Crises

Syria

Some 210,000 children in Homs need urgent humanitarian assistance, UNICEF says following UN mission< (ReliefWeb, 1 February 2013)

A United Nations joint mission to the western Syrian governorate of Homs, in which UNICEF took part, found that 420,000 people, half of them are children, need immediate humanitarian assistance.

UNHCR humanitarian aid convoy reaches displaced people in northern Syria <(UNHCR, 1 February 2013)

The UN refugee agency has this week completed a first delivery of winter emergency relief to the Azzas area of northern Syria where thousands of internally displaced people are living in makeshift camps.

Afer Assad, Cahos?< (NYT, 3 February 2013)

AS the Syrian revolution approaches another anniversary, Syria<’s political opposition is showing signs of failure. Without a new approach, especially from America, the lack of a credible opposition will render a political settlement unreachable, making it harder to set Syria on the course toward a stable future.

@ Brookings Podcast: Syria’s Escalating Humanitarian Crisis< (Brookings, 25 January 2013)

The civil war tearing through Syria is worsened by a growing tide of refugees and displaced persons along with an escalating humanitarian crisis. Food shortages, a lack of housing and adequate health care are additional burdens that many Syrians now face. Senior Fellow and Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Dispacement Co-Director Elizabeth Ferris examines the cost of war in Syria in this episode of @ Brookings.

South Sudan

Escalating hepatitis E outbreak in refugee camps< (ReliefWeb, 1 February 2013)

An epidemic of hepatitis E is escalating across refugee camps in Maban County, South Sudan. So far Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has treated 3,991 patients in its health facilities in the camps and has recorded 88 deaths, including 15 pregnant women.

Mali

Civilians continue to flee military offensive in Mali; internal return prospects mixed< (UNHCR, 1 February 2013)

The UN refugee agency said on Friday that the fast-evolving military situation in the north of Mali has raised hopes that many displaced people will be able to go back to their homes soon, but considerable challenges remain.

Mali: the humanitarian situation in the north, hovering between hope and doubt< (ICRC, 2 February 2013)

“We’re seeing that the displaced are starting to go home, especially in certain parts of central and northern Mali,” says Jean-Nicolas Marti, head of the ICRC regional delegation for Mali and Niger. “Returning families, like those that are still displaced, have no food or basic necessities. As for the families who never left, they have no more resources to share.”

Hollande in Mali: French troops will not stay< (Euronews, 3 February 2013)

The French president was greeted by jubilant crowds for a second time in Mali, when he arrived in the capital Bamako.

Francois Hollande was visiting the country where French troops have deployed to drive out Islamist groups linked to al-Qaeda.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka navy rescues 138 in stricken refugee boa<t (BBC, 3 February 2013)

Sri Lanka's Navy says it has rescued 138 Bangladeshi and Burmese nationals from a sinking fishing boat in an operation lasting about 20 hours.

Fishermen alerted the navy after spotting the boat adrift about 80km (50 miles) off Sri Lanka's eastern coast, a spokesman said.

Three ships were deployed. They found one dead person on board. Many others are being treated for dehydration.

Sri Lanka has recently increased naval patrols to intercept migrant boats.

Human Trafficking

Ten Ways You Can Help Fight Modern Slavery< (U.S Department of State Official Blog, 1 February 2013)

Today our nation celebrates National Freedom Day, which commemorates the day in 1865 when the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery was sent to the states for ratification. It is also the culmination of January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

Around the world, as many as 27 million people are still victimized in human trafficking, or modern slavery. This scourge occurs everywhere in the world -- including our own country. However, there is progress.

India dramatically tightens laws on sexual assault, trafficking after gang rape< (Washington Post, 3 February 2013)

India dramatically tightened its laws on sexual assault and trafficking Sunday, with a far-reaching package of measures rushed through to satisfy public opinion in the wake of a horrific gang rape of a young woman in the capital in December.

Women’s groups complained that the government had not gone far enough, particularly because it neither outlawed marital rape nor dealt with the legal impunity enjoyed by members of the country’s armed forces. But other activists said the new measures, which imposed much stricter penalties for a range of crimes, marked one of the most significant changes to laws protecting India’s women.

Europeans Dismantle People-Smuggling Ring< (International Herald Tribune, 31 January 2013)

European police said on Wednesday that they had dismantled a criminal network that smuggled illegal migrants into the European Union, arresting more than 100 suspects across the Continent, from France to the Balkans.

The network smuggled people principally from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Turkey.

Europol, a joint law enforcement agency set up to fight serious crime in the 27-member Union, said 117 house searches had been carried out in operations in the early hours of Tuesday morning that involved more than 1,200 police officers.

Immigration

Education Despite Borders< (IOM, 1 February 2013)

Imagine for a minute that you’re seven years old, like the young boy in the photograph. Each morning you wake up at 6.15am and put on a school uniform – not just any uniform, but the school uniform of another country’s educational system. You walk half a kilometer until you reach a gate – not just any gate, but an international gate defining the border between two countries. The border is closed, so you crawl under the gate. You barely fit. Then you walk another two and a half kilometers and slide into your chair: the school day begins. (…)

It’s another form of migration really, only that the boy is not seeking economic opportunity on the other side of the fence, but the tools for a better life.

Row breaks out between UK and Romania over targeting of migrants: Bucharest tells London it has 'serious concerns' over British plan to limit rights of EU accession-state citizens< (The Observer, 2 February 2013)

Britain is embroiled in a diplomatic row with Romania after making public its plan to target its citizens with measures to limit the flow of immigrants.

The east European state's foreign minister told the Observer that talk of extending restrictions on its citizens to work in the UK had caused "serious concerns". Titus Corlatean said he had received reassurances from the British foreign secretary, William Hague, that the UK would comply with its obligations under European law.

The British ambassador to Romania was asked to attend a meeting on Friday in Bucharest with the minister for Romanians abroad, Cristian David, at which the importance of discussing immigration in a "balanced and rational way" was debated.

Crovitz: The Economics of Immigration< (Wall Street Journal, 3 February 2013)

Adding more skilled workers would bring in an estimated $100 billion in federal revenues over a decade, largely from increased income taxes.

For the first time in a generation, the debate over immigration has turned to the opportunities, not the burdens. Washington might finally deliver immigration reform, especially as politicians realize that adding more skilled workers is the fastest way to boost the economy and avoid a fiscal crisis.

Silicon Valley is the poster child for today's dysfunctional immigration policy. Foreign technologists trained in the U.S. are routinely denied work visas and return home to become successful entrepreneurs in China and India. For many years, half of Silicon Valley startups have had an immigrant founder, but this trend is in decline as fewer foreigners can find a foothold on the path to citizenship.

The Easy Problem< (NYT, Op-ed by, 31 January 2013)

Over here in the department of punditry, we deal with a lot of hard issues, ones on which the evidence is mixed and the options are all bad. But the immigration issue is a blessed relief. On immigration, the evidence is overwhelming; the best way forward is clear.

The forlorn pundit doesn’t even have to make the humanitarian case that immigration reform would be a great victory for human dignity. The cold economic case by itself is so strong.

The Face of America’s Illegal Immigration< (International Herald Tribune, 3 February 2013)

 In my latest Letter From Washington, I write about the “Kumbaya” moment that immigration reform seems to be enjoying — and the certainty that it will not last as the hard work of writing laws gets underway. But who are the illegal immigrants?

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates that in 2011, the last year for which there are estimates, 6.8 million of the 11.5 million undocumented immigrants in the United States were from Mexico. The Pew Hispanic Center, which often has the most reliable immigration data, says the number has dropped to 6.1 million, from 7 million five years before.

Zurich provides test case for new asylum centres< (Swissinfo, 1 February 2013)

The city of Zurich has offered space to the Federal Migration Office to build a temporary centre for up to 500 asylum seekers. The project will be a way to test cantonal and federal cooperation in implementing recent asylum law changes.

Why immigration reform in 1986 fell short <(Washington Post, 4 February 2013)

When Ronald Reagan signed a comprehensive immigration overhaul in 1986, he confidently predicted: “Future generations of Americans will be thankful for our efforts to humanely regain control of our borders and thereby preserve the value of one of the most sacred possessions of our people — American citizenship.”

More than a quarter-century later, however, that law has not turned out to be the triumph that Reagan envisioned. Instead, those on both sides of the immigration debate see it as a cautionary lesson.

Letter to the Editor: Legal immigrants at risk <(Washington Post, 2 February 2013)

The Jan. 28 Metro article “Guilty pleas in Va. draw scrutiny” focused on the consequences undocumented immigrants face in pleading guilty to minor and nonviolent crimes. Consequences, however, can be equally severe for immigrants residing in this country legally, such as long-term permanent residents. If the offer of a plea bargain is really setting a deportation trap, as The Post reported that some argue, legal immigrants may also fall victim.

Without proper advice on the immigration consequences of a guilty plea to even relatively benign crimes, a lawful immigrant may find his or her path to citizenship permanently barred and a deportation order waiting around the corner.

How a generation of orphans fared when they were matched to mixed-race couples< (The Observer, 3 February 2013)

Hong Kong children brought to the UK 50 years ago tell of their struggles to fit in – and what has changed since

She remembers the isolation, the confusion, the racism, the passers-by who gawped at her because she looked different from her parents. Sue Jardine, 50, said she felt neither Chinese nor British, "a bloody foreigner" in a country that didn't understand her.

"My obvious difference to my family attracted unwanted attention and racist comments that I felt my parents did not understand or want to acknowledge," she said.

Home town is where the heart is< (swissinfo.ch, 3 February 2013)

Open a Swiss passport and instead of the usual birthplace it will show a citizen’s ‘place of origin’, where their ancestors and family names originate. Despite recent changes paring down the system, this spot remains important for many people.

As a rule the Swiss inherit their place of origin from their fathers. The village, town or city stores the certificates of family origin when citizens leave; and it records births, marriages and deaths as the parish registers used to do.

Terrorism

Turkish group that bombed US Embassy is a throwback to an earlier era of terrorism< (Associated Press, 2 February 2013)

Long before al-Qaida, when the Cold War gripped the world, leftist terrorists staged spectacular attacks in a doomed campaign to overthrow governments and impose their vision of a socialist utopia. The bulk of these extremist groups eventually drifted into oblivion, gutted by police pressure, internal rifts and an ideology undercut by communism’s fall.

In Turkey, one cult-like group didn’t get the memo.

Photocredit © UNHCR/ F.Noy / November 2012