ASEAN ministers hold emergency Myanmar meeting
26/10/2022: As military atrocities continue in Myanmar, an estimated 70,000 refugees are seeking asylum throughout the region. Southeast Asian leaders should respond to evidence that their own governments are forcing refugees to return to Myanmar where their safety is at risk.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Rwanda will remain open to asylum seekers and refugees
14/9/2022: Rwanda’s High Commissioner to the UK argues that the country has a decades-long track record of hosting refugees and asylum seekers, in accordance with international law. It is ready to implement the controversial agreement for onward transfer of migrants from the UK.
Source: The East African
Five years and still no solutions for Rohingya refugees
23/8/2022: Almost one million stateless ethnic Rohingya remain in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, the world's largest refugee camp. Five years on from the exodus from Myanmar, the UN Refugee Agency is struggling to sustain international humanitarian support.
Source: UN News
The EU’s ‘racist’ refugee system, and how to fix it
26/7/2022: At around 3.7 million, the number of Ukrainians who have applied for protection in EU member states dwarfs the 1.3 million people who applied for asylum in the EU in 2015. Europe’s response in 2022, however, has been vastly different from that of 2015.
Source: The New Humanitarian
Victory for asylum seekers in US Supreme Court
6/7/2022: The US Supreme Court has ruled that President Joe Biden can end the Migrant Protection Protocols. These allowed US border officers to send non-Mexican asylum seekers to Mexico while their claims were adjudicated in US immigration courts.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Global refugee resettlement needs will rise steeply next year
21/6/2022: More than 2 million refugees will be in need of resettlement next year, according to the Needs Assessment for 2023 released by the UN Refugee Agency. As the figure for 2021 was only 39,266, the Agency is calling on states to significantly increase places made available.
Source: UN Refugee Agency
Global forced displacement hits another record
16/6/2022: By the end of 2021 the number of people displaced by war, violence, persecution and human rights abuses stood at 89.3 million, according to the annual Global Trends report. This figure has doubled over the last decade.
Source: UN Refugee Agency
New declaration on Migration and Protection in the Americas
10/6/2022: The UN Refugee Agency has welcomed the commitment of 20 countries in the Americas that no one should be returned to a country where they would face persecution or human rights violations. The Los Angeles Declaration is based on principles of international cooperation, as set out in the Global Compacts on refugees and on safe and orderly migration.
Source: UN Refugee Agency
Rising refugee death toll in Mediterranean crossings
10/6/2022: While reported numbers of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe are fewer than in 2015, journeys are becoming more fatal. New data for 2021 records 3,231 people as dead or missing at sea in the Mediterranean and the northwest Atlantic.
Source: UN Refugee Agency
Illegal immigration dilemma
23/5/2022: Illegal immigration in the 21st century poses a serious dilemma for the world. Governments in virtually every region of the globe appear to be at a loss on how to address the two central dimensions of the dilemma.
Source: Inter Press Service