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Posts Tagged ‘migrant’
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…)
Haitians in Dominican Republic face violence, abuse
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009Catholic San Francisco Assistant Editor Rick DelVecchio and two other Catholic journalists recently spent eight days in Haiti and the Dominican Republic to report on migrants and refugees, whose vulnerability as they cross national borders in search of a better life is a growing humanitarian concern.
“Whatever happens in the Dominican Republic, they blame a Haitian,” said Saint Marc, 66. “Somebody died, they blame a Haitian. They rob a house, they blame Haitians. You might be lying on your bed and next thing they come and get you because they accuse you of a crime.”
Nearly all Haitians in the Dominican Republic are undocumented, and their status primes them for victimization. They get little help from their own government.
“Haitian authorities do little or nothing to help their citizens regularize their status in their host countries,” Jesuit Refugee Service said in a statement after a conference in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince Oct. 25. This further marginalizes Haitians and puts them at risk of human rights violations and deportation, the group said.
Read the full story here.
Pope urges respect for rights of child migrants, refugees and asylum seekers
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009“Underage migrants and refugees” is the theme chosen by the Holy Father for the ninety-sixth World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which is due to be celebrated on January 17, 2010.
“The celebration of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees once again gives me the opportunity to express the Church’s constant concern for those who, in different ways, experience emigration. This is a phenomenon which, as I wrote in the Encyclical ‘Caritas in Veritate,’ upsets us due to the number of people involved and the social, economic, political, cultural and religious problems it raises on account of the dramatic challenges it poses to both national and international communities. The migrant is a human being who possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance.”
“While the Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly states that the best interests of minors must always be safeguarded, recognizing their fundamental human rights as equal to the rights of adults, unfortunately this does not always happen in practice. Although there is an increasing public awareness of the need for immediate and incisive action to protect minors, nevertheless, many are left to themselves and, in various ways, face the risk of exploitation.”
“It is my heartfelt hope that proper attention will be given to underage migrants, who need a social environment that enables and fosters their physical, cultural, spiritual and moral development. Living in a foreign land without effective points of reference generates countless and sometimes serious hardships and difficulties for them, especially those deprived of the support of their family.
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In reverse, money from Mexico supports migrants in U.S.
Monday, November 16th, 2009The New York Times reports on a new trend caused by the long economic recession in the United States:
Unemployment has hit migrant communities in the United States so hard that a startling new phenomenon has been detected: instead of receiving remittances from relatives in the richest country on earth, some down-and-out Mexican families are scraping together what they can to support their unemployed loved ones in the United States.
Read the story here.
Bishop: Migrants in detention have right to spiritual care
Thursday, November 12th, 2009Catholic News Service reports that Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration, told the Vatican’s World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees migrants and refugees in prisons and detention centers have the same right to spiritual assistance as any other person.
Increased security concerns combined with an “onerous law” on immigration passed in 1996 has meant, in effect, that the government presumes undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers “should be incarcerated rather than released” while awaiting hearings on their status, he said.
Representatives of Jesuit Refugee Service and others “have found that detainees in the United States do not have access to religious literature, such as the Bible or Quran,” he said, and they seldom have access to a religious leader from their own faith.
Read the story here.
Europe unveils plan to admit more refugees
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009The BBC reports today that in a effort to discourage immigrants from risking their lives by crossing the Mediterranean Sea on rickety boats, often at the mercy of human traffickers,
The European Commission has unveiled plans to allow more refugees from conflict zones and poor nations into European countries.
The UN says 65,596 refugees were resettled worldwide last year, but the EU accepted just 4,378, or 6.7%. The Commission – the EU’s executive arm – says this “contrasts sharply with the numbers taken in by many other countries in the industrialized world, particularly the U.S., Canada and Australia”.
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Former migrant farm worker now a leading U.S. neurosurgeon
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009Nova Science NOW reports on the inspiring story of Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa. When he was 19, he jumped the border fence between the United States and Mexico to become a farm worker. Now, he is one of the leading brain surgeons in the United States.
The very first line in my CV is migrant farmworker. I put that on purpose. I’m proud of it. For many years, I relayed a story about when I was told that it couldn’t be possible that I was that smart and I was Mexican. It really hurt me. For many, many years, I was embarrassed, to be honest with you, and I had to deal with that. And now I am proud of it.
Nova Science NOW features former migrant farm worker Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa.
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75 migrants feared killed crossing Mediterranean Sea
Friday, August 21st, 2009The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says it is shocked by the accounts heard from five Eritreans who are allegedly the sole survivors of a boat tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea in which some 75 others are feared to have perished.
According to the survivors, around 80 people – mostly from Eritrea – set out more than 20 days ago in a small boat from the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in an attempt to reach Italy. They then became stranded at sea without fuel, food or water.
“As thirst and hunger set in people started dying, one by one, as the boat drifted in the sea,” UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic told reporters today in Geneva. “As passengers died, the survivors threw them into the sea.”
A fishing boat came across the five survivors and offered them some bread and water, but then left them, he added. The stranded boat was then found off the island of Lampedusa on August 20, by Italian authorities who took the five to Italy for treatment.
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