Refugees

13,000 Africans Left to Die in the Sahara

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – In one of the most shocking reports on the ill-treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers, the International Organization for Migration has confirmed that thousands of African migrants are being left to die in blistering desert heat after being deported by the government of Algeria and dumped in the Sahara.

A new investigation by the Associated Press has prompted an avalanche of media reports although the deportations have been going on for more than a year. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch released reports about them this year and in 2017 but such reports received little major media coverage until now.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 26 June 2018

Photo: Families of massacre victims, in Kumasi Ghana, April 2018. © 2018 Reed Brody/HRW

Gambia Ex-President Tied to 2005 Murders of Refugees

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | ACCRA (IDN) – Strong evidence has been gathered linking the former president of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, to the murder of 44 West African migrants mostly from Ghana by operatives of the ex-president.

The sole survivor of the mass killing, also from Ghana, promised himself not to rest until Jammeh was brought to justice. ''It is my mission, on behalf of my friends, we want justice,'' Martin Kyere, now age 37, told the BBC.

Kyere was selling shoes in Ghana and the Ivory Coast when he decided to use his savings to travel to Senegal and then to Europe. His plan fell apart when the boat used by migrants ran out of fuel and beached in the Gambia. The group was arrested, detained for a week in Banjul and beaten.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 29 May 2018

Photo: African Asylum seekers protesting against Israel's decision. Credit: chikaoduahblog

Surprise at Netanyahu's Rejection of Asylum for Africans

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Thousands of African asylum seekers who reached Israel after dangerous voyages may have lost their last best hope to be released and sent to western countries or resettled in Israel after members of the Israeli coalition government trashed a negotiated asylum plan.

A landmark agreement negotiated with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had been announced only hours before it was pulled off the table. According to The Jerusalem Post, the plan was rejected by the Israeli cabinet, members of the governing coalition, the culture minister and the education minister who said “granting legal status to 16,000 infiltrators will turn Israel into a paradise for infiltrators”.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 03 April 2018

Photo: DR Congo Human Rights Minister Marie Ange Mushobekwa. Credit. actualite.cd

DR Congo Calls Deportation of Refugees by the U.S. 'Inhumane'

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Six nationals of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and two Zambian citizens were sent back to the U.S. after Congolese officials called their deportations "inhumane".

The six arrived on February 21 aboard an American aircraft at Ndjili airport, said Congolese Human Rights Minister Marie Ange Mushobekwa, "handcuffed, chained to the ankles and hips as slaves". Further, the expelled persons were given "diapers" as they were prohibited from getting up from their seats to use the toilet.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 27 February 2018

UN Agency in Talks with Israel on African Asylum Seekers

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA | TEL AVIV (IDN) – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is negotiating with Israel to resettle a portion of African asylum seekers in third countries deemed by the UN to be "safe," perhaps including Western countries, in exchange for some of the refugees to be given permanent residency in Israel, according to The Times of Israel.

The aim is to halt Israel's plans to deport thousands of asylum seekers to African countries, widely believed to be Rwanda and Uganda. "Such an arrangement could be realized, though the necessary details need to be worked out," Sharon Harel, the external relations officer at the UNHCR office in Israel, told the newspaper.

: Jaya Ramachandran; THE WORLD; Middle East & North Africa; 11 February 2018

Photo: Burundian student Mmane Alini, 17, takes notes in class at Hope Secondary School in Nduta refugee camp, Tanzania. © UNHCR/Georgina Goodwin

Refugees, Migrants Need Courageous European Leadership

Viewpoint by Idriss Jazairy

Ambassador Idriss Jazairy is the executive director of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue and the former head of a UN specialised agency, IFAD. This article first appeared* in EURACTIV on February 5, 2018 and is being re-published with their permission.

GENEVA (IDN) – More people than ever are on the move under the centrifugal impulse of globalisation. Fifteen percent of the world’s population or one billion of the Earth’s seven billion people are considered as people on the move. Host developing countries or societies bear the brunt of those that flee from their homes.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 08 February 2018

Photo: The entrance to Holot immigration detention centre, Negev desert, Israel. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Decision to Deport African Immigrants Sparks a Debate in Israel

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Under a so-called “infiltrator’s law”, more than 1,000 African asylum seekers in Israel face deportation from Israeli detention centres starting in March.

Speaking at a recent Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the harsh enforcement policy. “We are not acting against refugees,” he said. “We are acting against illegal migrants who come here not as refugees but for work needs. Israel will continue to offer asylum for genuine refugees and will remove illegal migrants from its midst.”

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 01 February 2018

Photo: Eritreans protest next to the European Commission headquarters in Brussels. Credit: Klara Smits.

Eritrean Refugees in the Netherlands Want Ban on Diaspora Tax by Asmara

By Reinhardt Jacobsen and Klara Smits

AMSTERDAM | BRUSSELS (IDN) – Hundreds of Eritreans have been taking to the streets in various cities and refugee camps all over the world against the Eritrean regime to express solidarity with the unusual protests that took place in Asmara, the country's capital, on October 31. The latest in the protest series was on December 22, 2017 in Brussels next to the European Commission headquarters.

Among the protesters' demand is the closure of the Eritrean embassy in Brussels, which is responsible for the Netherlands, because people who have fled the country must fear the ‘long arm' of the regime and a culture of fear perpetrated by Asmara, according to a Dutch research report. This has prompted a debate in the Netherlands about the Eritrean regime's repressive activities in the country.

: Klara Smits; THE WORLD; Africa; 22 December 2017

Traumatised Rohingya Women Bear the Brunt of Persecution

By Naimul Haq

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (IDN) – Shefali Aktar, mother of three, fled her home in Thaphanbin, a tiny village overlooking the Arakan Mountains in Rakhine state in Myanmar.

The 22-year-old pregnant woman escaped near death when her neighbour helped her and her children to hide in the nearby forest the night after the entire population of about 600 families in her village was wiped out.

“I went back to my village the next evening to find my husband. Instead, I found dead bodies,” says Shefali, breaking down in tears as she continues to narrate the horror.