News Stories (Daily) 04/29/2014

• Egypt/Sudan: A Call to End Torture of Refugees | Human Rights Watch

  “(Geneva) – Members of the UN Human Rights Council called on Egypt and Sudan on March 14, 2014, to investigate and prosecute traffickers for kidnapping, torturing, and killing refugees in the Sinai Peninsula. The 24 countries sponsoring the German-led statement also called on both countries to identify and prosecute any security officials who may have colluded with traffickers.

  On February 11 Human Rights Watch released a report titled “‘I Just Wanted to Lie Down and Die:’ Trafficking and Torture of Eritreans in Sudan and Egypt,” which documents how, since 2010, Egyptian traffickers have tortured Eritreans for ransom in the Sinai Peninsula usingrape, burning, and mutilation. It also documents torture by traffickers in eastern Sudan and 29 incidents in which victims said that Sudanese and Egyptian security officers facilitated trafficker abuses rather than arresting the traffickers and rescuing their victims.”

  tags:reports publications news

• UNU-MERIT » Migrants Knocking at the Doors of Fortress Europe?

  “his was the background to a Maastricht Studium Generale debate, “Knocking at the Doors of Fortress Europe: Migration Flows from the Maghreb to Europe: Is there a Long-term Solution?”, held on Wednesday 15 January 2014.

  The debate started with an introduction by Natasja Reslow, Postdoc Fellow at Maastricht Law Faculty. She spoke about the controversial policies of the EU’s Frontex Agency, EU Mobility Partnerships and the changing nature of asylum flows and policies to Europe. Hildegard Schneider, Dean of the Faculty of Law led the debate and brought forth many questions on the relationship between EU asylum policy and migrants rights.”

  tags:reports publications news

• France: Unaccompanied Children Detained at Borders | Human Rights Watch

  “(Paris) – France detains as many as 500 children who arrive in the country alone each year in transit zones at the borders, where they are denied the protection and due process rights afforded other unaccompanied children on French territory, Human Rights Watch said today. Any unaccompanied child who arrives in France should be admitted to the country and provided with shelter and care while their immigration claims are decided.

  Under French law, unaccompanied children – who arrive at an airport or seaport without parents or guardians to protect them – can be held in one of more than 50 transit zones for up to 20 days, during which time the government claims they have not entered France.This legal fiction allows the French government to deny due process rights to children in transit zones that unaccompanied children in France enjoy. France has not changed its practice despite a 2009 court ruling that children in the transit zones are in fact in France.”

  tags:news

• Detention in Canada | Detention & Asylum Research Cluster

  “All detention practices are specified in their individual country contexts although rarely defined as such. In the United Kingdom, for example, detention is seen as the “most usually appropriate” immigration enforcement mechanism

  to effect removal;
  initially to establish a person’s identity or basis of claim; or
  where there is reason to believe that the person will fail to comply with any conditions
  attached to the grant of temporary admission or release.”

  To be a lawful practice in that country, detention “must not only be based on one of the statutory powers and accord with the limitations implied by domestic and Strasbourg case law but must also accord with stated policy.”7 Likewise, in Australia, the regular detention policy is not defined as such but is understood in terms of its aims. The primary aim of the policy is to ensure the successful administration of new arrivals (“people who arrive without lawful authority do not enter the Australian community until their identity and status have been properly assessed and they have been granted a visa”) and removal (“people who do not have authority to be in Australia are available for removal from Australia”) of “unlawful” non-citizens who do not have a valid residence permit or visa.8″

  tags:reports publications news

• IPI Global Observatory – Humanitarian Aid vs Resilience Debate Should Put Priorities in Context

  “A heated debate over whether humanitarian aid should also include building longer-term resilience in communities was triggered in the blogosphere in February by Jonathan Whittall, Mit Philips, and Michiel Hofman from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). They argued that the resilience concept, as a bridge between humanitarian response and development aid, distracts humanitarian actors from short-term life-saving activities by focusing on supporting local and national systems to better face and recover from shocks over the longer term. “

  tags:reports publications news

• Forced Migration Current Awareness: News: IRIN’s Future in Question?

  “This 2005 article in Forced Migration Review describes the accomplishments of IRIN, the well-known and well-regarded humanitarian news service, during its first 10 years of operation. But it might not be around to celebrate its 20th anniversary: A petition to “Save IRIN” that is currently circulating indicates that “IRIN’s parent organization in the UN has decided to wind it down.” According to numerous tweets, this will likely take place by the end of the year.”

  tags:news

• Minority Rights Group International : Press releases : New online map shows Middle East, Africa states dominate Peoples under Threat 2014 survey on risk of mass killing

  “Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Egypt are among the most significant risers in this year’s internationally acclaimed global ranking Peoples under Threat, Minority Rights Group International (MRG) says.

  ‘A number of states which rose prominently in the index over the last two years – including South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Syria – have subsequently faced episodes of extreme ethnic or sectarian violence,’ says Mark Lattimer, MRG’s Executive Director. ‘The 2014 release of Peoples under Threat analysis shows that the risk in those states remains critical – but also that threat levels have risen in other states.'”

  tags:publications reports news

• Minority Rights Group International : Press releases : African countries dominate global ranking of communities facing greatest risk of mass killings

  “African countries dominate the list of major risers in this year’s release of the internationally-acclaimed global ranking Peoples under Threat, says Minority Rights Group International (MRG).

  Risks have climbed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Central African Republic (CAR), Mali and Guinea Bissau, as recorded in Peoples under Threat, which identifies communities facing the greatest risk of genocide, mass killing or systematic violent repression. In countries at the very top of the list, including DRC, South Sudan and CAR, mass killing is already ongoing. ”

  tags:publications reports news

• Sexual violence: Male rape as a tool of subjugation during war – YouTube

  If you are following Refugee Law Project’s work with male survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, we invite you to take just three minutes of your time to watch a clip from one of Uganda’s TV channels, NTV. The news item, with the title “Male Rape as a tool of subjugation during war”, was broadcast on the occasion of a workshop on Sexual and Gender Based Violence, convened in Kampala in January 2014 by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The clip can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv6arFUf3lE

  tags:news

• IRIN Global | Islamic law and the rules of war | Afghanistan | Bangladesh | Egypt | Global | Indonesia | Israel | Iraq | Iran | Jordan | Kenya | Kyrgyzstan | Lebanon | Libya | Mali | OPT | Philippines | Pakistan | Sudan | Somalia | Syria | Turkmenistan |

  “DUBAI, 24 April 2014 (IRIN) – With the majority of today’s conflicts taking place in Muslim countries or involving Muslim combatants, aid agencies are operating – arguably more than ever before – in situations where Islamic norms govern the terrain in which they work.

  Islamic law contains a rich but complex set of rules on the protection of civilians. But can that centuries-old canon be reconciled with modern international humanitarian norms?

  In this series of reports we explore the tension (and overlap) between Islamic jurisprudence and international humanitarian law: we report on how jihadists are interpreting Islamic edicts , and how humanitarians are using those same principles to further access. ”

  tags:news reports publications

• Migration Advisory Commitee (MAC) report update on low-skilled migration – News stories – GOV.UK

  “In May 2013, the Minister for Immigration asked the MAC to advise on the issue, effects and the resulting economic and social impacts of low-skilled work migration.

  The minister specifically asked the MAC to:

  consider the labour market, economic and social impacts on the UK and specifically on British workers, drawing on and updating earlier work in this area.

  In particular, the MAC has been asked to research the growth of migrant labour, distinguishing where possible between EEA and non-EEA migrants, in low skilled sectors of the UK economy and the factors driving this.”

  tags:news government

• Lost cities and found documents: do we ever discover in archives? | The National Archives blog

  “I like a good lost city. Found cities are interesting (Troy, for example) but lost ones are even better. Here’s a picture (possibly) of one, taken by the cross dressing acrobat and photographer Lulu Farini, protégé of the Great Farini.”

  tags:news archives

• Report claims positive experience of NHS care for pregnant refugees in Scotland is threatened by Home Office policy | Migrants’ Rights Network (MRN)

  “A new report from the Scottish Refugee Council has found that pregnant asylum seekers and their children are “regarded first and foremost as women and children by health professionals,”

  IIt also has evidence that “insecure immigration status does not appear to preclude or constrain their access to maternity care in Glasgow.”

  But these encouraging findings are offset by a number of factors, including variations in interpretation services provided to users of health services and the “risk of destitution” which arises from Home Office asylum support policies.

  The report sets out six recommendations for improvements to the services provided to pregnant asylum seekers and their children in Scotland, which all centre around the principle that the NHS should be free to address them as ‘women and children first’, with issues of immigration status dealth with separately from their healthcare needs.

  To download both summary and full versions of the report Women and Children First? Refused asylum seekers’ access to and experiences of maternity care in Glasgow CLICK HERE”

  tags:news

• Ukippers’ tweets show that racism still runs through anti-immigrant politics | Migrants’ Rights Network (MRN)

  “The fact that a party which includes the likes of William Henwood (Lenny Henry “should emigrate to a black country”) and Andre Lampitt (unsavoury views on everything from Muslims, to AIDS, slavery, Syria and forced sterilisation) amongst it candidates for the forthcoming local government election and, it appears, to be well-placed to come first in the poll for the European Parliament, ought to be seen as a powerful rejoinder to the idea that Britain is now a ‘post-racial’ society.

  The advocates of this idea have been keen to take at face value the apparent cosmopolitan ease that prevails across large sections of British society, conveniently forgetting the fact that what does count as progress has been won at the cost of countless battles against all the manifestations of racism. If it sometimes appears that we stand on the cusp of being able to declare a victory over this form of prejudice we should at least acknowledge that there at least a few major battles that need to be fought to finally settle the issue.”

  tags:news

• Interactive website on migration and multiculturalism in Britain in Roman Times | Migrants’ Rights Network (MRN)

  “The Runnymede Trust and University of Reading present Romans Revealed, an interactive website that tells the stories of four people living in Britain in Roman times. The main aim is making children learn that migration and multiculturalism is not a new thing, but instead people have been travelling to and from Britain for centuries. The website is aimed at children aged 7-11, and there are also teaching resources for key stage 2. By teaching our children to accept diversity and equality from a young age, we can End Racism This Generation.”

  tags:news

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