Pakistan is experiencing its worst refugee crisis since partition from India in 1947, and while the world may be familiar with the tent camps that have rolled out like carpets since its operation against the Taliban started in April, the overwhelming majority of the nearly three million people who have fled live unseen in houses and schools, according to aid agencies.
They are the invisible refugees, and their numbers have swollen the populations of towns like this one northwest of the capital, Islamabad, multiplying burdens on already sagging roads, schools, sewers and water supplies, and, not least, on their host families.
Most fled suddenly, without cash or belongings, and many have limited access to the millions of dollars in international aid that has been flowing in.
Read More At the New York Times
Showing posts with label Refugees. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Refugees. Show all posts
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
The Worst Places to Be a Refugee
Gaza, South Africa and Thailand are among the world's worst places to be a refugee, according to the latest annual World Refugee Survey released here Wednesday by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI).The survey, which was issued in advance of World Refugee Day Jun. 20, found that the number of refugees had dropped modestly worldwide in the past year – from 14 million to 13.6 million, according to USCRI.
Of those, well over half, or nearly 8.5 million, have been trapped in refugee camps or otherwise denied their rights under the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.
Of these, Palestinians, more than 2.6 million of whom have been "warehoused" for up to 60 years throughout the Middle East, constitute the largest national group that has been displaced for the longest period of time, according to the report. It also named Gaza as one of the worst places in the world, particularly in the aftermath of the three-week Israeli military campaign that began late last December. Israeli authorities have so far permitted only humanitarian goods to be imported into Gaza since Operation Cast Lead, in which more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed.
Read More At IPS
Of those, well over half, or nearly 8.5 million, have been trapped in refugee camps or otherwise denied their rights under the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.
Of these, Palestinians, more than 2.6 million of whom have been "warehoused" for up to 60 years throughout the Middle East, constitute the largest national group that has been displaced for the longest period of time, according to the report. It also named Gaza as one of the worst places in the world, particularly in the aftermath of the three-week Israeli military campaign that began late last December. Israeli authorities have so far permitted only humanitarian goods to be imported into Gaza since Operation Cast Lead, in which more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed.
Read More At IPS
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Pakistan Risks 'Human Catastrophe'
Thousands of civilians trapped in Pakistan's Swat valley, where the military is battling Taliban forces, face a "humanitarian catastrophe" unless help reaches them soon, a rights group has said.
Human Rights Watch says the military must lift its curfew of the area, which has been in place for a full week, and airdrop essential food, water and medicine to the 200,000 residents trapped there."The government cannot allow the local population to remain trapped without food, clean water, and medicine as a tactic to defeat the Taliban."
Human Rights Watch said it was getting persistent reports of civilian casualties from army shelling and aerial bombardments as well as reports that the Taliban is killing civilians. Tens of thousands of people remain in the region where the army is carrying out its campaign against the Taliban.
Read More At Al Jazeera
Human Rights Watch says the military must lift its curfew of the area, which has been in place for a full week, and airdrop essential food, water and medicine to the 200,000 residents trapped there."The government cannot allow the local population to remain trapped without food, clean water, and medicine as a tactic to defeat the Taliban."
Human Rights Watch said it was getting persistent reports of civilian casualties from army shelling and aerial bombardments as well as reports that the Taliban is killing civilians. Tens of thousands of people remain in the region where the army is carrying out its campaign against the Taliban.
Read More At Al Jazeera
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Pakistan Diary: Mass Exodus
"The media here have dubbed this the biggest movement of people since partition... in 1947". The first thing that hits you when you visit a refugee camp is the sheer scale. 'Camp' is too small a word to use- these are cities of canvas and rope. Hussein camp has only been running for a few days. So far it houses 4000 refugees - a small town compared to say Jallala refugee encampment which has upwards of 48,000 people living there.It is a "massive crisis" - according to Antonio Guterres, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees."Pakistan has hosted the largest refugee population in the world - 5 million Afghans - Pakistan now needs help itself and the world must pay attention."
The UN and other aid agencies have a big job on their hands. This is the biggest movement of people in recent times. At least 1.3 million people are on the move and more than 800,000 are registered with the UN alone as refugees.
But behind that figure lies another one. You could call them the forgotten refugees. Since August 2008, people have been fleeing clashes across the North West Frontier Province. The army has been battling Taliban fighters and more than 500,000 refugees have been registered in camps by the UN since August last year. They have been living makeshift accommodation since then. The Red Cross has registered another 400,000.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Lhotsampa Leave Nepal Refugee Camps
Some 100,000 other Bhutanese have lived in bamboo huts on the Terai plains of eastern Nepal since the early 1990s, when they say they were 'ethnically cleansed' from Bhutan.
Another of the seven refugee camps in the region is Timai, where Hari Maya Gurung is crouching on a dirt floor, arranging the few pots and pans that distinguish this room as her kitchen.Her family used to own 15 acres of land in the village of Leopani in southern Bhutan, where they tended three orange orchards and raised cows and oxen. Today all that she possesses can be found within this small hut.
Gurung's great-great-grandfather was among thousands of Nepalese to emigrate to Bhutan a century ago, building farms in the inhospitable southern reaches of that country. The Gurungs and their ilk – called 'Lhotsampa' in Bhutan – were mostly Hindu and comprised the peasant class in a country that was predominantly Buddhist. Bhutan's rulers largely ignored the Lhotsampa until the later half of the 1900s when the government became nervous of their rapidly growing population and increasing political clout.
In 1985, the government passed a law stripping most Lhotsampa of their citizenship, effectively initiating a campaign to dislocate them from the land.
Gurung says the problems for her family started in the mid-1980s when the police in her village began "verifying" citizenship. Unable to produce the required paperwork, she says all nine of her children were categorised as "terrorists" by the Bhutanese state."It was agony," says Gurung, recalling how she pleaded with the authorities for leniency.
Refugees have always accused the army of setting up barracks throughout southern Bhutan and demolishing their homes. They have also accused the military of arresting, torturing, raping and murdering people from their community.The Bhutanese government has denied accusations that it ethnically cleansed the Lhotsampa from Bhutan. Nevertheless, Gurung remembers the night government officials knocked on her door."Nepal is your country" she says they told her. "Leave Bhutan. If we return and you are still here, we will lock you inside this house and burn it down."
Read More At Al Jazeera
Another of the seven refugee camps in the region is Timai, where Hari Maya Gurung is crouching on a dirt floor, arranging the few pots and pans that distinguish this room as her kitchen.Her family used to own 15 acres of land in the village of Leopani in southern Bhutan, where they tended three orange orchards and raised cows and oxen. Today all that she possesses can be found within this small hut.
Gurung's great-great-grandfather was among thousands of Nepalese to emigrate to Bhutan a century ago, building farms in the inhospitable southern reaches of that country. The Gurungs and their ilk – called 'Lhotsampa' in Bhutan – were mostly Hindu and comprised the peasant class in a country that was predominantly Buddhist. Bhutan's rulers largely ignored the Lhotsampa until the later half of the 1900s when the government became nervous of their rapidly growing population and increasing political clout.
In 1985, the government passed a law stripping most Lhotsampa of their citizenship, effectively initiating a campaign to dislocate them from the land.
Gurung says the problems for her family started in the mid-1980s when the police in her village began "verifying" citizenship. Unable to produce the required paperwork, she says all nine of her children were categorised as "terrorists" by the Bhutanese state."It was agony," says Gurung, recalling how she pleaded with the authorities for leniency.
Refugees have always accused the army of setting up barracks throughout southern Bhutan and demolishing their homes. They have also accused the military of arresting, torturing, raping and murdering people from their community.The Bhutanese government has denied accusations that it ethnically cleansed the Lhotsampa from Bhutan. Nevertheless, Gurung remembers the night government officials knocked on her door."Nepal is your country" she says they told her. "Leave Bhutan. If we return and you are still here, we will lock you inside this house and burn it down."
Read More At Al Jazeera
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Burmese Refugees "Treated Like a Commodity"
Many Burmese migrants, escaping extensive human rights abuses perpetrated by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and the Burmese military junta, travel to Malaysia to register with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for resettlement to a third country, according to the report.
Once in Malaysia, Burmese migrants are often arrested by Malaysian authorities, whether or not they have registered with the UNHCR and have identification papers. Burmese migrants are reportedly taken by Malaysian government personnel from detention facilities to the Malaysia-Thailand border for deportation.
Upon arrival at the Malaysia-Thailand border, human traffickers reportedly take possession of the migrants and issue ransom demands on an individual basis. Migrants state that freedom is possible only once money demands are met. Specific payment procedures are outlined, which reportedly include bank accounts in Kuala Lumpur to which money should be transferred.
It has become commonplace for the authorities to use the vigilante RELA force to periodically arrest and "deport" Rohingyas, a Muslim minority, but since Burma does not recognise them as citizens, the practise is to take them to the Bukit Kayu Hitam area on the Thai-Malaysia border and force them to cross over into Thailand. Migrants state that those unable to pay are turned over to human peddlers in Thailand, representing a variety of business interests from fishing boats to brothels.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
The Refugee Crisis: The Pain and Suffering of the Iraqi People
One Story
Our interlocutor is an Iraqi refugee who knows first hand how badly things have gone wrong. To save herself, she managed to make it out of the Iraq, first to Jordan, then the United States. For our contact's safety and the safety of her family, still at the mercy of unknown and unknowable death squads, she will remain nameless. She can tell you, though, that she is educated with a university degree in linguistics and a certificate as an English translator. She is Arab, she is Muslim, she is the daughter of a Sunni and a Shii.
After the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, our contact told us that it was a common practice for mysterious people to turn up at the doors of Iraqi houses and "ask" the inhabitants to leave. Then, typically, a strange family would move in, taking ownership and control of the original owner's effects. No one knew who these people were, no one knew who had done the asking. In fact, no one wanted to know, it was far too dangerous to ask awkward questions. The police or what was left of the authorities, once the Americans and their Coalition Provisional Government had dissolved the civil power, simply stood by and did nothing to help those forced out of their homes.
These involuntary "donors" became the Displaced. They had to stay in Iraq because they had no money to leave the country, they had no funds to bribe local officials in nearby Jordan to permit their entry if they did. They were not allowed to work in Jordan because they could not get permanent residence, although, if you had the equivalent of US$150,000 to put at the disposal of the Jordanian government, you could stay in the Hashemite Kingdom.
If, somehow, you got to Jordan, you couldn't afford a place to live because you were not allowed to work. And you also couldn't afford medicine or a doctor. Our interlocutor, reliant on saved funds, was sick for two months because she didn't have the equivalent of US$40 for antibiotic injections. She recovered only when an Iraqi doctor in Jordan managed to get some medicine from the local hospital for her.
If you, like our translator, made it to Jordan, you had to leave every three months to renew your temporary residence. This exposed you to murder, rape, and other violence along the road during the 10-hour trip to Iraq. Unlike I-95 in the United States, this thoroughfare was laid out in the middle of nowhere. The return was equally bad, with the traveler still a moving target. And, at the Jordanian frontier, there was an added flip: the border guards demanded a US$500 bribe to admit you. If you were fortunate and had the money, all you usually had to contend with was harsh looks by the men with the keys to the Kingdom. If, like our interlocutor, you were unfortunate, you could be sent back with no explanation to try again, making a fruitless 20-hour round-trip. She endured this three times. On some occasions, if Fortuna smiled, you could pay the bribe in US$100 installments--on top of what you shelled out for food and rent.
Our contact did this for two and a half years.
Read More At Global Research
Our interlocutor is an Iraqi refugee who knows first hand how badly things have gone wrong. To save herself, she managed to make it out of the Iraq, first to Jordan, then the United States. For our contact's safety and the safety of her family, still at the mercy of unknown and unknowable death squads, she will remain nameless. She can tell you, though, that she is educated with a university degree in linguistics and a certificate as an English translator. She is Arab, she is Muslim, she is the daughter of a Sunni and a Shii.
After the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, our contact told us that it was a common practice for mysterious people to turn up at the doors of Iraqi houses and "ask" the inhabitants to leave. Then, typically, a strange family would move in, taking ownership and control of the original owner's effects. No one knew who these people were, no one knew who had done the asking. In fact, no one wanted to know, it was far too dangerous to ask awkward questions. The police or what was left of the authorities, once the Americans and their Coalition Provisional Government had dissolved the civil power, simply stood by and did nothing to help those forced out of their homes.
These involuntary "donors" became the Displaced. They had to stay in Iraq because they had no money to leave the country, they had no funds to bribe local officials in nearby Jordan to permit their entry if they did. They were not allowed to work in Jordan because they could not get permanent residence, although, if you had the equivalent of US$150,000 to put at the disposal of the Jordanian government, you could stay in the Hashemite Kingdom.
If, somehow, you got to Jordan, you couldn't afford a place to live because you were not allowed to work. And you also couldn't afford medicine or a doctor. Our interlocutor, reliant on saved funds, was sick for two months because she didn't have the equivalent of US$40 for antibiotic injections. She recovered only when an Iraqi doctor in Jordan managed to get some medicine from the local hospital for her.
If you, like our translator, made it to Jordan, you had to leave every three months to renew your temporary residence. This exposed you to murder, rape, and other violence along the road during the 10-hour trip to Iraq. Unlike I-95 in the United States, this thoroughfare was laid out in the middle of nowhere. The return was equally bad, with the traveler still a moving target. And, at the Jordanian frontier, there was an added flip: the border guards demanded a US$500 bribe to admit you. If you were fortunate and had the money, all you usually had to contend with was harsh looks by the men with the keys to the Kingdom. If, like our interlocutor, you were unfortunate, you could be sent back with no explanation to try again, making a fruitless 20-hour round-trip. She endured this three times. On some occasions, if Fortuna smiled, you could pay the bribe in US$100 installments--on top of what you shelled out for food and rent.
Our contact did this for two and a half years.
Read More At Global Research
US Criticised Over Immigrant Rights
Amnesty International has said tens of thousands of people are being held in US immigration jails without receiving a hearing to determine whether their detentions are warranted. About 30,000 immigrants are held on an average day, the rights group said in a report released on Wednesday, triple the number in custody a decade ago."America should be outraged by the scale of human rights abuses occurring within its own borders," said Larry Cox, director of Amnesty International USA.
Amnesty said more than 300,000 people are detained by US immigration officials each year, including asylum seekers, torture survivors, victims of human trafficking, legal permanent residents and the parents of US citizens.
"The United States has long been a country of immigrants, and whether they have been here five years or five generations, their human rights are to be respected."
Read More At Al Jazeera
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Refugees From Mexico Drug War Flee to US
As a drug war rages throughout Mexico and along its northern border, an increasing number of Mexicans are crossing into the United States to flee the killings, extortion and kidnappings that have plagued places like Juárez and Tijuana.Unlike the traditional job-seeking migrants, whose numbers have dropped in part due to the slumping US economy and increased border enforcement, this new migrant class comprises business owners, executives and other professionals who choose safety in the United States--even if it means detention--over freedom in their own country.
The drug war, which has claimed nearly 10,000 lives in a little more than two years-- more than 1,600 in Juárez in the last year alone--is a central component. But where most of those gruesome killings--including beheadings and mutilated bodies dumped in mass graves--involve criminals killing other criminals, rivals' family members or police, a dark, secondary shadow of lawlessness is enveloping innocent men, women and children who are fleeing for their lives.
Read More At The Nation
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