August 1-8, 2022 Mixed Migration—hebdo
This week, we pass the task of reflection on to two of the foremost scholar-journalists on bordering and securitization in Europe, before turning to the week's migration events & policymaking updates.
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
I’ve been on the move this week and facing a deadline, and I found neither the time nor the inspiration to write up a Spotlight. So instead I’m passing the word on to Begüm Başdaş and Lydia Emmanouilidou, two scholar-journalists doing essential work on bordering, securitization, and migrant rights in Europe. If you have a loose 40 minutes now, don’t miss their discussion. If you don’t… find 40 minutes!
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On to the news…
Asia
Post-occupation Afghanistan
Last Thursday, NBC News highlighted the difficulties faced by Afghan civilians trying to obtain visas to flee, with 70% of pending applicants for humanitarian parole remaining in Afghanistan, from where they cannot complete the process as there is no U.S. Embassy to hold an interview. | On Friday, an IS-claimed bombing in Kabul’s Hazara-majority neighborhood claimed at least 8 lives and injured another 18. | On Saturday, another bombing in Kabul’s southwestern Pol-e-Sukhta area claimed 8 lives and injured another 22. | On Sunday, another bombing took place in central Kabul, bringing the weekend’s casualty toll to ~120. On the same day, authorities in Germany disclosed they had revised downward their intention to evacuate 7.700 former staffers of German institutions between July and September, after they were barely able to evacuate more than 1.000 in July due to Taliban obstruction of departures to Pakistan necessary to relocate onward to Germany.
Myanmar and its neighbors
Last Monday, health authorities in Cox’s Bazaar tallied just under 7.700 dengue fever infections thus far this year, and 4 fatalities, among encamped Rohingya refugees. | On Wednesday, authorities in Thailand detained 43 Burmese asylum seekers and 2 smugglers in the western Sangkhla Buri district. | On Thursday, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability issued a report identifying 31 senior military and civilian Burmese officers holding command responsibility for crimes of genocide against the Rohingya people (see the CIJA’s full report here). On the same day, Bangladeshi authorities announced they had received pledges from U.S. and Canadian authorities to support Rohingya refugees contained in Bhasan Char. | On Friday, aid workers in Myanmar’s east-central Kayah State signaled alarm over dwindling food and medicine supplies in local IDP camps, amid a military blockade of humanitarian suplies into the region.
Sources: NBC News, Hasht-e Subh, Reuters, UNAMA, Deutsche-Welle, New Age Bangladesh, Bangkok Post, bdnews24, JURIST, RFA.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Conflict and displacement in the Sahel
Last Monday, heavy flooding in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State displaced nearly 7.400 people living in just under 350 damaged structures in Banki IDP camp. | On Wednesday, regional authorities in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara State announced they had reached a ceasefire agreement with local armed groups, and ordered all IDPs in the region to return to their homes within the next 2 weeks to resume their normal lives. | On Saturday, Daily Trust highlighted the deteriorating conditions faced by IDPs in Nigeria’s east-central and west-central Niger and Benue States amid heavy rains.
Ethiopia’s civil war
Last Tuesday, the EU and U.S. Special Envoys for the Horn of Africa traveled to Mekelle to meet TPLF leadership, obtaining a letter guaranteeing safe passage to workers entering Tigray to restore essential services interrupted by the war. | On Wednesday, Ethiopian Reporter revealed that just over 8.750 civilians were displaced by fighting in south-central Ethiopia’s Bale Zone over the last month, the latest of ~53.000 displaced in the region since 2017. | On Thursday, Ethiopian authorities chastised the U.S. and EU envoys on the heels of their Tuesday visit, accusing them of partiality and appeasement. On the same day, UN-OCHA released its April-June 2022 Ethiopia Education quarterly report, finding that ~2.93 million children in Ethiopia—roughly 17% of Ethiopia’s school-age children—are entering their 3rd year out of school as of mid-2022, with ~2.5 million children and ~2.500 schools affected nationwide by conflict, and another ~1.6 million children and ~1.500 schools affected nationwide by drought (see OCHA’s quarterly report here).
Conflict and mobility in east Africa
Last Tuesday, UNHCR issued an urgent appeal for contributions to its response in the DRC, warning its $225 million operation was only 19% funded, leaving it ill-equipped to assist the DRC’s 5.6 million IDPs. On the same day, The EastAfrican highlighted the launch of a labor migration scheme that will see Zimbabwean educators, unable to find work domestically, recruited to fill skill-shortages in Rwanda, with 491 candidates included in the initial recruitment pool.
Sources: HumAngle, Daily Trust, Addis Standard, AFP, VOA, The EastAfrican.
Middle East and North Africa
Yemen’s civil war
Last Tuesday, UN officials announced that Yemen’s warring parties had all agreed to extend the 4-month old ongoing truce for a further 2 months. | On Thursday, U.S. authorities urged Ansar Allah to release 12 detained current and former staffers of the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a and of the UN-HRC and UNESCO missions to Yemen.
Displacement within and beyond in Syria
Last Wednesday, Kurdish forces guarding the al-Hol detention camp announced they had thwarted an attempt to break out 56 IS-linked detainees. | On Friday, Lebanese authorities formally requested support from EU leadership for the repatriation of Syrian refugees from Lebanon. | On Saturday, Turkish authorities announced they had built just over 62.000 homes to shelter Syrian refugees returned to Turkish-controlled areas of northern Syria, intending to build 100.000 homes by the end of this year. On the same day, U.S. authorities announced a $27.8 million commitment to support Syrian refugees and Iraqi IDPs living in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Asylum seeker (im)mobility in the MENA region
Last Thursday, a Court of First Instance in Nador, Morocco, sentenced 14 asylum seekers to 8 years’ imprisonment and to a 2.000-dhiram (~$195) fine in relation to their attempt to irregularly cross the border fence into Melilla late last June, as part of the tragic mass attempted crossing that claimed dozens of lives. | On Sunday, IOM tallied Egypt’s migrant population at ~9 million, 80% of whom originate from Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and Libya.
Sources: AP, Reuters, The New Arab, Daily Sabah, K24, Egypt Independent.
Maritime Migration Routes to & through the West
Central and western Mediterranean
Last Monday, IOM disclosed that, over the week prior, just under 980 asylum seekers had been intercepted at sea and returned to Libya, 13 lifeless bodies retrieved, and 35 missing persons tallied. | On Tuesday, Greek authorities intercepted a vessel in distress near the southeastern Aegean island of Karpathos which had set sail from Lebanon intending to reach Italy, arresting 5 suspected smugglers and bringing 96 asylum seekers to Greek soil. | On Wednesday, Spanish authorities announced they had rescued 61 asylum seekers from 3 distressed vessels off the coast of Mallorca over the 24 hours prior. | On Thursday, Tunisian authorities announced they had prevented the departure of 2 vessels carrying asylum seekers toward Italian waters over the weekend prior, and rescued 73 asylum seekers from multiple distressed vessels in separate operations. On the same day, the GeoBarents (MSF) was authorized to disembark the 659 asylum seekers it had rescued in weeks prior in Taranto, after a 9-day wait for the assignment of a safe port. | On Friday, Alarm Phone signaled the urgent need to rescue 35 asylum seeker in a distressed vessel in Malta’s SAR zone, deploring Maltese authorities’ unwillingness to intervene through the weekend. | On Sunday, authorities in Tunisia announced they had prevented another 17 departures, returning 255 asylum seekers to Tunisian shores. | This Monday, Algerian authorities rescued 6 asylum seekers and retrieved 6 lifeless bodies after a vessel sank off the coast of Algiers. On the same day, the Sea Eye 4 blasted Maltese authorities for denying her a safe port of disembarkation for a full week following its rescue last Monday of 87 asylum seekers in Maltese rescue waters, as it set course for Sicily.
The English Channel
Last Monday, UK authorities tallied just under 700 asylum seeker arrivals in 14 vessels across the English Channel. | On Tuesday, 386 asylum seekers in 8 vessels were intercepted by the Royal Navy in the English Channel. | On Saturday, 337 asylum seekers reached UK shores, bringing the total arrivals thus far this year to over 18.000.
Gulf of Mexico
Last Tuesday, U.S. authorities repatriated 58 Cuban asylum seekers intercepted mid-sea in 6 operations over the previous few days. | On Wednesday, 23 Cuban asylum seekers reached Key West in a makeshift boat, with another smaller group arriving in Key Largo, both of which were promptly apprehended by the Border Patrol. | On Thursday, 108 Cuban asylum seekers reached the Florida Keys in 12 crossings. | On Saturday, over 300 Haitian asylum seekers reached the shores of Key Largo autonomously, running aground on Ocean Reef where they were intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard. On the same day, U.S. authorities returned 53 asylum seekers to Cuba. | On Sunday, Coast Guard officers rescued 8 asylum seekers, retrieved 2 lifeless bodies, and tallied 5 missing persons from a vessel that capsized off the coast of Florida.
Sources: EFE, AP, Majorca Daily Bulletin, ANSA, InfoMigrants, Libya Update, AFP, The New Arab, the Guardian, Local10News, NBC 6
Europe
EU migration policymaking
Last Monday, the European Court of Justice ruled that German authorities must complete family reunification proceedings even if minors abroad become adults while proceedings are pending. | On Thursday, the European Commission announced it had awarded €171 million to 4 of the Med5 states (excluding Malta) and to Poland to expand their asylum seeker reception capacity and improve registration and claims processing. On the same day, Italy’s Constitutional Court ruled that naturalization proceedings launched via marriage to an Italian national cannot be halted if the Italian spouse passes away while proceedings remain pending. Also on Thursday, Portuguese authorities signed into effect a new immigration law facilitating labor migration and offering residency rights to digital nomads. | On Friday, Italian authorities welcomed the first visits from French officials, and a forthcoming German visit, to its reception centers in the first concrete steps toward fulfilling this summer’s EU Council initiative to relocate 10.000 asylum seekers per year from Med5 states to Europe’s interior.
European migration (mis)management
Last Monday, Greek authorities highlighted increasing criminality near the border of Greece and North Macedonia, where criminal gangs extorting asylum seekers murdered Pakistani man and provoked a Lebanese woman to miscarry on the Sunday prior. | On Thursday, authorities on the Italian island of Panetelleria demanded national support to build and operate proper reception infrastructure for arriving asylum seekers, appealing to similar problems—if smaller in scale—to those on display in nearby Lampedusa. | On Saturday, Alarm Phone reported that a several dozen asylum seekers had become stranded on an islet in the Evros river, with Greek and Turkish forces repeatedly pushing them back from their soil onto the islet rather than taking responsibility for their arrival. | On Sunday, authorities in Lithuania tallied just over 200 irregular entry attempts from Belarus.
Displacement within and beyond Ukraine
Last Monday, PAQ Research issued a report finding dismal reception outcomes amid the 5.000 Romani Ukrainian refugees in Czechia, with one third reporting they have experienced discrimination, with nearly 80% of school-age children not yet enrolled in local schools. | On Tuesday, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson clarified that Ukrainian refugees returning to Ukraine from EU soil could de-register from temporary protection and re-register at any point if they chose to leave Ukraine again and re-enter the EU. On the same day, authorities in Germany reported that just over 150.000 Ukrainian children had enrolled in German schools. | On Wednesday, IOM released survey findings revealing that 60% of IDPs in Ukraine have lost their job since becoming displaced, leaving 9% with no income since the late-February Russian invasion and 35% earning below the poverty level (see IOM’s full survey findings here). | On Thursday, Polish authorities reported they had detected just over 900 irregular arrivals from Belarus this July, noting a sizable increase in arrivals from sub-Saharan Africa via Russia. On the same day, Finnish authorities disclosed they had received ~37.000 applications for temporary protection since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, of which they have processed nearly 33.500 and approved all but just under 250. | On Friday, Lithuanian authorities announced the imminent relocation of 2.000 Ukrainian refugees from Moldova. | On Sunday, CNN highlighted the discriminatory treatment suffered by Roma Ukrainian refugees pursuing temporary protection in the EU.
A normal Friday at the Home Office
Last Tuesday, the BBC leaked a July 27 appeal from UK authorities to local councils demanding assistance finding ~2.000 dwellings for ~10.500 Afghan evacuees struggling to get by hotel accommodation in the UK, at a daily cost of £1 million to UK taxpayers. | On Friday, UNHCR and the British Red Cross issued a report detailing the risks of exploitation faced by asylum seekers with cases pending for more than 6 months, imploring the Home Office to allow them to access the labor market and legally support their livelihoods (see the full UNHCR-BRC report here). On the same day, the Guardian revealed Home Office plans to begin monitoring immigrants convicted of criminal offenses by issuing them smartwatches, with which they would be required to submit multiple facial photographs per day to UK authorities. Also on Friday, the Home Office revealed it has spent just under £70 million in 2020-2021 in compensation to Windrush victims and wrongfully detained migrants, and in adverse legal costs tied to over 2.100 legal challenges it lost over the year, with such legal expenses tripling since current Home Secretary Priti Patel’s ascension to the post. | On Sunday, iNews relayed a warning from the Association for Family Mediation of Ukraine on the looming expiration of thousands of 6-month Homes for Ukraine placements, which threaten to leave numerous Ukrainian families bereft of housing before they have become self-sufficient.
Sources: InfoMigrants, ANSA, Alarm Phone, Delfi, Romea.cz, Interfax, AP, TVP, CNN, BBC, the Independent, the Guardian, iNews,
The Americas
U.S. migration policymaking
Last Tuesday, the Biden Administration’s Family Reunification Task Force announced it had reunited another 400 children separated from their families upon arrival at the U.S.-Mexico border under the preceding Administration’s zero-tolerance policy, leaving ~1.000 families yet to be reunited of the ~5.000 thus broken. On the same day, the American Civil Liberties Union issued a letter to CBP denouncing its confiscation and trashing of turbans worn by Sikh asylum seekers, in violation of CBP guidelines protecting the religious identity of arrivals, documenting 64 such cases thus far this year (see the ACLU’s letter here). | On Thursday, Border Report revealed that, in spite on ongoing water restrictions due to drought in South Texas, construction crews in the Rio Grande Valley have continued pumping water from local canals for use building border barriers in the area. | On Friday, the Department of Defense formally declined Washington, DC mayor Muriel Bowser’s request for assistance from the National Guard to shelter and support asylum seekers bussed from Texas and Arizona to east coast cities in a bid to inflame immigration politics.
Irregular migration in Latin America
Last Monday, Mexican authorities extracted 45 asylum seekers from a hidden compartment built into a truck trailer. | On Wednesday, authorities in Mexico issued novel visa rules for Brazilians to access Mexican soil, requiring a paper visa stamped into the traveler’s passport to ensure admission. | On Thursday, Colombian authorities issued a rule allowing displaced Venezuelans holding temporary protection permits to obtain driver licenses. On the same day, authorities in Guatemala arrested 4 human smugglers, pursuant to an indictment issued by the U.S. Justice Department, in relation to the perishing of an asylum seeker in a Texas desert smuggled by their organization and then abandoned as she succumbed to dehydration. | On Friday, Milenio documented nearly 600 sexual assaults over the last 6 years against asylum seeking women in ICE custody. On the same day, Chilean authorities disclosed they had repatriated just under 600 migrants in the first hal fof 2022, with nearly 460 returned to Bolivia. | On Sunday, Mexican authorities announced they had issued 62.000 humanitarian visas thus far this year.
Sources: the Independent, Arizona Luminaria, Border Report, CNN, infobae, EFE, En Frontera, Border Report, Milenio, emol, El Capitalino.
Oceania
Australia’s offshore asylum seeker detention system
Last Monday, Australia’s Home Affairs Department released a transition memo to incoming Immigration Minister Andrew Giles revealing that Australian authorities currently hold 1.414 migrant detainees, 80% of whom have been assessed to present a security risk, and 41% of whom have been in detention for more than 2 years. | On Wednesday, the Kaldor Centre released data finding an only 14% success rate in asylum rejection appeals in Australia, with reversal rates varying by judge from a low of 0% to a high of 89% (see the Kaldor Centre’s full data here).
Sources: the Guardian, ABC.
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