Which Way Home

Directed by Rebecca Cammisa and released in 2009, Which Way Home is a film that follows a numbers of unaccompanied children and adolescents riding on top of "la bestia" in an attempt to reach the United States. This Academy Award nominated film follows the children from different Central American countries through Mexico and into the United States. Not all of the children arrive in the U.S., and of those who make it, not all of them stay. At the time of filming, about 5% of immigrants arriving at the US/Mexico border were unaccompanied minors. Today, that number is much higher, with the first 8 1/2 months of the 2014 fiscal year experiencing a 99% increase in unaccompanied minors than in 2013.

The film's trailer...

...and a clip from the film.

President Obama: Executive Action for Immigration Reform

President Obama recently announced that he would be taking executive action on immigration reform. His policy reform will give respite to 4 million undocumented immigrants in danger of deportation, as well as overhauling the country's immigration system. The president plans to put even more effort into cutting down illegal immigration along the nation's boarders---there are already 3,000 additional border patrol agents stationed along the southwest border and fencing, drone and ground surveillance has more than doubled since 2008---target those who compromise national security and public safety, hold undocumented immigrants accountable with criminal background checks and taxes, increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the immigration court system, and protect the victims of crime, human trafficking, and exploitative labor. 

Below is the Presidential Address that Obama gave November 20th, on immigration reform through executive action. 

When Guests Overstay their Welcome

Two men burned tents and opened fire in a Syrian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. The attack wounded two refugees and comes two days after a Lebanese soldier was killed by Syrian militants. The soldier---the fourth to be captured and killed---was a captive of Nusra Front, a Syrian offshoot of al-Qaeda, and was killed in response to the arrests of women identified as wives to ISIL fighters.

Lebanon currently has the highest concentration of refugees compared to its population in the world, with one out of every four residents being a refugee. Predictably, resentment against these refugees is growing as accusations that this displaced population is hiding militants in tents in order to facilitate attacks against the Lebanese army. 

(http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/12/07/Gunmen-open-fire-on-refugee-camp-in-Lebanon-2-wounded.html)

Lebanon is experiencing increasing violence between its national army and Sunni Muslim insurgents. As the 1.1 million refugees settle down for the cold winter, Lebanese tempers grow hotter, and many blame refugees for taking jobs, lowering wages, overburdening schools and hospitals, and draining welfare programs. 

(http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/150120/gunmen-open-fire-on-refugee-camp-in-lebanon-two-wounded)

As violence and discrimination against displaced Syrians grows more frequent and refugees continue to flee from Syria, 36 international organizations including Oxfam, Amnesty International, Save the Children, and Islamic Relief have banded together in calling for rich countries to accept tens of thousands for resettlement. According to reports from Amnesty International, just 1.7% of Syrian refugees have been accepted into the international community.  Together, Germany and Sweden have received just under 100,000 applications for asylum from Syrians, while the UK, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland have agreed to admit only 2,000 refugees all together. 

In the UK specifically, only 90 Syrians (according to Amnesty International) have been resettled. These refugees were accepted under Britain's new Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme specifically for Syrian refugees. As for the Gulf states like Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE among others, none have accepted any refugees, nor have they offered to accept any in the future. 

Unable to manage the number of refugees already inside the country, Syria's neighboring states Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan are imposing new restrictions on border crossings in attempts to slow the flow of families fleeing into their state.

A Turkish soldier speaks with Syrians trying to enter Turkey at an unofficial border crossing (http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/11/19/uk-syria-crisis-germany-idUKBRE8AI0B120121119)

This plea for wealthy nations to share the responsibility of caring for Syrian refugees comes  two weeks after the World Food Program was forced to halt its food voucher program due to lack of funding. This program assisted hundreds of thousands of Syrians living as refugees in Turkey and neighboring countries, but now many will go hungry and cold during the winter months.

(http://www.humanosphere.org/basics/2014/01/syrian-refugees-lack-access-information-news/)

To learn more facts about Syrian refugee resettlement, click here.

The Stateless

Although the two pregnant refugees involved in a standoff with Australian police this past week have agreed to enter the Darwin detention center, none of the issues they were protesting against have been resolved. While indefinite offshore detention and the quality of life in those detention centers needs to be addressed, the most pressing issue for the two soon-to-be mothers is the citizenship their children will be given a birth. Current Australian policy prevents the children born in Australia to "unauthorized maritime arrivals," non-citizens, or non-permanent residents from getting citizenship until the age of ten and have spent most of their life in Australia.

A recent court case tested this policy. Ferouz Myuddin, an eleven-month old was born in Brisbane after his mother was transferred to an onshore hospital from Nauru. He, like the other babies of asylum seekers in detention, was not given citizenship even though he has a Queensland birth certificate.

Ferouz Myuddin and his mother leaving the hospital shortly after his birth. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/16/asylum-seeker-babys-fight-for-refugee-status-goes-to-federal-court)

The Myuddins are Muslim Rohingyas who fled their home in Myanmar (Burma) because of religious persectution. The Ferouz's parents are also applying for citizenship for their son as a "stateless" migrant since as a Rohingya, he is ineligible for citizenship in their home country. 

The Australian government's original ruling that the newborn Ferouz was an "unauthorized maritime arrival" was later supported by a ruling from the federal court. As an unauthorized arrival, Ferouz cannot claim refugee status, and he, along with 100 babies in the same situation, could be sent to Nauru indefinitely. There is also a call to amend Australia's Migration Act wichi would retrospectively declare any baby born of the "boat people" as unauthorized arrivals regardless of their place of birth. Thus prohibiting them from applying for permanent protection visas and requiring that they are sent to offshore holding facilities. 

 Children in one of Australia's offshore immigration detention centers. (http://impunitywatch.com/refugee-advocates-concerned-over-australian-plan-for-asylum-seekers/)

Children being held at the Nauru detention center. (http://impunitywatch.com/refugee-advocates-concerned-over-australian-plan-for-asylum-seekers)

In addition to the its controversial refugee resettlement deal last month with Cambodia, Australia also reintroduced a past immigration policy that gives refugees temporary visas under which they can be sent home if conditions in their home country have begun to improve. 

The number maritime arrivals to Australia's Christmas Island  increased sharply in 2012 and 2013, and the number of refugee deaths has also increased. The government's effort to stop the boats includes deterrents like tow-backs or sending boats back on their own. These tactics don't seem to have decreased the number of boats appearing in Australian waters, have caused serious concerns for the safety of passengers, and have brought accusations by the UN and other human rights groups that Australia is avoiding international obligations.

A TV report on the Darwin bus standoff this past week

 

Hell no, we won't go!

Helen Davidson

Monday 1 December 2014 20.35 EST

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A three-day standoff between Australian police and two pregnant women ended on Monday. Maryam Shirvani and a second, unnamed woman along with their husbands and Mrs. Shirvani's 12-year old son, are eight months pregnant and were flown to Australia to give birth. The families claim that officials promised to house them in the local community or in a hotel, and that they only realized that they were going to stay in an immigration detention center when their bus drove through the compound gates. The government on the other hand, denies making any promises to the family.

The family has asked to return to Nauru immediately despite the inferior medical care, rather than return to detention. This preference is not unexpected for those familiar with the conditions and psychological exhaustion experienced by those detained on Nauru. The women involved in the stand-off had already spent over 15 months on Nauru before being granted official refugee status and placed in a temporary resettlement camp on the island. They had thought that their new status would protect them from being held in an immigration facility again. Many pregnant women have been transported from offshore immigration detention centers to onshore centers because of Australia's excellent medical facilities, but these women and their partners are the first who were already found to be genuine refugees before being taken into custody.

The women finally exit the van after three days.
(http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-02/pregnant-refugee-bus-standoff-enters-third-day-near-darwin/5933112)

Sadly, the families are now accusing detention center of cruelty, alleging that staff parked the van in the sun on purpose, turned off the air-conditioning, allowed the temperature within the van to reach dangerous levels to the point where both women fainted, and limited access to food and water. A spokesperson for the detention center adamantly denies all of these claims, saying that "Health and welfare of the individuals was monitored throughout this incident," and that "the individuals involved had access to food, water and amenities, and the Department and service providers facilitated access to toilets and health professionals."

These two families, like the many others living on Nauru are living in limbo, as neither Australia nor Nauru will allow them to settle permanently. It looks like the only option for these families is to resettle in Cambodia under the new Australian/Cambodian immigration deal. This agreement allows Australia to send its refugees to Cambodia in exchange for increased aid funding.

A World Food Program without Food

(http://www.voltairenet.org/article185350.html)

The World Food Program (WFP) has discontinued its food aid program for the 1.6 million Syrian refugees due to a lack of funding. The program provided food vouchers to refugees living in the already overburdened countries of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt. According to the WFP, it needs $64 million to support refugees through December, and the likelihood that such funding will come through quickly seems very low. 

The WFP voucher program has already injected around $800 million into host country economies struggling to accommodate the 3.2 million refugees who have fled Syria. The program also offers assistance to the 7.6 million internationally displaced persons who remain inside Syria. Refugees were given $1 a day to spend at local stores. Although small, this source of income was essential, as in some of the host countries such as Jordan, refugees are not permitted to work. With temperatures dropping and new cuts being implemented in U.N. run camps, the timing couldn't be worse. 

(http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30275514)

Without the assistance program, refugees will demand more of local services and charities, making them less welcome in areas where they are already seen as a drain on limited local resources and a financial burden on local families. Lebanon has recently closed its checkpoints in order to prevent more refugee from entering its borders. This is because the nation is unable to take care of the 1.1 million refugees already living within its borders.

The relief agencies still operating in the area are perpetually underfunded and can only offer relief to the most vulnerable. Unfortunately, without the WFP, that number is sure to rise quickly and dramatically. Living expenses such as buying winter clothes and paying for gas for heating are rising, while informal labor like seasonal agricultural or construction work is ending. Parents will be forced to pull children out of school to save tuition and transportation costs, and many families will need to move into U.N. camps where WFP food aid is still provided, but where shelter is in the form of chilly weatherproofed-tents. Some may decide to return to Syria and re-enter dangerous conflict zones.

Many large NGOs like the Red Cross as well as the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have been unable to manage the incredible number of refugees currently displaced by the Syrian civil war. To put statistics into perspective, the number of refugees currently displaced by the conflict is the largest number since the Second World War. 

Many host governments are beginning to flounder publicly under the burden of caring for so many refugees with such little help from the international community. A few weeks ago, Jordan discontinued providing free healthcare to registered refugees, and the government is now considering cutting free education to displaced children. According to Oxfam, as of September 2014, only eleven countries had contributed over 50% of what was calculated to be their equal share of funding aid. 

(http://redcrescent.org/photos.html)

Refugees Stage Hunger Strike in Greece

Syrian refugees living in Greece staged a hunger strike last week in front of the parliament building in Athen's Syntagma Square. Refugees held banners in Arabic, English, and Greek demanding protection from exploitative landlords, better documentation, and freedom to enter other EU nations. Protesters have been occupying the square since November 19th and began a hunger strike on the 21st in solidarity with immigrants in the Amygdaleza detention center ten kilometers outside of Athens. 

EU law requires that refugees request asylum in the first country they enter. This restriction has prevented Syrians from leaving Greece, a country that has been unable to handle a recent influx of refugees. The only way that refugees can leave Greece under the current European immigration policy is on a tourist visa. In addition, Syrians can only stay in the country for up to three months every six months, all of which makes earning full legal status incredibly difficult. 

                           

To make matters worse, Lebanon and Jordan, Syria's neighbors, have said that they are unable to accommodate any more Syrians, which will continue to increase the strain on Greek the immigration and social services departments. 

According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, over 200,000 have died since March, 2011 in the Syrian conflict. 

Increase in Russian Asylum Claims in 2014

The US and other nations are receiving new asylum applications from gay russians fleeing homophobic legislation and violence in Russia. 

While there is no data yet available on the number of people fleeing Russia because of discrimination due to their sexual orientation, asylum applications by Russians are up by 34% from 2012 based on figures from the Department of Homeland Security. 

This increase in claims is in part due to the worsening anti-gay climate in Russia. Immigration Equality--a New York-based group that offers legal services to immigrants in the LGBTQ community--reports that the number of inquires it has received from gay Russians has risen from 68 in 2012 to 127 in 2013, and up to 161 through October 30th of 2014. 

Over the last year, gay-rights gatherings and parades have been targeted by violent assailants as Russian parliament passed laws prohibiting "gay propaganda," pride marches, and increased punishments for sexual behavior between same-gendered couples. At the moment, men or women found guilty of participating in "nontraditional sexual relations" face a fine of up to 200,000 rubles ($6,060), something many activists have been detained and charged for after pride marches. In early 2014 a spokesperson for the Russian Orthodox Church tried to organize a national referendum on a ban on homosexual relations in Russia, and Ivan Okhlobystin--a popular actor who also called for Russians to be burned alive in ovens--has been pushing for Parliament to reimplement a law which punished sodomy with up to five years in prison. These violent anti-gay sentiments pro port that LGBTQ communities are a threat to Russian society, and are found everywhere in mainstream Russian media. The most recent " call to arms" from a TV host who recommended, during a nationally televised broadcast, that Russians burn or bury the hearts of gays after they die. 

For more information on Russia's current Anti-Gay law, click here

Counter-protesters yell slogans at a Pride march

To be approved for asylum, an applicant must show evidence that he or she has a "well-founded fear of persecution" in their country of origin, and in November the European Court of Justice ruled that gays could not be told to be discreet as an alternative to asylum. Russian's anti-gay legislation and history of violence against gays could be enough to earn applicants' approval for refugee status. 

There have also been many online videos which have surfaced in the last few months which show that violent and humiliating attacks on gays is increasing in Russia. These videos show gangs stripping men naked, urinating on them, trying to force them to perform sexual acts on objects like glass bottles, beating them, and forcing them to tell their full name and address to the camera. Many of these attackers don't seem to differentiate between homosexuality and pedophilia. 

The Pacific Solution

''We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come.''

-Australian Prime Minister John Howard, 2001

Groups of asylum seekers without a visa started arriving to Australia by boat in 1976. In response to this steady influx of unapproved arrivals, the government enacted new legislation in 1992 by Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating that required that anyone who arrived without a visa must be detained until they were processed and approved.

In 2001, Prime Minister John Howard announcement a new policy regarding maritime arrivals called the 'Pacific Solution.' This policy was pushed as the answer to what Howard called, "the boat people" and has so far caused the detention of thousands of asylum seekers at immigration centers on small Pacific islands on Australia's neighbors. Proponents justified the policy on the grounds that Australian national security was being compromised when asylum seekers were accepted and housed on the island before being fully processed. For nearly the last two decades, the majority of asylum seekers arriving in Australia are from countries in the Middle East. After the terror attacks in the US earlier that year, it was easy to sell the 'security concern' to the Australian public. 

Prime Minister John Howard
(http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/howard-rates-as-our-best-pm-of-the-past-four-decades/story-fn59niix-1226849689572)

At that time border security was considered one of the two most important issues in Australia, and Howard encouraged fears concerning public safety during his campaign efforts that year, saying in a speech that the 9/11 attack was "an attack on Australia as much as it was an attack on the United States" as it "assaulted the very values we hold dear."

Under the Pacific Solution, asylum seekers who arrive by boat are detained in offshore immigration centers in Papua New Guinea and Micronesia. The conditions in these centers have frequently criticized by the few human rights groups that have been gained access to the centers and detainees have repeatedly gone on hunger strikes and self-mutilated by sewing their lips together.

Detainee at Nauru. Photo taken secretly by ABC News
(http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-22953103)

Tony Abbott, while opposition leader, criticized the Gillard government for not doing enough to protect those attempting the dangerous sea journey, WikiLeaks cables revealed that at that same time, a senior Liberal Party strategist had told a US embassy official that boat arrivals were "fantastic" for their party and that "the more boats that come, the better." The Abbot team later used maritime arrivals to fuel their 2013 federal election campaign in 2013 by spreading the mantra "stop the boats" and boasting on March 14 that no asylum seekers had reached Australian shores in almost three months.

Offshore detention centers were closed in 2008 following the Labor party's Kevin Rudd's election promise to end the Pacific Solution, but reopened under the Labor party in September of 2012.  

Cambodian-Australian Resettlement Deal

The Australian Prime Minister and Cambodian Interim Minister recently signed a $35 million agreement regarding refugee resettlement. Under this new agreement, Australia will add $35 million to the already $79 million of aid for the 2014-15 financial year in exchange for Cambodia accepting asylum seekers who land on Australian shores. Hmmm people for money? Sounds uncomfortably like a "legal" version of human trafficking.

Currently, there are only 63 refugees living in Cambodia, and the nation has struggled to protect them. A recent report from Human Rights Watch pointed out some of the difficulties faced by the refugees living in Cambodia, which include discrimination, abuse from corrupt officials, poor access to health services and education, and low employment prospects. The director of the organization's Australian branch, Elaine Pearson, said that the UN refugee agency handed over responsibility for processing refugee applications to the Cambodian government in 2009, and since that time "not a single refugee has ever received a Cambodian residence card, let alone citizenship." Cambodian law entitles refugees to these documents, but the government has yet to issue any permits. Rather than citizenship or even residency rights, refugees are given a proclamation known as a "praka." This card is essentially useless, because in order to be employed, apply for a driver's license, open a bank account, receive a wire transfer, enroll their children in school, or lease a house residents need to show a passport or a residency permit. Refugees are often extorted by police and their children turned away from schools. 

(http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/art-54996/Nauru?)

(http://www.metrolic.com/travel-guides-nauru-156844/)

If Cambodia has failed to resettle a single person during its five years of processing refugees, how will it be able to process the thousand that Australia wants to send?

For now, no refugees will be sent to Cambodia. Those living in the Australian asylum seeker detention center located on the Micronesian island of Nauru must consent to being resettled in Cambodia. So far, none have volunteered.

Ghosts of Aleppo

Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and has served as a commercial capital for over a thousand years. Today, it is the capital of the Syrian revolution. Many of the city's pre-revolution inhabitants have fled, and their places have been filled by rebels from the Islamic Front. Militants and civilians living in the city are at constant risk of aerial bombing and ground assaults from both the Assad regime and ISIL, and have built a maze of tunnels beneath the city. The following documentary program was produced by VICE News and follows rebels fighting in the city's destroyed medieval center during the summer of 2014.

War huh. What is it good for?

I've talked about Syrian refugees in previous posts, but I haven't discussed the conflict that has killed over 100,000 and forced 2 million from their homeland. 

Syria has been fighting a civil war that began with protests in Demascus in March, 2011. For a more detailed timeline of the 
events precipitating the outbreak of war, click here. Syrian protests were mostly peaceful, but protests in neighboring countries during the "Arab Spring' were not. To prevent a violent uprising, Bashar al-Assad repressed activists with violence and imprisonment, which of course lead to a violent uprising. Assad is part of the socialist Ba'ath party which has ruled Syria since 1949, and was considered by Western powers to be a stable dictator before protests broke out. Many leaders want him to be removed from power, but they fear the power vacuum that he would leave, especially with ISIS fighting for power.

Assad's soldiers holding the Syrian flag

Assad has been accused of using chemical weapons against fighters and civilians as well as other war crimes. For his part, Assad defends his actions and asserts that he and his army are protecting Syria from "new colonization" by the west on one side, and "dark" forces of religious extremism on the other. 

There are about 70,000-100,000 rebels fighting against the Assad regime, many of which are ex-Syrian soldiers. The rebel army (of which there are many factions) formed when seven Syrian military officers released a video on YouTube posted in July 2011 in which they declared that they had defected from the military and were forming a new group called the "Free Syrian Army" to fight against the Assad regime. 

Rebel fighters holding a Free Syrian army flag

The Free Syrian Army consists of military defectors, civilians, as well as members of Assad's Ba'ath party. In addition to these native fighters, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy estimates that there are also 2,000-5,500 foreign fighters actively fighting in rebel Syrian armies.  The Supreme Military Council unites the rebel groups, but so far no single, central leader has emerged. 

Many foreign nations and sympathetic Sunni groups from neighboring nations are assisting rebel groups by supplying weapons and training in order to "marginalize the extremists and assert their own authority" according to Elizabeth O'Bagy, a senior research analyst for the Institute for the Study of War. 

Sadly, the rebels have also been accused of committing human rights abuses including summary killing and torturing captives, as well as using chemical weapons including the nerve agent sarin. 

The final player in the Syrian conflict is ISIL (also known as IS and ISIS), a terrorist organization known for mass murder, ethnic cleansing, and dedicated to a campaign of shocking brutality. 

The goal of ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) is to form a hardline Sunni Islamic state. The group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has 30,000 fighters to spread the group's brutal 'convert or die' campaign.  ISIL is funded by a well-organized tax system, international donors, and from the sale of oil from wells in areas under their control. 

Lucy al-Khatteeb, a fellow at the Brookings Doha Center who has been doing research into ISIL's oil smuggling says the group has control of five oil fields of 40-70 wells each in Iraq, and earns about $1.2 million each day from selling 25,000 bpd at $25-$60 per barrel.  This large and steady cash flow allows the group to continue committing atrocities and fighting against Assad and rebels groups.

It is from this complex fighting that Syrian refugees flee, and unfortunately, it doesn't look like the violence it will stop any time soon.

Winter is Coming...

With winter fast approaching, aid organizations are struggling to provide the millions of people fleeing civil war and terrorism in Iraq and Syria. In many areas, refugees living in self-made shelters with inadequate insulation, heating, or winter clothes. In Lebanon there are 1.2 million refugees living outside of camps in informal settlements including unfinished or abandoned buildings, garages, and open worksites and warehouses, none of which offer protection from freezing winter weather. 

Yazidi families crossing into Turkey in August, 2014
(http://www.worldbulletin.net/haber/143166/yazidis-praise-tolerant-turkey-amid-iraq-crisis)

There are almost 2 million Syrian refugees in Turkey with over 300,000 in Istanbul. Many of these individuals struggle to find and maintain satisfactory shelter because landlords either refuse to rent to refugees, or double the cost of rent. 

There are also rumors that the Bashar al-Assad regime sent Syrians to turn local Turkish populations against genuine refugees. The only support I found for these claims was in a statement from a man named Ahmed Gannam in an article on an English-language Turkish news site called Sunday's Zaman. Mr. Gannam, works as a public relations officer for the Syrian Society for Humanitarian Aid & Development, claims the regime sent men into Turkey to cause disturbances by committing robbery, begging, assault, among other illegal activities. 

Wether these rumors are true or not, and whether or not Turks are discriminating against refugees, the aid and housing being made available to refugees in Turkey and in neighboring nations is not meeting the demand.

The UN recently reported that they had a $58.45 million funding shortfall in refugee support funding. In combination with the steady growth in internal displacement, this funding deficit could leave 1 million Syrian and Iraqi families without help this winter. For some of those Syrians, it will be their fourth winter away from home, but for many others it will be there first, including the 1.9 million Iraqis who were internally displaced during the past year. 

Winter has already hit in Dohuk in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Soon, temperatures will range from 41°F to 3.2°F in the mountains.

Syrians in a refugee camp in Zahle in the Bekaa Valley last winter
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2522054/Britain-America-suspend-aid-Syria-refugees-face-freezing-winter.html)

The areas that will receive the most distributions within Syria will be Aleppo and other northern areas, since they experience the coldest temperatures. UNHCR had hoped to deliver aid 1.4 million over the course of this winter, but because of the funding deficit, it will only be able to provide winter kits to 620,000 through December. 

Unfortunately, Syria and Turkey aren't the only place where aid organizations are struggling to meet the demand for winter assistance. UNCHR and its partners estimate that over 660,000 refugees in Lebanon are in need of assistance to stay warm and dry. With insufficient funds and refugees spread over 1,7000 localities, some families are sure to be left in the cold.