Migration & Refugees

RIGHTS-AUSTRIA: Migrants Issue Stokes Political Passions

By Pavol Stracansky
Support for the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) in Austria has soared amid debate over controversial plans for the construction of a new centre to house asylum seekers.

MIGRATION: France Urges EU to Tighten Mediterranean Borders

By IPS Correspondents
The European Union is studying a range of measures aimed at strengthening its external borders to deter undocumented migrants from entering via Mediterranean member states such as Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Spain.
Khayzaran

JORDAN: Where Iraqi Women Are Also Fathers

By Hanan Tabbara
Back in Najaf, Iraq, Khayzaran and her family lived in a well-kept house. They had two cars and a small orchard. Her children, two girls and three boys, attended school and came home to modest feasts.

RIGHTS-EUROPE: Military Technology to Track Down Migrants?

By IPS Correspondents
Arms manufacturers have been asked to advise an official European Union (EU) body on how their products can be used to stop asylum seekers entering the bloc’s territory.

RIGHTS-FRANCE: Policy Ignores Deeper Questions of Migration

By IPS Correspondents
European Union immigration ministers will hold a special meeting Thursday to adopt a new policy to protect the region's external borders against undocumented migration, French immigration minister Eric Besson has announced.

RIGHTS-THAILAND: Fears of Mass Deportation of Migrants Rise

By IPS Correspondents
Dao, a migrant worker from Burma, is struggling to make a decision that could affect not only her but her family as well. "There are many things to worry about," sighed the Shan state native who works in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai.

MIDEAST: Opposition Grows Against Egypt-Gaza Barrier

By Adam Morrow
Activists and opposition groups are stepping up pressure on the Egyptian government to stop constructing a barrier along the border with the Gaza Strip. Officials say the barrier will prevent cross-border smuggling, but critics say it will seal the fate of the people on the Gaza Strip.

EUROPE: Fight Female Mutilation Harder Activists Urge EU

By Pavol Stracansky
With hundreds of thousands of girls and women believed to be at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Europe, rights groups have mounted a campaign to get EU leaders to stop what they see as a barbaric and dangerous procedure.

U.S.: Deportation System Called “Severely Flawed”

By IPS Correspondents
The number of people deported from the U.S. annually has grown from just over 69,000 to over 356,000 in the past eight years, while resource-starved immigration judges issue decisions without sufficient time to conduct legal research and analyse the complex cases they are asked to decide.
A child amputee sits up in her hospital bed in Jacmel, Haiti. The Dominican Republic provided the first aid to the devastated southern city. Credit: UN Photo/Marco Dormino

HAITI: Tensions Put on Hold as Dominican Republic Reaches Out

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
Despite a history of often tense relations, the first nation to render assistance to Haiti after last month's devastating earthquake was its island neighbour, the Dominican Republic.

INDIA: Lay-offs from Recession-hit Gulf Lead to New Lives at Home

By K. S. Harikrishnan
Domestic worker Beena Joy, 35, came back empty-handed after losing her job in recession-hit United Arab Emirates, but soon found that getting laid-off has given her a happier life back home here in this southern Indian city.

GREECE: New Migrant Law Tough But Respects Rights

By Apostolis Fotiadis
The newly elected Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) government's plans to move legislation, that will greatly affect migrants and refugees, have been both welcomed and criticised by rights organisations and activists.
A woman labourer balances a pile of bricks on her head outside the main Commonwealth Games stadium while her child plays. Credit: Ranjit Devraj/IPS

RIGHTS-INDIA: Commonwealth Games: No Medals for Labourers

By Ranjit Devraj
If medals are being given out for backbreaking labour on miserable wages and impossible working conditions, thousands of migrant workers, slaving to complete stadia and other facilities for the October Commonwealth Games in the Indian capital, will be the champions.
Walt Staton, a volunteer with No More Deaths, was convicted in 2009 for "knowingly littering" a national refuge by leaving water for border crossers. Credit: Nick Oza/IPS

MIGRATION: Lost in the Desert? There’s an App for That

By Enrique Gili
Over the past two decades, Ricardo Dominguez has made a career for himself tweaking the sensibilities of government officials and developing software tools meant to disrupt the status quo.

RIGHTS: This Time Around, Thailand Targets Karen Refugees

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
Thailand’s attempt to repatriate over 3,000 ethnic Karens who fled the conflict in military-ruled Burma last year has triggered strong local and international objections, including from 27 members of the United States Congress.

U.S.: Immigration Enforcement Prone to Abuses

By IPS Correspondents
A little-known programme run by the Department of Homeland Security is using inaccurate databases and functioning "as little more than a dragnet to funnel even more people into the already overburdened" detention and deportation system of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

JORDAN: Palestinians Unfairly Stripped of Citizenship – Report

By IPS Correspondents
The Jordanian government should halt the arbitrary revocation of nationality from its citizens of Palestinian origin, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released Monday.

MIGRATION: Fortress Europe Starts With Greece

By Apostolis Fotiadis
When Michalis Chrisohoidis, Greek minister of citizens' protection announced that FRONTEX, the European Agency for Border Control and Protection, would double its representation in this country in spring, it was clear that Greece is being charged with special responsibilities to apprehend and repatriate illegal migrants into Europe.

FRANCE: Burqa Ban Keeps Immigration Issue Alive

By IPS Correspondents
With the French regional elections coming up in March and a debate on national identity raging, the burqa polemic is keeping the immigration and "values" issue alive here.

LABOUR: Migrant Domestic Workers’ Rights Next on ILO’s Agenda

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
Po Po has been enduring long hours of hard work, poor pay and abuse within the confines of her employer’s home for the past seven years. Poverty forced her to leave her family in eastern Burma and abandon a university education to work as a domestic helper in Thailand.

MIGRATION: Haitians in U.S. See Chance for Better Life

By IPS Correspondents
More than a decade ago, Marie Elisemonde left Haiti, fleeing threats of rape and murder by thugs, or zengledo in Creole, who could only be appeased with money. She paid 700 dollars for her seat on a boat to the United States, without any guarantees of a safe arrival or entry.
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