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On 17 May 2013 Australian blogger and self-styled ‘global nomad’ More Atlitude posted a lengthy and detailed post in response to “Australia’s decision yesterday to excise its mainland from the migration zone” this week. He argues that it
essentially reinforces a horrible, horrible policy of enforced detention for legal (I stress, again and again and again, people, LEGAL, good grief do I need to paint it neon and string it with lights?) asylum-seekers.
Hong Wrong blogs about an upcoming protest on April 27 among refugees, tortured survivors and NGOs against the government’s treatment of torture victims and to call for an urgent review of the screening system for assessing protection claims.
Hyeonseo Lee, a refugee escaped to China from North Korea in 1997, talked in TED conversation about her experience in the escape and how she ended up becoming an activist for fellow refugees in South Korea.
RJDH -RCA reports that [fr]:
According to multiple NGOs in the region, the cities of Mobaye and Bangassou are under attack by dissident rebels of the Sekela coalition in the Central African Republic. No confirmation has been given yet by the government. Bangassou's phone network is currently cut off.
Children in a refugee camp in Myanmar share their stories
Jihadis venture capitalism extended to an even more lucrative business: kidnapping western hostages all over the Sahara yielded over 90 Million Euros over a decade [..] The modus operandi was very simple: why get killed trying to create an Islamist emirate in “apostate-ruled” neighboring countries when you can build your own sanctuary AND have the West pay for it?
Nasser Weddady unpacks the reasons for the current troubles in Mali. He opines that the roots of the problem are more complex than the existing narratives in the media lead us to believe.
We must regroup so that airplanes can tell us apart from the targeted ismalists fighters who will be on the move.
Tuareg refugees in Borj and Timeaouine in Northern Mali are hurrying to gather around their family members in order to avoid airstrikes by French planes against islamist groups, Tamoudre reports [fr]. Tamoudre adds that Tuaregs are in favor of the military intervention but that they should be part of the post-intervention stabilization.
The Kakuma News Reflector, or KANERE, is an independent news magazine produced by Ethiopian, Congolese, Ugandan, Rwandan, Somali, Sudanese and Kenyan journalists operating in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. It is the first fully independent refugee-run news source of its kind to emerge from a refugee camp, and has attracted considerable international attention.
At this point, there is virtually no one left in president Bozize's cabinet. His religious advisors and his sons are the only left to help him in manage a storming crisis that might blow all of them away.
Centrafrique Press Info CPI reacts to the news that rebels are about to seize control of Bangui [fr], the capital city of Central African Republic. The USA have asked their citizens to leave the country [fr] while the UN is only keeping essential staff [fr] in the field.
Much suggests Masisi territory being the neuralgic point, both in terms of politico-military contest and its humanitarian consequences.Any extension of the M23 conflict farther into Masisi territory contains immense potential of escalation.
Christophe Ethuin reports that there is much reason for concerns in Masisi Territory as the conflict with M23 lingers on. Doctors without Borders, Oxfam and JRS have warned against additional potential humanitarian disasters in the upcoming weeks.
Amila Bosnae writes about the years “stolen” by the war in the former Yugoslavia:
You lose a couple of years once, and twenty years later, you still haven’t caught up. [...] Time stopped for us in a way, then. I didn’t even grow at all for the better part of those years because there was nothing to grow from. We were isolated from the world, but the world just kept on going without us. Possibly still celebrating the reunification of Germany and a new Europe while we were running for cover. In new Europe. [...]
crisis group map of fights in DRC between April-Nov 2012
The Crisis Group has created an interactive map of the conflicts in the Kivu region, DRC in 2012 [fr].
Paritosh Chakma recently visited Chakma villages in Papumpare district of the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh and wrote about their plights. Thousands of Chakma refugees were transferred to the Chakma Settlement Areas in this region during 1964-69 and most of them still remain stateless.
Entrance to refugee camp in Amsterdam. Photo by Bloggers without Borders (used with permission)
As a North Korean soldier allegedly killed two of his superiors and defected to South Korea, numerous comments were made; Some suggesting a possibility of him being a spy, while other worried for his family left in North Korea.
La Asociación de Estudiantes Latinos y Latinoamericanos (AELLA) del Graduate Center, City University of New York los invita a participar en la conferencia gratuita “Violencia estructural en la frontera global: Centroamerica, México y Estados Unidos”, la cual se celebrará el próximo 4, 5 y 6 de octubre del 2012 en John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The Graduate Center, CUNY y St. Mary’s Church, respectivamente. Las repercusiones de las políticas agresivas anti-migratorias, las deportaciones, los desaparecidos, las amenazas y la inseguridad que atenta contra las vidas de los miles de migrantes son algunos de los temas que se discutirán durante los tres días repletos de actividades. La conferencia será transmitida en vivo en el portal de Asuntos del Sur: www.asuntosdelsur.org. Para más información escriban a aella.gradcenter@gmail.com.
More »American Actress and UN Ambassador, Angelina Jolie is in Lebanon today [September 12, 2012] as part of her tour to support Syrian Refugees in Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.
Commenting the event, Ivy from Lebanon tweets:
@ivysblog: Angelina Jolie's in Lebanon today visiting refugees – not only is she the world's most beautiful woman but also a passionate humanitarian.
We cannot be part of the Indian Ocean Community and be indifferent to these tragedies. The solution must involve both countries
Saïd Larifou reacts to the recent drowning [fr] of refugees trying to reach Mayotte by sea. Currently 36 are missing [fr] after their boat capsized as it approached Mayotte. M. Larifou warns that clashes might arise if the strained relation between Mayotte and Comoros is not repaired rapidly.
Bulgarian newspaper Dnevnik reports [bg] that 25 asylum seekers (21 Syrians and four Iraqis) went on hunger strike to protest the slowness of the asylum-granting procedures at the detention center for foreigners in the Bulgarian village of Lyubimets. Comments to the Dnevnik article reflect the general indifference to the plight of refugees, as well as anti-immigrant and xenophobic attitudes.
In her blog post about the very first humanitarian customer calling center, Anahi Ayala Iacucci describes “a quick and convenient way for Somali beneficiaries to give feedback about projects funded or services provided by the Danish Refugee Council using an SMS feedback system”: “This project has started in September 2011 and since then, “beneficiary SMS feedback has been implemented in 31 towns and villages in the North and East of Somalia…You can discover more about this project on the dedicated blog.”
@activestills, “a collective of Israeli, International and Palestinian photographers, united by a conviction that photography is a vehicle for social change”, says on Twitter this morning: “Israeli police informed media about the shooting incident against refugees only 8 hours after it happened”, pointing to a few images from the shooting. The target was Eritrean refugees and the shooting is reported to have happened in the Shapira neighbourhood in south Tel Aviv. It is not clear what provoked the attack or why the media were informed 8 hours later.
Giles Muhane reports that the March 23 Movement M23 rebel military group is believed to be seeking secession of the the province of Kivu from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Muhane adds that Kinshasa authorities have publicly accused Kigali of supporting a mutiny in Congo. Rwandan President Paul Kagame denied any involvement in the Congo crisis.
The Colombian movie Chocó, on the life of an Afro-Colombian family in the coastal region of Chocó, which opened the Cartagena International Film Festival and was presented in the Berlinale earlier this year will finally reach theaters in Colombia this following August 3rd. Watch the trailer here.
During the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Azeris and Armenians were displaced. With hundreds of settlements also razed, and thousands of monuments destroyed, Conflict Voices looks at the issue of cemeteries, some of which were destroyed, but also preserved during the war as well as in the 18 years since the 1994 ceasefire.
“Ocupação Eliana Silva” [pt], a camping site of around 300 families in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, which had been occupied mostly by homeless workers [pt] on April 21, in protest against lack of housing conditions, was sieged by the military police today, May 11. Journalist Adriano Ventura (@adrianoventura) is tweeting photos that illustrate the tension between the population and the police.
Students between the ages of 10 and 20 worldwide are invited to produce short films (max. 3 min) on the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with a special focus on sustainability, migration / refugees and global warming for the Video competition for the 2012 this human world Film Festival in Vienna. via YPMN
Mary Soo Anderson writes about the North Korean refugees issue in China and urges human rights organizations continue fighting for them.
Again writing on Facebook, journalist Khadija Ismayil, recently under pressure with an alleged threat of blackmail, provides five reasons why the Eurovision Song Contest to be staged this May in Baku might prove to be a Pyrrhic victory for Azerbaijan.
The Marmot's hole blog displayed interesting discussion threads on Chinese repatriation of North Korean defectors. Several reports revealed last week Chinese government sent back 31 North Korean defectors to North Korea where even families who helped those to escape from the country are being arrested and interrogated.
Nang Nyi wrote about her experience when she and her friends visited a Kachin Refugee camp near the Shan State borders of Myanmar and China. Over 1000 Kachin people have been staying at this refugee camp ever since fighting broke out between the government army and the Kachin Independence Army
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