“First of all—the international community should accept their mistakes in Afghanistan.”
August 29-September 5, 2022 Mixed Migration—hebdo
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
“First of all, the international community should accept their mistakes in Afghanistan.”
This week, I wanted to highlight (with only 2 weeks’ delay…) the latest episode of the Fractured Podcast, a collaboration between this space and ReFocus Media Labs. In this episode, Sonia Nandzik discuses a year of Taliban rule with Afghan journalist and filmmaker Said Reza Hossini Adib. The entire episode is well worth a listen, but I wanted to highlight a few outtakes (condensed and lightly edited for clarity).
Asked if it’s fair to say the Taliban have brought security to Afghanistan (25:33), Reza emphatically responds:
“No! It is not… In the past years, the Taliban were killing the people, and right now, the Taliban are controlling the government and so no one is there to kill the people… When I was in Afghanistan, I was not able to travel to the safe provinces, like from Kabul to Bamyan. If I wanted to go from Kabul to Bamyan I was not able to do it, because the Taliban were controlling the roads… It’s so simple: they were killing and right now they are not killing.
For Afgan people there is no difference between ISIS and the Taliban: we know that they are one people, they have the same attitude, the same perspective… the only difference is the color of their flags. One of them is white and one of them is black. For us, if you go talk to a Talib, you cannot understand easily if he is a member of ISIS or a member of the Taliban, because both are talking in the same way…
How many Hazara people were killed in this year? How many Hindu people were killed in this one year? How many suicide attacks happened within this one year, between the Hazara and Shia minority people? The same thing was happening in the past: nothing changed…”
Asked about the difficulties of leaving Afghanistan (32:34), Reza’s voice drops with a hint of involuntary sadness:
“The chance of crossing the border illegally is so low, maybe 10% of people can be successful to cross the border… When you cross the border, if you are in Pakistan there are millions of people in Pakistan and UNHCR is not able to help them, or even to register them. If you want to register in a Pakistan UNHCR office, you should wait for six months… maybe it takes some years for registration. I’m not talking about resettlement, I’m not talking about interview, just registration.
But if you cross the border and you go into Iran, the story is changed. In Iran there is no UNHCR activity; you should go directly to the Iranian immigration office. If they like you, they check your background and maybe they give you some short-term residency, or maybe they do not even give you that.
Of course, if you are not going to stay in Iran, the problems will increase for you, because crossing the border between Iran and Turkey is impossible in these days. There is a big wall, more than 300 kilometers between the Turkey and Iran border, and if you are lucky maybe one person can cross the border… and if you come into Turkey, again the challenge is increased because Turkish police will arrest you and will deport your back. In these days, each week, more than 600 people are deported from Turkey to Afghanistan. They are not stopping deporting. They are deporting… If you want to leave Afghanistan, at least you have to walk one week in the mountains…”
I can’t recommend this episode enough. Thank you Reza for your thoughts.
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On to the news…
Asia
Afghanistan and its neighbors
Last Monday, UN-OCHA appealed for $770 to assist flood- and earthquake-affected civilians in Afghanistan, at least 8.000 of whom have been displaced by natural disasters since June. | On Thursday, the Biden Administration announced it would shortly cease admitting Afghan evacuees through humanitarian parole, to instead launch Operation Enduring Welcome on October 1, focused on relocating family members of Afghan civilians already residing on U.S. soil, SIV applicants, and highly vulnerable resettlement applicants. | On Friday, a bomb attack at the Guzargah Mosque in Herat killed 18 worshipers and wounded another 23. | On Sunday, TOLOnews highlighted further abuses by Tajik authorities against Afghan refugees, disclosing it had received a video documenting the forced repatriation of ~30 Afghan nationals. | This Monday, Pakistani authorities signaled that the death toll of Pakistan’s massive flooding has surpassed 1.300, with ~33 million people displaced and ~6.4 million in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.
Conflict and displacement in Myanmar
Last Monday, the Burmese Coast Guard intercepted 59 Rohingya asylum seekers, and retrieved 6 lifeless bodies, from a boat that had spent several days adrift adrift at sea. | On Tuesday, a spokesman for a local resistance group in Myanmar’s central Sagaing region denounced that ~27.000 civilians had been displaced by Tatmadaw attacks over the previous week. | On Wednesday, aid workers in Myanmar’s east-central Kayah State denounced that junta troops have been blocking humanitarian access and looting aid stocks feeding ~200.000 internally displaced people. | On Thursday, The Irrawaddy relayed Burmese farmers’ expectations for a poor rice harvest this year, given rising costs of fertilizer and pesticide, and agricultural disruption caused by military clashes.
Sources: al Jazeera, CBS News, TOLOnews, RFA, the Irrawaddy.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Conflict and displacement in the Sahel, central Africa, and the Horn of Africa
Last Monday, local authorities in northeastern Nigeria announced that a bridge connecting Yobe and Borno communities had been destroyed by flash flooding, displacing 7.000 in place local households and killing 4 individuals. | On Wednesday, national authorities announced that 500.000 people had been affected by flooding in Nigeria thus far this year, including just under 73.500 displaced. | On Friday, UN-OCHA’s Protection Sector North-East Nigeria issued a report criticizing Borno State authorities for rushing to close regional IDP camps, releasing just over 103.500 IDPs into an uncertain near future (see the full PSNE report here). | On Saturday, local authorities tallied 120 civilians displaced from embattled Kwamouth, in the western DRC, toward the crossroads town of Mongati east of Kinshasa, as authorities demand of internal migrants to return from Kwamouth to their provinces of origin. | This Monday, UN-OCHA head Martin Griffiths warned that on the heels of a 4th consecutive failed rainy season, famine was all but assured to strike Somalia between October and December, affecting 22 million civilians.
Ethiopia’s civil war
Last Wednesday, the TPLF accused Ethiopian forces of multiple airstrikes against Mekelle, as it also announced an offensive into Western Tigray, held by national troops and Amharan militia. | On Thursday, the TPLF accused Ethiopian and Eritrean forces of launching an attack on Adayabo, in Western Tigray’s northeast. | On Friday, Sudanese authorities announced they had granted asylum to 247 Tigrayan soldiers deployed in Sudan as part of Ethiopia’s contribution to a UN peacekeeping force, and fearful of facing facing repression upon return to Ethiopia. | On Sunday, Sudanese authorities urged aid groups to withdraw from Hamdayet refugee camp, hosting Tigrayan refugees just over the border in Sudan, due to risks engendered by spiraling conflict in Western Tigray.
Sources: HumAngle, Reuters, al Jazeera, Sudan Tribune.
Middle East and North Africa
Displacement within and beyond Syria
Last Monday, the Syrian Network for Human Rights issued a report tallying just over 123.250 civilians detained by the Assad regime since 2011, as well as at least another ~6.250 detentions and ~13.500 disappearances by non-state armed groups (see the SNHR’s full report here). | On Sunday, a 17-year old Syrian medical student was beaten and murdered in Turkey, as xenophobic rhetoric and attacks against refugees and migrants ratchets up ahead of Turkish presidential elections. | This Monday, Al-Monitor highlighted the problems caused by extreme heat and water shortages in IDP camps in northeast Syria, over 590 are facing water rationing an 126 of which have suffered fires since the beginning of the year.
Asylum seeker (im)mobility in the MENA region
Last Wednesday, Amnesty International issued a report documenting mistreatment and human rights abuses by Turkish and Iranian authorities, including arbitrary detention and torture, in the repatriation of Afghan asylum seekers in irregular transit, documenting at least 255 illegal deportations between July 2021 and July 2022 (see AI’s full report here). On the same day, UN OCHA tallied nearly 260.000 Sudanese civilians affected by flooding that destroyed 15.000 homes, and damaged another 39.000 across 15 of Sudan’s 18 provinces. Also on Wednesday, Sözcü reported that the Turkish Foreign Ministry had put the Education Ministry on notice regarding use by Turkey’s 20.000 yearly Erasmus program grantees to travel into the EU and then seek asylum. | On Saturday, Turkish authorities boasted that, thus far this year, they had deported just under 75.700 irregular migrants, and prevented just under 205.000 irregular arrivals.
Yemen’s civil war
Last Wednesday, UN officials lamented that the $80 million FSO Safer rescue operation remains $14 million underfunded months after announcing a rescue plan, revealing that of the $66 pledged so far, only $10 million has actually been disbursed as of early September.
Sources: MEMO, Al-Monitor, InfoMigrants, al Jazeera, duvaR, Daily Sabah, VOA.
Maritime Migration Routes to & through Europe
Mediterranean and Aegean Seas
Last Monday, Libyan authorities announced that they had rescued 6 asylum seekers, retrieved 2 lifeless bodies, and tallied 19 missing persons from a vessel that had set sail from Egypt to try to reach Italy, but sank off the coast of Libya. On the same day, Spanish authorities announced they had retrieved the lifeless bodies of 7 asylum seekers who had perished in an unknown shipwreck. | On Tuesday, Greek authorities rescued 30 asylum seekers from a distressed vessel drifting in waters northwest of Crete. | On Wednesday, Italian authorities announced they had retrieved 5 lifeless bodies off the coast of Sardinia, from a yet unknown shipwreck. | On Friday, Alarm Phone relayed that 80 asylum seekers who had been adrift in the Maltese SAR zone since Wednesday had been rescued and disembarked in Malta. | On Sunday, the Ocean Viking (S.O.S. Méditerranée) disembarked 459 asylum seekers it had rescued over the week prior in the Italian port of Taranto.
Atlantic-adjacent waters: Ruta Canaria and the English Channel
Last Tuesday, Salvamento Marítimo rescued 58 asylum seekers from a distressed vessel in waters 55 kilometers off of Fuerteventura. | On Saturday, the UK Ministry of Defence detected 960 asylum seekers crossing the English Channel in 20 vessels. On the same day, French authorities prevented another 190 asylum seekers from crossing the English Channel in 4 operations. | On Sunday, Salvamento Marítimo rescued 106 asylum seekers from 2 distressed vessels in waters off of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, as another 47 asylum seekers reached Lanzarote autonomously.
Gulf of Mexico
Last Tuesday, El Espectador revealed that Colombian authorities had intercepted 220 asylum seekers transiting through the coral island of San Andrés, off the eastern coast of Nicaragua, to then land on Nicaraguan shores and thus bypass the Darién Gap. On the same day, Colombian authorities intercepted another 3 vessels off of San Andrés, carrying another 19 asylum seekers. | On Wednesday, U.S. authorities apprehended 8 asylum seekers shortly after they arrived autonomously to Lantana—along Florida’s southeastern coast and far north of usual arrivals. U.S. authorities intercepted a ship carrying ~15 asylum seekers near Hollywood Beach, in southeastern Florida. | On Saturday, U.S. authorities apprehended 42 asylum seekers who had arrived autonomously in Dry Tortugas and Islamorada in the Florida Keys. | On Sunday, Colombian authorities intercepted 58 asylum seekers on 6 vessels trying to bypass the Darién Gap via the island of San Andrés. | This Monday, U.S. authorities apprehended 15 asylum seekers upon their autonomous arrival to Haulover Beach just south of Ft. Lauderdale.
Sources: InfoMigrants, ANSA, Times of Malta, euronews, EFE, AFP, The New Arab, El Espectador, RCN, WBFP, Local10News, NBC Miami.
Europe
EU migration policymaking
Last Wednesday, the Guardian relayed direct testimony of Alaa Hamoudi—plaintiff in a lawsuit against Greek authorities—detailing his personal experience of a maritime pushback in April 2020, as Frontex Fundamental Rights Officer Jonas Grimheden’s suggested he intends to place Greek authorities under closer surveillance. On the same day, 41 asylum seekers resettled from Libya to Norway as part of a UNHCR humanitarian flight funded by Italian authorities. | On Thursday, The Irish Times tallied that just under 102.000 asylum seekers have been returned to Libya since 2017 under the EU facility supporting the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept asylum seeker vessels at sea. | On Friday, al Jazeera highlighted increasing difficulties faced by Turkish nationals to obtain Schengen visas, with rejection rates tallied to have increased from 4% in 2014 to 17% in 2021.
European migration (mis)management
Last Tuesday, Médecins sans Frontières blasted Lithuanian authorities’ mistreatment of non-Western asylum seekers who arrived in the last year from Belarus, denouncing that Nigerian and Indian asylum seekers are being subjected to prolonged, extrajudicial detention, while Belarusian and Russian asylum seekers are allowed access to community processing (see MSF’s full statement here). | On Thursday, BGNES revealed that asylum seeker reception centers in Bulgaria are 20% over-capacity, with both detainees and center staff straining under the pressure. | On Friday, Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic accused Dutch authorities of running the Ter Apel asylum seeker reception center in violation of the minimum standards set out in the European Convention on Human Rights, as Dutch judicial authorities found no criminal conduct in the perishing of a 3-month old infant in Ter Apel in late August. On the same day, Dutch authorities announced the relocation of 370 asylum seekers from Ter Apel to Albergen, in east-central Netherlands; and to Delft, near The Hague. | On Sunday, Dutch authorities announced they had begun building a 700-bed temporary facility in Het Hogeland, near Ter Apel.
Dystopia at the Home Office
Last Tuesday, UK authorities disclosed they are in discussions with Albanian officials to provide the Border Force access to Albanian biometric databases, and possible secondment by Albanian police, to check Albanian arriving asylum seekers for any potential criminal history. | On Wednesday, opposition lawmakers accused Home Secretary Priti Patel of misleading Parliament by claiming that the majority of cross-Channel arrivals were economic migrants, a claim contradicted by recently issued Home Office data showing that, since 2018, 94% of arrivals claimed asylum and 92% of those claims were found to be admissible. | On Thursday, Medical Justice issued a report tallying unusually high rates of PTSD and suicidal ideation among an admittedly limited sample of 36 asylum seekers slated for deportation to Rwanda (see MJ’s full report here). | On Sunday, litigation resumed in the High Court to adjudicate the legality—or lack thereof—of the UK-Rwanda deportation agreement. This Monday, Home Secretary Priti Patel resigned her position, committing to return to the Parliamentary backbench once incoming Prime Minister Liz Truss appoints a new Home Secretary.
Displacement within and beyond Ukraine
Last Wednesday, Brazilian authorities extended eligibility for 2-year temporary protection permits to Ukrainian refugees arriving through March 2023. | On Thursday, EU officials opened a medavac center in the southeastern Polish city of Rzeszow, to expand on existing capacities that have allowed 1.100 medical evacuations from within Ukraine to hospitals across Europe since last March. | On Sunday, Tribune Magazine highlighted the difficulties facing displaced Ukrainian Roma with Hungarian roots in their efforts toward local settlement and integration in Hungary.
Sources: the Guardian, Libya Update, The Irish Times, al Jazeera, HumAngle, EURACTIV, AP, NLTimes, the Independent, Agência Brasil, Tribune.
The Americas
U.S. migration policymaking
Last Wednesday, CNN revealed that Texas has spent ~$12 million since last May to bus ~8.900 asylum seekers from the U.S.-Mexico border to Washington, D.C. and New York, as its governor announced novel departures to Chicago. On the same day, New Mexico Political Report relayed pleas from legal advocates to close the overcrowded and under-serviced Torrance County asylum seeker detention site—where a youth wrongfully incarcerated perished by suicide the Friday prior. | On Thursday, U.S. and Mexican officials rescued 37 and 39 asylum seekers, respectively and retrieved 9 lifeless bodies in total, along a swollen stage of the Rio Grande. On the same day, authorities in Jamaica announced they would be dispatching a fact-finding team to meet with Jamaican seasonal agricultural workers in Canada, in response to a mid-August appeal to authorities deploring grievous abuse and near-slavery labor conditions in Canadian farms. Also on Thursday, Mexican banking authorities disclosed that remittance inflows had exceeded 5 billion for the 3rd consecutive month this August, exceeding revenues from tourism and oil production. | On Friday, Reuters revealed that Houston Police are trying to locate 57 unaccompanied asylum seeking minors released from HHS custody to non-parent sponsors, who have gone missing from the care of these sponsors. On the same day, The Texas Tribune highlighted ironic dimensions of the Texas governor’s asylum seeker busing plan, including its provision of free transportation from jurisdictions in Texas with high asylum rejection rates, to jurisdictions with high asylum approval rates. Also on Friday, Voice of America relayed the concerns of U.S. resettlement agencies with the fact that less than 16.750 resettlement arrivals have taken place thus far this fiscal year, against a target of 125.000—all while the arrival under humanitarian parole of ~75.000 Afghan and ~60.000 Ukrainian nationals places agencies under parallel strain to facilitate status adjustment at scale.
Irregular migration in Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean
Last Tuesday, Mexican authorities disclosed they had issued 21.000 Tarjetas de Visitante Trabajador Fronterizo (Visiting Border Worker Cards)—which allow circular labor migration across its southern borders—since December 2018. On the same day, an asylum seeker caravan that had departed Tapachula on the Friday prior arrived in Huixtla, where its access to the town’s Centro de Atención Integral al Tránsito Fronterizo was blocked by security forces. | On Wednesday, U.S. and Mexican authorities repatriated 88 and 60 Cuban nationals, respectively. | On Friday, the Associated Press highlighted the difficulties faced by Nicaraguan asylum seekers to access protection in Costa Rica, where a backlog of 200.000 pending asylum claims and 50.000 arrivals awaiting the opportunity to file a claim have strained state resources. On the same day, a novel 400-person strong caravan departed from Tapachula toward Oaxaca. | On Sunday, the U.S. Coast guard repatriated 163 asylum seekers intercepted at sea to Cuba. On the same day, Guatemalan authorities announced that, pursuant to signals from Honduran authorities that a caravan was forming in Honduras, they had prevented 457 irregular entries into Guatemala. Also on Sunday, authorities in Guatemala apprehended 180 asylum seekers irregularly present on Guatemalan soil.
Displacement and integration in South America
Last Monday, Bolivian authorities disclosed that nearly 4.350 foreign nationals without status had obtained one-year residence permits since last year—including just over 1.600 Venezuelan nationals. | On Wednesday, authorities in Ecuador launched a campaign to regularize the ~513.000 Venezuelan nationals irregularly present in Ecuador. On the same day, Universidad del Rosario and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation estimated there are 2.33 million Venezuelan nationals in Colombia—60% of the total displaced population—1.3 million of whom are holders of temporary protected status. | This Monday, Ualá, a major bank in Colombia, announced it would accept Temporary Protection Permits as permissible identification to open a bank account, facilitating access to financial services to displaced Venezuelans in Colombia.
Sources: The Texas Tribune, NMPR, AP, al Jazeera, Border Report, Reuters, VOA, El Universal, El Informador, cibercuba, AP, EFE, AGN, El Nacional, infobae, La República, La Opinión.
Oceania
Labor migration to Australia
On Friday, authorities in Australia announced they would lift the annual long-term immigrant intake from 35.000 to 195.000 to meet the Australian labor market’s hiring needs.
Sources: AP.
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