News Selection – Migration

16/10/2018: The UN Refugee Agency is concerned by the situation in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 200,000 Congolese nationals have arrived in the last two weeks alone, migrant workers expelled from Angola. Source: UN Refugee Agency

4/10/2018: The Indian government has deported seven ethnic Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar, where they are at grave risk of abuse. Human Rights Watch says that such forced returns threaten life, liberty and violate international law. Source: Human Rights Watch

3/10/2018: Five international rights organizations have sent this open letter to European leaders, calling for action to help the Aquarius, the last NGO search and rescue ship operating in the Mediterranean. Its flag has been withdrawn by Panama. Source: Human Rights Watch

Tread Softly Comment: This Panamanian proxy episode plumbs new depths in the European Union's unprincipled and profligate response to African migration. Not satisfied with funding the Libyan coastguard's capacity to rescue and return migrants to an unsafe country, the EU appears to have conspired with Italy to clear the Mediterranean of ships chartered by humanitarian organisations. There is a petition to Save Aquarius. Relevant Briefing: International Human Rights Law

24/9/2018: Two important donor countries have expressed their view that conditions in Rakhine State are not yet conducive for the safe repatriation of refugees in Bangladesh. They demand faster progress in three main areas. Source: Reliefweb

24/9/2018: Countries hosting large numbers of refugees join UNHCR and World Bank in support of an ambitious model to respond to displacement crises. The Global Compact on Refugees is expected to be endorsed at the UN General Assembly in December 2018. Source: UN Refugee Agency

Tread Softly Comment: The article contains no evidence that leaders of richer countries attended this meeting, let alone expressed strong support for the Global Compact on Refugees. The Compact aims to restore the established international order for protection and shared responsibility for refugees, at a time when it is crumbling. Approval in December will depend on retention of the existing text which has been watered down to accommodate European countries and others whose current actions are at odds with the aims of the Compact. Relevant Briefing: Compacts for Refugees and Migration

24/9/2018: A UK advisory committee has recommended that there should be no legal channel for “low-skilled” immigration. An open policy on migration would reduce global poverty, an outcome recognised as in the UK national interest. Source: Center for Global Development

Tread Softly Comment: This blog sets out many robust economic arguments in favour of migration, from the point of view of both source and host countries. But it overlooks the irrational nature of public opinon which perceives a threat to local jobs and culture and which sways politicians accordingly. Relevant Briefing: Globalisation and Migrant Workers

24/9/2018: By the end of this century, sea level rises alone could displace 13 million Americans. Many states will have to grapple with hordes of residents seeking dry ground.

Source: The Guardian

23/9/2018: SOS MEDITERRANEE and Médecins Sans Frontières have accused the Italian government of exerting blatant pressure on the Panama Maritime Authority to revoke the registration of the search and rescue ship Aquarius. Source: Medicins Sans Frontieres

21/9/2018: An estimated 500,000 Ethiopian domestic workers in Saudi Arabia continue to live in fear as security authorities implement a new policy of deporting undocumented migrants in the country. Source: Inter Press Service

19/9/2018: Pakistan’s prime minister, has appeared to drop his promise to grant citizenship to hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees living on the margins of Pakistani society. Source: The Guardian