Migration & Refugees

CODHES director Jorge Rojas. Credit: Helda Martínez/IPS

Colombia: World Leader in Forced Displacement

By Helda Martínez
"We want to shout out to the world, and no one will be able to keep us silent: forced displacement is still happening in Colombia, which is why we are asking for solidarity. We aren't terrorists, we aren't criminals; we are farmers whose dignity and rights have been stolen from us."

CAMBODIA: Refugees Face New Risks

By Irwin Loy
Cambodia must ensure it offers a safe haven to asylum seekers, rights groups say, following the government’s closure this week of a United Nations-run refugee centre, home to dozens of Montagnards from Vietnam.

ECUADOR: “Universal Citizenship” Clashes with Reality

By Gonzalo Ortiz
"Good morning. I've come to see a friend," says a young man in a brown cap carrying a small plastic bag of apples. The receptionist opens the iron-barred door and lets him in to the aged, third-rate hotel in Quito's historic centre, rented in its entirety by the Ecuadorian state to house undocumented immigrants.

Rohingyas Flee Burma by Boat

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
On a beach dotted with swanky, star-class hotels, a boatload of bedraggled men appeared out of the dark sea one midnight, exhausted from nearly two weeks at sea fleeing Burma’s repressive military.
Walt Staton, a volunteer with No More Deaths, was convicted for "knowingly littering" a national refuge by leaving water bottles for border crossers. Credit: Nick Oza/IPS

Virtual Warfare Escalates on U.S.-Mexico Border

By Kanya D'Almeida
In the quiet desert community of Nomirage, located just 20 kilometres east of San Diego, the sounds of impending war creep over the silent landscape.
Marchers at the opening of the World Social Forum in Dakar. Credit: Abdullah Vawda/IPS

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: ‘Signs of Change’ Says Bolivia’s Morales as World Social Forum Opens

By Souleymane Faye
Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Dakar on Sunday to mark the start of the annual World Social Forum. Activists carried colorful banners denouncing land grabs, restrictive immigration laws, agricultural subsidies in Europe and the U.S. and many other issues.

SRI LANKA: Domestics Court Risks, Defying Age Bar

By Feizal Samath
Sri Lanka has raised the age requirement for women wanting to leave the country to work as domestics abroad, but recruitment agents say this won’t prevent younger women from joining the exodus.

Migrants’ Strike Tests Greek Govt

By Apostolis Fotiadis
A hunger strike by migrants is emerging as a test case for how far migrants can go to fight for rights, and how far the government can go to clamp down on them.
A Guatemalan family heading to the Mexican border. Credit: Wilfredo Díaz/IPS

Central America Raises Its Voice in Defence of Its Migrants

By Danilo Valladares
Spiralling violence against Central American migrants in Mexico has prompted legal reforms, diplomatic actions, and the creation of new mechanisms to protect citizens in this region.

MEXICO: Migrants – Victims of Crime, Not Criminals

By Emilio Godoy
Although Central American migrants continue to face all kinds of abuses and even death on their way north through Mexico to the U.S. border, experts and activists have begun to see a slight change in approach to the issue.

CUBA: Looking for Roots Across the Ocean

By Ivet González
Their tanned skin is weathered by years of sun, and their voices preserve traces of accents from different parts of Spain.

Dams Threaten Aboriginal Tribe

By K. S. Harikrishnan
Over the years, the Kadars, a dwindling aboriginal tribe who live on the borders of the southern Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, have survived pestilences, extreme exploitation and even mass sterilisations. But a new government plan to build a hydroelectric dam across the Chalakudy River would have been the death knell for the group who now number about 1,500.

ECUADOR: Migrants Uprooted Twice

By Gonzalo Ortiz
Ecuadorean immigrants have been put in an even more vulnerable position by the lingering economic crisis in the industrialised world, especially in Spain and the United States, the main destinations for migrants from Latin America.

Sweden Slammed Over Iraqi Deportations

By IPS Correspondents
Both the United Nations and Amnesty International have criticized Sweden for its latest expulsion of Iraqi migrants who fled their home country to seek shelter in the European nation, citing concerns that violence in Iraq continues to threaten the lives of deported migrants.

Billion-dollar Boeing Fence on U.S.-Mexico Border Canceled

By Pratap Chatterjee
One billion dollars and just over four years after Boeing won a contract to build a "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border, the high-tech project was canceled last week by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) amid widespread recognition that it has been a failure.

CUBA-US: No Major Progress Expected from New Immigration Talks

By Patricia Grogg
The Cuban capital was the venue for a new round of immigration talks between delegations from this Caribbean island nation and the United States, although no major progress towards a broader dialogue is expected, in contrast to the hopes raised when President Barack Obama took office.

MIGRATION: Stateless in Calais

By IPS Correspondents
In September 2009 French police bulldozed the migrant encampment at Sangatte near Calais, inhabited by hundreds of mostly Afghan asylum seekers seeking to reach the United Kingdom. The destruction of the Sangatte ‘jungle’ was carried out in the full glare of publicity, and the French and UK governments hailed it as a major blow against illegal immigration.

US-LATAM: Disappointment May Yield to Distrust

By Jim Lobe
While U.S. officials took strong exception to outgoing Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva's recent complaint that "nothing has changed" in Washington's relations with Latin America two years into the Barack Obama administration, many independent U.S. analysts ruefully nodded their heads.
Support is rising for a check on the Taliban. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai

AFPAK: People Turning Against Taliban

By IPS Correspondents
The Taliban once regarded as true jihadists here are rapidly losing popularity in response to their ongoing targeting of mosques, schools and innocent people.
Election poster in Juba, Southern Sudan Credit: Fatma Bilal/IPS

ELECTION-WATCH: Countdown Begins to Southern Sudan Referendum

By IPS Correspondents
"We want an independent country of our own that is Southern Sudan, and we want a new country". Calm and with a passion in his voice, the secondary school teacher, John Kiri, a native from Juba explained the excitement he is feeling for Sunday’ referendum.
Francis Odong

The Peace Dividend in South Sudan

By Ranjit Bhaskar
This is the story of Francis Odong, a southern Sudanese man from Eastern Equitoria state.
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