Category Archives: Refugees

Revealed: 1,500 people in limbo under Australia’s ‘bizarre and cruel’ refugee deterrence policy

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Australia declared in 2013 that asylum seekers who arrive by boat would never settle here. Hundreds of people’s lives are still on hold to prove that point

For more than seven years, Australia’s policy has been clear: if you seek asylum by boat you will never be settled here. You will be sent offshore and have your asylum claims heard there.

Between the declaration of that policy by prime minister Kevin Rudd on 19 July 2013 and the last transfer offshore in December 2014, Australia sent 3,127 people seeking protection as refugees to Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.

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Diplomats back claims Eritrean troops have joined Ethiopia conflict

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US official among sources saying soldiers from Eritrea are fighting in operations against Tigray People’s Liberation Front

A US official and other diplomatic sources have backed accusations that Eritrean soldiers are fighting alongside Ethiopian troops to help Abiy Ahmed’s government in the war on the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), complicating an already dangerous conflict.

The claims made to Reuters, which interviewed several unidentified diplomats in the region and a US official, follow mounting allegations by Tigrayan leaders that Eritrea, long a rival of Ethiopia, had joined with Ethiopian forces against a common enemy despite denials from both nations.

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Yemeni woman makes epic eight-month journey to reach UK

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After walking across deserts and crossing seas on small boats, Noor wants to reveal the plight of women and girls in Yemen

A woman who crossed eight borders, two deserts and one sea to get to the UK to claim asylum has spoken for the first time about her incredible journey.

The 29-year-old, who calls herself Noor, escaped from Yemen when her life was threatened and travelled alone with only smugglers and other desperate migrants for company en route. It is highly unusual for a woman from a country such as Yemen to embark on this kind of journey unaccompanied.

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Bangladesh begins moving Rohingya families to remote island

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Operation to move 2,500 families begins despite safety concerns and lack of consent from refugees

Bangladesh has begun moving Rohingya families from camps near the Myanmar border to a settlement on a remote island, despite concerns about its safety and a lack of consent from the refugees.

More than 1,600 Rohingya refugees set sail on Friday from Bangladesh’s southern port of Chittagong for the remote island of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal, a naval official said, Reuters reported.

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Part 3: How do you say goodbye forever?

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In part three of the Temporary podcast we meet Elaheh, who had to suddenly flee Iran, not realising she might never see her family again. Now a recognised refugee in Australia with a young son, her visa’s restrictions dictate whether her son will ever meet the strong women who raised her

Temporary is a project from the University of New South Wales Centre for Ideas and Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law in partnership with Guardian Australia, inspired by the book Refugee Rights and Policy Wrongs by Jane McAdam and Fiona Chong. Series artwork by Matt Huynh.

You can find additional information, photography and artwork at the Kaldor Centre’s Temporary website.

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Female trafficking survivors in UK forced into unsafe housing, report finds

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Large proportion of victims not placed in specialist safe housing, leaving them vulnerable to further exploitation, says charity

Female trafficking survivors in the UK who have the legal right to be placed in safe housing are being forced to live in “inappropriate and insecure” accommodation where they risk being re-trafficked and exploited, according to a new report.

Anti-trafficking charity Hibiscus Initiatives says that 98% of modern slavery victims referred to it in the past two years were not given specialist safe housing as is their right under UK law, but were instead housed in unsafe asylum accommodation.

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Spain dismantles ‘deplorable’ migrant camp in Gran Canaria

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Authorities in Canary Islands move hundreds of people from Arguineguín camp

Spanish authorities on the island of Gran Canaria have emptied and begun dismantling the much-criticised dockside camp that was used to house thousands of migrants and refugees, as the Canary Islands continue to struggle with a huge rise in migration.

The makeshift camp was set up in the town of Arguineguín in August amid a surge in the number of people making the dangerous Atlantic journey from Africa to Europe. So far this year, about 20,000 people have arrived by sea in the Canary Islands – 8,000 of them in November alone.

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‘This lack of humanity can’t go on’: Canary Islands struggle with huge rise in migration

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Spanish archipelago has received 20,000 migrants and refugees this year, 8,000 in the last month

In the Canary Islands, 2020 will be remembered as more than just the year of the coronavirus.

The streets of Arguineguín, a small town on the island of Gran Canaria, are thronged not with tourists in search of winter warmth, but with police officers, health workers and journalists, all scurrying to and from the crowded dock, which has become the newest symbol of an old phenomenon.

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UK and France sign deal to make Channel migrant crossings ‘unviable’

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Both countries agree to double police patrols on route already used by more than 8,000 people this year

Britain and France have signed a new agreement aimed at curbing the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, and her French counterpart, Gérald Darmanin, said they wanted to make the route used by more than 8,000 people this year unviable.

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Medical staff urge Priti Patel to close barracks housing asylum seekers

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Letter to home secretary raises concerns about sites holding 600 men in Kent and Pembrokeshire

Healthcare professionals have called for former army barracks being used to house asylum seekers to be closed over concerns about the residents’ wellbeing.

Medical staff have written to the home secretary, Priti Patel, with a damning assessment, to raise concerns about the sites at Napier barracks in Kent and Penally barracks in Pembrokeshire, which between them are holding more than 600 men.

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Rescuers recover migrants’ wedding rings lost at sea

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Algerian couple were survivors of a shipwreck in October off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy

On 9 November, a migrant rescue boat came across a red backpack floating in the Mediterranean alongside other remains from a shipwreck that took place weeks before. The rucksack, covered with sea snails and reeking of petrol, contained two wedding rings, inscribed with the names Ahmed and Doudou.

“We thought it was proof of yet another love story that ended up at the bottom of the sea,” said Riccardo Gatti, the president of the NGO Open Arms in Italy, who recovered the personal items. “Unfortunately we find many of these. Most of the time suitcases and bags, floating in the sea, are nothing more than symbols of yet another journey that began in Libya and ended in tragedy.”

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Clashes erupt as police break up makeshift refugee camp in Paris – video report

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French police and gendarmes removed tents set up at Place de la République in Paris by refugees in a charity-organised protest on Monday against mass evacuations of homeless camps. Footage posted online showed police and demonstrators pushing against each other as officers moved in to clear the square of tents, which the police said had been set up without official permission. The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said on Tuesday that images of the scuffles were 'shocking' and he was launching an investigation into the clashes

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Antony Blinken: Biden’s secretary of state nominee is sharp break with Trump era

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A born internationalist, Blinken will seek to soothe the frayed nerves of western allies

After reports first emerged on Sunday night that Antony Blinken would be secretary of state in the Biden administration, one interview from his past began circulating on social media.

It was a September 2016 conversation with Grover, a character from Sesame Street, on the subject of refugees, directed at American children who might have new classmates from faraway countries. “We all have something to learn and gain from one another even when it doesn’t seem at first like we have much in common,” Blinken told the fuzzy blue puppet.

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UN report deepens fears that Ethiopia Tigray conflict could be long and brutal

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Confidential papers warn that, despite talk of success, army faces heavy resistance and regional stability is at risk

Ethiopian national forces are meeting heavy resistance and face a protracted “war of attrition” in the northern region of Tigray, a confidential United Nations assessment reveals.

Though officials in Addis Ababa, the capital, have repeatedly claimed that key towns have been secured, paramilitaries and militia deployed by the army are still struggling to clear and secure territory. Heavily armed regular troops have continued to advance into Tigray as they rush to reach the capital, Mekelle, the assessment says.

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Ethiopia fighting could drive 200,000 to Sudan in coming months, says UN

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Officials warn that number of refugees crossing border already surpassing preparations

Violence in northern Ethiopia will probably drive 200,000 people into neighbouring Sudan over the coming months, UN agencies have warned, where food, shelter and medicine are urgently needed.

The number of refugees streaming across the border has already surpassed agency preparations by 11,000 people, a UN refugee agency official said.

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Wealthy nations urged to give portion of Covid vaccine as ‘humanitarian buffer’

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Stockpile sought for use in rebel-held territories, asylum camps and for others unlikely to receive vaccinations

Public health groups are lobbying countries to commit a portion of their Covid-19 vaccine supplies to a “humanitarian buffer” that would be used to inoculate people living in rebel-held territories, those in asylum-seeker camps and others unlikely to receive vaccinations from their governments.

The emergency stockpile is intended to act as a safety net to ensure the global effort to end the Covid-19 pandemic is not sabotaged by governments using vaccines as bargaining chip with restive populations, or simply denying it to some marginalised groups.

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Ethiopia: aid workers report chaos as thousands flee fighting

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Refugees on the move as federal troops confront TPLF in Tigray and ethnic tensions escalate

International aid workers who have left Ethiopia’s Tigray region in recent days have described a chaotic and dynamic situation with large numbers on the move to avoid fighting, choking roads already full of military vehicles.

Federal troops are involved in a massive offensive aimed at removing the Tigray People’s Liberation Front from power in the northern region, and intensifying rhetoric from both sides has reinforced fears of a long and bloody conflict.

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Greece faces legal action over alleged expulsion of Syrian to Turkey

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Man with right to asylum in Germany allegedly stripped of papers and expelled in ‘refugee pushback’ while searching for 11-year-old brother

In the latest allegation that Greek authorities are illegally expelling refugees , lawyers will this week file a case at the UN human rights committee on behalf of a Syrian man living in Germany, who says he was picked up and sent to Turkey while he searched for his brother in Greece.

The 26-year-old told the Guardian that he had been detained and forced into a boat to Turkey in November 2016. His papers were confiscated which meant he was not able to return to Germany, where he had been granted asylum, for three years.

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Father faces criminal charge over son’s death in migrant boat tragedy

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Afghan asylum seeker accused of endangering six-year-old’s life after family tried to reach Greek island of Samos from Turkey

The father of a six-year-old who died trying to reach the Greek island of Samos from the Turkish coast has been charged by Greek authorities with endangering his son’s life.

Abdul*, 25, from Afghanistan, faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. The cause of his son’s death has not been confirmed.

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UK homeless charities call for suspension of ‘reckless’ eviction of asylum seekers

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Growing numbers face a winter of destitution as the Home Office withdraws accommodation provided during first lockdown

Homeless charities are calling for evictions of asylum seekers to be suspended as growing numbers are being left destitute as winter approaches.

While many asylum seekers were temporarily accommodated and tested for Covid-19 during the first lockdown under the government’s “everyone in” scheme, the Home Office restarted evictions in September. This group has no right to work and no recourse to public funds or statutory homelessness services.

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