"…5 months to cough up $80 million to prevent a disaster that'd cost $20 billion+ to remediate."
September 12-19, 2022 Mixed Migration—hebdo; spotlighting an important milestone regarding the FSO Safer, & a nihilistically ill-faithed flight to Martha's Vineyard, before turning to the week's news.
Welcome to Mixed Migration—hebdo! Here, in the time it takes to read one feature, you get a global sweep of the last week's most relevant migration policy developments, along with links to all the articles you need to dig deeper.
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Spotlight
This week, I thought I’d to highlight 2 unrelated stories before we dig into the week’s news. The first is, tentatively, good news: last Friday, Dutch authorities pledged €7.5 to the UN fund to salvage the decaying FSO Safer, a decaying oil tanker moored off the western coast of Yemen, and threatening to break apart or explode and foul the Red Sea with 1.1 million barrels of oil. This pledge tops off the UN’s $80 million appeal to initiate a salvage operation, and ought to allow salvage operations to begin—assuming the international community can get its act together, and that battling factions in Yemen’s 7-year civil war accede to the rescue operation.
The good news is tentative: the salvage operation will neither launch nor finish overnight, and with autumn weather starting to churn the Red Sea in October, the risks to rescue workers and to the whole of the Red Sea will increase exponentially. Let’s also not forget that the UN appeal was launched in April, meaning that the international community has taken 5 months to cough up $80 million to prevent a disaster that would cost at least $20 billion to remediate. Nor that—as we’ve covered before in this space—local advocates have been clamoring for this impending catastrophe to be taken seriously for years.
Changing tracks—this week ill-faithed efforts by conservative ideologues holding power in Texas, Arizona, and now Florida to transport asylum seekers across the U.S. and release them without prior warning in major cities reached new heights—as three buses arrived in Washington, DC, dropping off 150 people over 2 days in front of the Vice President’s residence, while another 53 were flown to Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. I’ll have more to say and write about this in the future—for the time being, attorney Rachel Self gets the word:
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On to the news…
Asia
Afghanistan and its neighbors
Last Monday, Pakistani authorities detected the 18th case of polio to surface in Pakistan this year, warning that flood-borne displacement threatens to both accelerate transmission and disrupt containment efforts. | On Tuesday, authorities in Pakistan tallied 1.400 fatalities and 1 million people made homeless by floods in Pakistan, as further rainfall threatens renewed flooding. | On Thursday, Taliban officials signaled that ~500.000 Afghans were repatriated from Iran last month, as ~3.000 are believed to be entering Iran irregularly each day. the U.S. State and Treasury Departments set up an ‘Afghan Fund’ in Switzerland with the $3.5 billion in Afghan Central Bank assets withheld from Taliban Administration, to be used to stabilize the Afghan economy and finance humanitarian aid, while remaining off-limits to Taliban leadership.
Myanmar and its neighbors
Last Tuesday, Myanmar’s exiled National Unity Government tallied 3.010 civilian fatalities at the hands of the Tatmadaw over the 11 months prior, with another ~2.000 injured in just over 6.300 attacks. On the same day, Rohingya refugees newly arriving to Bangladesh indicated there are hundreds more recently displaced by fighting between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army attempting to cross into Bangladesh. | On Wednesday, Burmese authorities they would require that foreign remittances be routed through specific banks at specific currency exchange rates set artificially low to benefit Myanmar’s foreign exchange reserves. | On Thursday, The Irrawaddy issued a look back at the history of displacement resulting from political turmoil in Myanmar, highlighting the current figures of ~974.000 IDPs, ~919.000 Rohingya refugees, another ~40.000 refugees from other ethnicities, and another ~40.000 economic migrants currently abroad and growing at a rate of ~10.000 per month. | On Friday, the Burmese junta ordered UNHCR and INGOs to cease operations in 6 townships in northern Arakan State, near the border with Bangladesh, as fighting between the Tatmadaw and rebel Arakan Army intensifies. On the same day, 1 Rohingya refugee was killed, and another 6 injured, by a mortar shell fired from Burmese soil that landed that exploded in Bangladesh. Also on Friday, another 4 displaced persons were killed by shelling in Myanmar’s southeastern Shan State, where ~3.000 civilians have been displaced by fighting in recent weeks. | On Sunday, local authorities detained 31 displaced Rohingya in Myanmar’s southeastern Ayeyarwady state, just south of Rakhine. | This Monday, Bangladeshi authorities signaled they would not accept further Rohingya refugee arrivals from Rakhine—as increasing numbers of Rohingya find themselves caught in the crossfire between the Arakan Army and Tatmadaw. On the same day, Bangladeshi authorities offered to relocate ~14.000 civilians living near the border with Myanmar to get respite from cross-border indirect fire.
Sources: al Jazeera, TOLOnews, The Irrawaddy, RFA, Nikkei Asia.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Ethiopia’s civil war
Last Tuesday, local authorities reported an airstrike on Mekelle University in Tigray leading to at least 1 injury, just on the heels of TPLF leadership acceding to peace talks without preconditions with Ethiopian authorities. | On Wednesday, local authorities reported 2 more airstrikes in a residential area of Mekelle, killing at least 10 civilians and wounding at least another 2. | On Thursday, TPLF commanders signaled that a joint Ethiopian-Eritrean force had seized Sheraro, in north-central Tigray, while a joint Ethiopian-Amharan force had seized Adi Arkay in north-central Amhara from TPLF forces. On the same day, Zambian authorities announced they had repatriated 44 irregular migrants to Ethiopia—one of whom perished at the airport before departure—adding up to 107 repatriations since September 8. | On Sunday, local advocates reported that Eritrean authorities are conscripting soldiers to deploy in Tigray in support of the Ethiopian military’s campaign against the TPLF. | This Monday, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission denounced that ~2.800 Tigrayan IDPs living in the Jarre camp in Amhara State were being denied freedom of movement and sufficient humanitarian aid, and that the Commission’s efforts to monitor conditions in the camp had let to forced transfers into police custody.
Displacement in the Sahel, mobility in East Africa
Last Tuesday, HumAngle highlighted that the termination of food assistance in Gubio IDP camp in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State has caused a collapse in humanitarian conditions, with disease transmission increasing exponentially and women and children turning to begging and survival sex to stay alive. | On Thursday, OCHA issued an assessment tallying just over 622.500 persons affected by unprecedented flooding (see OCHA’s assessment here). | On Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Kenya relaxed regulations for business and tourist visa renewals.
Sources: AFP, AP, BBC, Addis Standard, HumAngle, the EastAfrican.
Middle East and North Africa
Evacuee (im)mobility in the MENA region
Last Monday, CENTCOM Commander General Michael Kurilla called for repatriations from the al-Hol containment camp to be sped up, decrying that at the current pace of ~150 monthly repatriations to Iraq, it would take 4 years to clear the camp’s 54.000 detainees. | On Wednesday, the European Court of Human Rights compelled French authorities to re-examine a request from 2 French mothers to allow their daughters to repatriate from the al-Hol containment camp, along with their Syria-born children. | On Saturday, UNHCR announced it had facilitated evacuation flights for 29 asylums seekers stranded in Libya, to be resettled in Europe and Canada.
Displacement within and beyond Syria and Iraq
Last Tuesday, UN officials warned of the threat of a growing cholera outbreak in Syria, with 936 cases identified between August 25 and September 10, as the poor state of Syria’s hydrological infrastructure and reduced water levels along the Euphrates compound risks to civilians. | On Wednesday, the UN issued a report warning of accelerating conflict dynamics in Syria threatening a potential resumption of all-out war and severe damage to humanitarian access across Syria. | On Saturday, Lebanese authorities announced they would be initiating Syrian refugee repatriations within 10 days, anticipating they could return 200.000 people within a year. | This Monday, 7 NGOs issued Life in the Margins, documenting the plight of ~1 million internally displaced Iraqis who, 5 years onward from the end of the Iraqi civil war, remain without essential civic documents, cutting them off from access to basic services (see the full report here).
Sources: Reuters, AFP, The Libya Update, al Jazeera, IANS, ANSA.
Maritime Migration Routes to & through the West
Ruta Canaria and Mediterranean Route
Last Wednesday, Salvamento Marítimo rescued 96 asylum seekers from 2 vessels in waters off of Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. On the same day, the Humanity1 (S.O.S. Humanity) rescued 207 asylum seekers from a large vessel that had been at sea for a week, and adrift in Maltese SAR waters with its fuel, food, and freshwater stocks depleted for several days. On the same day, Tunisian Coast Guard officers intercepted 110 asylum seekers trying to reach Italian waters. | On Thursday, the Sea-Eye disembarked 129 asylum seekers in the southern Italian port of Taranto—some of whom had spent 2 weeks at sea—as the Open Arms Uno rescued 19 asylum seekers from the Central Mediterranean. | On Friday, the Sea-Watch 3 received authorization from Italian authorities to disembark 428 asylum seekers in the port of Reggio Calabria in mainland Italy. | On Sunday, the Open Arms Uno rescued 372 asylum seekers in 3 operations in the Central Mediterranean, and retrieved the lifeless body of a man who died after being shot by smugglers. | This Monday, the Open Arms Uno rescued another 30 asylum seekers, for a total 402 souls on boards.
Aegean Sea
Last Tuesday, Turkish Coast Guard officers rescued 73 asylum seekers, and retrieved 6 lifeless bodies, whom they believe had been pushed back from Greek waters. | On Friday, Turkish coast guard officers rescued 26 asylum seekers, and retrieved 6 lifeless bodies, in 2 separate rescue operations off the coasts of Izmir and Bodrum. | On Sunday, Aegean Boat Report relayed media it had received from one among a group of 35 asylum seekers documenting their ongoing pushback at the hands of Greek Coast Guard officers in waters off of Bodrum.
Sources: La Provincia, EFE, InfoMigrants, Daily Sabah, AP, ABR.
Europe
EU migration policymaking
Last Wednesday, EUobserver laid out the New Pact on Migration and Asylum’s uncertain path forward, as different parliamentary committees move forward on its component pieces while competing priorities emerge and loom at the hand of the current and upcoming EU Council Presidencies. | On Wednesday, Polish authorities disclosed that, out of 1.3 million Ukrainian refugees in Poland, 600.000 have been issued personal ID numbers, and 400.000 have found regular employment in the Polish labor market. | On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a novel migration law to be debated shortly, providing for the redistribution of asylum seekers across French territory to prevent accumulations in major cities, accelerated repatriations, and giving French authorities new powers to select desired immigrants.
European migration (mis)management
Last Monday, Save the Children issued a report documenting children’s widespread exposure to traumatizing violence along the Balkan Route toward northern Europe—often dispensed by police officers (see StC’s full report here). | On Thursday, authorities detained 142 asylum seekers trying to traverse North Macedonia after irregularly crossing in from Greece.
Sources: EUobserver, PAP, RFI, ANSA, InfoMigrants.
The Americas
U.S. migration policymaking
Last Wednesday, a plane carrying 53 asylum seekers landed in Martha’s Vineyard, just off the coast of Massachusetts, arriving with no prior warning to local authorities or aid groups, directed there by the governor of Florida. | On Thursday, two buses carrying 101 asylum seekers arrived in Washington, DC, to disembark in front of the Vice-President’s residence, directed there without advance warning to local authorities or aid groups by the governor of Texas. | On Friday, the 53 asylum seekers flown to Martha’s Vineyard two days prior were offered transfer to a military facility in mainland Massachusetts, where they would be able to lodge asylum claims and access specialized support. On the same day, local advocates and opposition lawmakers began to scrutinize the source and disbursement of the estimated $600.000 spent to fly asylum seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. | On Saturday, another 50 asylum seekers arrived by bus from Texas to Washington, DC, where they were dropped off outside the Vice-President’s residence. | This Monday, Popular Information revealed the contents of the misleading flyers produced and distributed by Florida authorities to defraud asylum seekers into traveling to Martha’s Vineyard last week.
Irregular migration in Latin America
Last Tuesday, | NGOs implored Mexican authorities to provide services to ~60.000 asylum seekers stranded near Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, to dissuade them from forming caravans and departing Tapachula autonomously. | On Wednesday, Mexican security forces intercepted 134 asylum seekers being transported across Mexico’s northeastern Tamaulipas state toward the U.S. border in 3 buses. On the same day, the U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 239 Cuban asylum seekers intercepted at sea in weeks prior, for a total 8.566 repatriations from the U.S., Mexico, and the Bahamas thus far this year. | On Friday, authorities in Guatemala announced they had intercepted 78 asylum seekers irregularly transiting through Guatemalan soil. | On Sunday, a novel caravan of ~200 asylum seekers departed from Tapachula for Oaxaca—the 9th to set off this month alone.
Sources: CNN, the Washington Post, the Texas Tribune, Popular Information, EFE, Milenio, AGN, Diario del Sur.
Oceania
Migration policymaking in Australia
Last Wednesday, on the heels of authorities raising Australia’s 2022-2023 permanent immigration ceiling from 165.000 to 190.000, advocates renewed demands for lawmakers to reform the temporary worker visa system, which leaves guest workers vulnerable to exploitation.
Sources: al Jazeera.
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