Migration & Refugees

Border leading into the desert at the Mariposa port-of-entry. Credit: Jeb Sprague/IPS

Migrants Risk Everything in Arizona Desert Crossing

By IPS Correspondents
As he drops his last purification tablet into a pail of swirling, murky water, Sergio, 26, stares out toward the desert. Recently deported from Arizona, where he has a young child and where he has lived for the majority of his life, he explains, "I have to return, it's my home."

COSTA RICA: (In)human Trafficking

By Daniel Zueras
The rescue in a Costa Rican port of 36 Asians working as slaves in appalling conditions on two fishing boats once again highlighted the need to fight people trafficking in this Central American country.
Anna Mollah, a Muslim from Indonesia, said she was abused by her husband for two decades, but had no one to turn to. Credit: Elizabeth Wagner

Damaged, and Down and Out

By Elizabeth Wagner
Anna Mollah wept uncontrollably in her Glen Oaks, Queens home as she remembered how her husband used to beat her.

JAMAICA: Nursing Exodus May Only Get Worse

By Kathy Barrett
The shortage of nurses throughout the Caribbean has reached chronic proportions, in a region already struggling with an ailing health care system.

HAITI: Disorganised Diaspora on Fringe of Post-Quake Decisions

By Carla Murphy
For years, Haitians living overseas have been the lifeline of the troubled country, sending billions of dollars to relatives back home.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Africans Target of Racism, Harassment by Police

By Stephen de Tarczynski
The police "picked me up, they put me in the back of the car. Then they took me to (locality withheld) and beat (expletive) me, and they left me there," a young person of African background said in a new study into the treatment of youths of African background by Australian police in Melbourne.

U.S.: Groups Hail Refugee Protection Act

By IPS Correspondents
Immigrants' rights activists are virtually unanimous in their endorsement of proposed legislation that would change decades of U.S. asylum practices. But proponents of the legislation fear it may never find its way out of the U.S. Senate to the president's desk.

RIGHTS-US: Love Without Borders – Or Papers

By Amanda Bransford
Tom is in love. It's an old story: he noticed an attractive stranger at a friend's party, and the attractive stranger noticed Tom. They began talking, then dating, and then they fell in love. For a while, they enjoyed a perfect romance.

U.S.: Audit Finds Major Problems in Immigration Policing

By IPS Correspondents
A controversial government programme that enlists local police officers and sheriff's deputies to help enforce U.S. immigration laws is verging on being out of control and unable to assess whether it is meeting its stated goals.
Haitians arriving in Jamaica on Mar. 23. Credit: Kathy Barrett/IPS

JAMAICA: Haitian Refugees Sent Home

By Kathy Barrett
On the evening of Jan. 12 when Haiti was devastated by a massive earthquake, Jamaica, which lies just 160 kilometres to the west, sought to assure President René Préval that Jamaica was is in the process of organising a "practical response" to their plight.

U.S.: Controversy Erupts over Deportation Quotas

By IPS Correspondents
Immigrants' rights advocates are up in arms Thursday over an apparent gaffe by a senior government official suggesting that immigration authorities would use a "quota system" to determine the number of people it would deport - followed by a "clarification" from higher-ups that appeared to confirm the quota approach.

U.S.: Immigration Detention Abuses Continue

By IPS Correspondents
More abuses in the U.S. immigration detention system came to light last week when it was revealed that two mentally disabled men continue to be held in detention while facing possible deportation for criminal assault convictions, despite having already served their time.
Deportation prison at Zurich airport. Credit: Ray Smith/IPS

RIGHTS-SWITZERLAND: Calls to End Forced Deportations Follow Custodial Death

By Ray Smith
Human rights organisations have been demanding an independent inquiry into the death of a Nigerian asylum seeker died while being deported and a stop to all forced repatriations.
Lance Corporal Jesus Suarez del Solar and his family. Credit: Courtesy of the Suarez Family

U.S.: Years Later, Family of Man Killed in Iraq Soldiers On

By Aaron Glantz
It's been seven years since Fernando Suarez del Solar buried his son, Jesus. Seven years since Mar. 27, 2003, when just one week into the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Lance Corporal Jesus Suarez del Solar stepped on a piece of unexploded ordnance and came home in a flag-draped coffin.

MIGRATION-US: Broken System Costing Billions

By William Fisher
As the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama and Congressional lawmakers prepare to tackle comprehensive immigration reform, a leading immigration advocate says government inaction has "cost the country billions of dollars, while doing little to impede the flow of unauthorised immigrants."

WESTERN SAHARA: “Sahrawi People Must Decide”

By Tito Drago
The only solution for the conflict over Morocco's occupation of the Western Sahara is to do what the Sahrawi people decide regarding their future, Zahra Ramdan, president of the Association of Sahrawi Women in Spain, told IPS.

SOUTH AFRICA: Ready To Tackle Human Trafficking?

By Jabulani Sikhakhane
The expected arrival of 350,000 football fans in South Africa for the World Cup in June has provoked fears of increased levels of human trafficking. A new study suggests that one major obstacle to preventing this is the lack of accurate information about the extent of the problem.

MEXICO: Kidnapping – A Growing Risk for Central American Migrants

By Emilio Godoy
The increase in kidnappings of Central American migrants crossing Mexico on their way to the United States will be brought up at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) current session next Monday.
Protesters outside the state capitol warned Gov. Jan Brewer that signing an anti-immigrant bill into law might be costly at election time. Credit: www.PhotosByJoseMunoz.com

MIGRATION-US: Mixed-Status Families Face Hard Choice

By Valeria Fernández
Norma Tolsa-Garcia is a U.S. citizen but she fears new proposed laws in Arizona might force her and her family to move away from the state she grew up in because her husband is an undocumented immigrant.
"Shoeshine", a transvestite sex worker, says prostitution of underage girls is common is Negril. Credit: Kathy Barrett/IPS

JAMAICA: The Other Side of Paradise

By Kathy Barrett
It's just before midnight, and the music pulsates through the massive speakers perched under the ceiling, scantily clad girls in their five-inch heels moving closer to the iron poles.
Miriam Mendiola with her son Angel, who was born in a hospital while she was in custody. She said she was immediately shackled after her C-section. Credit: Valeria Fernández/IPS

U.S.: Detained Migrant Women Shackled During Childbirth

By Valeria Fernández
When Maricopa County sheriff's deputies raided Celia Alejandra Alvarez's workplace and discovered her hiding place, she says they lifted her off her feet and slammed her face into a wall, causing injuries to her jaw and teeth. Later, in detention for having false documents, she says she was not given medical care.
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