“…potential millions of inhabitants of recently- and permanently-submerged land will need to relocate—permanently”
September 19-26, 2022 Mixed Migration—hebdo; reflecting on Pakistan's floods, their implications re: broader debates on climate migration, & on our obligations to the displaced. Then, 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
Since late August, Pakistan has been suffering its worst flooding in recorded history, with floodwaters covering ~250.000 square kilometers (roughly the area of the United Kingdom) and affecting ~33 million people (roughly the population of Canada). Between monsoon rains 5-10 times heavier than usual and unusually intense heatwaves accelerating the melting of its ~7.200 glaciers, it’s hard to find words to describe the scale of the damage. Perhaps the only words needed are: that climate change is here, that it’s punishing the most vulnerable and least prepared, and that—courtesy of our collective neglect—it’ll eventually punish us all.
It will punish most harshly those least prepared—and in this regard, the Pakistani people have been served poorly by their government. Over the last decade, Pakistan’s national disaster planning approach has been dominated by the construction of large-scale infrastructure, rather than by working with civil society and communities to make them more resilient. Flood barriers protect downstream communities so long as they hold, but if they breach, the damage borne downstream is that much greater. When that downstream is inhabited by ~140 million rural dwellers, who are poorly served by existing flood-protection infrastructure and facing pre-existing limited access to healthcare, that damage quickly becomes catastrophic. And yet, as both Pakistani and Bangladeshi leaders signaled at this week’s UN General Assembly, it is cruelly unfair to saddle their respective citizenries with the cost of climate change. Pakistan’s ~230 million inhabitants account for 3% of the global population but only 1% of its carbon emissions."
Thus far, most flood-borne displacement in Pakistan has been internal. This is as useful a reminder as any to be cautious when equating disaster as cause to migration as effect. Climate migration is neither as real as free-movement advocates represent it, nor as contrived as xenophobes would wish. Rather, it’s a fluid phenomenon: one of numerous possible strategies that disaster-affected communities might draw on to protect their livelihoods and support their well-being. It isn’t yet clear how permanent the displacement caused by ongoing floods will be. This August may well have seen the birth of new inland seas in Pakistan; potential millions of inhabitants of recently- and permanently-submerged land will need to relocate—permanently.
Not that displaced Pakistanis will have it easy trying to reach exile in the West. Iranian authorities have received Afghan refugees with bitter hostility over the last year, while Turkish authorities, ahead of a general election next year, are deporting asylum seekers at a dizzying rate. And yet, even if displacement remains internal, there are international implications already in play. Pakistan hosts ~1.4 million Afghan refugees, ~420.000 of whom live in flood-affected areas. Including them in reconstruction efforts, and considering their particular needs when planning reconstruction efforts, will be essential to helping flood-affected communities rebuild in a way that builds up their resilience.
If Pakistan’s floods generate significant external migration, aid should be calibrated according to the varying needs of flood-affected people remaining in place, flood-affected people migrating internally, and flood-affected people migrating externally. Those that wish to remain, or that would prefer to migrate but cannot, will need assistance to rebuild their livelihoods and become resilient again. As for those who migrate—whether to another region or another country—it will be in the interest of receiving communities to provide them the assistance they need to become self-sufficient and contribute to host economies. This means facilitating access to public services, education, and the labor market. Those who manage to reach Western countries may rightfully not qualify for asylum under the Refugee Convention. It will be our collective responsibility to advocate for temporary protection to be extended nonetheless.
If you wish to, you can help. Cities for Children is partnering with multiple local organizations to finance emergency relief where it’s needed, and child-friendly programming where it can be offered. They will immensely appreciate your support—and immediately put it to good use.
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On to the news…
Asia
Displacement within, beyond, and into Myanmar
Last Tuesday, ~4.200 Rohingya refugees encamped in neutral soil in Konapara, along the Burmese-Bangladeshi border, issued a letter to UNHCR demanding protection from increasing cross-fire as hostilities between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army intensify. On the same day, The Times of India revealed that at least 300 people have been lured from India into Myanmar, under false promises of employment, and trafficked into captivity and coerced work as cybercrime operators. | On Friday, local resistance groups revealed that ~10.000 civilians had been displaced from Khin-U Township in Myanmar’s central Sagaing Region over the previous week.
Afghanistan and its neighbors
Last Friday, a bomb attack killed 4 worshipers and injured another 10 in Kabul’s central Wazir Akban Khan neighborhood. | On Sunday, 55 Sikh and Hindu refugees from Afghanistan arrived in New Delhi in a humanitarian resettlement effort that has brought 543 families to India. | This Monday, local authorities reported that ~3.500 IDPs had returned from encampments in Karachi to their communities of origin in flood-affected parts of Pakistan’s southeastern Sindh province.
Natural disaster-borne displacement in southeast Asia
This Sunday, Typhoon Noru struck the northern Philippines, displacing some 20.000 civilians preventively evacuated from high-risk zones ahead of landfall.
Sources: bdnews24, The Times of India, Reuters, Hindustan Times, Dawn, al Jazeera.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Ethiopia’s civil war
Last Monday, the Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia issued a report documenting widespread atrocities committed by Ethiopian forces in Tigray, determining some of these to amount to war crimes and to crimes against humanity (see the CHREE’s full report here). | On Tuesday, TPLF officials signaled that Eritrean forces had launched a large-scale invasion of Tigray. | On Friday, an airstrike in Mekelle killed at least 1 Tigrayan civilian. On the same day, doctors in Tigray’s main Ayer Hospital signaled their alarm at their dwindling supplies of insulin, which the renewed humanitarian blockade prevents them from replenishing. | On Sunday, Sudanese authorities confirmed 3 monkeypox cases in the Tunaydbah camp, which hosts just under 25.000 Ethiopian refugees.
Conflict and displacement in the Sahel and central Africa
Last Tuesday, Nigerian authorities signaled that ~300 civilians have been killed, and over 10.000 displaced, by heavy flooding in 14 states along the Benue and Niger rivers, on the heels of the opening of the upriver Lagdo Dam in Cameroon last weekend. On the same day, regional authorities in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State disclosed that 43 civilians have been killed since July by a cholera outbreak, with 768 cases reported since July. Also on Tuesday, Congolese authorities disclosed that nearly 12.000 have been displaced by communal fighting in the DRC’s western town of Kwamouth. | This Monday, HumAngle higlighted the difficulties faced by unregistered IDPs in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State, where subsistence and relocation aid are unavaible to large numbers of displaced persons excluded from state assistance services.
Sources: AFP, Reuters, The New Arab, the Guardian, Sudan Tribune, HumAngle.
Middle East and North Africa
Internal displacement in Syria and Iraq
Last Tuesday, Iraqi authorities signaled that 150 families are set to return from the Al-Hol containment camp in northeastern Syria to Iraq, where they will initially be held in a containment camp in al-Jadaa, to undergo psychological examination and rehabilitation. | On Wednesday, Syria’s cholera outbreak grew to exceed 250 cases and at least 39 fatalities, with an additional burden of just under 2.875 suspected cases. | On Saturday, Middle East Eye highlighted environmental risks faced by IDPs in northern Iraq, including not just water-borne pollution but also respiratory hazards originating from oil refineries. | This Monday, Syrian authorities revised its cholera outbreak tallies to 338 confirmed cases and 29 fatalities (official Syrian tallies count only cases in government-controlled areas).
Asylum seeker (im)mobility in the MENA region
Last Tuesday, Nigerien authorities announced they had received just under 675 asylum seekers pushed back from Algeria on the Saturday prior. On the same day, the Refugee Consultation Forum issued a report tallying ~1.14 million refugees and asylum seekers currently living in Sudan—over 800.000 originally from South Sudan (see the RCF’s full report here). | This Monday, Turkish authorities disclosed they had repatriated just under 85.000 asylum seekers thus far this year, and prevented nearly 220.000 irregular entries into Turkey.
Yemen’s civil war, labor migration to the Persian Gulf
Last Wednesday, Save the Children urged all donors to act on their pledges to fund the salvage of 1.1 million barrels of crude oil held on the decaying FSO Safer off of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, as the overall funding target has been met, but has yet to be disbursed (see StC’s briefing note here). | On Thursday, the Guardian highlighted Qatari authorities’ acceleration of migrant workers expulsions, pursuant to policy intended to reduce he number of foreign workers in Qatar during the upcoming World Cup, leaving workers unable to repay loans incurred to obtain work permits, let alone provide for their families.
Sources: The New Arab, MEE, Reuters, Africanews, Sudan Tribune, Hürriyet, AP, the Guardian.
Maritime Migration Routes to & through the West
Ruta Canaria
Last Tuesday, Salvamento Marítimo rescued 161 asylum seekers from 4 vessels in waters off the Canary Islands, as another 32 arrived autonomously in a 5th vessel. | On Thursday, 40 asylum seekers arrived autonomously to Lanzarote, and another 32 were rescued by Salvamento Marítimo in Atlantic waters. | On Sunday, Caminando Fronteras warned that several vessels carrying 147 asylum seekers had set set for the Canary Islands as Cyclone Hermine was bearing down, with Salvamento Marítimo confirming this Monday that they had rescued 81 people, and the Moroccan Coast Guard confirming it had interepted another 46.
Central and western Mediterranean
Last Monday, Cypriot authorities rescued 300 asylum seekers from a wooden boat in distress ~200 kilometers west of Cyprus after 3 days at sea, trying to reach Italy from Lebanon. | On Thursday, a boat carrying ~150 asylum seekers capsized off the coast of Syria after departing from Lebanon, with 20 survivors in treatment in Tartous and 94 confirmed fatalities reported as of Friday.
The English Channel
Last Wednesday, just under 675 asylum seekers reached UK shores irregularly across the English Channel, pushing total arrivals within this year above 30.000. | On Thursday, 1.150 asylum seekers reached UK soil across the English Channel in 21 vessels.
Aegean and Black Seas
Last Friday, Bulgarian authorities reported rescuing 38 Afghan asylum seekers struggling in stormy conditions as they tried to reach Romanian shores from Turkey by boat. | On Thursday, 49 asylum seekers reached the Greek island of Leros autonomously, as Greek authorities searched for 6 missing persons from the vessel they used for the crossing.
Gulf of Mexico
Last Saturday, 7 Cuban asylum seekers arrived autonomously to Key West, where they were apprehended by U.S. authorities
Sources: InfoMigrants, EFE, AP, al Jazeera, BBC, 7 News Miami.
Europe
EU migration policymaking
Last Thursday, the European Court of Justice ruled that Hungarian laws allowing authorities to withhold refugees’ access to their case files if their asylum is revoked due to national security reasons are in violation of European law, ruling that asylum decisions cannot be made solely on the basis of national security authorities’ considerations. | On Friday, Swiss authorities announced an accord with Greek and Cypriot authorities to provide each state $40 million and $10 million, respectively, to help them manage irregular migratory arrivals. | On Sunday, a far-right party with fascist roots won the largest share of parliamentary seats in Italy’s general election, heralding hostile migration policymaking at both domestic and European level.
European migration (mis)management
Last Monday, a Caravan of Light composed of Syrian refugees in Turkey trying to enter EU soil as a group gathered in Edirne but, after being attacked by smugglers near the Greco-Turkish border, announced it was regrouping in Istanbul to prepare a second attempt at crossing. | On Tuesday, the Guardian highlighted increasing arrivals to the northwestern Italian town of Ventimiglia, near the border with France, as irregular migrants try to depart Italy ahead of the likely election of a right-wing bloc in elections taking place this weekend. | On Wednesday, police in Slovenia intercepted just over 100 asylum seekers trying to enter Italy irregularly by train. | On Sunday, Dutch authorities disclosed that the Netherlands’ current asylum backlog had grown to nearly 30.000 cases, within 200 of the peak reached back in 2015.
Displacement within and beyond Ukraine, draft flight from Russia
Last Tuesday, local NGO Fundación Madrina signaled it has observed increasing numbers of Ukrainian families becoming unhoused and approaching charitable food distributions in Madrid, as winter weather threatens to prompt more Ukrainians to flee into EU countries where integration support is waning. | On Thursday, authorities of the Baltic republics announced restrictive border regimes vis-à-vis Russian nationals fleeing military conscription, as Finnish border police committed to continue admitting Russian nationals seeking asylum at the border. | On Friday, German authorities committed to continue offering asylum to Russian conscientious objectors fleeing conscription into the Russian military. | On Sunday, Russian authorities estimated that ~260.000 Russian nationals had left the country over the previous week, on the heels of the announcement of military conscription. | This Monday, regional media revealed that Russian authorities have begun issuing military information leaflets and enrollment forms to Tajik migrant workers.
Dystopia at the Home Office
Last Monday, the Independent revealed severe shortcomings in the Windrush compensation scheme, tallying only 38 successful first-instance appeals out of 3.020 filed in 2021, and only 4 successful final appeals out of 459 filed. | On Friday, the BBC revealed that the UK Inspector of Prisons had criticized the inadequate access to legal assistance and information issued to asylum seekers slated for deportation to Rwanda last June. | On Saturday, UK authorities leaked newly-installed Prime Minister Liz Truss’ intention to expand the official shortage occupation list to facilitate labor migration into the UK and help reduce labor shortages and mitigate a looming recession. | On Sunday, the Guardian highlighted difficulties faced by Indonesian workers aspiring to perform seasonal agricultural labor in the UK, amid bureaucratic inefficiencies and abuse by unscrupulous labor brokers, charging illegal deposits without guaranteeing placement. On the same day, the Observer cautioned that plans to hire Nepali nurses to fill labor shortages in the NHS were lacking in essential safeguards to prevent abuse and exploitation of migrant workers. | This Monday, the Independent revealed that, over the last 3 months, the Home Office has spent £87.000 of a total £100.000 spend on social media advertizing to discourage asylum seekers from attempting irregular crossings of the English Channel, seeing ~20.000 irregular arrivals through the duration of the campaign.
Sources: InfoMigrants, EFE, the Washington Post, the Guardian, AP, NLTimes, Europa Press, EUobserver, Meduza, AKIpress, the Independent, BBC.
The Americas
U.S. migration policymaking
Last Tuesday, the city council Washington, D.C. approved an emergency measure formally establishing an Office of Migrant Services to coordinate service provisions to asylum seekers arriving by bus from the U.S.-Mexico border. On the same day, asylum seekers flown to Martha’s Vineyard in the week prior filed a class-action lawsuit governor of Florida and other facilitators of the flight denouncing the defrauding they experienced—as the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office announced its own probe into the irregularities that led to the flight. Also on Tuesday, The Texas Tribune featured the challenges faced by asylum seekers arriving in El Paso, where shelter capacity has been exhausted and local authorities have begun chartering buses to transfer unhoused arrivals to other parts of the U.S. | On Wednesday, the Miami Herald dissected the preparation and cancellation of an additional flight scheduled to transfer several dozen asylum seekers to U.S. President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware on that same day. | This Monday, lawyers for the 50 asylum seekers transferred to Martha’s Vineyard in the week prior announced they would seek a nationwide injunction to prevent any further transportation induced by fraudulent means—aside from individual compensation for individual plaintiffs. On the same day, CNN relayed the perplexity of business owners in Florida, struggling to fill jobs due to workforce shortages, with their governor’s use of taxpayer funding to divert legally-present asylum seekers who are eligible for work permits to other states.
Irregular migration in Latin America
Last Tuesday, a group of asylum seekers transiting through central Mexico denounced that they were detained by immigration authorities, despite holding valid 7-day permits allowing them to transit through Mexican soil. | On Friday, Milenio highlighted that 159 asylum seekers have gone missing in Mexico’s northeastern state of Tamaulipas over the last 5 years, of whom only 22 have been found by authorities. On the same day, authorities in Panama disclosed that the number of asylum seekers crossing the Darién Gap had exceeded 134.000 thus far this, thus exceeding the total number of crossings in all of 2021. | On Sunday,Mexican authorities announced they had intercepted over 3.250 asylum seekers from 50 countries across the whole of Mexico. On the same day, Guatemalan authorities announced they had turned back to Honduras a caravan of mainly Venezuelan ~600 asylum seekers trying to reach Mexican soil and ultimately the U.S.-Mexican border.
Sources: the Washington Post, The Texas Tribune, the Miami Herald, the Guardian, CNN, EFE, Milenio, infobae.
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