July 25-August 1, 2022 Mixed Migration—hebdo
This week, we hold another Groundhog Day reflection on pushbacks in the Aegean & accountability & respect for human rights at EU external borders, before turning to the week's migration developments.
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
Greece. Frontex. Groundhog Day. Again.
I don’t have the wherewithal to write about this again. Neither is it necessary: every nauseating detail has been detailed ad nauseam. There was never any doubt that Greek authorities were pushing back asylum seekers to Turkey. There was never any doubt that EU officials knew and tacitly approved. There remains no doubt that the European Union, nominally committed to practicing accountability and to protecting human rights, has long dispensed with both at its external borders.
Neither can I do justice to how important Lighthouse Reports’ work has been, over the last half-decade, in restoring accountability to the human rights black hole that the EU’s external borders have become. It’s unlikely that OLAF, the EU anti-fraud agency, would have been stirred to investigate Frontex’ wrongdoing lies in the Aegean and Central Mediterranean, had Lighthouse not been exposing Frontex’s lies with forensic precision, for years. Now that it has, it’s high time for OLAF’s investigation to be released to the public.
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On to the news…
Asia
Post-occupation Afghanistan
Last Tuesday, Reuters revealed that U.S. and Taliban negotiators had been discussing proposals to unfreeze $3.5 billion in U.S. held reserves of the Afghan Central Bank, which U.S. officials refuse to release if the bank remains under Taliban control, proposing instead its deposit into a multilaterally administered reconstruction trust fund. | On Wednesday, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Repatriation and Refugees disclosed that ~6.000 Afghans had returned from Iran over the week prior, ~5.600 of whom had been deported by Iranian authorities. On the same day, the MIRR announced that 228 displaced families, comprising 2.000 people in total, had returned from Kabul to their home provinces. | On Thursday, TOLOnews relayed the continuing frustration of Afghan civilians facing stubborn delays to obtain passports, with provincial offices not functioning and the existing centralized system not allowing joint family applications. | On Friday, the UK Foreign Office signaled it may not consider Afghan civilians who collaborated with UK-facilitated aid and development efforts as sufficiently at risk to qualify for evacuation visas, which it largely intends to reserve for those who collaborated with UK military operations.
Myanmar and its neighbors
Last Tuesday, ~5.000 civilians were displaced by Tatmadaw raids on 5 villages in Myanmar’s central Sagaing province. | On Thursday, another ~1.000 civilians, recently returned to their villages from prior displacement, were displaced again by Tatmadaw raids on 2 villages in Sagaing. | This Monday, authorities in Bangladesh tallied nearly 7.700 dengue fever cases in Rohingya refugee camps near Cox’s Bazaar thus far this year, over 1.000 of which were detected in the second half of July alone. On the same day, the ruling junta in Yangon announced a 6-month extension to the ongoing state of emergency in Myanmar.
Labor and asylum-seeking mobility in southeast Asia
Last Wednesday, Malaysian authorities revealed that their Indonesian counterparts had agreed to allow a resumption in labor migrant departures to Malaysia starting August 1, pursuant to a bilateral agreement on laborer protections. | On Thursday, authorities in the Philippines announced the raising of the minimum age for domestic workers to travel abroad from 23 to 24, to reduce risks of labor trafficking. | On Saturday, the Central News Agency disclosed that Taiwanese authorities had recently approved measures allowing refugees from Hong Kong to apply for Taiwanese citizenship after 5 years’ asylum and residence in Taiwan.
Sources: Reuters, TOLOnews, the Guardian, The Irrawaddy, EFE, Gulf News, CNA.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Ethiopia’s civil war
Last Wednesday, the WFP conducted the first aid delivery in over a year to Wag Hemra, a region in northeastern Ahmara State contested between the TPLF and Amharan forces and currently hosting ~90.000 IDPs. On the same day, USAID announced an additional $488 million commitment to deliver emergency aid to 8.1 million people in southeastern Ethiopia facing acute food insecurity on the heels of 4 consecutive failed rainy seasons. | On Thursday, the Guardian relayed the testimony of Eritrean refugees and dual nationals arbitrarily detained in Ethiopia and rendered to detention camps. | On Saturday, the UN International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia concluded a 5-day preliminary visit, ahead of further fact-finding missions, demanding of national authorities that they facilitate full access to relevant areas of investigation.
Conflict and displacement in the Sahel and West Africa
Last Wednesday, the Red Cross reported that 15 civilians had been killed, and 1.300 households displaced, by widespread flooding across the CAR. On the same day, Mongabay highlighted the conversion of biomass into charcoal briquettes in the Minawao refugee camp in Cameroon, helping—in tandem with a reforestation initiative—reduce the environmental impact of the camp. | On Thursday, local authorities began relocating ~66.000 IDPs from camps in in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State to their communities of origin. | On Saturday, heavy rains caused sudden flooding in eastern Uganda, killing at least 21 civilians and displacing thousands, with at least 1.000 households affected. | This Monday, heavy flooding killed 95 at least civilians and destroyed at least 360 homes in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Yobe. On the same day, authorities in Monrovia announced they are finalizing preparations to repatriate Liberians remaining in exile in Ghana on the heels of the civil wars that wracked Liberia from 1989 to 2003.
Sources: Addis Standard, the Guardian, HumAngle, Mongabay, Liberian Daily Observer, AFP.
Middle East and North Africa
Displacement within and beyond Syria
Last Wednesday, Turkish authorities signaled that renewed military operations against Kurdish militia in northeast Syria could begin within a week. | On Thursday, the first aid convoy reached Idlib through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, under the renewed mandate approved on July 11 by the UN Security Council. On the same day, the Syrian Response Coordination Group released findings from a survey tallying that 92% of IDPs in Syria are concerned that access to clean water is insufficient in the IDP camps they inhabit. | On Friday, UNHCR signaled its concern with increasing violence and discrimination against Syrian refugees in Lebanon, amid increasingly dire food price increases and supply shortages. | On Sunday, local TV reports revealed that 12.000 refugees in Jordan had been denied cash benefits in July due to UNHCR funding shortfalls.
Asylum seeker (im)mobility in the MENA region
Last Wednesday, Italian authorities voted to renew financial support for the Libyan Coast Guard through December of 2022. On the same day, IOM facilitated the repatriation of 175 Nigerian asylum seekers from Libya. | On Thursday, iNews relayed the testimony of asylum seekers rescued by the Ocean Viking regarding the abuses they suffered while in detention in Libya. On the same day, Germany’s human rights commissioner denounced Libyan authorities over their mistreatment of asylum seekers. | On Sunday, Turkish authorities disclosed that they had repatriated just over 59.000 asylum seekers thus far this year, and denied entry to just under 84.000 in the same span of time. On the same day, Turkish authorities further diclosed that they had repatriated 301 Haitian asylum seekers, in their first-ever transtrantic deportation flight.
Yemen’s civil war
On Friday, officials of Yemen’s UAE-aligned Southern Transitional Council leaked that they are confident the ongoing humanitarian ceasefire in Yemen will be extended past its current expiration date next Tuesday, but added that they expect an eventual resumption of hostilities rather than progress toward a durable peace. | This Monday, al Jazeera relayed the testimonials of Yemeni civilians in the wake of ongoing ceasefire negotiations, unsure whether hostilities will resume but realistic about continued hardship ahead.
Sources: Bloomberg, The New Arab, AP, The Libya Update, iNews, the National, Daily Sabah, Middle East Monitor, al Jazeera.
Maritime Migration Routes to & through the West
Ruta Canaria & the English Channel
Last Monday, Salvamento Marítimo rescued 42 asylum seekers from a distressed vessel in waters off of Lanzarote. On the same day, Moroccan authorities rescued 18 asylum seekers at sea, and retrieved 8 lifeless bodies, after the vessel in which they had hoped to reach the Canary Islands sank off the coast of Tarfaya. | On Sunday, UK authorities diclosed that over 1.000 asylum seekers had irregularly crossed the English Channel over the week prior.
Mediterranean and Aegean Seas
Last Tuesday, Cypriot authorities reported they had intercepted 120 asylum seekers attempting to reach Cyprus by sea, from Turkey or from Lebanon, over the previous 48 hours. | On Wednesday, the Civil Fleet reported that, following the rescue of ~500 asylum seekers by the GeoBarents (MSF), there were 1.400 asylum seekers on 3 rescue ships awaiting safe ports of disembarkation in the Central Mediterranean. | On Thursday, Italian authorities reported that despite its efforts to relocate asylum seekers overcrowded reception center in Lampedusa, concomitant arrivals had kept the 350-capacity facility’s population around 2.000 residents through the week. On the same day, Greek authorities intercepted an overloaded ship carrying 166 asylum seekers, which had set sail from Lebanon intending to reach Italy, but broke down near the southeast Aegean island of Karpathos, detaining 5 smugglers and bringing the remaining passengers ashore for processing in Greece. | On Saturday, Salvamento Marítimo rescued 26 asylum seekers off the coast of Alicante, for a total of 5 rescue operations retrieving 79 asylum seekers off the southeastern Spanish coast this week. On the same day, Turkish authorities reported they had rescued several dozen asylum seekers on 2 vessels they believe had been pushed back from Greek waters. | On Sunday, the Ocean Viking (S.O.S. Méditerannée) received authorization to disembark 380 asylum seekers in Salerno, one day after the Sea-Watch 3 disembarked 438 asylum seekers in Taranto and as the GeoBarents (MSF) awaited authorization to disembark 660 asylum seekers.
Gulf of Mexico
Last Wednesday, 16 Cuban asylum seekers reached Florida autonomously, making landfall near Key West. | On Thursday, U.S. Coast Guard officers rescued 68 asylum seekers stranded by smugglers on Mona Island, an uninhabited landmass between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, retrieving the lifeless bodies of 5 asylum seekers who did not manage to safely reach shore. | On Friday, a passing cruise ship rescued 12 asylum seekers adrift on a distressed vessel in waters off of Florida. | On Saturday, U.S. Coast Guard officers rescued 15 asylum seekers stranded on Marquesas Key, an uninhabited island west of Key West. | On Saturday, a sailboat carrying 141 Haitian asylum seekers hoping to reach U.S. soil ran aground on the Cuban coast after 8 days at sea.
Sources: EFE, InfoMigrants, BBC, ANSA, el Español, Daily Sabah, Local10 News, AP.
Europe
EU migration policymaking
Last Thursday, Lighthouse Reports revealed part of the contents of the EU anti-fraud agency’s investigation into wrongdoing at Frontex, including covering up the conduct of asylum seeker pushbacks in the Aegean Sea, and undermining Frontex’s own Fundamental Rights Officer corps. On the same day, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, on a previously planned visit to Athens, admonished Greek leaders to launch a credible formal investigation into the conduct of pushbacks. | On Sunday, Irish authorities concluded a 6-month status regularization exercise that has seen ~7.200 irregular migrants apply, and over 1.450 obtain status thus far, out of an estimated 15.000-17.000 irregular migrants estimated in Ireland upon the launch of the scheme. | This Monday, the European Court of Justice issued a ruling preventing national authorities from impounding maritime search-and-rescue ships due to returning over capacity from rescue missions.
European migration (mis)management
Last Monday, Austrian authorities disclosed that one quarter of all Austrians have a migrant background, further revealing that, were it not for immigration, Austria would currently be facing a decline in its population. | On Thursday, UN Special Rapporteur Human Rights of Migrants Felipe González denounced the double standards he observed, over a 2-week visit to Poland, between its facilitation of services and support to displaced Ukrainians and the barriers raised before third-country nationals displaced from Ukraine. On the same day, authorities in Estonia announced they would be ceasing the right of Russian and Belarusian nationals to obtain temporary residency and student visas. | On Friday, Finnish authorities disclosed they are considering blocking access to tourist visas for Russian nationals, which would close a loophole that has allowed Russians to enter the Schengen Zone and transit from Finland to other EU countries no longer admitting visa requests from Russian applicants. | On Saturday, Italian police arrested the perpetrator of the deadly assault of Alika Ogorchukwu, a disabled migrant street vendor, whose assassination was captured in a video that spread across Italian media. | On Sunday, Bosnian authorities deported 2 Pakistani asylum seekers, as a pilot for a broader repatriation agreement recently signed between Bosnia and Pakistan.
Displacement within and beyond Ukraine
Last Wednesday, the Polish Economic Institute issued an estimate tallying that authorities and private citizens in Poland are set to spend ~25 billion zloty (~€5.3 million), or ~1% of Poland’s GDP on providing support to Ukrainian refugees this year. | On Thursday, UK authorities disclosed that ~104.000 refugees had arrived to the UK since the February 24 Russian invasion of Ukraine, with an additional ~62.000 visas issued to refugees who have yet to travel, and another ~32.000 visa applications awaiting adjudication. On the same day, advocates in Scotland called for the urgent relocation of Ukrainian refugees temporarily housed on a cruise ship docked in Edinburgh, as part of a stopgap solution to an accommodation shortage across Scotland. | On Friday, U.S. authorities disclosed that Ukrainian refugee arrivals to the U.S. had exceeded 100.000, pledging to continue admitting Ukrainians past this mark.
Sources: der Spiegel, Deutsche-Welle, RTE, AP, InfoMigrants, Baltic Times, the Guardian, Balkan Insight, Bloomberg, the Independent, CBS News.
The Americas
U.S. border control
Last Wednesday, advocates celebrated the rescinding of several border wall construction contracts near Laredo, while continuing to lament planned construction in the Rio Grande Valley and in San Diego. | On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and the Texas Civil Rights Project filed a formal complaint with the Justice Department alleging that Texas troopers patrolling in south Texas as part of Operation Lone Star are discriminatorily targeting Latino drivers for identity checks, and that resulting car chases have led to 30 fatalities since last March (see the full complaint here). On the same day, ICE revealed it had raided 6 stash houses where 73 asylum seekers were confined in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Also on Thursday, The Dallas Morning News revealed a disturbing practice by some CBP agents found to have falsified asylum seekers’ responses to reasonable fear interviews in order to channel them into expedited removal, with few legal remedies to challenge express repatriation. | On Friday, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse issued a report tallying that ~17% of deportation cases going before U.S. immigration courts are being dismissed due to CBP officials negleting to file standard paperwork with courts, leading to over 47.000 dismissals thus far this year, sparing the subjects of litigation from being deported, but landing them in an uncertain limbo after dismissal.
Irregular migration in Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean
Last Monday, the Inter-American Dialogue issued a report linking democratic deficits and poor human rights protection in Latin America with emigration aspirations, noting that, over 2021, the proportion of Nicaraguans wishing to emigrate increased from 15% to 65% (see IAD’s full report here). | On Tuesday, members of the novel caravan that had departed from Tapachula to Huixtla over the weekend prior demonstrated in front of the local Instituto Nacional de Migración offices, and at the main highway entrance into Huixtla, to demand the issuance of travel documents. | On Wednesday, INM officials raided a house being used by smugglers in Tapachula, releasing 100 asylum seekers from potential harm. | On Thursday, 94 asylum seekers managed to force their way out—thus avoiding suffocation—of a trailer in which they were transiting irregularly across Mexico, after it was abandoned on a roadside in Veracruz. | On Friday, authorities in Honduras disclosed they had intercepted 54.275 irregular migrants trying to transit across Honduran soil thus far this year. On the same day, the Inter-American Dialogue issued a study finding that the arrival of about half a million labor migrants from Latin America to the U.S. thus far this year has driven a 14% increase in remittances to the region, with person-to-person remittance links growing to 5 million in Central America alone (see the IAD’s full report here). | On Saturday, Mexican authorities repatriated 126 Venezuelan asylum seekers intercepted transiting across Mexico without proper authorization. On the same day, Guatemalan authorities disclosed they had expelled 27 Cuban asylum seekers over the previous 3 days. | On Sunday, authorities in Honduras tallied nearly 64.000 asylum seeker crossings thus far this year through Honduran soil toward the U.S.-Mexico border.
Sources: Border Report, NBC News, The Dallas Morning News, TRAC, 100% Noticias, infobae, el Diario del Sur, AP, EFE, cibercuba, La Prensa.
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