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Category: refugees

  • People helping asylum seekers in Europe face rising violence, report warns

    Aid workers being held at gunpoint and having communications monitored, Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner says

    People and groups who assist asylum seekers are reporting a disturbing trend of escalating intimidation, with aid workers facing direct threats including being held at gunpoint and having their phone communications monitored by government authorities, according to a report from the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights.

    Dunja Mijatović has warned of increasing harassment and in some cases criminalisation of people and groups who assist refugees, especially in Hungary, Greece, Lithuania, Italy, Croatia and Poland.

    Continue reading…

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

  • People seeking asylum in Australia shouldn’t have to trade danger for degradation | Frances Rush

    No one chooses this course of action. It is forced upon them. Australians have always shown humanity and compassion towards refugees. It’s time our politicians did too

    It would be easy, reading the political reaction to the news that more than 40 people seeking asylum have been taken to offshore detention in Nauru after arriving in Western Australia, to forget that we are talking about real people who have faced unimaginable circumstances.

    The lives of people fleeing danger in their home countries were instantly politicised. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, invoked Operation Sovereign Borders; the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, hit back in an attempt to score political points; and commentators marked the political war of words, which often neglect the fact that it is a human right to seek asylum.

    Continue reading…

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

  • BREAKING: Extinction Rebellion take over the centre of parliament in protest of UK foreign policy

    What are the dangerous and shadowy links between the UK Government’s Rwanda flights and a heartbreaking war over resources in Africa that is also fuelling the climate crisis and destroying vital ecosystems? Today Extinction Rebellion activists answered that complex question.

    Extinction Rebellion: UK funding conflict in Africa via immigration policy

    The group staged a protest in the House of Commons pretending to hold guns to their heads and unfurling a banner saying: ‘STOP FUNDING RWANDA WAR IN D.R. CONGO’:

    The activists drew public attention to the causes and impacts of a conflict that has raged in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for over three decades between armed gangs and militias fighting for control of an estimated $24 trillion in natural resources.

    Their actions served as a plea for the world to realise that Goma, one of the main cities in eastern DRC, is just days from being captured by a violent militia group.

    Fighting for resources

    Vast caches of copper, diamonds, tantalum, tin, gold, and more than 63% of global cobalt production are the prize that the gangs use to get rich by selling them to the UK and other rich developed nations to produce mobile phones, computers, batteries and increasingly for renewable energy technologies.

    The fighting has displaced more than 10 million people, triggered indiscriminate killings and mass rape, and seen militia armies ransack the country’s rainforests with illegal logging and poaching, damaging the wild places that absorb huge amounts of the carbon dioxide and slow down the climate and ecological emergency.

    Dig a little deeper, say the activists, and you discover that one of the worst militias, the M23, committing murder and ecological destruction across huge areas of the DRC, is funded by the Rwandan government – who are in turn receiving funding from the UK government.

    Occupying parliament

    The protestors read a statement claiming that payments from the UK government, including money from their illegal refugee flights to Rwanda policy, are being used to fund the M23’s campaign of atrocities. They demanded an immediate halt to all UK government payments to Rwanda.

    As they staged their action in the House of Commons, the XR activists took inspiration from the DRC soccer team at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) pointing the fingers of one hand at their heads to represent a gun while covering their mouths with their other hand to show solidarity with persecuted climate groups in their home country:

    Extinction Rebellion in parliament

    One of the protestors, Dr Karine Nohr from Sheffield, said:

    The plan to ship refugees from the UK to Rwanda is an inhumane and abhorrent idea. The fact that money paid by the UK government to Rwanda is funding violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo makes it more acceptable still. Supporting Rwanda means exacerbating the suffering of 10 million war-displaced people in the DRC and means Britain is complicit in the humanitarian crisis currently unfolding. The UK’s role in the atrocities committed in Congo needs to be brought to light, and we demand a stop to this immediately.

    Extinction Rebellion: UK exploiting the Global South

    In their statement, the activists highlighted how gangs and Western governments reap huge financial benefits from the DRC’s natural resources while the country’s people remain amongst the poorest in the world.

    Nohr continuted:

    These finite resources must not be exploited at the cost of the most vulnerable, nor squandered as rich countries seek to continue business as usual. A just transition to a better future is sorely needed and human rights must be defended. By indirectly funding the Rwandan backed militia the UK becomes complicit in their warmongering.

    Featured image and additional images via Extinction Rebellion

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Border Paranoia in Fortress Australia

    The imaginative faculties of standard Australian politicians retreat to some strange, deathly place on certain issues.  In that wasteland, they are often unrecoverable.  Like juveniles demanding instant reward, these representatives find complexity hideous, troubling, discomforting.  Focus on the prospect of immediate electoral gain, the crude punch, the bruising, the hurt. That, in sum, is Canberra’s policy towards refugees.

    With this month’s appearance of 39 asylum seekers on some of the most remote shorelines on the planet in Western Australia, the customary wells of hysteria were again being tapped for political gain.  “Here we go again,” lamented the Tasmanian Greens Senator Nick McKim.  “A boat arrives with desperate refugees who need our help and we’re suddenly in a ‘political crisis’ because the media said so”.

    One desperate politician was opposition leader Peter Dutton, who wondered how these dangerous subversives could have ever arrived undetected in the first place.   “The government has all sorts of problems,” he crowed.  “It’s clear that they don’t have the same surveillance in place that we had when we were in government.”

    Dutton found it “inconceivable a boat of this size, carrying 40-plus people, could make it to the mainland without there being any detection.”  The insinuation is hard to ignore: the Labor government permitted the arrival to take place.

    The 2022-3 Australia Border Force annual report had noted a reduction of “maritime patrol days” by 6% and aerial patrols by 14%, the result of vessel maintenance, personnel shortages and logistical difficulties when operating in remote parts off the coast.  Overall budgetary costs for the ABF have also been adjusted to account for the fact that the 2022-3 budget was, as Home Affairs department chief finance officer Stephanie Cargill explained in May year, “overspent”.

    The ABF chief, Michael Outram, has even gone so far as to reproach Dutton for his assessment about funding cuts, which deceptively, even mendaciously suggest belt tightening on the part of the Albanese government.  “Border Force funding is currently the highest it’s been since its establishment in 2015 and in the last year, the ABF has received additional funding totalling hundreds of millions of dollars, to support maritime and land based operations.”

    All in all, there has hardly been a softening of the brutal policy that presumptively and prematurely judges undocumented naval arrivals as unworthy.  As the ABF statement on the arrivals notes with customary severity, “Australia’s tough border protection policies means that no one who travels unauthorised by boat will ever be allowed to settle permanently in Australia.  The only way to travel to Australia is legally, with an Australian visa.”

    The dubious rationale for maintaining the policy, formally known as Operation Sovereign Borders, is still very much in place.  “Austraia,” the ABF continues to explain, “remains committed to protecting its borders, stamping out people smuggling and preventing vulnerable people from risking their lives on futile journeys.  The people smuggling business model is built on the exploitation of information and selling lies to vulnerable people who will give up everything to risk their lives at sea.”

    Rear Admiral Brett Sonter, who leads Operation Sovereign Borders, had also stated that nothing has changed.  “The mission of Operation Sovereign Borders remains the same today as it was when it was established in 2013: protect Australia’s borders, combat people smuggling in our region, and importantly, prevent people from risking their lives at sea.”  To suggest otherwise would create an “alternative narrative” susceptible to exploitation “by criminal people smugglers to deceive potential irregular immigrants and convince them to risk their lives and travel to Australia by boat.”

    This became a point of contention for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who decided to give Dutton a parliamentary scalding by suggesting that his opponents were “just full of nonsense, and they should stop being a cheer squad for people, encouraging people smuggling.”

    Such “business models”, as they are derisively and demagogically called, are the natural consequence of a yearning to flee.  It is a yearning that is being globally punished, notably by wealthier states less than keen to accept asylum seekers.  Canberra’s savage approach to the problem – non-settlement in Australia of those eventually found to be refugees and detaining individuals in concentration camps in the Pacific – has become the envy of border protection fetishists.  The British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, for instance, dreams of an Australia-styled solution that will involve “turning the boats back” and deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda.  Unfortunately for him, and most fortunately for humanitarians, an army of lawyers and judges have frustrated his vision.

    The border fetishists also make a crucial omission.  The people smugglers, who are of all stripes of opportunism and exploitation rather than some monolithic bloc, are merely facilitating the provisions of the United Nations Refugee Convention.  All who arrive should not be discriminated against on the basis of how they arrive or their backgrounds – the articles of the Convention state as much – yet Australia’s border policy remains persistently cruel and defiant.  Whenever a boat appears with a small cargo full of desperate individuals who make it to land, the fantasies of invasion, unwarranted intrusion and unwanted infiltration catch alight.  It was high time they were snuffed out.

    The post Border Paranoia in Fortress Australia first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Tories’ Rwanda safety bill is an abuse of the rule of law | Letter

    No amount of tinkering with the government’s proposal for deporting asylum seekers can make it compatible with human rights, says Sacha Deshmukh of Amnesty International UK

    The joint committee on human rights was right to be so strident in its assessment that the government’s Rwanda bill is fundamentally incompatible with human rights (UK’s Rwanda bill ‘incompatible with human rights obligations’, 12 February). No tinkering with this bill can make it fit basic tenets of the UN refugee convention, Human Rights Act and European convention on human rights, and judicial independence.

    This government is attempting to declare Rwanda safe as a matter of law simply because it says so – an abuse of law that one would expect from an authoritarian regime. Human rights are not fair-weather concepts for a government to simply abandon at its convenience, and if our government pursues that course, then others will feel more licensed to do the same, threatening the entire global system of rights and protections and making us all significantly less safe.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Bibby Stockholm will be back in the High Court facing another legal challenge

    A local resident is back in court over the Bibby Stockholm – trying to get the barge shut down, while putting the racist government policy that created it in the spotlight.

    On 27-29 February, the High Court will hear the case of Parkes v Dorset council to determine whether Dorset council has the power to enforce planning authority over the Bibby Stockholm barge.

    The Bibby Stockholm: in the judicial spotlight

    Carralyn Parkes, a local resident and the mayor of Portland, has brought this claim in her personal capacity. She previously took the Home Office to the High Court over the Bibby Stockholm. As the Canary reported, Parkes argued that the Home Office’s failure to seek planning permission for the Bibby Stockholm was unlawful.

    Parkes said that:

    If the Home Office had applied for planning permission, they would have had to consult with local people – but we never got the right to have our say.

    I believe that planning permission would have been refused.

    However, the government’s lawyers argued that the local planning authority did not think planning permission was necessary. The High Court agreed, refusing a judicial review.

    So, Parkes is now trying another avenue. In the new claim – this time against Dorset council – she is arguing various points.

    Dorset council: neglecting its duties?

    Firstly, she says the boundaries of Dorset council include Portland Harbour, because of the way that common law has historically dealt with harbours and enclosed bays (where the sea lies ‘within the jaws of the land’). The case is that these areas are more analogous to rivers, estuaries or inland lakes, which are all subject to planning control, than the open sea. Parkes’ argues that there are therefore obvious and sensible reasons why local authorities should have a say in what happens there.

    Next, and Parkes believes Dorset council must have the power to issue an enforcement notice on Crown-owned land (such as the seabed in the harbour within the outer breakwaters) because of the substantial impacts on the local community. Planning legislation’s purpose is to manage the impact on the local community, and so the law should be interpreted to ensure that this purpose is achieved.

    Further to this, Parkes says the Bibby Stockholm, an engineless accommodation barge and a permanently moored structure, is an ‘accretion from the sea’, like a pier, and therefore should be subject to planning law. In any event, Dorset Council should consider planning enforcement over the change of use of the finger pier, and the access road where the Bibby Stockholm barge is moored.

    The Bibby Stockholm must be closed for good

    Finally, Parkes considers that the Home Office is wrong to continue avoiding planning control over the Bibby Stockholm, simply by operating accommodation on a barge in a harbour. If the barge were placed almost anywhere else (on the dock, on land, in a lake, or on a canal, for example), it would be subject to planning control. Parkes believes that placing the barge in a harbour should not remove local people’s ability to have any say over what goes on in their community.

    The experience of those accommodated on the Bibby Stockholm has shown how disastrous and inappropriate this plan always was. Tragically, one person has lost their life. Many hundreds more have had to suffer isolation, overcrowding and deteriorating mental health. The barge is hugely costly, dangerous, and it is time that it is closed for good.

    Featured image via Wikimedia

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Freedom Flotilla on the move again – hopes to break the siege of Gaza

    Asia Pacific Report

    The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) has announced in Istanbul a plan to sail again to challenge Israel’s unlawful and deadly siege of Gaza, reports the aid group Kia Ora Gaza.

    In the coming weeks, a flotilla will put to sea carrying thousands of tonnes of urgently needed humanitarian aid that will be delivered directly to Palestinians in Gaza, say the organisers.

    “After 17 years of a brutal blockade and four months of genocidal assault, including weaponising basic necessities, Palestinians in Gaza are facing an unprecedented and catastrophic humanitarian crisis,” said FFC’s statement.

    The International Court of Justice (ICJ) last month ordered provisional measures to protect the Palestinians in Gaza from the “plausible risk” of genocide.

    Among six strongly worded measures, the ICJ ordered Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

    This decision followed UN Security Council resolutions in November and December 2023 which called for urgent steps to immediately allow “safe, unhindered, and expanded” humanitarian access to Gaza.

    “Israel’s blatant noncompliance with these orders, and the failure of other governments to pressure the occupying power to comply, motivate us as civil society organisations to take action,” said Ismail Moola of the Palestine Solidarity Alliance, South Africa.

    ‘We need to act immediately’
    “It is incumbent upon us to ensure that Palestinians in Gaza receive humanitarian aid. We expect that the Security Council will enforce the ICJ ruling, but due to the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza we need to act immediately.”

    Organisers said plans for the Save Gaza Campaign were ongoing, and the FFC called on the government of Egypt to facilitate the delivery of life-sustaining aid through Rafah into Gaza.

    FFC’s mission, For the Children of Gaza, led by the boat Handala, will again set sail from Northern Europe to Gaza in May 2024.

    The FFC gathered in Istanbul to plan these campaigns with representatives from the following organisations: Canadian Boat to Gaza (Canada), US Boat to Gaza (USA), Kia Ora Gaza (Aotearoa New Zealand), Free Gaza Australia (Australia), Ship to Gaza (Norway), MyCARE (Malaysia), Ship to Gaza (Sweden), Palestine Solidarity Alliance (South Africa), IHH (Türkiye), Rumbo a Gaza (Spanish State), Mavi Marmara Association (Türkiye) and the International Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza.

    “Where our governments fail, we sail,” said Karen DeVito of Canadian Boat to Gaza.

    “We are charting a course to the conscience of humanity, in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

    She said they called on civil society organisations from around the world who share their values and goals to “support and join us”.

    Contact details for Aotearoa New Zealand’s Kia Ora Gaza:
    Contact: Roger Fowler
    Phone: +64 212 999 491
    Email: office@kiaoragaza.net
    Website: http://www.kiaoragaza.net/
    Facebook: KiaOraGaza

    Cook Islands at yesterday's pro-Palestine protest in Auckland's Te Komititanga Square yesterday
    Cook Islands at yesterday’s pro-Palestine protest in Auckland’s Te Komititanga Square yesterday. Image: David Robie/APR

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Nominations open for UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award

    Nominations are now open for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Nansen Refugee Award 2024. For more on this award and its previous laureates, see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/CC584D13-474F-4BB3-A585-B448A42BB673

    Eligibility Criteria
    • Anyone may nominate a candidate for the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award. If you nominated someone in the past but they did not win, you may nominate them again.
    • The strongest nominations will provide a detailed account of the candidate’s work and results for displaced or stateless people, as well as three solid references to vouch for their character and impact. References should not all come from the same organization or group.
    • Please note that self-nominations are strongly discouraged. Current or former UNHCR employees are not eligible.
    Criteria
    • Candidates may be individuals, groups or organizations.
    • Their work must have a direct and positive impact on the lives of forcibly displaced or stateless people.
    • Their work relates to a major displacement situation or issue.
    • This year they especially encourage nominations that relate to statelessness, climate, sports, solutions and inclusions but they are open to other themes.
    • They devote substantial time and effort to support forcibly displaced or stateless people, going above and beyond the call of duty and outside their expected role.
    • They have the capacity to successfully implement a suitable project with the prize money (US$100,000 for the global laureate, US$25,000 for regional winners).
    • They have three strong references.

    For more information, visit UNHCR.

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

  • Canberra ‘ignores public’ over Gaza war – UNRWA fund cuts ‘irresponsible’, says Senator

    Asia Pacific Report

    Senator and deputy leader of the Australian Greens party Mehreen Faruqi says the survival of millions of people in Gaza depends on the “live-saving” humanitarian aid provided by UNRWA, and it is “totally irresponsible” to cut funds to the UN agency.

    “Western countries, like Australia, who have suspended this aid [to UNRWA] have made a pretty disgraceful and morally indefensible decision,” she said.|

    “We know that people are being starved in Gaza at the moment. We know that there is a humanitarian crisis.

    Australian Greens party Mehreen Faruqi senator
    Australian Greens party Mehreen Faruqi senator . . . “The Australian government is making decisions that are completely opposed to the sentiments, feelings and demands of the Australian people.” Image: Wikipedia

    “We know that there is a mission of genocide that Israel is committing, and at this time to suspend aid is disgraceful,” Faruqi told Al Jazeera.

    Australia joined some 15 US-led countries to cut UNRWA funding by US$667 million — more than half of its total pledges.

    The people of Australia had taken to the streets to protest over “weeks and weeks” in support of Gaza. But the government was refusing to listen to their demands, Faruqi said.

    “By refusing to listen to the people of Australia, the Australian government is making decisions that are completely opposed to the sentiments, feelings and demands of the Australian people,” she said.

    ‘People can see . . . 26,000 have been massacred’
    “People in Australia can actually see what is going on in Gaza. They can see more than 26,000 people have been massacred.

    “They can see that more than 12,000 of those are children. This is completely unacceptable. This [Israeli] mission of genocide.

    “And especially the cheerleading by Australia, by the UK, by the US of this invasion of Gaza is reprehensible.”

    UNRWA’s funds should be restored immediately and increased, Faruqi added.

    Countries such as Ireland, Norway and Spain have continued to fund UNRWA – in some cases increasing their aid — and have condemned the funding cuts as an “attack on humanity”.

    New Zealand is currently still funding UNRWA and will review the situation before its next instalment is due mid-year.

    ‘Happy to keep war going’

    Australian author and journalist Antony Loewenstein
    Australian author and journalist Antony Loewenstein . . . “Israelis also “very happy to keep the war going”. Image: Al Jazeera screenshot APR

    Also interviewed by Al Jazeera, independent journalist Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory exposing the Israeli military profit machine, talked about the views of the Israeli population and the Jewish diaspora.

    Answering a question about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declared goal of “total victory” as the war drags on, Loewenstein acknowledged how global diasporas were split in their opinions with younger Jewish groups in the US increasingly seeking a ceasefire, but his view of Israel was grim.

    “One of the things that is really clear. . . is that most Israelis want their hostages back, which makes sense. But at the same time they are also very happy to keep the war going.

    “In fact, most polls do not suggest that the majority of Israeli Jews want the war to end.,” he said.

    “They do want Hamas to be removed in some way. What that looks like, of course is up to debate.”


    Author Antony Loewenstein discusses Jewish diaspora splits over the Gaza war. Video: Al Jazeera

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Refugee files complaint to UN against Spain over 2014 border deaths

    Country accused of violating torture convention in hope of finding justice decade after incident in which at least 15 people died

    A 25-year-old from Cameroon has filed a complaint to the UN against Spain, accusing the country of multiple violations of the convention against torture in hope of seeking justice after an incident in 2014 during which at least 15 people died while trying to enter Spanish territory from Morocco.

    “A decade has passed and still not a single person has been held accountable for the death and injury of so many,” said the man, who asked to be identified by the pseudonym Ludovic.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Few ‘rotten apples’ shouldn’t prevent NZ aid to thousands of innocent people in Gaza, says Peters

    RNZ News

    New Zealand would likely continue funding the United Nations agency delivering aid in Palestine if concerns about its staff were dealt with, the Foreign Affairs Minister says.

    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Tuesday confirmed New Zealand was reviewing future payments to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

    It follows accusations by Israel that 12 agency staff were involved in the Hamas’ attacks on October 7, which left about 1140 dead and about 250 taken as hostages.

    NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters
    NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters . . . “I think the New Zealand people would want us to respond to the crisis.” Image: RNZ/Angus Dreaver

    Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told RNZ Morning Report the allegations warranted a proper investigation.

    But he said the critical issue was the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

    According to the Palestine Health Ministry more than 26,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched a war on the besieged enclave in response to October 7.

    Awaiting UN investigation
    Peters said it was possible there were a few “rotten apples” within UNRWA.

    “If the matter has been dealt with, and with assurances that it does not happen in the future, then the crisis is of a level, we must, I believe, and I think the New Zealand people would want us to respond to the crisis rather than to react in that way and punish a whole lot of innocent people because of the actions of a few.” he said.

    Peters said it would be premature to make a decision before the UN finished its investigation.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Defunding UNRWA will cause Gazans ‘more misery and suffering’, warns former PM Clark

    Asia Pacific Report

    Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who led the UN Development Programme which oversees UNRWA, told RNZ Morning Report today it was the biggest platform for getting humanitarian aid into Gaza for a populations that is 85 percent displaced.

    People are on the verge on starvation and going without medical supplies, she said.

    “If you’re going to defund and destroy this platform, then the misery and suffering of the people under bombardment can only increase and you can only have more deaths.”

    Former NZ prime minister Helen Clark
    Former NZ prime minister Helen Clark tells Morning Report why humanitarian funding should continue. Image: RNZ screenshot

    Clark said it was “most regrettable that countries have acted in this precipitous way to defund the organisation on the basis of allegations”.

    Al Jazeera reports that top Palestinian officials and Hamas have criticised the decision by nearly a dozen Western countries led by the US to suspend funding (totalling more than US$667 million) for UNRWA — the UN relief agency for Palestinians — and called for an immediate reversal of the move, which entails “great” risk.

    Ireland, Norway and Spain and others (with funding totalling more than $497 million) have confirmed continued support for UNRWA, saying the agency does crucial work to help Palestinians displaced and in desperate need of assistance in Gaza.

    The Norwegian aid agency said the people of Gaza would “starve in the streets” without UNRWA humanitarian assistance.

    Hamas’ media office said in a post on Telegram: “We ask the UN and the international organisations to not cave into the threats and blackmail” from Israel.

    Defunding ‘not right decision’
    Former PM Clark did not deny the allegations made were serious, but said defunding the agency without knowing the outcome of the investigation was not the right decision, RNZ reports.

    “I led an organisation that had tens of thousands of people on contracts at any one time. Could I say, hand on heart, people never did anything wrong? No I couldn’t. But what I could say was that any allegations would be fully investigated and results made publicly known,” she said.


    UNRWA funding cuts — why Israel is trying to destroy the UN Palestinian aid agency.  Video: Al Jazeera

    “That’s exactly what the head of UNRWA has said, it’s what the Secretary-General’s saying, that process is underway, but this is not a time to be just cutting off the funding because a small minority of UNRWA staff face allegations.”

    Luxon suggested Clark’s plea would not affect New Zealand’s response.

    “I appreciate that, but we’re the government, and they’re serious allegations, they need to be understood and investigated and when the foreign minister [Winston Peters] says that he’s done that and he’s happy for us to contribute and continue to contribute, we’ll do that.”

    He compared the funding of about $1 million each year (in June) with the $10 million in humanitarian assistance provided by the government for the relief effort — “and we’ve split that money between the International Red Cross and also the World Food Programme”.

    Clark said people could starve to death or die because they did not receive the medication they needed in the meantime.

    If major donor countries like the United States and Germany continued to withhold funding, UNRWA would go down and there was no alternative, she said.

    Clark did not believe there was any coincidence in the allegations being made known at the same time as the International Court of Justice’s ruling on the situation in Gaza.

    According to the BBC, the court ordered Israel to do everything in its power to refrain from killing and injuring Palestinians and do more to “prevent and punish” public incitement to genocide. Tel Aviv must report back to the court on its actions within a month.

    Clark said the timing of the UNRWA allegations was an attempt to deflect the significant rulings made of the court and dismiss them.

    “I think it’s fairly obvious what was happening.”

    Israel had provided the agency with information alleging a dozen staff were involved in the October 7 attack by Hamas fighters in southern Israel, which left about 1300 dead and about 250 taken as hostages.

    More than 26,000 people — mostly women and children — have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched a major military operation in response, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.

    UNRWA was founded in the wake of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 to provide hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who were forcibly displaced with education, healthcare, social services and jobs. It started operations in 1950.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Attack against Cypriot anti-racism NGO KISA

    7 January 2024 Cyprus Mail reported that a demonstration will be held condemning the attack on the offices of refugee NGO Kisa.

    Kisa’s offices were attacked on Friday, when an improvised explosive device went off outside their offices, smashing windows, destroying computers and photocopiers.

    In their statement, the protest organisers said: “Kisa and its members have repeatedly received threats of various forms, against which the state authorities have shown unacceptable tolerance, which, together with government policies and their racist and xenophobic rhetoric on immigration issues, have not only allowed but also encouraged racist and fascist attacks against migrants and refugees, as well as their rights defenders, thus fostering fascism in society.”

    Issuing a statement after the attack, the international NGO Amnesty International’s Cyprus Research Kondylia Gogou said: “Last night’s violent attack on anti-racist organisation Kisa is despicable and raises serious concerns over the safety of human rights defenders in the country. However, it did not happen in a vacuum. Racist violence is on the rise in Cyprus, and KISA and its volunteers have been the target of repeated threats, verbal attacks, and smear campaigns in connection with their work supporting refugees and migrants and denouncing hate crimes.”

    According to Amnesty, authorities in Cyprus must send an unequivocal message that attacks on human rights defenders and NGOs will not be tolerated, and conduct a prompt, thorough, independent, and impartial investigation on the attack on the Kisa’s offices “that prioritises the hypothesis that the attack was related to their human rights and anti-racist work”.

    In August and September 2023, racialised people including refugees and migrants were subjected to pogrom-like attacks in Chloraka and Limassol. Previously, in early 2023, racist attacks were carried out in Limassol and in January 2022 attacks were carried out in Chloraka. In 2023, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) found that the public discourse in the country had become “increasingly xenophobic”.

    In December 2020, further to an amendment to the law on associations, KISA was removed from the Registry of Associations, and proceedings for its dissolution were initiated. KISA’s appeal to challenge the decision before the country’s Appeal Court remains pending, and despite its registration as a non-profit company, KISA operates with many obstacles.    

    https://euobserver.com/migration/157914

    Demonstration to be held condemning attack on NGO office in Nicosia

    Good breaking news from Cyprus: HRD Doros Polycarpou acquitted!

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

  • New Zealand can learn from South Africa, The Gambia and others when it comes to international accountability

    ANALYSIS: By Karen Scott, University of Canterbury

    In 2023, the world witnessed a sustained attack on the very foundations of the international legal order.

    Russia, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, continued its illegal invasion in Ukraine. Israel’s response to the deadly October attack by Hamas exceeded its legitimate right to self-defence. And Venezuela threatened force against Guyana over an oil-rich area of disputed territory.

    But is it all bad news for the international legal order?

    There are six ongoing international court cases initiated by states or organisations seeking to clarify the law and hold other states to account on behalf of the international community.

    These cases offer smaller countries, such as New Zealand, an opportunity to have a significant role in strengthening the international legal order and ensuring a pathway towards peace.

    A departure from the legal norm?
    Normally, cases are brought to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) when a state’s direct interests are impacted by the actions of another state.

    However, six recent court cases reflect a significant departure from this tradition and mark an important development for international justice.

    These cases argue the international community has a collective interest in certain issues. The focus of the cases range from Israel’s actions in Gaza (brought by South Africa) through to the responsibility of states to ensure the protection of the climate system (brought by the United Nations General Assembly).

    Holding states accountable for genocide
    Three of the six cases seek to hold states accountable for genocide using Article IX of the 1948 Genocide Convention. Put simply, Article IX says disputes between countries can be referred to the ICJ.

    In late December, South Africa asked the court to introduce provisional measures — a form of international injunction — against Israel for genocidal acts in Gaza.

    These proceedings build on the precedent set by a 2019 case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar for its treatment of the Rohingya people.

    In 2022, the ICJ concluded it had jurisdiction to hear The Gambia’s case on the basis that all parties to the Genocide Convention have an interest in ensuring the prevention, suppression and punishment of genocide.

    According to the ICJ, The Gambia did not need to demonstrate any special interest or injury to bring the proceedings and, in effect, was entitled to hold Myanmar to account for its treatment of the Rohingya people on behalf of the international community as a whole.

    South Africa has made the same argument against Israel.

    In the third case, Ukraine was successful in obtaining provisional measures calling on Russia to suspend military operations in Ukraine (a call which has been reiterated in several United Nations General Assembly resolutions).

    While Ukraine is directly impacted by Russia’s actions, 32 states, including New Zealand, have also intervened. These countries have argued there is an international interest in the resolution of the conflict.

    In November 2023, following the example of intervention in Ukraine v Russia, seven countries — Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom (jointly) and the Maldives — filed declarations of intervention in The Gambia v Myanmar, in support of The Gambia and the international community.

    States can apply for permission to intervene in proceedings where they have an interest of a legal nature that may be affected by the decision in the case (in the case of the ICJ, under Article 62 of the ICJ Statute). That said, intervening in judicial proceedings in support of the legal order or international community more generally was relatively rare until 2023.

    Climate change obligations under international law
    But it is not just acts of genocide that have attracted wider international legal involvement.

    In 2023, three proceedings seeking advisory opinions on the legal obligations of states in respect of climate change under international law have been introduced before the ICJ, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

    These cases can be similarly characterised as having been brought on behalf of the international community for the international community. New Zealand has intervened in the Law of the Sea case.

    Collectively, these six cases comprise actions taken on behalf of the international community with the overarching purpose of strengthening the international legal order.

    They demonstrate faith in and support for that legal order in the face of internal and external challenges, and constitute an important counter-narrative to the prevailing view that the international legal order is no longer robust.

    Instituting proceedings does not guarantee a positive outcome. But it is worth noting that less than three years after the ICJ issued an advisory opinion condemning the United Kingdom’s continued occupation of the Chagos Archipelago, the UK is quietly negotiating with Mauritius for the return of the islands.

    New Zealand’s support for the global legal order in 2024
    The international legal order underpins New Zealand’s security and prosperity. New Zealand has a strong and internationally recognised track record of positive intervention in judicial proceedings in support of that order.

    In 2012 New Zealand intervened in the case brought by Australia against Japan for whaling in the Antarctic. Following our contributions to cases before the ICJ and ITLOS in 2023, we are well placed to continue that intervention in future judicial proceedings.

    Calls have already been made for New Zealand to intervene in South Africa v Israel. Contributing to this case and to The Gambia v Myanmar proceeding provides an important opportunity for New Zealand to make a proactive and substantive contribution to strengthening the international legal order.The Conversation

    Dr Karen Scott is professor in Law, University of Canterbury. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Rwanda bill: legislation passes third reading as rightwing rebellion recedes – UK politics live

    The third reading of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) bill passed by 320 votes to 276, a majority of 44

    Rishi Sunak starts with the usual spiel about his engagements, and how he has got meetings with colleagues.

    Rishi Sunak is taking PMQs in 10 minutes.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Greece found to have violated Syrian refugee’s right to life by firing on vessel

    European court of human rights orders Athens to pay €80,000 to family of Belal Tello, who died after 2014 incident

    The European court of human rights has ruled that Greece violated a Syrian refugee’s right to life when coastguards fired more than a dozen rounds at the people smugglers’ boat he was on nearly a decade ago.

    The Strasbourg-based court ordered Greece to pay €80,000 (about £68,000) in damages to the wife and two children of Belal Tello, who was shot in the head as Greek coastguards attempted to halt the boat he was travelling in. Tello died in 2015, after months in hospital.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith resign over Rwanda bill – as it happened

    Jane Stevenson joins Conservative party’s deputy chairs in resigning on a bruising night for Rishi Sunak

    More than 60 Tory MPs have signed at least one of the various rebel amendments to the Rwanda bill tabled by hardliners. But very few of them have said publicly that, if the amendments are not passed, they will definitely vote against the bill at third reading. Suella Braverman and Miriam Cates are among the diehards in this category. But Simon Clarke, in his ConservativeHome, only says, that, if the bill is not changed, he will not vote for the bill at third reading, implying he would abstain.

    In an interview with Sky News, Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister who has tabled the rebel amendments attracting most support, said he was “prepared” to vote against the bill at third reading. He said:

    I am prepared to vote against the bill … because this bill doesn’t work, and I do believe that a better bill is possible.

    So the government has a choice. It can either accept my amendments … or it can bring back a new and improved bill, and it could do that within a matter of days because we know the shape of that bill.

    Continue reading…

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

  • South Africa’s genocide case against Israel over Gaza ‘chilling’ in detail

    Asia Pacific Report

    South Africa has accused Israel of “genocidal intent” over its war on the besieged enclave Gaza Strip, and pleaded with judges at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue an interim order demanding Israel halt its military offensive in the embattled territory, reports Middle East Eye.

    South African lawyer Adila Hassim told judges at The Hague that “genocides are never declared in advance, but this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies as a plausible claim of genocidal acts”.

    “Israel deployed 6000 bombs per week . . . No one is spared. Not even newborns.

    UN chiefs have described it as a graveyard for children,” she said told the court on the opening session of the two-day preliminary hearing.

    “Nothing will stop the suffering except an order from this court.”

    Israel’s ongoing three-month war in Gaza has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, lawyers told the court.

    Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced, and an Israeli blockade severely limiting food, fuel and medicine has caused a humanitarian “catastrophe”, according to the UN.

    ‘Genocidal in character’
    South Africa submitted its case against Israel at the ICJ last month and has said Israel’s actions in Gaza are “genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group”.

    Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, another South African lawyer and legal scholar at the hearing, said Pretoria was not alone in drawing attention to Israel’s genocidal rhetoric.

    He said that at least 15 UN special rapporteurs and 21 members of the UN working groups had warned that what was happening in Gaza reflected a genocide in the making.


    Video: Middle East Eye

    Ngcukaitobi added that genocidal intent was evident in the way Israel’s military was conducting attacks, including the targeting of family homes and civilian infrastructure.

    “Israel’s political leaders, military commanders and persons holding official positions have systematically and in explicit terms declared their genocidal intent.”

    Ngcukaitobi said the “genocidal rhetoric” had become common within the Israeli Knesset, with several MPs calling for Gaza to be “wiped out, flattened, erased and crushed”.

    Israeli defence
    On Wednesday, Nissim Vaturi, a member of Israel’s ruling Likud party, said it was a “privilege” for his country to appear at The Hague as he doubled down on earlier remarks where he said there were “no innocent people” in Gaza.

    This is the first time Israel is being tried under the United Nations’ Genocide Convention, which was drawn up after the Second World War in light of the atrocities committed against Jews and other persecuted minorities during the Holocaust.

    During yesterday’s proceedings, Professor Max du Plessis, another lawyer representing South Africa, said Israel had subjected the Palestinian people to an oppressive and prolonged violation of their rights to self-determination for more than half a century.

    Dr Du Plessis added that based on materials shown before the court, the acts of Israel were plausibly characterised as genocidal.

    “South Africa’s obligation is motivated by the need to protect Palestinians in Gaza and their absolute rights not to be subjected to genocidal acts.”

    Genocide cases, which are notoriously hard to prove, can take years to resolve, but South Africa is asking the court to speedily implement “provisional measures” and “order Israel to cease killing and causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinian people in Gaza”.

    Three hour hearing
    Yesterday’s hearing consisted of three hours of detailed descriptions detailing what South Africa says is a clear example of genocide. Israel will today have three hours to respond on Friday.

    The spokesperson of the Israeli Foreign Affairs, Lior Haiat, hit out at the comments made in the hearing, calling it “one of the greatest shows of hypocrisy,” and demonstrated “false and baseless claims.”

    He also accused South Africa of “functioning as the legal arm of the Hamas terrorist organisation”.

    As South Africa did in its 84-page legal filing ahead of the case, the country’s Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola repeated that he “unequivocally condemns Hamas” for the October 7 attack on southern Israel.

    Republished from Middle East Eye.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Human rights in decline globally as leaders fail to uphold laws, report warns

    Human Rights Watch’s annual report highlights politicians’ double standards and ‘transactional diplomacy’ amid escalating crises

    Human rights across the world are in a parlous state as leaders shun their obligations to uphold international law, according to the annual report of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

    In its 2024 world report, HRW warns grimly of escalating human rights crises around the globe, with wartime atrocities increasing, suppression of human rights defenders on the rise, and universal human rights principles and laws being attacked and undermined by governments.

    Continue reading…

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

  • How a Syrian refugee is standing up to brutal Croatian pushbacks in court

    Sami Barkal filmed border guards beating fellow asylum seekers and is challenging Croatia in Europe’s court of human rights

    A Syrian refugee who secretly filmed Croatian border guards beating his travel companions is to take Croatia’s authorities to the European court of human rights in the first challenge to its practice of pushbacks into Bosnia.

    “I couldn’t forget that experience at the border,” says Sami Barkal. “I made that video because I wanted people to understand what was happening to us and how they play with our lives as if they are worth nothing. What else can we do to make it stop? So I really have hopes in the court. Do we really want borders with walls, violence and pushbacks? Or do we want to find a more humane way?”

    Continue reading…

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

  • Africa’s Refugee Crisis Deepens: UN Budget Shortfalls Amplify Hunger

    For refugees living in settlements across Africa, life got more difficult in 2023. Shortfalls in the operating budget of the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, and the World Food Program have brought increased precarity into the daily lives of millions of displaced people across the continent. Having fled violence, famine and insecurity in search of survival, many African refugees now find…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • EU reaches asylum deal that rights groups say will create ‘cruel system’

    Plan is aimed at spreading cost of hosting asylum seekers across bloc and limiting number of arrivals

    EU negotiators have reached agreement on rules aimed at spreading the cost and responsibility for hosting asylum seekers across the bloc, limiting the number of people coming in and making it easier to deport those whose claims fail.

    After all-night talks, representatives from national governments, the European parliament and European Commission “reached a deal on the core political elements” of the pact on asylum and migration, the EU’s Spanish presidency said on Wednesday.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Calls Grow to Grant Temporary Protected Status to Palestinians Already in the US

    As the Biden administration faces accusations of being too slow to help Palestinian Americans and their families trapped in Gaza, we speak with Narmin Abushaban in Detroit whose mother died from lack of medical care while waiting to leave Gaza. She is working now to rescue the rest of her family members. This comes as calls grow for the U.S. to grant temporary protected status (TPS) to…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • No food for up to 17 hours: life onboard the Bibby Stockholm, according to its quasi-detainees

    Refugees on board the Bibby Stockholm barge have told campaign group One Life To Live that access to food is heavily restricted. Additionally, portions are child-sized and canteen queues take up to an hour – with those at the end likely to be disappointed.

    A significant amount of food is wasted because the quality is poor. It can also be unhygienic; for example, dirty salad leaves and hair regularly found in the food. And it is often culturally inappropriate. According to one individual, a group of men have been on hunger strike.

    This picture is particularly disturbing because the Home Office pays the company which runs the barge, Corporate Travel Management, £44,369 by for each asylum seeker on board, which includes the provision of food (figures based on a maximum eventual cohort of 506 people). A year’s place at Eton would not cost much more.

    No food is available for almost half of every 24-hour period

    The asylum-seekers cannot get anything to eat between the canteen closing at 8pm and when it reopens for breakfast at 7am the following day – that’s 11 hours. If an individual returns to the barge after 8pm, which can happen and may be unavoidable, they will miss their evening meal and will have no food for 17 hours.

    Furthermore, they have been told that packed lunches will not be provided if anyone will be away from the barge during the day. They cannot afford to buy their own meals when off the barge, because the asylum-seekers’ allowance is just £1.37 per day to cover all living expenses other than accommodation and on-board food.

    So if someone is off the barge over lunchtime, which is quite feasible, they will have no food between breakfast ending at 9am one day and reopening at 7am the next – which means no food for 22 hours.

    Promises made – and not kept

    On 21 July 2023, before the first asylum-seekers arrived on the barge, the Home Office offered tours of the Bibby Stockholm for journalists. ITV News, for example, reported several commitments about catering arrangements. These do not correspond to what the asylum-seekers are experiencing:

    Home Office statement:

    Outside normal meal times, soup and bread will be available 24/7.

    Reality according to an asylum-seeker on board on 16 December:

    After 8pm the door is closed for dinner time, after that they clean for one hour. It’s open [again] at 10pm with just hot drinks. [So] when I get hungry… at night I must sleep hungry, for we are indeed imprisoned. I don’t even have access to any supermarket to get food for myself.

    Asylum-seekers don’t have access to supermarkets because they are not permitted to leave the barge except by the buses provided, which only make one stop on Portland and two in Weymouth, and do not operate 24/7. Plus, they cannot afford to buy food.

    Home Office statement:

    Each meal will be served over a two-hour window to prevent overcrowding.

    Reality according to a local supporter in November 2023:

    The men queue for up to an hour for food, and apparently there isn’t much left for those at the end of the queue.

    That was when there were 200 people on board; there are now around 350, rising to 506. According to an asylum-seeker on board in November:

    The capacity of the dining hall is 120 people. There are 20 tables and 6 chairs for each table.

    Furthermore, one asylum-seeker reported that portion sizes were inadequate:

    The amount of food they give us is suitable for a 10-year-old child… they are stingy in the amount of food.

    Home Office statement:

    The menu is culturally sensitive.

    Reality according to various asylum-seekers, as told to One Life To Live:

    • “Food is of poor quality and more than 70 per cent of the people waste their food. They do not eat because no one likes the food”.
    • “Some days the food is so awful that we can’t eat [and] sleep hungry at night”.
    • “We don’t have anywhere to prepare food for ourselves and there is no snack at all”.
    • “I haven’t had any necessary [sic] food for two weeks”.
    • “Several times I found hair in the food”.
    • “quality of [the food’s] cleanliness is very low” – with a photo of a salad leaf with dirt on it.
    • “The poor quality of the food… this place feels like a prison”.

    ‘Grandiose statements’ versus the reality of life on the Bibby Stockholm

    In February 2023, Corporate Travel Management (CTM) was awarded a £1.6 billion contract over two years to run an unspecified number of vessels and hotels.

    Following his appearance before the Home Affairs Select Committee on 29 November, permanent secretary Sir Matthew Rycroft told Dame Diana Johnson, the committee’s chair, via a letter dated 12 December that the value of the vessel accommodation services portion of the contract is £22,450,772.

    There is only one vessel – the Bibby Stockholm – and One Life To Live has been unable to identify any hotels operated by CTM.

    In that session before the committee on 29 November, Simon Ridley (interim second permanent secretary, Home Office) was asked whether it was an appropriate use of public-sector funding for companies housing asylum-seekers to be making ‘so much profit’.

    Nicola David of One Life To Live said:

    It’s extremely disappointing that all kinds of grandiose statements were made to the media during the press tour in July. The reality for the asylum-seekers is very different; people are reporting real hunger. Yet taxpayers are forking out over £22 million for board and lodging for just a few hundred men.

    Where is the money going?

    The Home Office and its subcontractors – CTM and Landry & Kling – have serious questions to answer. Not just about the treatment of the asylum-seekers in their care, but also the abuse of the public purse.

    Featured image via Wikimedia

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Rights Groups Decry Anti-Migrant Bills That Texas Governor Is Poised to Sign

    Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott continued his anti-migrant crusade on Monday with plans for a Brownsville signing ceremony for a pair of state bills that legal experts and rights groups say are dangerous and violate the U.S. Constitution. Senate Bill 3 allocates $1,540,000,000 for border security, including constructing contested new barriers to limit undocumented immigration from Mexico and…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Bibby Stockholm barge must be closed immediately | Letter

    The barge is no place to accommodate people who have fled violence, persecution and torture, say campaigners and MPs

    Following the suspected suicide of a person seeking asylum on the Bibby Stockholm on Tuesday, we are calling for the immediate closure of the barge (Growing despair of asylum seekers on Bibby Stockholm over living conditions, 13 December).

    For those on board, the Bibby Stockholm feels like a prison. It is cramped, restrictive and segregated. The barge is no place to accommodate people who have fled violence, persecution and torture, many of whom are traumatised and isolated. They are unable to get the help and specialist support they need. Their mental health has deteriorated and some have felt suicidal.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Refugees have tried to set themselves on fire in a UK immigration detention camp

    Content warning: this article contains discussion of self-harm and attempted suicide that some people may find upsetting.

    The Helen Bamber Foundation (HBF) and Humans for Rights Network (HFRN) have gathered first-hand evidence that the government’s use of RAF Wethersfield airfield as a large ‘open-prison camp’ for refugee men seeking asylum for the last five months has already caused irreparable and profound harm to the residents. Some people have tried to take their own lives – with several people attempting to burn themselves to death.

    Wethersfield: ‘no different to Libya’

    HBF’s clinicians have carried out 10 detailed assessments and HFRN has conducted casework with over 140 individuals since the camp opened in July 2023, and have found that the men have displayed symptoms of worsening mental health following transfer to Wethersfield, including low mood, loneliness, flashbacks, reduced appetite, weight loss, feelings of despair and difficulty sleeping, and a worsening in symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

    Men held there have reported anxiety and depression, suicidal ideation, intense desperation and fear, self-harm, and acute sleep deprivation. When one man shared his suicidal thoughts with members of staff at the site, he was simply told that it was “normal in this environment”.

    Nasser, who like many of the men held in Wethersfield travelling through Libya when fleeing his country, said:

    The hardest part for me after what I have been through in Libya, is what I am going through now in Wethersfield. People screaming at night, gunshots can be heard. When someone wakes up screaming, I don’t know what to do. I came through Libya this place is no different.

    Salman, who came from Iran, said:

    I have attempted suicide personally because of the conditions of the camp. Once I tried to hang myself and once there was a group of us six or seven people tried to set ourselves on fire, they didn’t let us in the camp and extinguished the fire, I had a part of my T-shirt burnt, many others as well, it has affected our mental health in a very bad way… We were told you only stay for two weeks here; it was a lie; it’s been two months nothing happened.

    Unlawful detentions?

    By the end of October 2023, 508 men had been placed in Wethersfield – the top countries of origin being Afghanistan (29%), Iran (20%) and Eritrea (16%). Many of them are survivors of torture and trafficking and those with severe mental health issues.

    This is despite Home Office guidance making clear that these groups should not be placed there – in the first three months of being open, a quarter of residents were moved out of Wethersfield because they did not meet the camp’s ‘suitability criteria’ and had unlawfully been placed there. At least 11 children wrongly assessed to be adults have been identified in the camp.

    The camp is extremely isolated, has overcrowded living conditions, and lacks the necessary healthcare provision, causing additional pain and trauma to people who have already endured conflict, oppression, abuse, torture and trafficking. The camp’s resemblance to a prison, with barbed wire and surveillance, triggers traumatic experiences among residents, many of whom have had experiences of other ‘camps’, in Egypt and Libya for example.

    Wethersfield was initially proposed as a temporary site for 12 months, but the Home Office intends to extend the use of the site for a further three years. This would be a terrible development and the Home Secretary should instead act urgently on his recent commitment to close the site.

    Wethersfield: nothing more than a prison

    Maddie Harris, Director of Humans for Rights Network, said:

    The most commonly used word by the men held in Wethersfield when describing their experience there is ‘prison’. The camp’s isolated setting, cutting these men off not only from their own communities but from society as a whole is causing profound distress and re-traumatisation amongst all those we have spoken to.

    By placing men in Wethersfield, this government is ghettoising people seeking asylum in the UK, preventing them from accessing justice and other vital entitlements such as adequate medical care.

    This government has a legal obligation to provide them with safe, secure accommodation. Wethersfield is unsafe, for both the mental and physical health of the men held there and must be closed with immediate effect as. It is our belief that it is only a matter of time before someone dies in Wethersfield.

    Kamena Dorling, Director of Policy at the Helen Bamber Foundation, said:

    The government claims that these horrific camps on former military sites are necessary to manage the record number of people arriving in the UK to seek asylum. But the real problem is the Home Office failure to efficiently process asylum claims in time, which would allow those who have been granted refugee status to move on and live independently.

    Instead, hundreds of thousands of people seeking asylum are stuck in an ever-growing asylum backlog, dependent on Home Office temporary accommodation and financial support. The answer to that problem is not the creation of asylum camps that clearly and deliberately cause people seeking protection additional suffering and harm.

    Featured image via GB News – YouTube

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • We must not let politics trample on refugees’ human rights | Letters

    Rev Dr Noel Anthony Davies says Rishi Sunak’s government seems all too willing to breach the principles of the UN’s human rights declaration. Plus letters from Clive Stafford Smith, Jim King and Michael McLoughlin

    As a retired Christian minister, I very much welcome the powerful and challenging article by Prof Philippe Sands (From Gaza to Ukraine, what would the pioneers of human rights think of our world today?, 13 December). In the service that I led in our uniting church in Swansea last Sunday – international Human Rights Day – I shared some of the key articles of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the congregation. A number commented afterwards on how powerful and challenging its affirmations are.

    We were therefore shocked to see that the UK government is prepared to turn its back on the declaration that has been the foundation of our common humanity and our shared sense of justice and freedom for all over the last 75 years merely to serve party political ends, and to implement an immigration policy that is clearly in contravention of the declaration. It is also a denial of what we, as Christians, would regard as a universal recognition, founded in the teaching of Jesus, of the dignity, freedom and equality of all people, irrespective of race, religion, sexuality, national identity or political conviction.

    Continue reading…

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

  • Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer clash over homelessness and the UK economy at PMQs – as it happened

    The prime minister faced PMQs for the final time before the Christmas recess

    Rishi Sunak is about to take PMQs. It will be the last of 2023.

    Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

    Continue reading…

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

  • MPs back Rwanda bill in boost to Rishi Sunak despite rebellion by rightwing MPs – as it happened

    Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill passes its first Commons vote but only after rebellion by a collection of rightwing Tory MPs

    Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, a former lord chief justice of England and Wales, has said the government should not try to ignore the jurisdiction of the European court of human rights. In an interview for a podcast called the Judges, he said:

    If you have subjected yourself to a court, and it was our voluntary decision to do so, then you have to take the rough with the smooth and if they’ve decided [the court] have this jurisdiction then you ought to follow it.

    You can’t expect others to respect the law if you say you won’t respect the law of someone else.

    You ought to actually be able, within a set period of time, say a fortnight, to investigate, decide, give him one right of appeal – why you should have more than one right of appeal I simply don’t understand – and remove them.” But, he concedes, it costs money.

    Britain is a practical nation – always has been. People can’t afford Christmas. If they call an ambulance this winter – they don’t know if it will come. 6,000 crimes go unpunished – every day. Common sense is rolling your sleeves up and solving these problems practically, not indulging in some kind of political performance art.

    This goes for stopping the boats as well. It’s not about wave machines, or armoured jet skis, or schemes like Rwanda you know will never work.

    Continue reading…

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