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Posts Tagged ‘asylum’
Thailand expels 4,000 Hmong refugees
Monday, December 28th, 2009The New York Times reports that in “a quick, one-day operation, Thai soldiers with riot shields and clubs evicted more than 4,000 Hmong asylum seekers from a holding center Monday and forcibly repatriated them to Laos, where they say they face retribution from their government.”
Thailand acted despite protests from the United Nations and human rights groups. Even as the soldiers were trucking the Hmong over the Mekong River into Laos, the United States government was calling on the Thai government to stop.
The Washington Post reports that
the officer in charge of the operation said 2,100 of the camp residents had agreed to leave voluntarily and the army was trying to persuade the rest. But the Thai government has blocked media and international access to the camp and mobile telephone signals in it, making it difficult to independently confirm that information.
The migrants say they are at risk from persecution by the Laos government if they return there. Many were soldiers or family members of soldiers — the so-called “forgotten allies”– who decades ago fought in a secret army set up by the United States to combat the communist insurgents who eventually took over the country in 1975.
Read the WP story here.
Read the NYT story here.
Asylum seekers testify to life in Libya
Monday, December 21st, 2009Jesuit Refugee Service Malta released the following statement to mark International Migrants Day Dec. 18:
“Does the international community know about this, what is happening here? This is what we used to ask each other when we were in prison in Libya.” – Asad, an asylum seeker in Malta
Since May 2009, some 1409 migrants, attempting to reach a place where they could obtain protection or the possibility to live in safety and dignity, were pushed back to Libya.
These actions were widely criticized and held by many to be a violation of international law, as Libya does not have the mechanisms in place to grant protection to those who need it and there is evidence that those returned would be at risk of harm.
“International Migrants Day is a good time to ask ourselves whether we are fully aware of the possible consequences of these actions for the people concerned. We believe that many who see this as a quick solution to the pressures that Malta is facing would think differently if they knew about the treatment that migrants face there,” said JRS Malta Director, Fr. Joseph Cassar, S.J.
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UN: migrants too often victims of human rights violations
Friday, December 18th, 2009The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights marked International Migrants Day today by drawing attention to the plight of an estimated 200 million migrants worldwide, many of whom are exposed to violations of their basic rights and continue to be treated as commodities.
“Despite the increased efforts of the international community, including civil society, in promoting sound, equitable, humane and lawful conditions of migration, the human rights of migrants often remain out of sight,” Navi Pillay said in a statement. (more…)
U.S. revises detention policy for asylum-seekers
Thursday, December 17th, 2009The U.S. said Wednesday it will stop detaining asylum seekers who have a credible fear of persecution in their home countries.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Assistant Secretary John Morton announced that ICE will generally release from detention arriving asylum seekers who have a credible fear of persecution or torture if certain criteria are met – part of ICE’s ongoing immigration detention reform efforts.
“ICE is committed to detention reform that ensures criminal and violent aliens remain in custody while establishing effective alternatives for non-violent, non-criminal detainees commensurate with the risk they present,” said Assistant Secretary Morton. “These new parole procedures for asylum seekers will help ICE focus both on protecting against major threats to public safety and implementing common-sense detention policies.”
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JRS speaker discusses human rights and Catholic social teaching
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009Acclaimed refugee rights activist Katrine Camilleri, Ph.D., assistant director of Jesuit Refugee Service in Malta, visited Loyola University New Orleans on Tuesday, Nov. 17, to deliver the last lecture of the People on the Move conference. Her talk, “Refugees and Asylum Seekers: Human Rights and Catholic Social Teaching.”
Camilleri is the 2007 recipient of the U.N. Refugee Agency’s Nansen Refugee Award, which is given to individuals or organizations that have distinguished themselves in work on behalf of refugees. Camilleri’s recent work has focused on helping refugees and asylum seekers who are detained in Malta. Despite threats and arson attacks on her home and vehicle, Camilleri has been successful in influencing government policy and continues to be at the forefront of the battle to improve conditions in detention centers in Malta.
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Report: Legitimate refugees being redefined as “Terrorists”
Thursday, November 12th, 2009Changes to U.S. immigration law contained within the 2001 USA PATRIOT Act and the 2005 REAL ID Act and intended to protect the United States from terrorism are hurting thousands of legitimate refugees who pose no threat to American security, according to a new Human Rights First report released today. The report, Denial and Delay: The Impact of the Immigration Law’s “Terrorism Bars” on Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the United States, examines this troubling issue and offers a series of recommendations to fix this serious problem.
The immigration law’s definition of ‘terrorist activity’ has been overbroad since 1990. But over the past eight years, new definitions of “terrorist organization” and of “material support” have enlarged the law’s impact, and federal immigration agencies have interpreted all of these definitions in an extremely expansive way. Thousands of men, women, and children have had their applications for asylum, permanent residence, and family reunification denied or delayed as a result. Among these individuals are peaceful advocates for democracy in countries ranging from Sudan to Zimbabwe, children who were abducted by rebel armies, doctors who provided medical care to anyone who fought with non-state forces, and those who fought against the armies of repressive governments in their home countries — even with the support of the U.S. government.
“These were not the people Congress intended to target,” said Human Rights First’s Anwen Hughes, author of the report. “In fact many of these refugees supported the same causes the United States supports, or were victimized by forces the U.S. government also opposes. But attempts to solve this problem through piecemeal “waiver” announcements are not working.”
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Asylum-seekers face steep odds in Miami
Monday, September 21st, 2009The Palm Beach Post reports the results of a study last year that showed Miami courts have the smallest percentage of asylum applications approved – 23 percent – compared to a 40 percent average nationwide.
“Our country has a legacy of providing due process to everyone,” says Judge Dana Marks of San Francisco, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. “These are death penalty cases at times. If they are denied, some of these people are facing death. We are not providing that due process. It’s a very serious situation.”
Crackdowns by immigration officials and a spike in deporations since Sept. 11, 2001, have stoked political asylum applications. Of the nation’s 54 Immigration Courts, New York, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco are the busiest. Miami judges alone decided 19,402 cases in fiscal years 2001 to 2006.
France to bulldoze shelters of refugees and asylum-seekers
Monday, September 21st, 2009Radio Free Europe reports that
The French government says it will close a wasteland district of Calais known as “the Jungle” this week. It is an area where hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers — many of them refugees from Afghanistan and Iraq — have set up makeshift shelters while waiting for a chance to stow away on trucks and ferries bound for Britain.
The British government has been pressuring France to do more to stop illegal migrants from trying to enter the United Kingdom, which is considered an end destination for many migrants. Residents of Calais also have called for action against the camps, claiming that migrants there are responsible for a growing local crime rate.
France’s immigration minister, Eric Besson, has suggested that illegal migrants could be put in detention centers and eventually sent back to their troubled countries. That warning has prompted many to leave their ramshackle shelters and go into hiding.
Read the full report here.
UN honors Sen. Kennedy as ‘a tireless advocate for refugees’
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations refugee chief today paid tribute to Edward Kennedy, the United States senator who passed away yesterday at the age of 77 after battling brain cancer, lauding his support for the Organization and his efforts to defend the rights of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres said the life of the late senator and brother of former President John F. Kennedy is a testimony to the difference a single policy-maker can make.
“Year after year, conflict after conflict, Senator Kennedy kept the plight of refugees on the international and national agenda, promoting policies and laws that saved and shaped countless lives,” Mr. Guterres said in a statement. “The world is diminished by his passing. But we will always have his example to inspire us.”
Sec.-Gen. Ban Ki-moon and Sen. Edward Kennedy in Washington, D.C., in 2007. (UN/Mark Garten)
The High Commissioner noted that throughout his life, Senator Kennedy was “a tireless advocate for refugees – among the most vulnerable people in the world.”
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