Afghan returnees from the Jalozai refugee camp in Pakistan at the UNHCR transit centre in Jalalabad

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), some 54,000 Afghans returned to their home country this year, just one-fifth the number that returned in 2008.

The majority of the returnees were from Pakistan, while some 5,000 repatriated from Iran and another 200 from non-neighbouring countries.

About 1.8 million Afghans refugees returned from Pakistan and Iran immediately after the fall of the Taliban in 2002, as compared with 278,000 who returned in 2008.

In an update, UNHCR noted that the upsurge in violence in the country since 2006 has rekindled refugees’ concerns, not only about their security and the political stability of their country, but the viability of supporting their families in their homeland under current conditions.

“The gap between the living conditions and economic opportunities in Afghanistan and the neighbouring countries is considerable,” the agency said.

It also pointed out that the majority of Afghans registered in Pakistan and Iran have lived in exile for more than a quarter of a century since the Soviet invasion in 1979, and that half of them have never lived in Afghanistan. At this time, some 1.7 million registered Afghans continue to live in Pakistan and some 935,000 remain in Iran.

Since 2002, around 5 million Afghan refugees have decided to return, swelling the overall population in Afghanistan by 20 per cent.

UNHCR plans to build a further 10,000 housing units for returnees next year, bring the total number the agency has helped erect to nearly 200,000 since 2002.

Source: UN News Centre

Following a recent donation of 28 Honda generators to 9 schools nation-wide, the sponsors of the Kanga schools project under the indefatigable international co-ordinator Madam Barbie Davies has recently completed a three day tour in the provinces. The Kanga schools project is a philanthropic organization based in Sydney, Australia, with its direct branch in Sierra Leone under the distinguished co-ordinator Mr. Alusine Osayo Kamara.

This educational oriented organization has sponsored over 30 schools including tertiary institutions like the Government Technical Institute (GTI) and the Sierra Leone Library Board. As an organization geared towards achieving standard education for school children and students in tertiary institutions by providing updated teaching and learning materials; the formidable voluntary members of Sierra Unite/Kanga schools project in Australia have thought it fit and timely to provide and make computer accessible to school children and students in order to meet the education demands of this dynamic world.

The 21st century has seen computer literacy as a paramount tool in meeting one of the requirements of this rapid growing global village. Thus, there is absolute for one to become computer literate and its significance cannot be over emphasized. In desperate efforts to put Sierra Leone at par with other developing and developed countries, the patriotic Sierra Leoneans who went to Australia as refugees and the passionate heart of Madam Barbie Davies have seen it as an imperative priority to make school children in Sierra Leone to become computer proficient.

Sierra Unite team in Sierra Leone

In a curious mood to achieve that goal, visiting teams from Australia under the astute leadership of both Mr. Murray Kanneh and Mr. Saidu Kamara including the “nucleus” of the organization Madam Barbie Davies and other educational activists have recently ended a three day enumeration visit in Pujehun District. The primary motive behind this assessment tour was to ascertain as to whether the teaching and learning materials including standard desk top flat screen computers reached their targeted beneficiaries i.e., school children. This assessment visit started in the Western area, Freetown specifically and it was an impressive one, though some challenges were met on the way, yet the tour was a success as school children within the ages of 7-10 in Kambia district have accessed computers and other valuable learning materials.

In this same vein, it is worth noting here that if Sierra Leone is to surmount its educational short comings and meeting the Millennium Development Goals (NDG) by providing free and standard education for primary school pupils by 2015; government and other stakeholders must give special priority and access to free custom charges to Kanga schools project. As this project has been dedicated years for quality education to all primary, secondary tertiary institutions, it is therefore necessary for government and other line ministries to share the responsibility and burden in achieving that goal.

Sierra Leone as a post conflict nation needs enormous support in building on its human resources, and this could only be achieved if Sierra Unite/Kanga schools project is given the opportunity without hindrance by levying heavy custom tax on their consignment when they are due in Freetown.

For Kanga schools project to thrive in Sierra Leone, the relentless efforts of patriotic voluntary Sierra Leoneans could not go unnoticed. One of such Sierra Leoneans has been the national co-ordinator of the project Mr.. Alusine Osayo Kamara who is not rendering physical service to the organization but also his time, money and even vehicles to enhance the movement of staff and other volunteers. Other vibrant members of staff that do the bulk of the project work here are Mr. Jusu, Mr. Alex Vandi, and Mr. Daniel. These people deserve commendation as they are working earnestly in achieving standard education for future generations of Sierra Leone.

In all the big town and villages visited in the north and south-east where Kanga schools project exist rapturously welcome Madam Barbie Davies and team. They also commended members of the team by expressing their appreciation and thanks for what Kanga schools project has done. March passes and cultural dances were done all as appreciative gesture for what Kanga schools project has under taken to see learning becomes a comfort for their children.

Source: Sierra Express Media

As many Utahns celebrated Christmas with family opening presents by the tree and enjoying traditions, others shared their day with families they don’t even know. Members of Utah’s Jewish and Muslim communities spent the day delivering food to senior citizens and care packages to refugee families.

The hard work and planning started Thursday as volunteers spent their Christmas Eve packing boxes for some of Utah’s refugee families. Shoshana Jansen says, “It feels so incredible to give joy and service to others.”

In the packages are everything from toiletry items like toothpaste to much needed warm clothes like sweaters and mittens. What didn’t get done Thursday was finished Friday morning by volunteers who wanted to give back on Christmas.

Once the boxes were ready to go they were loaded into cars to be delivered and ABC 4 followed along. Finally, the moment both volunteers and refugees were waiting for. Hari Koirela, a Bhutanese refugee says, “This is the first Christmas they are observing and they are very much excited to have you guys… helpful hands.”

Hi family has been in Utah less than a year after nearly two decades of living in exile in Nepal. Koirela says, “We have a better life here.”

His family is thanking people who helped to make the care packages possible. Volunteer Kalpesh Shah says, “Everybody doing their part and helping to pack those boxes and getting everything ready… it was really a nice experience.” Bibhor Dhungel says, “It always bring, how do you say, joy to me, always feels great to see their smiles.”

The interfaith volunteers helped about 85 refugee families and served about 600 senior citizens on Christmas, a gift to the needy and to themselves.

Source: ABC 4

UNHCR Brazil has featured an article on Refugees United and its efforts to reunite refugee families. Please, find bellow the translation of the article. This is the link of the original one in Portuguese. (http://www.acnur.org/t3/portugues/noticias/noticia/internet-ajuda-refugiados-a-vencer-a-solidao-no-brasil/)

Asylum seeker in Brazil uses the internet to contact family in Africa (Photo: C. Montenegro/© ACNUR)

Internet helps to overcome loneliness in Brazil

The Eritrean Yonas Samuel arrived in Brazil early this year, coming from South Africa. Years of fleeing from several African countries. Desperate to find his wife and daughter he left in Zimbabwe, he found the solution in a site specialized in reuniting the refugees.

For the asylum seeker Euphrem D’Fagbenou, who came from Benin a year ago, the internet helps to overcome the homesickness and is also a tool for social inclusion in Brazil. “I often talk online with my relatives in Africa, at least once a week. But I come here to meet friends I made in Brazil, find a job, read news about Sao Paulo, “said the young man, 23, who left his country after suffering persecution for being part of a union group.

The two cases are examples of how the internet today is part of the routine of refugees in urban centers and helps them to adapt to the new host country. In a city like Sao Paulo there are more points of access to the internet to serve the refugees. Two spaces increasingly sought are the free of charge internet rooms of Refugees United (RU) and SESC Carmo, both located in downtown where the access to those places is easy due to the many options of public transportation.

D’Fagbenou is a regular visitor of Refugees United (RU), an international organization that promotes refugee family reunion around the world by the web. “Here I also made many friends; I met other refugees and the Brazilians who are the volunteers in this space. Here I feel at home, “says the African.

At RU’s office, 14 volunteers support refugees and asylum seekers twice a week. Many of them have personal and family stories similar to the refugees’ and therefore sympathize with the work. “My family survived the Holocaust; my mother was born in Poland and came to Brazil when she was 11 years old. My grandparents met again in the midst of war with the help of Red Cross and they fled to Brazil as stateless people. I always had an unfulfilled desire to work with refugees because of this past, “says journalist Karin Fusaro, RU’s volunteer since early 2009.

On Refugees United site, refugees register in anonymously and confidentially way into a database, indicating personal characteristics (such as scars and last name). Data that only family and close friends could recognize and use to find them again. Samuel is the successful story of RU office in Brazil. The organization is headquartered in Denmark and has a branch in United States.

He registered in RU, after receiving a suggestion from RU’s partner NGO Caritas in Sao Paulo and a week later received the first contact from a woman refugee in the United Kingdom, who was seeking for her husband for years. Samuel was recognized by his wife because he mentioned the word “expresso” in his profile. “The family used to make fun and call him this way because it was his favorite drink,” says the lawyer Naomi Maruyama who witnessed the message exchanges between Samuel and his wife on the internet. “It was very exciting. He said that we gave him back the reason to live, “she added .

Businessman and political activist in Eritrea, Samuel was emigrating from one country to another in searching for protection from persecution since 1998. He lived in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and South Africa before arriving in Brazil. He sought his family for a year without success. He tried to contact them by telephone, letters, friends and relatives, but the solution came with the Internet.

Before the expansion of the internet, the refugees used to ask for help of compatriots who came from their home countries, in order to get news about family and relatives. Today, these people also read newspapers from their countries and listen to regional music through the computers.

“Until 2001, the Internet services were more restricted in this city. Today several subway stations and bus terminals rely on access points to the web, “said Denise Collus, social worker of SESC Carmo. Since 2000, the city of Sao Paulo has implemented the program AcessaSP to promote digital inclusion and today there are 512 free access points around the city.

“Here at SESC, about 120 people use our computers every week. Each person can be connected for up to 30 minutes a day, but we still have queues”, adds Denise. At SESC Carmo there’s a free internet room with 16 flat screen computers, waiting room and professionals that guide the users.

According to Denise, the demand for the service by the refugees has increased in the recent years. “The internet today helps to break the solitude of many of them. There are more and more cases like the one of a young Cuban woman that through the web has accompanied the growth of her son who stayed with relatives in their homeland, or a Congolese refugee who spoke for five years with his wife and children in Africa through the internet, “she explains.

“The online search for employment also became quite common. For many refugees the email is their primary address because they don’t feel comfortable in sending the contacts of the shelters where they live to the potential employers , “says Denise.

The majority of refugees who use the SESC’s Internet services are 22 to 35 years old and had accessed the web before. “This is because the Internet has become increasingly popular, but also refugees who come to Brazil usually are well educated and had access to high level scholarship in their countries,” adds Denise.

Source: ACNUR

Hmong refugees are pictured in 2008 at a Thai detention centre

Nine US senators have written Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to protest the possible expulsion of more than 4,000 ethnic Hmong back to communist Laos, where they fear persecution.

Thailand confirmed Wednesday the move would take place by year’s end despite international outcry.

“While we recognize that the Kingdom of Thailand is burdened by the large number of refugees it hosts on its territory, we encourage you not to take steps to repatriate any individuals to Laos at this time,” the US lawmakers wrote Vejjajiva in a letter dated December 17.

The group of ethnic Hmong, held in a camp in Huay Nam Khao in northern Phetchabun province, are seeking political asylum based on claims they face persecution from the Laos regime because they fought alongside US forces during the Vietnam War.

Democratic senators Russ Feingold, Patrick Leahy, Barbara Boxer, Sheldon Whitehouse, Mark Begich, Amy Klobuchar, Al Franken and their Republican colleagues Richard Lugar and Lisa Murkowski denounced the Thai government’s “lack of transparency” in screening the refugees.

“We believe that the lack of transparency in the screening and repatriation process only exacerbates these difficulties and heightens international concerns regarding these populations,” the letter said.

The lawmakers urged Thailand to work with an independent third party to conduct a “transparent” screening process that complies with international norms.

Leahy said on the Senate floor Wednesday that “no one with a valid (refugee) claim should be returned to Laos except on a voluntary basis,” and compared the situation in Laos with Cambodia’s repatriation to China last week of 20 Uighur Muslim refugees.

“Should the Hmong be treated similarly,” Leahy said, “it could badly damage the Thai military?s reputation, and put our military collaboration at risk.”

Laos has systematically denied the charges of persecution, while Thailand says the thousands held in Phetchabun are economic migrants and has refused access for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to see if there are political refugees.

The UNHCR and diplomats said they believe some could qualify as refugees, and as such should only be returned on a voluntary basis.

Although the defense ministry has said Thailand would not use force to return the remaining Hmong, there were reports Wednesday that the army had significantly boosted troop numbers in Phetchabun overnight, further stoking fears Bangkok would abide by the December 31 deadline.

Source: AFP

Just over 1,400 asylum seekers are still on Christmas Island (www.safecom.org.au)

The Immigration Department has confirmed that another group of unaccompanied young asylum seekers has been moved from Christmas Island to the mainland before their claims have been finalised.

The group of 30 has been transferred to the Broadmeadows Immigration Transit accommodation in Melbourne, leaving just over 1,400 asylum seekers still on Christmas Island.

Just over 1,200 are in immigration detention and 102 are being housed in tents, while the remainder are living in the community.

The department says demountable accommodation to house another 200 people should be in place on the island by the end of the month.

But Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says the Government is unravelling the previous government’s system of offshore processing.

“The Coalition is 150 per cent committed to offshore processing and we would be doing what was necessary to ensure the offshore processing system was not undermined in any way shape or form,” he said.

Source: ABC

At-Tahir Karief, the first refugee from Darfur to be resettled in Alaska, has found safety and freedom in the United States. (Photo: Kerina Vue/ Catholic Social Services)

The first refugee from Darfur to find a home in Anchorage, Alaska, thrives in the cold northern climate, having found a safe haven and freedom far from his native country.

At-Tahir Karief, a farmer from Darfur, arrived in Alaska in February 2008 and now works for a cargo company loading and unloading airplanes at the Anchorage airport. A native Arabic speaker, he began learning English in refugee camps, but takes regular classes to improve his language skills. He and his wife both work, but find daycare for their children to be a challenge, as well as saving money for the future. Still, the family is extremely grateful to have found a new home.

“I love it so much here. I can feel peace. I love freedom. Nobody bothers me. We are very satisfied and happy with what we have,” says Karief. Nevertheless, he remains disturbed by the tragic events in his home country and remains hopeful for a peaceful solution to the crisis in Darfur.

Now firmly rooted in Anchorage, Karief mentors newly-arrived refugees by greeting them at the airport and helping them adjust to a new culture. Over the past 18 months, nearly 70 refugees from Darfur have arrived in Alaska.

“The weather is not the biggest challenge refugees face, but it does feed into some of their problems,” says Dr. Karen Ferguson of Catholic Social Services in Anchorage. “We have a very low out migration rate. People don’t leave us. At the same time, refugees do struggle with earning enough money to pay for bills, finding transportation in a city with an unfriendly bus system and becoming independent.”

Anchorage, a city of 300,000, has less diversity than other U.S. cities. Housing is can be expensive and the employment rate is moderate. “People in Alaska are very friendly and refugees seem to get beyond their problems,” says Ferguson. In addition to refugees from Darfur, Catholic Social Services has also helped refugees from Bhutan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, the former Soviet Union, Iran and Iraq start new lives in Alaska.

Running a smaller program compared with many other states, Catholic Social Services is the only resettlement agency in Alaska, providing assistance to more than 300 newly enrolled refugees a year. The agency provides rent, food, clothes and cash assistance and helps refugees find housing and employment upon arrival. Ultimately, the agency works to help refugees live independently.

Having fled the conflict in Sudan in 2004, Karief began his journey in a refugee camp in Chad.

After leaving Chad he and his family traveled by bus across Africa through Cameroon, Nigeria and Benin, and then lived in a refugee camp in Ghana for three years. In Ghana he felt safe, but living conditions in the camp quickly deteriorated. After several months, he found there was little food, water and medication for his family. UNHCR referred Karief to the U.S. resettlement program. After waiting for several months, Karief was told he would be resettled to the U.S. with his family.

“The Sudanese value education. They hope that by being resettled to the United States they and their children will get an education. But the truth is when you come to the U.S. through the resettlement program, the plan is work first, not education. The refugees want to take college classes and learn English, yet they have to start by taking entry level jobs,” Ferguson says.

Holding on to the hope that his children will be well-educated, Karief expects that his children will learn to read, go to college and find jobs helping fellow refugees. “I wanted a better life for my kids and now I’ve found it in Alaska.”

Source: UNHCR

Sri Lankan refugees leave their detention centre in Tanjung Pinang on Bintan Island, Indonesia. (Photo: AP)

The first of 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers off the Australian Customs ship Oceanic Viking have left Indonesia, with two granted resettlement in Australia.

The Government yesterday announced that 15 of those who refused to leave the Oceanic Viking last month have left Indonesia, many bound for possible resettlement in Canada.

The two being granted an Australian visa and who arrived yesterday were “a vulnerable individual and his carer”. A spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Evans said further details about the two and where they were in Australia were not being released, for privacy reasons.

The UN High Commission on Refugees had referred the two to Australia for resettlement and they had met the requirements for a visa grant under normal immigration processes, the spokesman said.

The 13 others had been processed and referred for possible resettlement in Canada.

“Canada has agreed to consider those with close family links to Canada and who meet Canadian resettlement criteria, including security requirements,” Senator Evans’ spokesman said.

The arrangements made for the Oceanic Viking group drew support from John Gibson, president of the Refugee Council of Australia. “This could form the basis for a broader regional and global resolution of the [people movement] issues confronting Indonesia and Australia,” he said.

“I think it is a sensible outcome. It is a reflection of the need to share the burden of resettlement.”

Meanwhile, the detention centre at Christmas Island will be pushed to capacity after the 55 passengers and four crew aboard a boat intercepted yesterday afternoon were sent there by the Department of Immigration.

HMAS Launceston intercepted the vessel eight nautical miles north-west of Ashmore Island. The group will be transferred to Christmas Island where they will undergo security, identity and health checks.

Source: The Age

Cambodia plans to deport at least 20 Muslim Uighurs who fled China after deadly ethnic violence this year, a government official said on Saturday, despite concerns they will face persecution by Beijing.

The Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim ethnic group involved in rioting in western China that killed nearly 200 people in July, were smuggled into Cambodia in recent weeks and applied for asylum at the United Nations refugee agency office in Phnom Penh.

“The Cambodian government is implementing its immigration law. They came to Cambodia illegally without any passports or visas, so we consider them illegal immigrants,” said Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment in response to the announcement, an official in Beijing said.

Human rights groups say they fear for the lives of the Uighurs if they are deported to China.

“Cambodia will be sending these Uighurs to a terrible fate,

possible execution and likely torture,” said Amy Reger, a researcher at the Washington-based Uighur American Association.

She cited the case of Shaheer Ali, a Uighur political activist who fled to Nepal in 2000 and was granted refugee status by the United Nations. He was forcibly returned to China from Nepal in 2002 and executed a year later according to state media.

Reger’s group received reports at least 20 of the Uighurs were put on a flight to Shanghai early on Saturday. But she said it appeared they had not yet been deported.

Washington is “deeply disturbed” that the Uighurs may be forcibly returned, said John Johnson, U.S. embassy spokesman in Phnom Penh. “The U.S. strongly urges the Cambodian government to honor its commitments under international law.”

UN offers help
Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said he did not know their location.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office said it believed they were still in Cambodia.

“We have conveyed a message to the Cambodian government to refrain from deporting them,” said Kitty McKinsey, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR office. The U.N. body had offered assistance to the Cambodian government to resolve the case, she said.

Beijing has called the asylum seekers “criminals,” although it has offered no evidence to back up the allegations.

Rights groups say Cambodia is bound by a 1951 convention on refugees pledging not to return asylum seekers to countries where they will face persecution. Cambodia is one of two Southeast Asian nations to have signed the convention.

When asked about Cambodia’s obligations under the 1951 convention, Koy said: “We are implementing our internal laws.”

The Uighurs have put Cambodia’s leaders in an awkward position ahead of a visit on Sunday by Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping, who is expected to sign 14 agreements related to infrastructure construction, grants and loans.

China is Cambodia’s biggest investor, having poured more than $1 billion in foreign direct investment into the country.

The July 5 riots, which began with protests against attacks on Uighur workers in south China, killed 197 people, most of them Han Chinese. More than 1,600 were wounded, official figures show.

At least eight people have been sentenced to death for murder and other crimes during the rioting, and nine other people have been executed, Chinese state media have reported.

Source: The New York Times

Yemeni NGO workers give newly arrived Somali migrants water on the beach of Hasn Beleid village

The number of migrants fleeing the unstable Horn of Africa and arriving in Yemen rose by 50 percent this year, reaching a record high of 74,000, the UN refugee agency said Friday.

The number of Ethiopians making the journey across the Gulf of Aden or Red Sea — a route described by the UN as “the busiest and deadliest in the world” — doubled in 2009, while the number of Somalis remained steady.

More than 300 people drowned or did not survive the trip this year, said Andrej Mahecic, spokesman for the Office for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

“Refugees and migrants make the dangerous journey on smugglers? boats across the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea under harrowing conditions,” said Mahecic.

“In some cases they are beaten, raped, killed or just thrown overboard into the shark-infested waters.”

The desperate migrants entrust their lives to smugglers in a bid to escape the deeply troubled region, which is plagued with civil war, political instability, poverty and famine.

Somalia has had no effective government since the early 1990s and thousands have been killed in Mogadishu in recent years as Islamists battle for control of the capital.

Ethiopia is still affected by cycles of drought. In October, the government appealed for 159,000 tonnes of food aid worth 121 million dollars to feed 6.2 million people until the end of the year.

According to the UNHCR, the majority of Somalis arriving in Yemen head for two reception centres but less than a quarter of Ethiopians, out of more than 42,000 who arrived this year, went to the centres.

Most Ethiopians pressed on towards Gulf states in search of work, the agency added.

Source: AFP

Twelve players from Eritrea’s national football team have sought asylum in Kenya through the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR. The players were reported missing following a regional football tournament on Kenyan soil.

The local Kenyan newspaper The Standard reported today that the Kenyan branch of UNHCR granted the players temporary asylum and directed them to the government ministry of immigration for processing.

The spokesman for the Kenya police, Eric Karaithe, confirmed that the players arrived at the Nairobi UNHCR office following their disappearance.

“We are not commenting for the time being,” he said. “They have sought asylum and that’s about all. But certainly they produced themselves and they went to the UNHCR.”

The Kenyan police were contacted by the team’s organizer after only 13 out of the 25 players and coaches appeared for the departure flight after the tournament ended on Sunday.

According to a U.N. report, as of September this year, Sudan has taken in 185,000 refugees from Eritrea. UNHCR says that about 1,800 Eritreans per month have been fleeing across the border into Sudan since February 2008. Ethiopia hosts over 30,000 refugees from the Horn of African nation.

Eritrea is ruled by President Isaias Afewerki, a former guerrilla leader who is now known for his totalitarian regime’s oppressive policies and heavy crackdowns on dissent. The country of only 4 million has more journalists in prison than any other African nation, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

The country is also currently suffering from significant food shortage due in part to a widespread drought across the Horn of Africa and East Africa region.

Eritrea received its independence in 1993 after a long war against the Ethiopian government.

A report from the Financial Times indicates that the 12 players who have defected include the entire starting line-up of 11 players.

Source: VOA News

He has been called a traitor, a boot-licker and dubbed, in the latest issue of a news magazine, “France’s most hated man”.

So when Eric Besson, the Minister for Immigration and National Identity, sent nine Afghan refugees back to Kabul yesterday, he cannot have been surprised by the latest shower of media abuse.

Rarely does a Cabinet star anywhere stir such passionate contempt as Mr Besson, 51. Much of the media and some of his own colleagues simply cannot stand the Moroccan-born politician, and now the pressure is beginning to tell. The minister, a Cabinet colleague told L’Express magazine yesterday, “is on the verge of breaking”.

Mr Besson’s post, which he has held since January of this year, has made him the front man for the cocktail of hard-right themes that President Sarkozy’s critics find most repulsive: Islam, French identity, the forthcoming ban on burkas and the expulsion of asylum seekers.

To compound his offence Mr Besson is an unrepentant defector from the Socialist opposition. A senior MP, he was economics spokesman for the party in 2007 when he walked out on Ségolène Royal, its candidate in the presidential election. For the rest of the campaign, he sided with Mr Sarkozy, her opponent, even though he had just denounced him in as “an American neo-conservative with a French passport”.

Former colleagues nicknamed Mr Besson “Judas” and they still turn their backs to avoid greeting him. Arnaud Montebourg, a prominent Socialist MP, calls him “Laval” — after Pierre Laval, the treacherous Prime Minister in the wartime Vichy regime.

For the left-leaning media and chattering classes, Mr Besson is the sycophantic villain of a Molière comedy. François Reynaert, a novelist, wrote in a column last week: “He is a cunning boot-licker who will stop at nothing to have a post, the ideal deceitful rogue for the king.”

Distaste for Mr Besson was fanned by a revenge book in October by his newly divorced wife. Sylvie Brunel, a writer and geographer, said that he had cheated on her since their wedding ceremony 30 years ago, in which he changed the vows to omit the pledge to be faithful. “The only goal that interests him today is killing the Socialist party, ensuring the re-election of Nicolas Sarkozy and thus restoring his honour,” she wrote.

Mr Besson responded by turning up at a big football match with the 22-year-old Tunisian woman who has moved in with him. He had always devoted his spare time to women, he said defiantly.

Mr Besson’s government colleagues privately voice their dislike for the never-smiling enforcer of Mr Sarkozy’s hardline immigration policies. They are appalled at the zeal which Mr Besson, who was raised by a widowed Lebanese mother in Morocco, has shown for expelling clandestins trying to reach Britain.

The final straw was his televised performance in an operation to demolish the Jungle, a makeshift refugee camp at Calais, in October.

Source: Times Online

The refugees said they were crossing through Germany on their way to Strasbourg

Refugees protesting living conditions in Poland had their train stopped while trying to cross the German border. The asylum seekers said they were on their way to Strasbourg to air their grievances.

Polish border guards stopped 200 Chechen and Georgian refuguees from crossing the German border on Tuesday. The refugees borded a train to protest the poor conditions of the Polish refugee camps where they live.

Officials stopped the train at the Polish city of Zgorzelec because the refugees lacked the proper documents to leave Poland, a spokeswoman for the border guards said.

The refugees had refused to dismount from the Dresden-bound train for several hours earlier on Tuesday before eventually disembarking peacefully.

The spokeswoman said the aim was to remove the refugees as quickly as possible as both pregnant women and small children were among their number.

The 200 protesters, members of a refugee asylum in the central Polish town of Radom, wanted to go to Strasbourg to highlight what they described as poor living conditions and the slow processing of asylum applications in Poland. They were travelling without train tickets or travel papers according to the border guards.

Refugee status
In Warsaw, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer defended Poland’s treatment of refugees.

“We have accepted quite a big number of Chechen refugees and Poland’s refugee law is no different to that of other European countries when it comes to granting asylum or refugee status,” he told Reuters.

“Most probably the group of people in this train do not have refugee status and therefore cannot travel around the EU. That means Polish authorities have to prevent the demonstration these people wanted to stage (in Western Europe),” he added.

Ewa Piechota, spokeswoman for Poland’s Immigration Office, denied the refugees were poorly treated, saying that Poland guaranteed good conditions for refugees.

Poland has taken in Chechen refugees since the Chechen wars fought between rebels and Russia in the mid-1990s. Poles have traditionally been sympathetic to ethnic groups opposed to Moscow’s rule.

Source: DW-World

A Zimbabwean seeking asylum in South Africa (Photo: Guy Oliver/ IRIN)

The “humanitarian nature” of the mass movement of Zimbabweans to neighbouring Southern African countries has blurred the distinction between what is a “refugee” and an “economic migrant”, because such people fit neither category perfectly and fall between the cracks, a new report says.

“Official responses to Zimbabwean migration in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique are still premised on this distinction, and so are failing to protect both Zimbabweans and [their own] citizens,” noted Zimbabwean Migration into Southern Africa: New Trends and Responses, a report released in early December by the Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP) at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Neighbouring countries have been an essential lifeline for thousands of poor Zimbabweans, said Monica Kiwanuka, the main researcher for the report. Those crossing the border were not refugees – most did not even apply for refugee status – and, given the extent of economic collapse at home, could hardly be considered “voluntary” economic migrants.

“Many Zimbabweans who qualify for refugee status … do not apply for asylum due to the need to move back and forth across borders to support families left behind. They resist the category of refugee, which connotes dependency, and they emphasize their ability to work,” Kiwanuka told IRIN.

“Yet there are currently no legal instruments in the region, or in specific countries, that address the needs of this forced, mixed and livelihood-seeking migration,” she commented. Only recognized refugees and asylum seekers qualify for humanitarian assistance and legal protection in a host state.

“So many Zimbabweans are not legally protected, nor do they receive humanitarian support, as they fall outside the mandates of these support structures,” Kiwanuka commented.

With the exception of South Africa, protection and access to services in most countries in the region is contingent on receiving refugee status, and require asylum seekers to stay in isolated camps, unable to work or travel, and thus send money home.

South Africa is considering the introduction of a special permit for Zimbabweans but the policy is still under review.

“These [conditions] are unsuited to [their] needs,” Kiwanuka said, and defeated the purpose of crossing the border, so most Zimbabweans did not apply for asylum. The alternative of having to fend for themselves allowed the flexibility to move back and forth between countries as shoppers, labourers and traders.

Despite persistent deportations, xenophobic attacks and other means of exclusion, poor Zimbabweans have been prepared to risk anything to earn an income in a host country.

A Zimbabwean interviewed in Botswana explained: “To accept to return home after being dropped [for deportation] at Plumtree [on the Zimbabwe/Botswana border] means I have agreed to let my people die … you [would] rather die trying to get back inside [Botswana] and find money to keep them alive.”

Kiwanuka said responses to Zimbabwean migrants were not harmonized among the four countries: “In Botswana, Zambia and Malawi, asylum is available to Zimbabweans; in Mozambique, the few people who have applied for asylum have been rejected due to the state’s decision to consider Zimbabweans as ‘economic’ and not forced humanitarian migrants.”

Obtaining a Zimbabwean passport was not only very difficult but also extremely expensive, which contributed to the problem. “We all want to be out of trouble, but where can we find the passports these people want from us?” another migrant in Botswana complained.

“Since undocumented migrants fall outside the mandates of the two key support structures in humanitarian assistance – government and non-government institutions,” the needs of undocumented Zimbabweans remained “invisible and unmet”. Migrants lived precariously, “earning meagre incomes in the host countries and barely covering their basic human needs for shelter and food,” the researchers found.

Beyond semantics
“Lack of protection of migrants in the region is based on a false distinction between a forced and an economic migrant, instead of focusing on the real and urgent needs some of these migrants have,” Kiwanuka said.

The report suggested that a better term would be “forced humanitarian migrants”, who moved for the purpose of their and their dependents’ basic survival.

Underscoring the importance of a common humanitarian position on the outflow of Zimbabweans into the region, and the challenge various agencies faced in reconciling their mandates with real needs on the ground, the Regional Office for Southern Africa of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs coined the term “migrants of humanitarian concern” in 2008.

Nde Ndifonka, spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told IRIN: “We categorize these migrant populations from Zimbabwe broadly as ‘mobile and vulnerable populations’.

“Refugees have some specific needs, rights and responsibilities, which fall under the mandate of UNHCR [the UN Refugee Agency]. They also have more general needs, rights and responsibilities within the broader category migrants, which is where IOM operates, he said.

In general, “Migrants, as everyone else within the country, are the responsibility of government. As an intergovernmental organization with expertise in migration management, IOM, just like UNHCR, works with the government to address migration and migrant (including refugee) challenges, within the available resources,” Ndifonka commented.

But the bottom line, said FMSP’s Kiwanuka, was that interventions would “need to acknowledge the humanitarian nature of migration from Zimbabwe”, and “policy response should focus on providing some measure of humanitarian support to the most vulnerable, supporting employment and self-employment, and permitting cross-border mobility.”

Source: IRIN Africa

Michael Bond compared Paddington happy experience with the fate of up to 2,000 children who are held each year in detention centres by the UK Border Agency (Photo: David Sandison).

Paddington creator and other authors and actors send letter to Downing Street

They are stern words that doubtless come accompanied by a trademark hard stare from Britain’s most famous illegal immigrant.

Some 51 years ago, Paddington Bear arrived on these shores after surviving on marmalade as a stowaway from Darkest Peru and was given sanctuary at 32 Windsor Gardens by Mr and Mrs Brown, two paragons of traditional British hospitality towards foreign minors in need of a decent home.

Now the stray bear, who came to Britain accompanied with a note from his ailing aunt asking that he be looked after, is spearheading a campaign – along with more than 60 children’s authors and illustrators – to highlight the Government’s continued arrest and detention of hundreds of child asylum-seekers in prison-like conditions.

Michael Bond, the creator of the much-loved blow-in from South America, has harnessed Paddington’s experience to contrast his good fortune in finding a home in Windsor Gardens – a thriving, inclusive community in west London, with the exception of the Browns’ grumpy neighbour, Mr Curry – with the fate of up to 2,000 children who are held each year in detention centres by the UK Border Agency (UKBA).

The poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, Quentin Blake and Philip Pullman, along with the actors Emma Thompson and Colin Firth, are among those who have added their signatures to a letter to the Prime Minister condemning the detention policy and supporting calls by leading doctors for its immediate cessation.

The letter is accompanied by a special message written in the words of Paddington Bear. It said: “Whenever I hear about children from foreign countries being put into detention centres, I think how lucky I am to be living at number 32 Windsor Gardens with such nice people as Mr and Mrs Brown.

“Mrs Bird, who looks after the Browns, says if she had her way she would set the children free and lock up a few politicians in their place to see how they liked it!”

Although the UKBA itself has admitted that there is no evidence that families with young children abscond in significant numbers, the agency arrests and detains between 1,000 and 2,000 asylum-seeking children every year.

David Wood, UKBA director of criminality and detention, told a parliamentary committee in September: “Whilst issues are raised about absconding, that is not our biggest issue. It does happen but it is not terribly easy for a family unit to abscond.”

The policy of keeping hundreds of children in secure conditions at immigration removal centres is the subject of increasing concern among health professionals and campaigning groups amid evidence that minors are suffering long-term harm.

Two Anglican priests, one of them dressed as Father Christmas, were this month barred from entering the Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire to deliver £300-worth of presents to children which had been donated by several London churches.

The Royal Colleges of Paediatrics and Child Health, alongside two other professional bodies – General Practitioners and Psychiatrists, and the Faculty of Public Health – last week issued a joint statement condemning the Government’s detention policy and calling for it to end “without delay”.

In October, NHS paediatricians and psychologists reported in the international peer-reviewed journal, Child Abuse & Neglect, that children locked up at Yarl’s Wood were “clearly vulnerable, marginalised, and at risk of mental and physical harm as a result of state-sanctioned neglect”.

The doctors recorded children’s “sexualised behaviour” and older children’s tendency to wet their beds and soil themselves, citing the “increased fear due to being suddenly placed in a facility resembling a prison” and the “abrupt loss of home, school, friends and all that was familiar to them”.

Nearly 100 MPs have also signed a parliamentary motion put forward by the Labour MP Chris Mullin urging the Government to stop detaining children.

The petition to Mr Brown reads: “As writers and illustrators of books for children, we urge you to stop detaining children whose families have sought asylum in the UK. These children have already had their worlds torn apart and witnessed their parents in turmoil and in stress. No wonder that paediatricians and psychologists report that child detainees are confused, fearful, unable to sleep, suffer headaches, tummy pains and weight loss and exhibit severe emotional and behavioural problems.”

The document adds: “The UK Border Agency says that ‘treating children with care and compassion is a priority’, but it continues with the policy of child detention which has been shown to harm children. The Government must end child detention, now.”

Source: The Independent

Iraq remains a dangerous place, especially for members of some minority groups, and refugees should not be forced to return, a U.N. agency said Friday.

Andrej Mahecic, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said the agency’s guidelines on Iraqi refugees have not changed since the last revision in April. He said countries should evaluate refugees from safer areas of the country individually, while asylum-seekers from Baghdad, Kirkuk and other areas hit by recent violence should be treated as in need of international protection.

“UNHCR is shocked and saddened by the recent bombings and continued violence in Iraq which have left hundreds dead and wounded this week,” Mahecic said.

Source: UPI

A Christian couple who leads a ministry that supports persecuted Christians announced this week their successful adoption of eight Burmese refugee children.

Jim and Karen Jacobson of Michigan-based Christian Freedom International said they may very well be the first Americans to be allowed to adopt Karen refugee children who lack official birth records, which means there was no real way to determine the children’s true eligibility for adoption.

The children, four of whom are siblings, came directly to the United States from Burma’s refugee camps and had no birth certificate. When the Jacobsons had applied to adopt them, the children were already in the United States, but the adoption process was complicated by the missing documents.

“One of the things that makes it very difficult to adopt refugee children is that there are no certificate of foreign birth, they have no birth record at all,” said Karen Jacobson. “The only birth records they have are the ones that have been discovered or researched by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).

“But if they don’t know it then they assign them a birth date, basically, because no one knows the exact day.”

After nearly 18 months of legal procedures, a Michigan judge overseeing the Jacobson’s case decided to accept the children’s green cards and immigration paperwork as “Other Proof of Birth.”

Moreover, the legal adoption of the children meant they were issued a certificate of foreign birth, which is required to get a passport or a work permit.

“That was a detail that we knew had to be taken care of, but we didn’t know the adoption [process] would take care of it,” said Karen. “That was a real miracle.”

The Jacobsons, who have worked extensively among the Karen people of Burma, said they wanted to tell their story to encourage other Americans who want to adopt refugee children that don’t have the required birth certificate.

“It was clear that all of the children wanted us to adopt them,” said Karen. “The goal for them is to train and be educated to someday go back and serve the Karen people.”

The Karen people are an ethnic minority in Burma. They are mostly Christian in the predominantly Buddhist country and have suffered from severe persecution by Burma’s military regime. The military frequently attacks their villages and systematically rapes the ethnic women.

A few years ago, the U.S. State Department finally granted approval to allow Burma’s ethnic refugees asylum in the United States.

The Jacobsons’ organization, CFI, has worked with thousands of persecuted Karen and Karenni Christians in Burma and Thailand. The organization helps build schools and medical clinics, as well as delivers humanitarian aid to the refugees.

The four refugee siblings the Jacobsons adopted had previously received care from CFI in Thailand before coming to the United States in the Spring of 2008.

The Jacobsons now have 12 children and reside in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Their ministry provides housing, employment opportunities, transportation and food and medical assistance to dozens of Karen refugees who live in the Sault Ste. Marie area.

Source: The Christian Post

* Charity Tooze

In 2001 as the impending invasion of Afghanistan beat like a drum through the newly traumatized nation then President George W. Bush declared the liberation of Afghan women as a primary goal of the war. While the current U.S. and Afghanistan governments continue to work to defeat the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, the eight-year-old promise to help relieve the oppression of women and girls has largely gone unmet.

During his address last week at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, President Obama relayed several military goals and a commitment to law and order. But he did not mention women and girls. This week Human Rights Watch released the report “We have the Promises of the World,” chronicling the oppressive conditions women and girls continue to face in Afghanistan.

The Karzai government will now work with Taliban fighters who are willing to give up violence and support the efforts of the Afghan government. “Women have concerns about reconciliation with Taliban but their priority is peace. What is needed is honest discussion about what reconciliation agreements mean for women,” said Rachel Reid, researcher for Human Rights Watch and co-author of this weeks report. Reid went on to say, “Women want to be apart of the conversation. They want to be engaged because they bear the biggest cost.”

Similarly, both the U.S. and Afghan administrations have committed to support local tribal leaders in establishing militias in rural areas to police the Taliban. “In the past local militias given guns and money have disappeared or committed human rights abuses themselves or they start polarizing with another group,” Reid said.

But Reid, who has lived and worked in Afghanistan for more than two years, said sometimes there is little difference in the mindset of the Taliban, tribal leaders or the parliament when it comes to the rights of women and girls.

“In the Jirgess or traditional councils where Afghans go if there is a crime or they have a complaint, a girl can be given as compensation for the crime, it’s called baad. Girls are traded like property,” Reid said. The entrenched cultural norms take time to change. “Many organizations are on a six month to one year funding cycle. This will take a generation to change,” she said. While Reid was disappointed that President Obama’s address did not mention women’s needs she said the U.S. congress has approved programs for women and girls.

Sivanka Dhanapala, a senior regional coordinator for the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), said “Some women find the situation intolerable because of forced marriage at a young age. Some set themselves on fire as an attempt to escape.” Because of that, he added, there is a special burn unit in a hospital in the province of Hera.

While on paper President Hamid Karzai’s government promises the equality of women and men in Article 22 of the Constitution, many argue the situation on the ground does not reflect that commitment. According to the United Nations Development Fund for Women’s (UNIFEM) gender development index Afghan women are second to last in the entire world.

Many young women are forced into marriages some before the legal age of 16. The controversial Shia Personal Status Law that received international attention in April of 2009 was often referred to in the international media as the rape law. It mandated women have sex with their husbands every fourth night. The law was amended and signed by president Karzai in July of this year. It now states that women cannot leave their homes without the permission of their husbands or fathers, that custody of children will be given to fathers and grandfathers, and their husbands can refuse food to women if they refuse to oblige their husbands sexually.

“The Shia Personal Status Law sets a terrible precedent. The law reflects the realities of many women’s lives but it doesn’t mean you take customary law and enshrine as state law. It just makes it harder for women.” Reid said.

Currently, there is one female minister in the government, the minister of women’s affairs. Over the past few years, women in public life have come under severe threat. Lt. Col. Malalai Kakar was the highest-ranking female police officer. She was shot on her way to work in 2008. Similarly, Sitara Achakzai a member of a provincial council and respected local leader was shot in 2009.

In both incidents the Taliban claimed responsibility but there has not been an arrest in either case. The murders and threats often have a ripple affect for women in Afghanistan, which contributes to a culture of fear and intimidation. This extends into the Afghan refugee population in neighboring Pakistan and Iran. “Afghan women living in Iran would rather stay in Iran than return to Afghanistan because they have access to education and can work in Iran,” Dhanapal said.

“Not all the news is bad. One of the more heartening aspects is the opening of many girls schools,” said Dhanapala. He went on to say, “when you drive through the countryside and see girls going to school in their bright uniforms it gives you hope to persevere.” Senzil Nawid, author and scholar on Afghan women, said the women of Afghanistan are incredibly resilient. “If security is improved the women will bounce right back,” Nawid said.

Nawid points out that the cultural oppression of women began when the Afghan communist parties overthrew the first Afghan president in 1978. At that point a bloody civil war ensued. “Women were the victims, they were treated horribly under the radical Marxists regimes and the Mujahadeen forces,” Nawid Said. She went on to say that orphaned young men were trained in Pakistan and part of the training was based in Pashtun and Wahhabist Islamic traditions. These customs forbid women from working outside the home or pursuing formal education.

“The Obama administration has to address the corruption within the Afghan government. The culture of impunity needs to be tackled. It’s a huge factor in the rise of the insurgencies,” Reid said. Over the next few weeks President Karzai will be appointing ministers and cabinet people. “The government has lost credibility. We have to be very watchful in terms of the appointments,” Dhanapal said. McChrystal and President Obama have stressed the training of Afghan security forces and the rule of law. Yet, according to Reid the police force is poorly trained. “They do not have enough civilian law enforcement training they are trained as paramilitary troops really. They have to know the law to enforce it,” she said.

Nawid said President Karzai is in a difficult position. “He started the country from scratch. There was nothing, no army, no educational institutions, no economy or civil servants,” she said. While assuring the international community that he wants equality for women through commitments like the millennium development goals that state “achievement of primary education for everyone and the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.” But President Karzai’s actions and desire to retain Shia support appear to contradict these goals.

While the situation that women face is profoundly challenging, they continue to speak out in spite of threats. Reid shared a story about a 13-year-old girl who ran away from the man she was forced to marry. Through a series of unbelievable and courageous steps, the young woman ended up at a safe house in the capital Kabul. While the parliament, local leaders and her husband’s family demanded she go back, the girl refused. Reid said her actions are threatening because it’s a young woman standing up for herself. “She told me she met with the president who told her it was safe to go back to her husband’s family. She said she told him ‘if you think it’s safe why don’t you send your wife or one of your children.” Reid finds great hope in the courage of this young woman whose attempt to demand her rights have not come from outside Western influence. “She knows her rights and is fighting for them,” Reid said.

It is hard to know how the Obama administration will support women’s rights in Afghanistan, as there has been little public attention to the matter. Reid said that sustained work by local Afghan NGO’s is essential. “The biggest question in Afghanistan, is if you have a willing partner in the Afghan government,” Reid said.

* Freelance journalist currently producing a documentary about Iraqi refugees. Previously she produced a television series by and for young women, www.ritesofpassage.tv.

Source: The Huffington Post

Malakal Goak, a native of Sudan who has built a reputation as an advocate and resettlement expert in Omaha, poses for a portrait outside Hillside Elementary students Monday afternoon. (Photo: Chris Machian/The World-Herald)

And they were hearing the mild version of his life during Sudan’s civil war.

Certain details — including his own physical torture and the prisoners he watched get axed to death — would be reserved for more mature audiences.

Whether it be in mild or blunt fashion, Goak, a local southern Sudanese leader and social worker, has been educating Omahans about his native country and the impact of its 22-year civil war since he arrived here six years ago.

How much longer Goak’s voice will be heard locally is uncertain. A hearing Friday in Omaha’s Immigration Court will examine his request to stay in the U.S. under political asylum.

(Unlike most of his countrymen resettled in the Midwest, Goak is not considered a refugee. That legal classification is bestowed while one is outside the U.S.)

Goak applied for political asylum after he arrived in Omaha in 2003.

Complicating his case is that Goak traveled here with an Ethiopian passport, said his attorney Robert Dorton.

Goak insists that he is from the Nuer Tribe of southern Sudan and that he obtained the fake Ethiopian passport for safety reasons — so he could travel without the threat of being returned to Sudanese officials who he believed would harm him.

Federal officials declined to comment on a pending asylum application.

But Dorton said that U.S. immigration officials have alleged that Goak has a legal status in Ethiopia and could be returned there. Dorton said he has no such status.

Asylum is considered a discretionary U.S. benefit, Dorton said, so Goak’s testimony of persecution and fear of returning to Africa must be compelling.

“This is something I never imagined,” Goak said of his legal battle. “I have suffered enough.”

Unable to travel while his case is unresolved, Goak hasn’t seen his family in Nairobi, Kenya, since 2003.

As was the case with the fifth-graders at District 66’s Hillside Elementary School, Goak meanwhile has won respect of many he has met.

Kimberly Thomas of Lutheran Family Services calls Goak a “pillar in his community” and an invaluable resource to service-providers.

She’s among local supporters who have attended Goak’s previous hearings and is following the case.

His personal insight, Thomas said, has offered Nebraskans a deeper understanding of the plight that pushed so many refugees to metropolitan Omaha — which has one of if not the largest population of Sudanese refugees in the country.

Goak’s been-there perspective also has upped his credibility among refugees who are more inclined to accept his advice on touchy cultural issues.

As founder of the nonprofit Caring People Sudan, Goak also provides assistance with transportation and other needs. He also formed the Sudanese American Network for the Advancement of the Democracy in Sudan (SANADS).

A note from a student at Ackerman Elementary in Millard sits on Goak’s desk: “Thanks for coming to our classroom. I’m so sorry that you had to be tortured. My grandpa was in the Vietnam War.”

Said another fourth-grader: “I hope you get to see your family soon.”

Goak’s story began 37 years ago when he was born in the Sudanese city of Malakal (thus, his name).

He graduated from college in Ethiopia in the late 1990s and returned to Sudan, where a civil war raged that would kill and displace millions before the 2005 signing of a peace accord between the north and the south.

Upon his return to Sudan, Goak, then about 27, worked for a government official who oversaw the distribution of international aid to “internal displaced persons.” The two clashed when Goak questioned the boss’s order to redirect a shipment of food meant for displaced persons to the public defense force.

Goak said he was accused of being an “enemy” who aligned with the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement, and he was sent home.

That night, Goak said, a carload of military representatives whisked him away from his family to be interrogated about his allegiances. He said he was punched and attached to a machine that spun him into unconsciousness.

Later, at a bunker in the city of Juba, he and prisoners of war were forced to watch men be beaten and axed. He said he had to haul bodies to a grave.

After a few weeks in captivity, an armed soldier took Goak and another man outside to urinate. It was dark.

Goak ran into the jungle. The other prisoner followed.

Shots rang out.

Goak never again saw the other prisoner, but he heard a land mine explode and suspects that the man was killed.

“I was running, running, running until I reached a village,” he said.

His bare feet bloodied and his body in stress, Goak was hospitalized for three months in a Red Cross facility outside Sudan. There, he met a nurse whom he would later marry.

A recovered Goak declared his allegiance to the rebels, formed a nonprofit human rights group in Nairobi and told local publications of atrocities in neighboring Sudan.

In 2003, Goak was chosen to travel to the Midwest to speak at a conference about Sudan. One stop was in Omaha.

Goak and his wife decided before he left Kenya that he was not going back. He believed Sudanese government officials were tracking him then and now.

Six years into his asylum battle, Goak has had three lawyers and $7,000 in expenses.

Perhaps the worst part, the 6-foot-2 guest speaker told the 15 Hillside students, is the distance from his family, who cannot join him unless he wins his case.

Wife Bukune was pregnant with their youngest daughter when he left, so he never got to see Nyamal. Older daughter Nyanpal is 7.

He urged the Hillside kids to extend a hand to young refugees. He said they have had setbacks that will keep some from ever catching up in school.

Asked about the six scar lines across his forehead, Goak explained that he was cut at age 13 in a traditional rite of passage to manhood ceremony. Yes, he said, it was painful.

The scar on his cheek and his puffy lip are the result of a childhood accident, not the war.

Most questions, though, focused on his kids. Do you write to them? Do you have photos?

One student wanted to know how the class would know if Goak was granted the right to stay.

If his story has a happy ending, Goak said, he would be back to tell them in person.

Source: Omaha World Herald

Zimbabwe asylum seekers in South Africa encounter border violence, rape, crime, communicable diseases, and fears of deportation

Zimbabwe mother and child with AIDS (Photo: AFP)

The report cites xenophobic tensions and systematic discrimination by medical professionals and in South African society and recommends reforms to improve the situation. Researcher Rebecca Shaeffer with the health and human rights division of Human Rights Watch helped compile data for the 89-page report. Speaking in Johannesburg, she explains that communicable diseases like tuberculosis and a lack of treatment for thousands of rape victims who routinely cross the border from Zimbabwe pose the greatest threats.

“South Africa has long suffered from a sort of denialism and a failure to adequately budget for its extremely high rate of communicable disease, especially HIV and TB. TB, which is generally a curable illness, is the leading cause of death in South Africa, and because the leading causes of death in South Africa are communicable and are usually treatable and yet largely untreated in South Africa, it literally cannot afford to be leaving out from prevention and treatment campaigns the most vulnerable members of its society,” she cautioned.

Airborne diseases like tuberculosis when not treated particularly jeopardize concentrated population centers where they are easily spread. Shaeffer points out that many migrants, especially those who are undocumented and those who have crossed the border from Zimbabwe, are fearful of coming forward to seek treatment because of concerns they might be deported.

“Some South African hospitals interpret the law in such a way that they require rape survivors to go and make a police report about the rape before they are able to get emergency health care that keeps them from getting HIV as a result of their rape. There’s only a 72-hour window in which this medication works to block transmission, and for many migrants, especially those who are undocumented, those who are from Zimbabwe, they are fearful of talking to police. They’re afraid they are going to be deported,” she notes.

Among the report’s recommended reforms, Shaeffer lists government implementation of a planned but postponed special dispensation permit for Zimbabweans to ease their fear of deportation.

“Since April, this program has not been implemented, and the majority of Zimbabweans are still crossing into the country in an illegal manner. Furthermore, South Africa has longstanding problems in its asylum seeking refugee systems. It doesn’t properly document asylum seekers and refugees, and there are serious and repeated reports that even documented asylum seekers and refugees are sometimes subject to arbitrary deportation and arrest. So it really needs to stop arresting and deporting people this year legally,” she points out.

Zimbabwe migrants gathered in South Africa near the border crossing. (Photo: AFP)

“The perpetrators may be on both sides of the border, for example. And also, victims need to be assured that they won’t be deported if they cooperate with the investigation,” she said.

Musina at Zimbabwe's southern border with South Africa (Photo: AFP)

“Doctors in different countries may be using slightly different drugs that can be confusing to doctors in the new country. They can also develop programs like treatment passports that allow doctors in one country to see what kind of treatment the person has been receiving on the other side of the border. They can also distribute maps of locations where people can pick up medications for chronic diseases like HIV and TB,” she noted.

Although some South African localities are working to promote these innovations, Rebecca Shaeffer says that international humanitarian organizations are providing the primary push to bring about a more regional approach to better health care in southern Africa.

Source: Voice of America

The Netherlands gave 6,100 people full refugee status last year, making it one of the most generous countries in the EU, according to figures from the European statistics office Eurostat.

France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Sweden all granted more asylum seekers refugee status than the Netherlands. The Netherlands honoured 52% of requests for asylum, compared with 28% in Europe as a whole.

In total, 76,300 people were given refugee status in Europe last year out of nearly 300,000 requests. Most came from Iraq (22%), followed by Somali (12%) and Russia (10%).

Source: DutchNews

António Guterres

Half of the world’s 10.5 million refugees are living in urban centres, driving up living costs and increasing the risk of tension with local populations, the United Nations refugee agency said on Monday.

António Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said the arrival of large numbers of displaced people in crowded cities was pushing up the costs of food and accommodation and making it more difficult for local populations to scrape by.

The resultant pressure “can create tensions between local and refugee populations, and in worst cases, can fuel xenophobia with catastrophic results,” he said.

Kabul has grown sevenfold since 2001, the UNHCR said, mainly because of large numbers of displaced people from Iran and Pakistan, as well as uprooted people within Afghanistan who have flocked to the capital.

Armed conflict has also driven hundreds of thousands to Bogota in Colombia and Abidjan in Ivory Coast, where many are forced to live in “ill-serviced slum areas” that lack the basic aid often associated with United Nations camps, the agency said.

Damascus in Syria and Amman in Jordan have also become a sanctuary for Iraqis who were forced to flee the violence in their country following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

“We need to abandon the outmoded image that most refugees live in sprawling camps of UNHCR tents,” said Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister.

He said many urban-dwelling refugees lacked access to medical care or other assistance and were subject to exploitation because they did jobs that were unregulated.

Source: Reuters

Jean-Paul Bizoza was reunited with his family in October after four years apart. (Photo: Doug Sherring)

The 30-year-old has finally been reunited with his wife and two young sons – one of whom was just a baby when he had to leave them in Africa.

“It’s hard to make your new country home when the people you’re supposed to be with are not here,” he said.

The stress of separation made it tough to settle at home and at work. But his family’s arrival in October meant Bizoza was looking forward to “an amazing Christmas”.

He and his family were among the 750 refugees accepted here every year under a United Nations quota programme.

As an 11-year-old living in Burundi, eastern Africa, Bizoza fled alone from the fighting that killed his family.

He lived in Congo, Tanzania, Zambia and finally Namibia, meeting his wife, learning six languages and training as a teacher.

Bizoza was accepted as a United Nations refugee after being sponsored by an aunt living in New Zealand. But it was another four years before his wife and children could follow.

The Auckland resident said delays in reuniting families was a major concern.

Barriers to successful resettlement will be among issues discussed at a United Nations conference in Geneva next year.

Refugee Services Aotearoa New Zealand chief executive Heather Hayden will attend, thanks to the Cathay Pacific/Herald on Sunday High Flyer Awards. She hoped to bring back new information and ideas, and to offer insights from New Zealand’s experience.

“Some things we do are considered world-leading, particularly around our volunteers.”

Refugee Services trains about 400 volunteers a year to work alongside refugees and help them adjust to their new life.

“They provide support, meet them at the airport when they arrive, help them settle into their new home,” said Hayden.

Bizoza said he received valuable help and advice. “The kindness of New Zealanders is amazing. When people smile at you, you feel at home.”

Source: New Zealand Herald

Medical interpreter Aung Soe, center, translates questions from Dr. Sanjeev Vasishtha for Burmese-speaking Ra Met of Utica about her daughter Winwa Oo, 4, at St. Elizabeth Family Medicine Center in Utica. There are more than 100 professional interpreters in the Utica area, as officials said the area’s diverse population is driving demand for their services.

Growing up in New York City, Yurki Rosario often translated for her Spanish-speaking mother.

Now, the 25-year-old Mohawk Valley Community College student is one of about a dozen people training with the Multicultural Association of Medical Interpreters to become a certified medical interpreter.

“When I’m in a doctor’s office and I see someone who doesn’t speak English, I try to help them in one way or another,” Rosario said, explaining that acting as an intermediary has become second nature for her.

While the MAMI class deals specifically with facilitating communication between doctors and their patients, officials said an increasingly diverse local population is making trained interpreters more and more necessary in a variety of areas.

“By having culturally appropriate interpretation services … it ensures access to services; it ensures quality of service; it also ensures that mistakes aren’t made when a doctor is prescribing medication, for example,” said Peter Vogelaar, executive director of the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees.

‘So many different dialects’
There are more than 100 professional interpreters working in the Utica area, coming from such organizations as MAMI, which has offices in Utica and Syracuse, the refugee center and the language assistance program at St. Elizabeth Medical Center.

That may seem like a lot for a city with fewer than 60,000 people, but Vogelaar said the refugee center alone provides interpretation services to about 50 different organizations and schedules up to 200 appointments each week.

And, both he and MAMI Director Cornelia Brown said the area is experiencing a shortage in some languages, particularly Burmese, Karen, Vietnamese and Arabic – largely due to shifting immigration patterns.

“It used to be enough to have two interpreters in Burmese and Karen, but it’s not any more,” Brown said.

In medical or law enforcement settings, the ability to communicate can mean the difference between life and death.

Deputy Police Chief Michael Bailey said some local officers speak Spanish or Bosnian, but beyond that the department relies on outside agencies such as MAMI and the refugee center for assistance.

A language barrier can delay an officer’s ability to deal with certain situations, or make them dependent on a suspect’s relatives relaying information.

“We have so many different dialects within the community that it’s not uncommon for us to need to use the services of an interpreter,” Bailey said.

Ruth Concepcion, manager of the language assistance program at St. Elizabeth’s, said the hospital is prepared to offer interpretation services in at least 96 languages, including Italian, Polish and American Sign Language.

Some of the more unusual languages the hospital has had to find interpreters for in the past include Maay Maay and Kizigua, which are both spoken in Somalia; Creole, common in Louisiana and Haiti; and Albanian.

‘Absolutely accurate’
But Brown said interpreter training courses don’t teach languages.

Instead, demonstrated proficiency in both English and a second language are prerequisites for enrolling.

“What we’re doing is taking people with those credentials and teaching them how to be interpreters, which is difficult,” she said. “For one thing, the interpreter needs to be absolutely accurate in translating another person’s words … (and) work hard to establish good communication between the provider and the patient.”

While interpreters generally are taught to be unobtrusive, they’re also taught when to intercede. They can help clear up an apparent misunderstanding between the two parties, or explain certain cultural differences.

In one case, Brown said, a doctor was ready to report a Vietnamese father for child abuse until the interpreter explained that the bruises on the child’s back could have been caused by a traditional folk remedy that involves brusquely rubbing coins against someone’s back to clear up lung congestion.

Because of the importance of their job, MAMI’s biannual training course includes 80 hours of course work – soon to be expanded to 120 hours – followed by an observed internship and a comprehensive exam prior to certification, Brown said.

Similar training also is available through the refugee center.

Lili Vidovic, the lead teacher for the MAMI certification class, has experienced interpretation services from both sides of the equation.

When she first moved to Utica 12 years ago, Vidovic taught herself English by watching the Jerry Springer show and working a manufacturing job at ConMed, she said.

Today, she’s a certified medical and court interpreter working primarily with Bosnian clients, and an English-as-a-second-Language teacher at Albany Elementary School in Utica.

Teachers also struggle with the question of how to communicate with parents about their children if the children themselves need to be the go-between, she said.

As a graduate of the MAMI course she now teaches, Vidovic said current participants will gain new knowledge and new self-confidence from their training, as well as learning new responsibilities.

“The most difficult is when you don’t know how to interpret something, and how to go about it in a dignified way of asking ‘I didn’t understand it. Can you please explain?’” she said.

Source: Utica Observer Dispatch

For decades Lutheran Social Services and Bethany Christian Services have helped refugees from war torn or oppressed countries seek shelter in West Michigan. However, the agencies are limited in the amount of assistance they can offer once individuals and families arrive. Often times that assistance ends before refugees are able to become self sufficient.

“Lutheran will pay for their electric, utility and rent for four months and then they have to fend for themselves after 4 months. In those first 4 months they (the agencies) will provide the very, very basic necessities like a mattress on the floor with blankets, some pots and pans, very little dishes and that is it,” said Fran Howard, a Rockford mother and wife who along with a friend has made it a personal mission to help. “That is where we come in and take inventory, ok they need this, this, this or this and we go out and buy it at a Salvation Army or get it from very generous friends in Rockford.”

Howard and her best friend, Cynthia Smith, say their effort started out of the blue 2 years ago when Smith received a phone call from a local church.

“They said there was a person on 32nd street, they were from Myanmar, and their visa was lost and they needed some money to buy another one. So we came down here and when we got to their home on 32nd street there were like 8 boys from Myanmar. They ranged in ages 17 to very young. They were living on their own. They had no parents. They were taken away from their families or fled and it was just really sad. I knew they just needed some guidance or help because they didn’t’ have a lot of basic needs,” said Smith.

The two women came back the next day with cleaning supplies, clothes and food and helped the boys turn their apartment into a home.

“We haven’t stopped since then because once we got done working with them, we were introduced to another family. So when we met one family that introduced us to 2 or 3 more families and we have been doing it for 2 ½ years,” said Smith.

Joseph Lien and his wife Esther were among the first the two women met and decided to help.

The couple had recently fled Burma officially known as Myanmar, where Joseph was a Christian preacher being persecuted for his beliefs.

“In Burma as you know the government says there is religious freedom, but actually it’s not freedom. They try to arrest me and they tried to close the church,” he said.

When Howard and Smith met the family, they too were barely getting by.

“When I come to Grand Rapids we don’t have clothes and we don’t have money. Even if we want to rent an apartment, we can’t because we don’t have credit,” said Lien. “Fran and Cynthia they helped us with everything. Everything you see. They pay rent for us, and buy the furniture. All the things you saw, bought for us.”

“They need basic things to survive. Things that we take for granted every day,” Smith says. “A lot of it has come from our pockets. Thousands of dollars and a lot of donations.”

We give boots, jackets, socks, basic things like shoes and pots and pans, says Howard. “We just keep coming back and we become more or less friends. They all are like family.”

The women estimate a refugee family arrives in West Michigan every week. While their mission continues to be rewarding, they say it has become increasingly challenging to do it on their own.

“We would love to see more people step up and volunteer with Lutheran Social Services and to say how can we get involved,” says Howard. “You can help in any little way like just providing, boots or coats or shoes, or a jacket or anything like that because they come wrapped in the Burmese clothing”

She says so far, she has gotten 8 families from Rockford to agree to sponsor 8 refugee families for Christmas this year.

“And that is what I would love to see, more people, especially at Christmas time. It is such an awesome experience for the American families here to sponsor a refugee,” Howard said. “They just, they pull on my heart strings. When you help them you can see the happiness and appreciativeness.”

Lien says he’s grateful that in a new country, amidst unfamiliar surroundings, there were at least 2 people who remind him what being Christian is all about.

“A person even if he has a lot of money, if he doesn’t have desire and he doesn’t have love, he can’t help. Every time we need them we call, ‘hello my son is sick I want to go to the hospital’ they are coming and bring us to hospital,” he said. “I’m very happy. I’m feeling like I’m living with God so I very appreciate it.”

Source: WZZM13