Migration & Refugees Archives

U.S., Latin America Growing More Distant, Warns Think Tank

Relations between the United States and Latin America have "grown more distant" in importance part due to the latter's persistent disagreement with U.S. policies on immigration, drugs, and Cuba, according to a new report released here Wednesday on the eve of this year's Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia.

HIV Compounds Poverty in Nepal

By Naresh Newar

Life, already hard in Nepal’s remote western region, is getting worse thanks to HIV infection brought back by men who go to neighbouring India for seasonal work.

Gunfire from Syria Hits Border Camp in Turkey

By Correspondents

Gunfire from the Syrian side of the border has hit a refugee camp inside Turkey, wounding at least three people.

Radioactive Mushrooms Cloud Compensation Plans

By Suvendrini Kakuchi

The discovery of radioactive contamination in ‘shiitake’ mushrooms grown in Manazuru town, Kanagawa prefecture, some 300 km away from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, has raised public clamour for compensation.

Will Climate Refugees Get Promised Aid?

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

With extreme weather pounding countries across a wide arc in the Asia-Pacific region, questions hover over entitlements for millions of people displaced by climate change, pledged under the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and other sources.

TAJIKISTAN: Using Force to Maintain a Standing Army

By Correspondents and - -

Hunger, unheated barracks, beatings and regular outbreaks of disease: it could be life in a penal colony. But in this case, it describes the existence of a fresh military conscript in Tajikistan.

Climate Change Threatens the Poor in Cities

By Manipadma Jena and - -

India, like other Asian countries, has focused its climate change adaptation strategies on rural and urban areas while neglecting the urban fringes, say experts.

Arab Spring Brings Some Sour Fruits

By Simba Shani Kamaria Russeau

Recent shifts in the Middle East and North Africa have presented several economic challenges such as high unemployment, an exodus of migrants from Libya and a reduction of tourism revenues. Given that economic discontent played a vital role in the Arab uprisings, economic growth has become vital to sustain the fruit of revolution.

Volunteers at a food distribution centre in Calais. Credit: Lara Stanley/IPS.

Can’t Help Helping Refugees

By Matt Carr and - -

It’s 10 am on Saturday morning and a group of migrants is clustered round the entrance to the Migrant Clothes Association in the Calais city centre, eating breakfast provided by the association. Inside, the warehouse is stacked with blankets, tents, trainers and clothes. Some of these will be distributed later by the association’s workers.

Myanmar ‘Reforms’ Elude Kachin Refugees

By Marwaan Macan-Markar and - -

For thousands of ethnic Kachins who fled fighting between government troops and rebels and survived a bitter winter in the refugee camps that dot northern Myanmar (or Burma), another test of survival looms – gale force winds.

At a migrant squat in Calais. Credit: Lara Stanley/IPS.

Calais Draws More Refugees, And Trouble

By Matt Carr and - -

It’s more than two years since French police demolished the migrant squatter camp in Calais known as the Jungle in September 2009. At the time the widely-publicised demolition was hailed by the French and British authorities as a major blow to the smugglers or passeurs who facilitated illegal immigration across the Channel.

Filipina maids catch a moment together while taking their employers' children and the dogs out. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne/IPS.

Can the Maid Have Boyfriends?

By Kalinga Seneviratne and - -

A routine announcement by the government of this city-state entitling foreign, female domestic workers to a day off each week has sent their affluent employers into a tizzy.

World Water Forums Expose Large Dams as ‘Unsustainable’

By Cléo Fatoorehchi

Numerous non-governmental organisations used the World Water Forum (WWF) held in Marseille last week as an opportunity to remind the international community about the serious global impacts of large dams all over the world.

Children of refugees from South Sudan join a protest against deportation in Tel Aviv. Credit: Mya Guarnieri/IPS.

New Threat Looms Over South Sudan Refugees

By Mya Guarnieri and - -

Thousands of African refugees in Israel face expulsion to dangerous conditions in their countries of origin as Israel hardens its policies. The refugees are increasingly turning to protest.

Immokalee Farm Workers Still Fighting for One More Penny

By Adrianne Appel

Dozens of Immokalee Florida farm workers left tomato fields behind last week and set up camp on the lush, corporate grounds of Publix supermarket to fast and protest the company's refusal to pay a penny more per pound for tomatoes.

Malaysians Miss Indonesian Hired Help

By Baradan Kuppusamy and - -

Ideally, Malaysia’s affluent households could meet their need for domestic help by tapping on Indonesia, a large country with linguistic and cultural similarities - but Jakarta has placed a ban on its nationals working as domestics in the neighbouring country.

Xenophobia Rises from Ashes of Greek Economy

By Apostolis Fotiadis

Last January, several pupils coming out of a high school in Kallithea, a central residential neigbourhood in Athens, attacked a Pakistani passer-by.

OP-ED: To Break the Bonds of Injustice

By Kerry Kennedy

Forty-six years ago, at a Senate subcommittee hearing on migratory labour, U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy listened in disgust as California's Kern County Sheriff explained the arrests of peaceful picketers brought on by mounting pressure from farm owners.

Brazil’s population is made up of a mix of migration flows, as reflected by the mural on this wall at the Bom Jardim Cultural Centre in Fortaleza. Credit: Mario Osava/IPSBrazil

Brazil to Open Doors to Skilled Immigrants, Slam Shut to Others

By Fabiana Frayssinet and - -

In designing a new immigration policy, Brazil is caught between the need to attract skilled workers and professionals in order to meet the challenges posed by economic growth, and its tradition of taking in immigrants for humanitarian reasons.

Hard to Stay in Libya, Difficult to Return

By Rebecca Murray

At the battered terminal of Tripoli’s tiny Mitiga airport, over 150 young men and women jostle to be repatriated home to Nigeria on Libya’s Buraq airlines. This journey to Lagos is one of hundreds the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has facilitated since the start of the uprising against Gaddafi’s regime over a year ago.

A rare moment of joy at a Nigerian wedding in a Tripoli church. Credit: Rebecca Murray/IPS.

Hard to Stay in Libya, Difficult to Return

By Rebecca Murray and - -

At the battered terminal of Tripoli’s tiny Mitiga airport, over 150 young men and women jostle to be repatriated home to Nigeria on Libya’s Buraq airlines. This journey to Lagos is one of hundreds the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has facilitated since the start of the uprising against Gaddafi’s regime over a year ago.