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Refugee

Utica Streets Shut Down By 1,000 During Justice For Nyah Mway March

July 24, 2024 Brendan Maslauskas Dunn, Unicorn Riot. , , , ,
Utica, NY — Nearly 1,000 people shut down the streets of Utica on July 13 in response to the police killing of 13-year-old Nyah Mway. The protest occurred during the busiest weekend of the year, when the city hosts the Boilermaker Road Race, one of the largest 15K races in the country. The march started in Roscoe Conkling Park at the base of the city’s ski hill. The majority of those gathered, like Mway, were Karen — an ethnic group from Myanmar that the country’s army has been fighting for 75 years. Many in the crowd wore “Justice for Nyah Mway” t-shirts, or traditional Karen clothes.

Immigrants Make Journey For Justice

September 30, 2018 Peniel Ibe, American Friends Service Committee. , , ,
After six weeks of traveling across the United States, the TPS Journey 4 Justice bus arrived in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Sept. 25. The bus carried more than 50 immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), their family members, and other civil rights leaders who are crossing the country over 12 weeks to mobilize communities to protect the life-saving immigration program.  TPS allows foreign nationals to remain in the U.S. if war, natural disaster, or some other catastrophe in their country of origin prevents their safe return. Most TPS holders have lived in the U.S. for years, often decades, and have become vital parts of our communities.  

Anarchists Have Taken Over A Building In Athens To House Refugees

September 29, 2015 Melpomeni Maragkidou, www.vice.com , ,
By Melpomeni Maragkidou - A huge banner reading "Refugees Welcome Home" is draped across the front of a derelict building in Exarchia, Athens – a district that's generally regarded as the spiritual home to the city's anarchist movement. On Tuesday morning, members of the Anti-authoritarian Movement Athens (AK) occupied a former university dining hall, with the aim of transforming it into a temporary residence for refugees. They want to fix up the space and make it fit to accommodate refugee and migrant families arriving in Athens. Crossing a rubble-strewn courtyard, I entered the building to find members of AK making plans for an open meeting later that day. They offered to show me around and explained that before any refugees can be housed, they'll need to work together to clean, disinfect and make the place habitable.

The Refugee Crisis Should Not Be Used For More War

September 11, 2015 Jelle Bruinsma, www.roarmag.org , ,
By Jelle Bruinsma in RoarMag - Hundreds of thousands of refugees from war-torn countries have entered Europe this year. As the debate over Europe’s responsibility to let these refugees in continues, calls for humanitarianism have been accompanied by an alarming and predictable Western response. Following the cynical adage that you can’t let a good crisis go to waste, intellectuals and states alike have been happy to use the crisis for renewed calls for Western military intervention. The predicate of the arguments is that the West, despite calling for Assad to step down since 2011, has done nothing to get rid of him and as such has “abandoned” the Syrian people. We must now step up and bear this burden, so the pundits say.

A Guide To The Worst Refugee Crisis Since WWII

September 10, 2015 Ben Norton, www.mondoweiss.net , , ,
By Ben Norton in Mondoweiss - The world is witnessing the largest refugee crisis since the horrors of World War II. Today there are close to 60 million war refugees, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)—an all-time high, as violence and persecution around the world are on the rise. The Middle East, North Africa, and Western Asia are particularly hard hit. Millions of refugees from Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and Yemen are fleeing violence and war in their countries. In all of 2014, approximately 219,000 people tried to cross the Mediterranean to seek asylum in Europe. In just the first eight months of 2015, over 300,000 refugees tried to cross the sea, according to the UNHCR. More than 2,500 died. Human rights organizations warn the Gulf states, Israel, Iran, and Russia—all of which have taken zero refugees—along with the US, Canada, and Europe—which have taken few—are not doing enough to provide refuge to the asylum-seekers.

Refugees March On Austria After Hungary Blocks Trains

September 5, 2015 Al Jazeera, www.aljazeera.com , , , ,
By Al Jazeera - Hundreds of mostly Syrian refugees have begun marching to the Austrian border after being prevented from boarding trains to Germany in the Hungarian capital Budapest. Authorities appeared to be allowing groups of refugees to make the 170km journey to the border crossing on Friday amid tense scenes across the country. Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, reporting from near the M1 and M7 motorways outside Budapest, said authorities appeared to be helping the refugees make the journey despite fears the road would be blocked. "There are hundreds of people who have marched something like 10km from the centre of Budapest from the rail station to here...they say they have no option but to do this. "It may sound far fetched but they're intent on reaching the border.

The Refugee Crisis: Where Governments Fail, Grassroots Prevail

September 5, 2015 Michaela Whitton, www.theantimedia.org and Andrew Butler, www.filmsforaction.org , ,
By Michaela Whitton in The Anti-Media and by Andrew Butler in Films For Action - Discussing the refugee crisis, the activist was frank: “Global displacement is a direct result of foreign policy and more widely the far reaching implications that the post 9/11 war on terror has had and is still having. Drone strikes on people, sanctions and massive IMF loans with extortionate amounts of interests cripple economies and countries. What are people meant to do, starve?” Asked about the response of the E.U., he continued, “What response? It’s basically non-existent. The U.K. seems to want to spend £7 million on new fencing instead of actually creating a centre to house people with the French Government. Other countries such as Germany and Iceland have welcomed refugees with open arms.”

Pro-Refugee German Politician Speaks Out After Car Explodes

September 3, 2015 Felicity Capon, www.europe.newsweek.com , ,
By Felicity Capon in Newsweek - A local left-wing politician known for supporting the housing of refugees in the German town of Freital, has spoken out about the harassment and death threats by right-wing extremists he has experienced, after his car exploded outside his house on Monday morning in what Germany's Die Linke party (Left party) believes was a politically motivated attack. The car belonged to Michael Richter, head of the party's faction on the town council of Freital, a town on the outskirts of Dresden in Saxony. While it is not clear what caused the blast, which did not injure anyone, police say it was the result of someone purposely "introducing an explosive agent" into the vehicle, according to German newspaper Deutsche Welle. An investigation is underway. Richter, 39, told the news site MoPo24 how he was awoken by a loud bang in the early hours of Monday morning, and looked out of his window to see black smoke rising from his car. The explosion was so powerful it damaged nearby cars on the street.

Challenging Australia’s Refugee Narrative

June 25, 2015 Janni Blakarly, www.aljazeera.com , ,
By Janni Blakarly in Al Jazeera - At a desk amid the stacked boxes and clutter sits Ramesh Fernandez, the founder of RISE: Refugees Survivors and Ex-Detainees, an organisation that provides services to refugees and advocates for policy change. Fernandez is a passionate man who talks slowly but with purpose. He fled Sri Lanka as a political refugee in 2001. After a harrowing 15-day boat journey to Australia, he spent three years in some of the country's most infamous immigration detention centres on remote islands and on the mainland. Fernandez said as former refugees, they bring a unique perspective to the work providing services such as housing, material needs, and language support to those who have recently arrived. "We have been through the settlement process, been through crossing borders. We know what sort of projects are needed and how they are going to impact the community. We don't have focus groups because this is our lived experience," he said.
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