Migrants

A Treacherous Crossing

January 31, 2018 Kathy Kelly, Vcnv.org Educate! Africa, Border, Immigration, Migrants

On January 23rd an overcrowded smuggling boat capsized off the coast of Aden in Southern Yemen. Smugglers packed 152 passengers from Somalia and Ethiopia in the boat and then, while at sea, reportedly pulled guns on the migrants to extort additional money from them. The boat capsized, according to The Guardian, after the shooting prompted panic. The death toll, currently 30, is expected to rise. Dozens of children were on board. The passengers had already risked the perilous journey from African shores to Yemen, a dangerous crossing that leaves people vulnerable to false promises, predatory captors, arbitrary detention and tortuous human rights violations. Sheer desperation for basic needs has driven hundreds of thousands of African migrants to Yemen.

London NGOs Help Authorities Detain, Deport Homeless Migrants

March 10, 2017 Staff, www.telesurtv.net Educate! Deportations, Homelessness, Migrants, NGOs

By Staff of Tele Sur - The war on the homeless has turned into a war on migrants and non-profits are readily offering their services. London nonprofits are collaborating with immigration authorities that collect intelligence and conduct raids to detain and deport hundreds of homeless people, and are even lobbying for harsher policies, according to a report published Tuesday. At least three organizations with the shared goal of ending homelessness and connecting the vulnerable to appropriate resources — St. Mungo’s, Thames Reach, and Change, Grow, Live — regularly conduct joint operations with the Home Office “Immigration Compliance and Enforcement” and “through a creeping process of changes they are being turned into informers,” Corporate Watch found in its investigation.

The People And Courts Stop Muslim Immigration Ban

January 29, 2017 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Donald Trump, Immigrant Rights, Immigration, Migrants, Refugees

By Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. Protests at airports across the country sprung up like a brush fire in reaction to Donald Trump ban on travel from certain Muslim-majority countries. And, courts in multiple states issued emergency orders initially to stop deportations but ultimately to block detentions of people traveling to the United States from this countries. Courts issued rulings in New York, Virginia, Massachusetts and Washington State. Now, there is a nationwide stay preventing deportations and detentions. This morning Donald Trump tweeted that "Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW. Look what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world — a horrible mess!" Before noon, the White House changed its tune reversing itself and saying green card holders will not be barred but added confusion saying border agents would have "discretionary authority" to detain people and that there would be increased scrutiny of everyone, including US citizens, coming from the seven countries.

European Cities Organizing To Respond To Migrant Crisis

December 29, 2016 Eleanor Penny, www.opendemocracy.net Create! Cities, Europe, Immigration, Migrants

By Eleanor Penny for Open Democracy - European city councils have launched an initiative to co-ordinate their responses to the migrant crisis, in defiance of the apathy of some national governments. Nationalism, if it ever left us, is definitively back in vogue. With nationalist parties resurgent throughout Europe, more and more European nationals are vesting their political hopes in national governments. But for those new migrants without increasingly-coveted EU citizenship, the institutions most likely to come to their aid are not nation states, but local and city governments. For what now seems like a brief moment, the German state led the way in ‘progressive’ policies towards refugee reception

Groups Calling For International Convergence At U.S./Mexico Border

August 29, 2016 Staff, www.soaw.org Resist! Immigrant Rights, Immigration, Migrants

By Staff of SOAW - Nogales, AZ – Thousands of activists throughout the United States and Mexico will gather on both sides of the border since the School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch) is moving its annual vigil to the line between Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora from October 7-10, 2016. After holding an annual vigil at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia, for 26 years, SOA Watch and partner groups, based on broad-based grassroots power, will push back against militarization of the border, against criminalization of migrants and refugees, and to name the root causes of migration.

Transnational Day Of Protests Against Detention Of Migrants

May 17, 2016 Leeds No Borders, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Immigrant Rights, Migrants

By Leeds No Borders for Popular Resistance, A coalition of groups from the UK and around the world joined today (Saturday 7 May) a mass simultaneous protest in 15 detention centres, calling to end immigration detention centres. An international coalition joined forces with groups from all around the UK as well as groups from the US, Spain, Greece, The Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Iceland, N. Ireland, Belgium, France and Italy. In the UK, thousands took part in the protest in solidarity with the 30,000 adults and children in detention. Protesters held demonstrations at St Pancras train station, held noise demonstration in various detention centres, flew kites so detainees can see them beyond the high walls, danced, sang songs and called for the immediate release of those held against their will without judicial oversight, a time limit, or adequate access to legal support, translation, and healthcare.

Europe’s Colonial Amnesia & Repercussions

February 5, 2016 Henriette Johansen, www.middleeastmonitor.com Educate! Colonialism, Europe, Migrants, Refugees

By Henriette Johansen for MEMO - The daily updates I receive from volunteers working in Calais and on the Greek islands of Lesvos and Chios are heart-breaking. As I sat to write this, a volunteer nurse from Denmark described her night shift to me, driving up and down the coast of Chios, turning off all lights with the other volunteers in order to be able to see the refugee boats come in. They stand outside, listening for the smallest sounds over the beating of the merciless winter waves. Another volunteer from Lesbos told me that they sometimes receive as many as 800 to 1,000 people on the Greek island during such night shifts.

Greek Match Delayed Players Protest Migrant Deaths

January 31, 2016 Reuters, www.theguardian.com Resist! Greece, Migrants, Trurkey

Reuters published inThe Guardian. A Greek second-tier league match was delayed on Friday when players staged a sit-down protest against the death toll of migrants trying to reach the Aegean islands. The gesture of solidarity took place before the game between AEL Larissa and Acharnaikos in the Thessalian city of Larissa. As the match kicked off all 22 players plus coaches and substitutes sat in silence for two minutes in a show of respect to the hundreds of refugees who have lost their lives trying to escape conflict or persecution in countries such as Syria and Iraq. An announcement over the club’s PA system stated: “The administration of AEL, the coaches and the players will observe two minutes of silence just after the start of the match in memory of the hundreds of children who continue to lose their lives every day in the Aegean due to the brutal indifference of the EU and Turkey.

ISIS Should Not Dictate Refugee Policy Or Privacy

November 29, 2015 Chelsea Manning, www.theguardian.com Educate! ISIS, Migrants, Paris

By Chelsea Manning for the Guardian. Following the horrific attacks by Isis terrorists in Paris and Beirut, we have rapidly seen blatant pandering to xenophobia on a disturbing scale and scope. Leaders throughout the US and Europe have demanded that authorities stifle the flow of migrants seeking asylum, and to increase the size and depths of intelligence and law enforcement powers in the US and Europe. I don’t have all the answers – but I do know that blaming minority groups, refugees and immigrants, investing in gigantic surveillance platforms and calling for expansive legal authority and the creation of a neo-Gestapo and panopticon-style police state aren’t one of them. Even in the weeks and months before the attacks, rightwing parties in Europe – most notably the National Front in France – have attempted to exploit a rising xenophobic sentiment following this year’s influx of migrants seeking refuge from Syria, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East. Immediately following the attacks such fears have “gone viral” in a way that is disturbing and frightening.

60 Million Displaced By War, UN & Red Cross Issue Warning

November 1, 2015 UN and Red Cross, www.icrc.org Educate! Migrants, Red Cross, United Nations, Wars and Militarism

By UN and Red Cross - The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, have issued an unprecedented joint warning about the impact of today's conflicts on civilians and appealed for urgent and concrete action to address human suffering and insecurity. The two leaders stressed the importance of respect for international humanitarian law in order to stem the chaos and prevent further instability. Some sixty million people around the world have been displaced from their homes because of conflict and violence – the highest figure since the Second World War. Conflicts have become more protracted, meaning that many displaced people face years away from their homes, communities and livelihoods. "In the face of blatant inhumanity, the world has responded with disturbing paralysis," said the Secretary-General. "This flouts the very raison d'être of the United Nations. The world must reaffirm its humanity and uphold its commitments under international humanitarian law. Today we speak with one voice to urge all States to take immediate, concrete steps to ease the plight of civilians."

Welcoming Refugees: Our Future Is Common

October 19, 2015 Jerome Roos, www.telesurtv.net Educate! Europe, Migrants, Refugees

By Jerome Roos for Tele Sur TV - The “refugee crisis” of recent months has split Europe in two. But unlike the liberal press would have us believe, the main dividing line runs not between those states (like Germany) that have taken a more humane approach to the crisis by accepting more refugees, and those (like Hungary) that have shut their borders and cracked down violently on anyone attempting to cross them. Rather, the real schism is the one between states and institutions that jealously guard their borders, clinging on to an exclusionary territorial logic that is rapidly becoming untenable, and the ordinary people on the ground – refugees, activists and locals alike – who are self-organizing solidarity beyond borders and creating a radically different kind of Europe from below.

The Refugees Are Coming!!!

August 16, 2015 Andre Vltchek, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Climate Change, Colonialism, Immigration, Migrants

By Andre Vltchek for Counterpunch - The ongoing “refugee crises” is not a “problem that Europe has to deal with”. Europe is creating the crises. Europe is not “dealing” with anything. It is, as always, cheating, lying and calculating pennies, after stealing billions. Those who don’t see it are either blind or conditioned, alternatively well paid not to see. If the mother earth gets hit, powerfully, with tremendous destructive force, pieces of it will fly, in all directions. The same applies to countries, to nations. If left in peace, states will find the way to take care of their people. The present situation is actually just a tiny reflection, an overflow of horrors that the colonized and plundered world has to endure. It is just a tiny bit of that nightmare which is taking place inside Africa, the Middle East and several parts of Asia; a tiny bit thrown back to the face of the Europeans; being brought to and left at their doorsteps.

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