. These bills will severely restrict everybody’s access to certain freedoms and rights. We face this threat universally because the erosion of human rights anywhere in society will affect us all. Regardless of where one stands politically, giving governments legislative power to restrict access to certain rights is an extremely dangerous precedent. One that promoted the creation of human rights. These bills have no place in a healthy democracy.

    But it is not too late. We must continue to push against this exclusionary and restrictive vision for human rights. We must challenge the government and show that we will not accept privileges, only rights. We must be guaranteed that no piece of UK legislation will ever be used to infringe on our human rights. We are entitled to these rights, as human beings, regardless of whether we are UK citizens or refuges. We have to all speak out. We have to transcend their attempts to divide us. We have to be united.

    That is my plea: let us speak out together in order to protect our freedoms and human rights. Because if we shout loud enough, they will have to listen.

     

    Bibliography

    Amnesty International, Amnesty International Report 2021/22: The State of the World’s Human Rights, Amnesty International Ltd, 2022

    Badshah, Nadeem, ‘Amnesty hits out at Tory plans to replace Human Rights Act with bill of rights’, The Guardian, Guardian News & Media Limited, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/mar/27/amnesty-hits-out-at-tory-plans-to-replace-human-rights-act-with-bill-of-rights

    Bhambra, Gurminder K., ‘The current crisis of Europe: Refugees, colonialism, and the limits of cosmopolitanism’, European Law Journal, Vol.23, No.5 (2017), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., pg.395-405

    Donnelly, Jack, ‘Human Rights as Natural Rights’, Human Rights Quarterly, Vol.4, No.3 (1982), John Hopkins University Press, pg.391-405

    Riley-Smith, Ben, ‘Scrap the Human Rights Act or more people will die in the Channel, warn Tory MPs’, The Telegraph, 2021, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/25/scrap-human-rights-act-people-will-die-channel-warn-tory-mps/

  • NZ’s fast-track residency plans overlook Pacific, say Greens

    RNZ Pacific

    New Zealand’s plans to fast-track residency for migrants is being criticised for leaving out lower paid migrants, many of whom are Pacific Islanders.

    The fast track policy focuses on 85 occupations from psychatrists to plumbers, in particular workers who earn more than twice the median wage.

    However, it does not guarantee residency for minimum wage migrant workers.

    Green Party spokesperson for immigration Ricardo Menéndez March said the policy was discriminatory.

    “They [migrant workers] don’t earn twice the median wage, [but] they still deserve a pathway to residency, to put their roots in the community.

    “So I’m really disappointed that many of the low wage workers were left out of having genuine pathways to residency, including many of our Pacific workers who are in low wage industries as well,” Menéndez March said.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Greens condemn ‘two-tier’ NZ migrant policy as entrenching inequities

    RNZ News

    The New Zealand government’s immigration decisions amount to a “white immigration policy”, creating a two-tier system that will entrench inequities, claims the Green Party.

    National and ACT are also critical of the moves announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and top ministers at a Business NZ lunch in Auckland today.

    The new policy sees New Zealand’s border fully reopening at the end of July, with sector-specific agreements to support a shift away from lower-skilled migrant labour.

    Green Party immigration spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March said it would entrench a two-tier system.

    “The workers that we called essential throughout the pandemic, many will be missing out on genuine pathways to residency and we are narrowing down pathways to residency for those that we consider high-salary migrants. This will entrench inequities,” he said.

    “There are really clear wage gaps along ethnic lines — we’re effectively encouraging specific countries to come and become residents whereas people from the Global South who will be coming here, working in low wage industries, with no certain path to residency.”

    He was also concerned about the prospect of international students losing working rights after their studies, and the roughly 16,000 overstayers in New Zealand.

    ‘Feels like a white-immigration policy’
    “When we contextualise that many of the students and workers on low wages are from India and the Philippines, it kinda feels like we are creating a white-immigration policy – whether intentionally or otherwise.

    “We’re also missing stuff around an amnesty for overstayers as well as addressing issues around migrant exploitation … we’ve been told by the Productivity Commission and many groups that migrant workers need to have their wages decoupled from single employers.

    “These are people who have been living here for quite some time, many who are doing really important work but unfortunately are being exploited. If we’re really serious about enhancing workers’ rights, an amnesty should have been part of the rebalance.”

    The new immigration settings streamline the residency pathway for migrants either in “Green List” occupations or paid twice the median wage.

    National’s immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford said the broad brush approach was lazy.

    “They could be far more nuanced and actually have fair wage rates per industry, per region, but instead they’re taking the easy route and a broad brush approach.

    “I think it’s based on an unfair assumption that migrant workers drive down wages which, by the way the Productivity Commission said actually doesn’t happen.”

    Families ‘separated for too long’
    ACT Party leader David Seymour said the border should be open right now and families have been separated for far too long.

    “It’s not opening the border in July, it’s opening up applications in July,” he said.

    “Immigration New Zealand says that it will be five months on average to process a visa. The reality is if you’re one of 14 percent of New Zealanders born in a non-visa waiver country then your non-resident family can’t visit this year.”

    Businesses are relieved the border will fully open and many will attempt to attract migrant workers here.

    Business New Zealand’s director of advocacy Catherine Beard said skills shortages were across the board.

    “One of the top headaches that we hear everywhere from every sector is a shortage of talent so we really need to throw the welcome mat open to immigrants. We’re competing with other countries for this talent and it’s really hurting.”

    NZ Wine Growers chief executive Phil Gregan said re-opening the border to holidaymakers and tourists was important.

    “First, it’s a positive signal that we’re open for business. I think it’s also going to have very positive impacts on tourism, on hospitality and our business on wine reseller doors hopefully.”

    The wine sector is reliant on seasonal workers.

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

  • Threat of being sent to Rwanda ‘harming health of UK asylum seekers’

    Rights organisations say refugees going into hiding as Home Office admits LGBTQ+ people could face persecution in African country

    Ministers’ threats to send unauthorised migrants to Rwanda are having a detrimental impact on the physical and psychological health of people seeking asylum, according to two major refugee charities.

    The British Red Cross and the Refugee Council, which worked with nearly 44,000 people in the asylum process, warn that they are disappearing from hotels and are reluctant to claim support for fear of deportation, detention and other harsh measures.

    A Rwandan asylum seeker who contacted the Red Cross in south-east England fearing he could be sent back to the country. He disclosed that he would be in hiding and refraining from accessing support so he is not identified by the authorities.

    An Afghan man living in temporary accommodation in the east Midlands who disclosed that he had gone into hiding, fearing that he would be detained and sent to Rwanda. He said that many of his friends were in the same situation and planned to go underground.

    An asylum seeker from Ethiopia based in the West Midlands said that he feels anxious about the passing of the Nationality and Borders Act and disclosed he had left his accommodation out of fear that he will be sent to Rwanda.

    An Afghan asylum seeker also based in the West Midlands who said he feels he is a second-class refugee as he is not eligible for recent schemes designed to support Ukrainians.

    Continue reading…

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

  • New Zealand has long imprisoned people seeking asylum. It’s time we said ‘This is not us’ and really meant it | Golriz Ghahraman

    The independent Casey report calls for an end to arbitrary detention, and proper resettlement resources to treat asylum seekers as equal to quota refugees

    The plight of asylum seekers is in sharp focus with heart-wrenching images of exhausted and terrified Ukrainian families forced into displacement. And while arriving at borders and seeking refuge is not new, the treatment of those forced to cross borders for asylum has rarely been so compassionate.

    Even in a nation that prides itself on compassionate governance, an independent report into the detention of asylum seekers in New Zealand has found the worst of systemic abuse.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Fiji ‘making mockery of UN’, says Rabuka on Russian ship Amadea

    By Anish Chand in Lautoka

    Fiji is making a mockery of its stand in the United Nations in condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine by allowing the Russian super yacht Amadea to berth in the western port of Lautoka, says opposition People’s Alliance party leader Sitiveni Rabuka.

    He called on government to send it on its way immediately.

    He made the comment as police are investigating why the Amadea had entered and stopped inside Fiji’s territorial waters before a clearance from Customs was issued.

    Fiji's People's Alliance party leader Sitiveni Rabuka
    Fiji’s People’s Alliance party leader Sitiveni Rabuka … says the government should order the Russian super yacht out of Fiji. Image: Fiji Times File

    Police Commissioner Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho said the super yacht was being investigated for alleged breach of Fiji’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

    The super yacht belonging to a Russian billionaire sanctioned by the USA, United Kingdom and Europe came into port at Lautoka on Tuesday.

    Public sources say the Amadea is owned by Suleiman Kerimov, a Russian oligarch who is currently sanctioned over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Marine Traffic, a marine analytics service, started showing Amadea in Fiji waters from daytime on Tuesday and by 6pm it was headed to the Lautoka Wharf.

    Left Mexico last month
    The Amadea left Manzanillo port in Mexico on March 24.

    The 106-metre yacht risks being seized by the US, UK or any European Union country after they placed sanctions on Kerimov’s assets.

    According to Fiji port requirements, any yacht arriving into Fiji must obtain approval from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Trade and Transport and the Immigration Department.

    “We have heard about it [Amadea] but nothing has come to Immigration,” said Immigration Secretary Yogesh Karan.

    Questions sent to the Ministry of Health had not been answered on publication by The Fiji Times.

    Anish Chand is the Fiji Times West Bureau chief reporter. Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Abandoned West Papuan students in NZ welcome immigration news

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    West Papuan students stranded in Aotearoa New Zealand by an abrupt cancellation of their Indonesian government scholarships earlier this year while trying to complete their degrees and diplomas can breathe mire easily with the latest news.

    It is understood they have been told by Immigration New Zealand that they will not be deported while New Zealand is considering their plight.

    After weeks of advocacy by Green MPs, an immigration team will now be formed to assess the future needs of the students.

    “The Green Party has been calling on the government to do its part to support the indigenous communities of West Papua and we’re pleased that action is being taken,” said Teanau Tuiono, Green Party spokesperson for Pacific Peoples.

    Tuiono — along with Papuan student spokesperson Laurens Ikinia, Professor David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report, and opposition National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad, a former academic at the University of the South Pacific — addressed a seminar about the issue at the Whānau Community Hub in Auckland yesterday.

    Ikinia welcomed the news that none of the Papuan students would be deported and praised the community support that they were receiving in New Zealand.

    “Dozens of West Papuan students are facing hardship and the prospect of not being able to finish their studies due to the cancellation of their scholarship by the Indonesian government,’ Tuiono said in a statement.

    Green Party posting on the Papuan students Te Mātāwaka today.
    Green Party posting about the Papuan students on Te Mātāwaka today. Image: APR screenshot

    Requested urgent action
    “We wrote to [Immigration Minister Kris] Faafoi asking him to act urgently to issue new visas for the students of West Papua.

    “We are pleased that government agencies are taking action to assess the needs of the West Papuan students and ideally grant them renewed visas for them to remain in Aotearoa.

    “West Papuans are indigenous peoples who have been occupied by Indonesia. As a Pacific nation and signatory of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples we have a responsibility to support West Papuans and their struggle for self-determination.

    “Supporting students to come to Aotearoa to study and to stay is a tangible way we can do our part to support the people of West Papua,” Tuiono said.

    Dr Robie published an open letter in Asia Pacific Report yesterday appealing for help from the minister for the 34 students in New Zealand, ranging from masters degree and diploma students to one high school student.

    “They must finish their studies here in New Zealand because returning home to a low wage economy, high unemployment, the ravages of the covid-19 pandemic, and an insurgency war for independence will ruin their education prospects,” he said.

    “Papuan students studying in Australia and New Zealand face tough and stressful challenges apart from the language barrier.”

    The open letter added:

    “Minister Faafoi, surely New Zealand can open its arms and embrace the Papuan students, offering them humanitarian assistance, first through extended visas, and second helping out with their financial plight.”

    Alarming human rights abuses
    Ricardo Menéndez March, Green Party spokesperson for immigration said:

    “The ongoing alarming reports of human rights abuses in West Papua, mean the students could have been forced to return to their homelands without the security and tools they need to support their communities”

    “The government has shown us that where there is political will we can guarantee certainty and security for temporary visa holders.

    “The prompt issuing of the Ukraine Special Visa and the renewal of up to 19,500 working holiday visas demonstrate there are levers the Minister of Immigration can pull to guarantee a safe pathway to remain in Aotearoa for students from West Papua.

    “We are calling on the government to guarantee replacement visas for the West Papuan students and to explore setting up a scholarship fund to do our part supporting indigenous peoples in the Pacific,” said Menéndez March.

    Papuan students in Auckland sort donated food
    Papuan students in Auckland sort donated food for their colleagues stranded in New Zealand while completing their studies. Image: IAPSAO

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Coalition urged to terminate Canstruct contract to end financial ‘black hole’ on Nauru

    There is little sense keeping refugees on island at great expense following New Zealand resettlement deal, human rights groups say

    The government must end the “moral and financial black hole” on Nauru by ceasing its contract with Canstruct and returning those on Nauru to Australia in the wake of the New Zealand refugee resettlement deal, human rights groups say.

    Asked on Friday whether it would end the Canstruct contract for “garrison and welfare services”, the government declined to answer.

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

  • The Coalition argument against sending refugees to New Zealand was always absurd | Ben Doherty

    Despite the take-up of the resettlement offer, nine years after it was first made, the architecture of Australia’s offshore detention policy remains

    After nine years, having borne witness to an immeasurable toll on human life, having poured hundreds of millions of dollars into a failing system, and after repeated international condemnation, Australia has belatedly accepted New Zealand’s resolute offer – an almost nagging entreaty – to resettle 150 refugees from Australia’s punitive offshore processing system, every year, for three years.

    The offer has been on the table since 2013 – politely but persistently put by three New Zealand prime ministers to five Australian ones.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Ukraine war: Green Party says NZ’s $5m funding better for ‘saving lives’

    By Craig McCulloch, RNZ News deputy political editor

    The Green Party says New Zealand has put its relationship with the NATO security alliance ahead of saving lives in Ukraine.

    Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday announced $5 million would go to a NATO fund for the purchase of “non-lethal military assistance” such as fuel, rations and first aid equipment.

    The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, or NATO, is a security alliance including the United States, Canada and 28 European nations.

    Green Party Foreign Affairs spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman told RNZ the funding appeared to be a “diplomatic nod” and could have been put to better use.

    “It looks like we’re trying to be part of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ — so to speak — when that’s not actually our best contribution,” Ghahraman said.

    “That $5m could have gone to aid where it would immediately be saving lives … versus us ticking-the-box of being in the NATO circle while giving very little by way of actually helping people in this conflict.”

    Ghahraman said Ukrainian refugees were desperately in need of food, blankets, medicine and shelter.

    ‘Contending with covid’
    “They are contending with covid at the same time they’re living through a European winter — millions upon millions, displaced in refugee camps or in need of resettlement.”

    To date, New Zealand has contributed $6m in humanitarian aid, mostly through the Red Cross. The government has also created a special visa to assist Ukrainians to join their relatives in New Zealand.

    Speaking at a media conference on Monday, Ardern said the “extraordinary measures” to help Ukrainian forces were in direct response to requests from Ukraine.

    Asked to explain the pivot from humanitarian aid to military assistance, Ardern described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “a massive disruption to the international rules-based order”.

    The Defence Force will also donate surplus stock of 1066 body armour plates, 571 camouflage vests and 473 helmets to Ukrainian forces.

    ACT leader David Seymour said New Zealand’s contribution was “pathetic” and should include direct weapon support.

    “How long do we want to be the weakest link in the West? We have to answer the call and provide what we have to help these people defend their homes.”

    Send missile launchers
    Seymour said New Zealand should immediately send Ukraine its supply of Javelin medium-range missile launchers.

    “They’re not doing much here — I haven’t seen any Russian tanks in New Zealand lately — but they could do a lot over there,” Seymour said.

    Ardern said directly providing weapons would be a “fundamental change” in the country’s approach to the conflict, but the option remained on the table.

    She noted New Zealand did not have a large supply of such equipment.

    National Party Foreign Affairs spokesperson Gerry Brownlee told RNZ the government’s response, so far, was appropriate.

    “The circumstances here are very different than anything we’ve had to deal with before,” Brownlee said. “We should be doing our bit.”

    Providing firepower
    Brownlee said the option of providing firepower could potentially be considered “further down the track”.

    “Our contribution would be so small compared to that from the United States or Great Britain,” Brownlee said.

    “Whatever we do, clearly we’re going to have to operate through NATO and their connections into Ukraine to make sure that whatever assistance is given does get to the right place.”

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • The census undercounted people of color. Here’s what that means for environmental justice.

    It’s hard to overstate the significance of the U.S. census in guiding how the country is governed. A granular enumeration of the national population that’s undertaken once per decade, the census count is intended to apportion political representation and guide the fair distribution of trillions of dollars in government funding to cities, states, and tribes. The 2020 census results, which were announced last year, are also poised to play a key role in the Biden administration’s signature environmental justice program, which promises that at least 40 percent of the benefits of government spending on infrastructure, clean energy, and other climate-related programs will be directed to disadvantaged census tracts.

    Given the high stakes involved, even minor deviations between the census count and the country’s actual demographics can have substantial knock-on effects. On Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau released a statistical analysis that illuminated a persistent trend in the undertaking: the undercounting of people of color. Black Americans, Latinos, and Indigenous people living on reservations were undercounted by roughly 3, 5, and 6 percent, respectively. Those undercounts are consistent with 2010 results, though Latinos experienced a far greater undercount than in 2010, when it was just 1.5 percent. White Americans and Asian Americans, on the other hand, were overcounted in the most recent census.

    Census undercounts happen for several reasons: language barriers, variable literacy rates, lack of internet access, and distrust of the federal government, which may have played an outsize role in 2020. The Census Bureau was able to pinpoint miscounts with a post-census survey asking a sample of people where they were living on the day of the census and matching their responses to information collected during the initial effort.  

    Given the persistence of extreme residential segregation in the U.S., low population tallies in communities of color can drive divestment and divert much-needed dollars for things like affordable housing, transportation, health care, and environmental remediation. Environmental justice projects like replacing lead pipes, cleaning up contaminated soil, updating failing sewage systems, and fortifying housing stocks against heat waves, storms, and floods could also suffer. Finally, undercounts can lead to communities of color having diluted political representation if districts are drawn based on incomplete data.

    Fawn Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians, issued a statement last week saying the results “confirm our worst fears.”

    “Despite the challenges of the 2020 Census, [American Indians and Alaska Natives] living on reservation lands deserve to be counted and to receive their fair share of federal resources,” she added.

    Even beyond the undercounts, population trends underscored by the most recent census could have destabilizing effects on environmental policymaking. For example, nine out of the ten U.S. cities with the largest Black populations have experienced substantial drops in Black residents since 2000. Topping that list, Detroit and Chicago lost over 250,000 Black residents each during that time period. Across the country, Black residents are moving out of big cities because of worries around violence, access to safe and affordable housing, and the health and economic issues stemming from their disproportionate exposure to the most toxic and polluted urban areas.  

    In one census tract in Chicago’s Englewood community, which was 97 percent Black in 2010, the exodus is particularly apparent. Just a decade ago, the corner of 57th Street and Normal Boulevard was adorned by greenery and homes. Since then, however, 400 homes have been demolished to make way for the expansion of a freight yard. In that time, the area’s census tract lost 1,600 Black residents, though its total population only declined by 1,400 overall because of increases in white and Latino residents. 

    same street side by side from different years, one with trees and houses and other with no buildings
    The corner of 57th Street and Normal Boulevard in Chicago, Illinois, in 2007 (left) and 2021 (right). Grist / Adam Mahoney / Google

    The railyard’s expansion exacerbated pollution in the community, which already suffered from proximity to hazardous waste and experienced more diesel pollution than roughly 95 percent of the country, according to Environmental Protection Agency data. Longtime Englewood resident Deborah Payne told Grist that she was forced to move out after the community around her disappeared to make way for the railway. In many ways, she added, the pollution helped drive the exodus around her. 

    “We were always affected by dust and pollution,” she said. “It was noisy and dusty, they didn’t do anything to keep up greenery, and it affected the community because a lot of people around there would go up on most freight trains and open them up to take things.” 

    While environmental issues might be driving some of the migration of Black people out of cities, the suburbs to which they’re moving don’t reliably offer refuge. In Chicago’s case, thousands of Black residents are choosing to move to neighboring areas facing their own acute environmental challenges: Joliet, Illinois, a warehouse and logistics hub where industry has left the city in dire need of new water sources, has grown by just 3,000 residents since 2010, but its Black population has grown by 2,200.

    In other words, while census undercounts jeopardize the tool’s effectiveness, the count has nevertheless illuminated patterns and challenges that policymakers will want to take into account.

    “How could anyone not be concerned?” Census Bureau Director Robert Santos said of the shortcomings when announcing the Bureau’s analysis last week. “These findings will put some of those concerns to rest and leave others for further exploration.”

    This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The census undercounted people of color. Here’s what that means for environmental justice. on Mar 16, 2022.

    This post was originally published on Grist.

  • Climate migration is part of our future. Is it a problem or a solution?

    Rising seas and extreme weather will drive millions more people around the globe to relocate their homes, businesses, and lives, according to the latest U.N. climate report. But rather than view this solely as a bad thing, the report’s authors say climate migration should be seen as a key part of adapting to a warming future.

    From scenes of scared Americans fleeing to Mexico in The Day After Tomorrow to the Biden administration’s discussion of migration as a matter of national security, climate migration is often viewed by wealthier nations as one of the many negative impacts of climate change. This burden-focused narrative has been so influential, several leading nations have bolstered and militarized their borders. 

    But according to last week’s major report on climate impacts and adaptations from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, migration can be a solution — one that helps people survive by moving out of harm’s way or, in seeking employment elsewhere, supporting families back at home. There are some caveats: The experts say this framing only works when the migration is planned for. “We can make migration part of adaptation to climate change if we enable and create support systems for it,” said David Wrathall, a natural hazards professor at Oregon State University and lead author of the report. “The costs of not preparing for this are just too high.” 

    To be clear, climate migration is already happening. Since 2008, an average of 20 million people have been internally displaced each year. The biggest drivers are floods, extreme storms, droughts, and wildfires, which may directly force people to move or disrupt climate-dependent ways of life like agriculture. The vast majority of the time, people migrate internally, or within their own countries, often from rural areas to nearby urban centers. Those that do cross international borders tend to remain within the same region. 

    Since the last IPCC assessment report in 2014, more evidence has emerged connecting climate change to migration and displacement. The hotspots for migration, according to the new report, are in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and South America, though small island nations are disproportionately impacted due to the effects of sea-level rise. But climate migration is hardly limited to those parts of the world: In the United States, for example, hurricanes, wildfires, and drought are already shaping people’s decisions about where to live, voluntary or not. 

    Even though it’s born of terrible circumstances, climate migration can lead to positive outcomes. The report stressed that migration works best when it’s “safe and orderly,” and people are empowered to freely make decisions. “Migration is neither good nor bad inherently,” said Robert McLeman, an environmental studies professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario and coordinating lead author of the report. “It’s good when you allow it to occur legally and with dignity and with agency.” 

    McLeman said lowering the legal barriers for climate migrants could allow people to more easily find safe housing or legal, secure employment to send money home, an important way that families build resilience. Trying to prevent climate migration, he argued, is a lose-lose scenario that leads migrants to attempt clandestine border-crossings: “It’s not good for the migrants and it’s certainly not good for the receiving community,” he said. 

    While the idea of safe, planned migration isn’t new, it runs counter to the current trend in global politics, which is to try and keep migrants out. Even when migration happens within a nation’s borders, countries may discourage people in the countryside from moving into cities. The new IPCC report suggests that will have to change for migration to work as a solution. Central to that idea is the importance of mobility in people’s lives. In a climate-disrupted world, more people are going to need to be more mobile. Not planning for that could lead to poor health, tragedy, and intergenerational poverty.

    Countries can help make migration a climate solution by investing in basic infrastructure and strengthening social systems like schools, housing, and healthcare, so they can accommodate growing populations. When cities grow without that planning, precarious slums fill in the gaps. Governments could defray the costs of moving, or provide training for skills that will help people find work in new places. Guaranteeing migrants’ human rights and labor rights would “ensure that migration is an adaptation strategy for all involved,” said Kayly Ober, senior advocate and program manager for the Climate Displacement Program at Refugees International. 

    Guidelines to prepare for migration are outlined in a handful of global agreements, like the United Nations’ Global Compact on Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration. A report recently assessed countries’ progress on the non-binding compact since it was signed in 2018, and recommended nations make more concrete steps toward achieving goals like ensuring migrants have access to healthcare and COVID-19 vaccinations.

    The IPCC authors note that it’s very difficult to make projections on the future of migration, which depends on complicated factors like population growth, governance, and other adaptations that may or may not be put in place. One estimate suggests that by 2050, 140 million people or more across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America will undertake internal, climate-driven moves. The long-term outlook is hazier, but experts do know more severe floods, storms, and drought will likely become more frequent, forcing even more people from their homes — especially in vulnerable regions with limited ability to adapt. 

    Of course, migration is often not an adaptation, but a last resort. Even without political barriers, it’s a costly, destabilizing experience. The new report noted there are many communities for whom migration represents failure or impossibility: small island nations or “immobile” groups who can’t move because the costs are too high or they are simply unwilling. 

    That’s part of the reason cutting emissions is crucial as ever, even as experts urge nations to plan for adaptation measures like migration. “There’s a lot of avoidable hardship here,” McLeman said. 

    This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Climate migration is part of our future. Is it a problem or a solution? on Mar 7, 2022.

    This post was originally published on Grist.

  • People of colour fleeing Ukraine attacked by Polish nationalists

    Non-white refugees face violence and racist abuse in Przemyśl, as police warn of fake reports of ‘migrants committing crimes’

    Police in Poland have warned that fake reports of violent crimes being committed by people fleeing Ukraine are circulating on social media after Polish nationalists attacked and abused groups of African, south Asian and Middle Eastern people who had crossed the border last night.

    Attackers dressed in black sought out groups of non-white refugees, mainly students who had just arrived in Poland at Przemyśl train station from cities in Ukraine after the Russian invasion. According to the police, three Indians were beaten up by a group of five men, leaving one of them hospitalised.

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

  • Suffer in silence, or risk speaking up? Exploited migrant workers in Australia face perverse dilemma

    Migrants say they can lose their visas if they report an employer – and a government bill that is meant to protect them won’t help

    Michael* has called Australia home for nearly a decade. He has a partner and a child here, friends and a community, a career he wants to pursue. But he has consistently faced a perverse choice: tolerate exploitation for job security, or risk losing his protections and right to stay.

    “My first employer used to bully me, all the time. I was forced to work long hours for no overtime, sometimes more than 60 hours without any more pay,” he tells Guardian Australia. “At first I accepted to work like that, because I cannot do anything: I am relying on the visa.”

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

  • Australia holding people in immigration detention for record 689 days on average, report finds

    Human Rights Watch says the average is 12 times longer than the US, showing ‘how completely alone Australia is in the world, in terms of how absolutely horrific indefinite detention is’

    Australia is holding people in immigration detention for an average of 689 days, the highest on record and more than 12 times longer than the United States, according to Human Rights Watch, which has renewed calls for an end to the “harsh and unlawful policy”.

    The brief detention of tennis star Novak Djokovic in Melbourne’s Park Hotel recently brought global attention to Australia’s harsh immigration policies, but more than one month on, 32 refugees and asylum seekers remain in the same facility.

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

  • I have experienced Australia’s detention policy first-hand – it’s time to end it | Elahe Zivardar

    There are no excuses left for treating people’s lives as chips on a poker table – leaders must end this shameful chapter in Australia’s history

    The world’s attention was focused on Australia’s immigration detention regime in January when a wealthy athlete got a court challenge to his detention. Novak Djokovic was ultimately released and sent home, with the court affirming the minister’s decision to cancel his visa because of his stance on Covid vaccines. But still 32 men languish in the Park Hotel, each of them desperate to leave.

    Australia successfully “stopped the boats”, but it forgot that there were people on those boats whose lives they stopped with them. These same people have been suffering for nearly nine years, unable to move on with their lives, unable to find peace of mind, stability or certainty.

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

  • Johnson likes to dress up as a mini-dictator. But is he really up to that job? | Zoe Williams

    The prime minister seems temperamentally unsuited the demands of his own increasingly authoritarian agenda

    “Creeping authoritarianism” is the wolf of the left, and we cry it all the time: I remember, almost nostalgically, thinking David Cameron was a creeping authoritarian for outsourcing punitive benefits initiatives to private companies; and that Theresa May was one when she earned the dubious accolade of politician least likely to answer the question in a broadcast interview. However, there is no ignoring or denying the vastly more anti-democratic manoeuvres of Boris Johnson’s government.

    The elections bill, currently in the Lords, features mandatory photo ID, which is well known to disfranchise younger and lower-income voters. It poses a direct threat to the reach and independence of the Electoral Commission, has serious implications for who can and cannot campaign at election time, and extends the perverse first-past-the-post voting system to the election of mayors and police commissioners. Beyond the explicit restriction of democracy, there is no plausible rationale for the bill; and unsettlingly, very little attempt has been made to produce one.

    Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

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

  • Allegations of worker exploitation at ‘world’s greatest show’ in Dubai

    Migrant workers employed at Expo 2020 allege confiscated passports, racial discrimination and withheld wages

    Security guards, cleaners and hospitality staff at Dubai’s Expo 2020 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are allegedly working in highly abusive conditions that may amount to forced labour, according to a human rights group.

    Migrant workers employed at the international fair in the UAE – taking place now after being delayed by Covid – allege they have been forced to pay illegal recruitment fees, suffered racial discrimination and had wages withheld and passports confiscated, said the report by Equidem.

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

  • PM accused of ‘outright lie’ after claiming detainees in Melbourne hotel are not refugees

    The Park hotel, where Novak Djokovic was also detained, holds 25 refugees and seven asylum seekers

    Human rights advocates have criticised the prime minister, Scott Morrison, after he wrongly claimed those held in detention in Australia for as long as eight years had not been recognised as refugees.

    Australia’s harsh border policies have been thrust into the spotlight since the detention of tennis star Novak Djokovic at the notorious Park hotel in Melbourne, where dozens of asylum seekers and refugees are detained indefinitely.

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

  • First planeload of Afghan human rights defenders has landed in Ottawa

    Immigration Minister Sean Fraser rises during Question Period, in Ottawa, Dec. 10, 2021. Fred Chartrand/The Canadian Press

    Six months after the federal government promised to help thousands of Afghan women leaders, human- rights activists and journalists flee to Canada, the first planeload has landed.

    Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced the arrival of 252 Afghan refugees on Tuesday, including the first 170 admitted through a special program for people the government deems to be human-rights defenders.

    “It is a privilege to welcome today this cohort of Afghan refugees, who face persecution as a result of their work to protect the human rights of others,” Mr. Fraser said in a statement.

    “I am grateful for their work to document and prevent human rights abuses and proud that they now call our country home.”

    The Liberal government launched the special program in July after weeks of criticism from angry Canadian veterans upset Ottawa wasn’t doing more to help Afghans facing possible Taliban reprisals for having worked with Canada in the past.

    Mr. Fraser’s office said the 170 who arrived through the special program had been referred to Canada by the Ireland-based human-rights organization Front Line Defenders, which has been working to identify those most at risk.

    The Liberals have promised to resettle 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada, but nearly all of those are expected to be people living in UN camps in Pakistan and other neighbouring countries.

    With Monday’s arrivals, the government says it has so far resettled about 6,750 Afghan refugees in Canada. Fraser suggested last month that it could take up to two years for the government to meet its promise of bringing in 40,000 Afghans.

    Veterans and refugee groups aren’t the only ones who have lamented the pace of the government’s efforts when it comes to helping Afghans escape to Canada, with opposition parties also joining the chorus of criticism in recent months.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-first-afghan-human-rights-activists-arrive-six-months-after-ottawas/

    https://pajhwok.com/2022/01/12/over-250-afghans-including-rights-defenders-arrive-in-canada/

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • Desmond Tutu’s funeral and Kazakhstan clashes: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

    A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Mexico to Hong Kong

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