Australian Detention Centres Risk Violating Human Rights

August 30, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Lawrence Del Gigante

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 30 (IPS) – Australia’s recent decision to move asylum seekers to offshore detention facilities has alarmed human rights organisations."Re-opening offshore detention centres could result in human rights violations, including potentially indefinite detention," Pia Oberoi, advisor with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCHR) told IPS, despite that international human rights law requires that time limits be placed on immigration detention and that any detention should decided according to individual situations.

A spokesperson for the Australian government told IPS, "The government has been clear that under offshore processing arrangements, asylum seekers transferred to (detention facilities on) Nauru and Manus Island(s) will be processed in accordance with international obligations."

Even though some migrants coming to Australia by boat are not entitled to make a valid claim under the Refugee Convention, many are still protected under human rights law, such as victims of trafficking and stateless persons, including protection from refoulement.

The principal of non-refoulement in international law, specifically refugee law, concerns protecting refugees from being returned to places where their lives or freedoms could be threatened.

"The principle of non-refoulement has extra-territorial scope, meaning that Australia’s non-refoulement obligations are engaged when asylum seekers and migrants come under its jurisdiction or effective control, even if they have been intercepted on the high seas," said Oberoi.

The decision to reopen offshore detention facilities was intended by the Australian government to deter future asylum seekers from coming by sea, a dangerous venture often attempted in undersized, overcrowded vessels. More than 100 asylum seekers have drowned attempting to reach Australia in 2012.

"Through regional processing and increasing the humanitarian intake, Australia is aiming to put an end to the tragic consequences of dangerous boat journeys by asylum seekers, and improve the prospects of those wishing to seek asylum in Australia," said the government spokesperson.

Faulty logic

But Oberoi disagreed with this approach, explaining that "there is no empirical evidence that immigration detention deters irregular migration, or discourages people from seeking asylum".

In a further effort to attract immigrants to apply through regular immigration channels, the Australian government has increased the country’s intake of natural migrants this year from 13,750 to 20,000, and has committed to taking in to 27,000 by 2017.

Ben Farrell from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Canberra told IPS that UNHCR would prefer "an arrangement which would allow asylum-seekers arriving by boat into Australian territory to be processed in Australia".

Farrell said that the UNHCR believed in the efficacy of cooperative approaches in the region, noting that such strategies had the potential to grant asylum seekers protection without having to risk dangerous journeys across the ocean.

The policy of offshore detention was abandoned in 2007 by the Australian government heeding complaints that refugees were spending months on the islands before resettlement.

In 2011 a deal with Malaysia was planned whereby unprocessed migrants from Australia were transferred to Malaysia in exchange for processed refugees. However, the deal was rejected by the Australian High Court given that Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention.

"For a scheme like the one proposed with Malaysia to be legal, there must be no real risk of breach of Australia’s international human rights obligations and the Refugee Convention in the treatment of asylum seekers and migrants throughout the process in both Australia and Malaysia," said Oberoi.

Australia is the UNHCR’s largest resettlement country on a per capita basis.

This month, 650 refugees have been picked up trying to reach Australia by boat. The annual number of arrivals by boat represents about two percent of Australia’s total migration.

As of March 2011, the average time spent in detention for asylum seekers arriving in Australia was 213 days.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Asia, Human Rights, Justice, Report Tagged With: , ,

Knocking on an Uncertain Gateway to the World

August 30, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Eva Bartlett

RAFAH, Gaza, Aug 30 (IPS) – “I waited from 10 am till 5 pm for my wife to cross from Egypt. She was among many hundreds who were coming into Gaza. Some waited since 6 am, some since the day before.”Jaber (who requested anonymity out of fear of future restrictions on his exiting Gaza) was relieved when, a few days before Eid holiday began on Aug. 19, his wife was able to cross from Egypt into the Gaza Strip. During the three days of Eid, the Rafah border crossing was closed in both directions.

“Of course I was happy that my wife got through, but I was also disgusted at how Palestinians are forced to wait for, or are denied, the right to exit and enter our country.”

On Aug. 25, the border opened anew, temporarily easing the worries of Palestinians in Gaza who feared the opposite outcome: indefinite closure.

Maher Abu Sabha, head of Gaza’s border crossings, explained the reason for such worries.

“On Aug. 5, unidentified gunman attacked an Egyptian military checkpoint near the Rafah crossing, killing 16 Egyptian soldiers. Immediately, many Israeli and Egyptian journalists wrote that Palestinians had committed the attack.”

Also immediately after the attacks – the perpetrators of which remain unknown – Egypt ordered the Rafah crossing closed.

“Just over a week later, near the end of Ramadan, the border reopened for three days for humanitarian cases needing to travel to or via Egypt, and for Palestinians needing to return to Gaza,” said Abu Sabha.

With no clear border procedure yet defined by Egyptian authorities, Palestinians in Gaza are wondering whether the border crossing will remain less restrictive, as it became after Mohammed Mursi was elected Egypt’s new president, or whether it will devolve to the Mubarak days of heavy restrictions and constant closures.

Abu Sabha says nothing is yet clear. “We’re still waiting for confirmation from Egyptian authorities on what exactly the procedure will be at the Rafah crossing.” Yet, he says that relations between Gaza’s Palestinian authorities and those of the Mursi government are very good.

“Prime Minister Haniyeh (Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister from the Hamas party in Gaza) has visited with Mr. Mursi. They have good relations and there is talk of positive developments for the border and of President Mursi’s promise that Rafah crossing will be open 12 hours every day,” says Abu Sabha.

After Hamas was democratically elected in 2006, and in tandem with implementation of the Israeli-led total siege of Gaza, the Rafah crossing border procedures became as trying and impossible as when Israel physically and militarily occupied the Gaza Strip.

Israeli rights group Gisha reported that from June 2007 to March 2009, Rafah crossing was closed permanently “except for random and limited openings by Egypt, which meet only 3 percent of the needs of the residents of the Gaza Strip to enter and leave.”

“During the hardest years of the ongoing siege of Gaza, Rafah was closed indefinitely. When it did sporadically open, only at most 400 could leave,” says Maher Abu Sabha. “Mubarak was one of the key reasons for Gaza’s closure by the Egyptian side. Since he has been replaced, more people have been able to cross in and out of Gaza via Rafah.

“The Rafah crossing is like no other,” says Abu Sabha. “Other borders around the world, and even other Egyptian borders, are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no holidays. But Rafah closes Fridays and holidays and is only open from 10 am to 6 pm. It also differs from other borders because it is Palestinians’ only real door to the outside world.”

In 2000, Israel closed Gaza’s sole airport; Israeli bombings in 2001 destroyed it.

Under international law, Palestinians, like any people, have the right to leave and enter their country, “a basic right, which the parties who exert control over Rafah crossing are obligated to respect and safeguard,” Gisha notes.

Mazen Aiysh, 35, en route to Jordan to visit family, reiterates Abu Sabha’s words. “Our situation is different from anyone else’s, that’s obvious. Any other nationality can come and go as they like, but we can’t. It’s my right to leave my country to see my family, to travel, to go other places.”

Also exiting, Iman Salim, 58, says her return home to Jordan was delayed. “I was supposed to leave before today but wasn’t able to because the border closed. The attack that happened in Egypt has nothing to do with us, but we were punished nonetheless.”

Still waiting for the final word from Egypt, Abu Sabha is optimistic. “I hope that the Rafah crossing is opened for 24 hours a day, like borders anywhere else in the world, and that goods which are banned under the Israeli siege may be permitted to enter and exit through Rafah.”

Although happy to be reunited with his wife, Jaber does not share the optimism. “All of this control and these political games are to make our lives difficult and to destroy our will to live. No one actually wants to solve our problem.”

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Human Rights, Middle East, Report Tagged With: , , ,

Irregular Migrants Face the Boot in Greece

August 29, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Apostolis Fotiadis

ATHENS, Aug 29 (IPS) – A crackdown on irregular migration has entered its fourth week in Greece. The government is shutting the Greek-Turkish northeastern border across river Evros, and removing massive numbers of undocumented migrants from big urban centres into makeshift detention camps.On Aug. 2 police deployed 1,881 new police officers along the river Evros in an attempt to seal the border. Greek Police spokesman Christos Manouras told IPS that the deployment “has effectively stopped new arrivals…When we become aware through our infrared cameras or our patrols that someone attempts a crossing, police officers form a human shield against them and prevent them from entering.”

Meanwhile in Athens alone the police have apprehended 12,900 migrants and arrested 2,100 who resided in the country illegally. About 400 are kept in a new detention camp in Amugdaleza on the outskirts of Athens. The rest have been sent to two police academies turned into makeshift camps in Xanthi (500) and Komotini (800) in northern Greece.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) members visited both these camps last week and described conditions as substandard. “Our team registered serious deficits regarding the infrastructure and conditions of detention, despite the obvious efforts of authorities to improve the situation,” director general of MSF Reveka Papadopoulou told IPS.

“We will monitor the situation further but we will not get involved in a way that will prevent the government from dealing with responsibilities that occur from a political choice of implementing a policy of large-scale detentions.”

Authorities do not allow journalists to visit detention camps, and access to the border is limited in coordination with the Greek Border Guard.

The European Commission has not ruled out financing for such measures. The Commission “organises regularly technical missions on the ground to discuss with the Greek authorities eligibility of actions under the EU co-financed programmes,” the Commission told IPS by email, referring to a Commission mission to the border.

Last week authorities opened a makeshift camp at the site of old military barracks in Korinthos, 75 km south of Athens, that can host another 2,000 detainees. Currently 400 people are detained there.

“Detentions will last for up to one year” as authorities try to send people back to their countries of origin, Manouras said. “Many of them could opt to return through the programme we implement together with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).”

Co-financed by Greece and the European Union Returns Fund, the programme has already sent 5,000 people back. At the end of July IOM and Greece signed a 10 million euro 12-month agreement that will offer assisted voluntary return to countries of origin for some 7,000 irregular migrants.

Since 2005 Greece has become the main influx point for undocumented migrants, with more than 80 percent entering Europe coming from Turkey through the Aegean Sea or the Northeast mainland boundary of the river Evros.

The vast majority of these migrants hope to move towards Northern Europe. However, the distance to other European countries as well as clauses in the Dublin II regulation that dictates the return of asylum seekers to the European country they first entered, have effectively condemned scores of immigrants to remain stuck in limbo in Greece.

This has transformed the country, and Athens in particular, into a depot of hundreds of thousands of irregular immigrants and asylum seekers, who survive on below-subsistence incomes in a vast black market.

The new migration policy of the coalition government of the right-wing New Democracy, the technocrat PASOK and moderate leftist DEMAR is being implemented at a time when many international organisations are expressing concern about the failure of authorities to protect the human rights of migrants and asylum seekers, and to offer them protection from a rising tide of racist attacks.

The policy is being implemented in the midst of an economic crisis. Since 2009 debt insolvency has translated into a full-blown economic crisis for Greece, and driven the country into borrowing heavily in order to avoid disorderly default. The country is undergoing a fourth consecutive year of recession, with unemployment climbing to 29 percent.

In the economic collapse, xenophobic sentiment has swept through society. Racist attacks have increased on the streets of Athens and are spreading fast throughout the country.

On Jul. 23 the rape and attempted murder of a 15-year-old girl on the island Paros by an irregular Pakistani worker outraged the public. In a wave of attacks against foreigners that followed the event, an Iraqi migrant was beaten and stabbed to death by five hooded youngsters Aug. 12.

“You know this might happen to you every time you go out of the house,” asylum seeker Ramadan Sah who fled the Taliban in Afghanistan tells IPS in fluent Greek. “One might stop you and ask you where are you from. And then many more appear and attack you. It is really dangerous out there.”

Sah has been stuck in the asylum system for more than a decade. A couple of months ago the appeals committee reviewed his application. He is about to finish a degree in political science, but he faces renewed fears.

“It’s like when we hid in houses to escape the Taliban. Then they called us leftist, now we are the foreigners.”

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Economic Crisis, Europe, Featured, Human Rights Tagged With: , ,

Argentina – The Promised Land for South American Neighbours

August 29, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Stephanie Wildes

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 28 (IPS) – "The new buildings in the Argentine capital were built by Paraguayans,” Isidro Méndez says with some pride. The 60-year-old immigrant, who runs a construction company, is one of the hundreds of thousands of foreigners who came to this country with hopes for a better future.The steady recovery of the economy and the subsequent rise in employment since the mid-1990s stemmed the departure of Argentines and drew immigrants from other countries in the region, especially Paraguay and Bolivia, the two poorest nations in South America.

Although it is not a new phenomenon, there has been a significant spike in immigration since that period.

A key aspect was legislation passed by the government of centre-left president Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), who was succeeded by his wife Cristina Fernández, facilitating the legalisation of undocumented immigrants.

“We know how to suffer,” Méndez, who was only 17 when he came to this country, told IPS. He found a job as a construction worker and now he employs dozens of his fellow Paraguayans, building houses and apartment buildings.

"El Impacto de las Migraciones en Argentina" (The Impact of Migration in Argentina), a study presented this month by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), reports that 77 percent of the foreigners living in Argentina are from other South American countries.

They are mainly from the border countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and

Uruguay, as well as from Peru. Between 2001 and 2010 – census years – the number of South Americans rose from one million to 1.4 million, and they have been “almost fully absorbed by the local market,” the IOM says.

The study reports that 39 percent of the South American immigrants in the country are Paraguayans, whose number rose from 325,000 in the 2001 census to more than 550,000 in 2010. A majority of the Paraguayan men work in the construction industry, while the women are largely employed as domestics.

“Everyone who comes from Paraguay today is working,” Méndez said. “The Argentines are disgusted by dirt and shovels. And if it rains and a truck full of bags of cement needs to be emptied, like what happened to me today, they would go on strike for sure,” he adds ironically.

The IOM study reports that between 2003 and 2010, productivity in the construction industry in Argentina grew 14 percent a year.

The second-largest community of South American immigrants is from Bolivia, representing 25 percent of the total in 2010.

The number of Bolivians rose from 231,000 in 2001 to over 345,000 in 2010. Most Bolivians work as agricultural labourers, on olive farms and in vineyards, for example, or as small traders and street vendors. Others work in the textile and footwear industries.

Many Bolivian families lease land on the outskirts of cities to grow fruit and vegetables, which they sell at market, the IOM reports.

Paraguayan and Bolivian immigrants in this country are mainly poor and uneducated. The study found that 59 percent of Paraguayans and 43 percent of Bolivians in this country did not go beyond primary school.

Fifty-five percent of the Paraguayans and Bolivians work in the informal sector, without being enrolled in the social security system. However, they have access to public health and education, and to the government’s cash transfer programmes.

In addition, 14 percent of the 1.4 million South American immigrants in Argentina are from Chile, 11 percent from Peru, eight percent from Uruguay and three percent from Brazil.

In a conversation with IPS, Juan Artola, IOM regional representative for the Southern Cone region, said immigrants come to Argentina “because there is work, and legislation that makes it possible for them to gain residency status relatively easily.”

Immigration from border countries was fuelled in the 1990s by the currency board system that pegged the peso to the dollar for over a decade, put in place by the government of Carlos Menem (1989-1999), which made it easier to save up money in hard currency.

But the currency board system collapsed in late 2001, and the value of the peso plunged, while the economy went under along with the government of Fernando de la Rúa (1999-2001).

The downward spiral of employment and subsequent rise in poverty, which soared to over 50 percent of the population, pushed tens of thousands of people to move abroad, and prompted thousands of immigrants to return to their countries of origin.

But the majority of the immigrants stayed in Argentina.

Susana, who preferred not to give her last name, told IPS that she came from Peru to Argentina without papers "in the Menem era.” She said she worked for several years as a domestic worker, in the informal sector.

The economic crisis and devaluation of 2002 made it difficult for her to continue sending dollars back to Peru to support her daughter. But she stayed, and her employers began to pay into the social security system for her. In 2008, she brought her daughter over, to study at the public University of Buenos Aires.

Legal residency, which she earned after the new law was passed, gave her job stability and made it possible for her to be reunited with her daughter.

In 2003, Argentina repealed an immigration law put in place by the 1976-1983 dictatorship, and passed a new law that recognises immigration as a human right.

The law simplified the legalisation process and streamlined the paperwork, recognised immigrants’ right to healthcare and education, made it illegal to deny healthcare and other services to undocumented immigrants, and eliminated the requirement that public employees must report illegal immigrants.

In 2006, the Patria Grande (Great Fatherland) campaign was launched to further ease access to temporary residency by undocumented immigrants, even if they do not have a work contract. All they need is a national identity document and a certificate of good conduct from their own country, showing that they have no criminal record.

“Clearly, many find better work possibilities here,” Artola said. “Even when they start out in the informal sector, they can get a formal sector job once they have their residency papers.”

The IOM official stressed that “no other country in South America takes in such a large proportion of immigrants as Argentina.

“Furthermore, this country has never deported immigrants, it has always kept its doors open, and the labour market has grown a great deal since 2003.”

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Development, Economic Policy, Economy, Featured, Latin America Tagged With: , , , ,

Detention in Italy Better Than Home in Tunisia

August 28, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Ihsan Bouabid

GAFSA, Tunisia, Aug 28 (IPS) – A year ago Salim, a 23-year-old from the ancient Tunisian city Gafsa decided to leave his country using a smugglers’ network notorious for transporting desperate Tunisian citizens to Europe by boat.Salim became head of his household three years ago after his father, a wood-maker, died of lung cancer. Gafsa has historically been a rich city, but most of its inhabitants count themselves lucky if they can earn ten dinars (less than six dollars) a day for hard labour.

Illegal migration seems to be the only way out of a cycle of poverty and lack of opportunities for young men and women who see no bright spots in their future.

Typically, smugglers load people into small boats in the harbour city Sfax, 270 kilometres southeast of capital Tunis, and head towards the Italian island Lampedusa, home to 4,500 inhabitants, located 100 kilometres from Tunisian shores.

“On Jul. 3 (last year), a few months after the revolution in my country, I set off for Italy with 98 other people,” Salim told IPS.

It was almost Ramadan – the holy month of fasting for Muslims – when the hopeful migrants were loaded into a refrigerated container truck in Gafsa.

“We were instructed by smugglers not to bring any belongings, and we arrived at the Sfax seashore late at night. We could not see anything around us and were assaulted by other people using knives and machetes who wanted to get their family members on board the small boat,” he said.

“After a long ordeal, just as we were nearing Lampedusa, we were spotted by a plane bearing the Red Cross flag. Humanitarian workers took us to the island where we were welcomed, fed, and given blankets and clothing.”

Salim said he and the other ‘boat people’ were treated well by Italian authorities, but suffered greatly at the hands of the Tunisian army after they were forced to return to Sfax: returnees had their hands bound with ropes and were insulted and interrogated individually before being allowed to return to their towns.

According to the Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 2008 alone close to 31,700 migrants arrived in Lampedusa, a 75 percent increase compared to the previous year.

Last year, in the aftermath of the January youth revolution in Tunisia that overthrew former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, some 44,000 people tried to escape to Italy.

Roughly 25,000 were Tunisian nationals but among the other ‘boat people’ were Libyans, Chadians, Nigerians and others from the African continent making the “dangerous journey to hope and a dignified life,” according to Salim.

Following his visit to Tunisia in June this year, François Crépeau, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, advocated decriminalisation of the internationally sanctioned right to leave one’s country, as stipulated in Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Being sent back comes at a cost. Upon their return migrants are promised support and employment. But a year after Salim was dragged back to Tunisia he has received no formal assistance from the government.

He said it was regrettable that the first country to spark the Arab spring has failed to change its behaviour towards the poor, who continue to languish in pre-revolutionary poverty. “Maybe young people like us should go for a second round of revolution.”

“My son did not finish high school because he had to support his father at the wood-making shop,” Salim’s mother, 58-year-old Aicha, told IPS at the family’s humble home in Gafsa.

Aicha works at the local hospital kitchen, but hers and Salim’s wages combined add up to less than 120 dinars (74.5 dollars) monthly, which is scarcely adequate to feed her family of five.

“Letting him go was not an easy decision. I kept working hard and saved to give my share of the money to pay for the trip to Europe because I am deeply convinced that this is his only way out of poverty and trouble,” Aicha said.

Zaki, a 24-year-old Gafsan, had a similar story to tell. He used the same smuggling route as Salim in August last year, in particular to allow his younger sister to finish high school.

“She was a good student. I didn’t want her to end up a prostitute,” he told IPS.

He spoke of desperate conditions in Tunisia. “Life at Lampedusa’s camp felt sweeter than living unemployed in Gafsa,” Zaki said.

“There is absolutely nothing to do in Gafsa in terms of employment for young people like myself. I have worked in harsh conditions in all sorts of odd jobs to no avail. We cannot make ends meet. Therefore, my mother and friends helped me go to Sfax via Sidi Mansour, after paying 1,000 dinars (621 dollars) to make the journey to Europe by boat.”

He was loaded onto a fish refrigeration truck together with 120 other boat people, though the truck could only fit 45. Many people got sick and suffocated.

“We had all kind of problems, from assaults by armed gangs to the deficient boat water pump and battery, to the engine that caught on fire,” recalled Zaki.

Now he is back and the family must reimburse loans taken from friends and businesses.

Asked if they will be ‘Harraga’ again – a slang word used across North Africa to refer to those crossing illegally to Europe – Salim and Zaki said they have no other choice.

“You get to a point where your heart is dead. The only time I’ve felt happy and filled with hope was during my short stay in Italy,” said Zaki.

“The double standards applied by the administration and officials here make me sick. We have filled (numerous) forms and applications, all involving substantial fees, in order to get a legal visa. The same goes for employment: our applications simply remain in drawers and are forgotten and so are we.”

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Human Rights, Justice, Report Tagged With: , ,

There’s Bride at the End of the Tunnel

August 27, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Sanjay Suri

Aug 27 (IPS) – Mai Ahmed, a 26–year-old from the West Bank fell in love over the Internet with Mohammed Warda from Nussirat refugee camp in Gaza after they ‘met’ on the Internet. The Israeli government refused permission for her to travel to Gaza. Mai travelled to Jordan, flew from there to Egypt, drove across the Sinai, and then crossed through a tunnel into Gaza, where she now lives. “It’s a story I will tell my grandchildren,” she says.Brides and bridegrooms are now being smuggled through the Gaza tunnels, to add to the usual fare of medicine, food, bread, refreshments, car parts, cement, and fish and sheep.

Abu Saleem, a 29-year-old digger at the Gaza tunnels under the border with Egypt says he is seeing an increasing number of brides coming in from Egypt, and grooms being smuggled through the other way. Only last week he received a phone call from his boss asking him to assist a young Egyptian bride on way to her groom in Gaza.

It’s cheaper to find a bride in Egypt than in Gaza.

Adel Al-Ahmed, 37, is happy with his Egyptian wife Shymaa after he found he could not afford the dowry for a Gaza girl. “It is relatively cheaper dowry in some areas in Egypt, and there is more acceptance by some young Egyptian women to live in simple and modest conditions,” he says.

Difficulties obtaining travel permits and visas have made the tunnels a lifeline to cross to and from Egypt. A recent side effect is the increasing number of Gaza youths who leave the 140 square kilometre Gaza strip to search for brides.

Tunnel owners in Rafah would earlier transport women and children like cargo in re-fashioned barrels. Now, people crawl or walk, depending on the structure of the tunnel.

The tunnels are considered illegal in Egypt, but are a vital part in the life and commerce on both the Gazan and the Egyptian side. Palestinians consider the tunnels a legitimate trade and passenger route under the Israeli siege.

The Israeli government says the tunnels facilitate illegal smuggling, and routinely sends F-16 fighter jets to destroy them.

That makes marital unions a risky business. Brides and grooms using tunnel access also require a permit from the de facto government in Gaza, or the tunnel owner can be fined 1,500 dollars.

Adel married a Palestinian girl, but divorce followed due to “family demands”. He has since remarried after finding a new bride through his sister, who married an Egyptian in El-Arish.

“I went to a wedding in Egypt, and was introduced to a wonderful young woman who I later married.” Adel took the tunnel route. Once married the young couple had to crawl to Gaza on their hands and knees for about 200 metres in a tunnel to cross the border.

With the money he saved in paying an Egyptian rather than a Palestinian dowry, Adel could furnish an apartment in Rafah. “I would advise Gaza youth to get married to Egyptian women,” he says.

Adel paid 30,000 Egyptian pounds (about 5,000 dollars) in dowry, but the conditions of marriage are “way easier and less demanding.”

Many have ventured as Adel did. Ahmed, who gave only his first name, crossed into Egypt though a tunnel and met a young Egyptian woman while visiting relatives. A few weeks later he returned and asked his family to propose to her. “Tunnels have made it easier for me to get married outside of Gaza,” he tells IPS.

Ahmed had proposed earlier to young Palestinian women in Gaza, but he was asked for a separate apartment as a condition to marriage. “This demand never happens when I, or my friends, ask for the hand of an Egyptian girl.”

Hadeel, a young Palestinian woman from Rafah in her mid-twenties became friends with an Egyptian girl during an official NGO visit. A few months later Hadeel’s friend informed her that her brother and family would like to visit Gaza through the tunnel.

They came over and Hadeel met her friend’s brother. Several tunnel visits later, he proposed. They are due to get married in October. Hadeel will move to Egypt.

For many Gazans, there is both love, and light, at the end of these tunnels.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Culture, Human Rights, Middle East, Politics, Report Tagged With: , , , , ,

MEXICO-RIGHTS: Activists Tell U.N. High Commissioner They’re in Danger

July 10, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Emilio Godoy

MEXICO CITY, Jul 8, 2011 (IPS) – Reports of extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, kidnappings and assaults are some of the heavy baggage that U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay is taking home from Mexico.

Pillay, who ended an official visit here Friday, met over the past week with human rights defenders and senior government officials, including conservative President Felipe Calderón, to gather information on the human rights situation in this Latin American country.

"We have no guarantees for carrying out our work," Gabriela Morales, a lawyer with the Centre for Migrant Human Rights (CDHM), told IPS. "The issue of human rights defenders has to be put on the table."

In late June, the CDHM closed down its Mexican Northern Border Initiative due to threats and intimidation. The Initiative ran several shelters in border areas, providing assistance to Central American migrants attempting to reach the United States and to Mexicans deported from that country.

What happened to the Initiative, which had shelters in the border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Tijuana, Agua Prieta and Ciudad Juárez, is another illustration of the dangerous nature of the work of human rights defenders, who are threatened and harassed by both organised crime groups and government agents.

Since 2005, 27 activists have been killed, according to the governmental National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). Along with journalists, activists working on behalf of the rights of Central American migrants, who are frequent targets of youth gangs, organised crime groups and corrupt authorities, and the rights of indigenous people, who suffer heavy discrimination and poverty, have been caught up in the spiral of violence in Mexico.

So far this year there have been at least seven cases of assault on migrant rights activists, compared to two cases between October 2009 and October 2010, according to human rights groups.

Since 2000, 73 reporters have been killed, and 12 are still missing, according to the CNDH – making Mexico the most dangerous country in Latin America for journalists.

"A large number of attacks committed by agents of the state have not been investigated, because there is complete impunity," Juan Gutiérrez, director of the non-governmental Mexican Commission for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH), told IPS. The activist met this week with Pillay, a South African judge who was appointed U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in July 2008.

After taking office in December 2006, Calderón dispatched military troops to fight the powerful drug cartels disputing the smuggling routes to the lucrative U.S. market. Since he declared his "war on drugs", more than 40,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence, according to government figures.

Over 45,000 soldiers are now involved in the fight against the cartels, which has claimed the lives of 263 military troops and 409 police officers.

The anti-narcotics strategy has led to an increase in human rights abuses, complain NGOs, which have unsuccessfully called for a shift in focus.

The CNDH has received 5,055 complaints against the defence ministry for abuses committed since 2006.

Pillay, whose visit began Monday Jul. 4, said during her meeting with Calderón Wednesday that she was concerned about the growing reports of human rights violations blamed on agents of the state in the fight against organised crime.

"In the last few years, the situation of human rights in Mexico has gotten much worse," says a report handed over to Pillay by the "All Rights For All" National Civil Human Rights Organisations Network, made up of 72 local groups.

"Although legislative advances have been made in bringing national laws into line with international treaties, these have not been accompanied by a public policy with a human rights perspective and adequate budget making human rights a priority," it adds.

In June, Congress passed reforms of 11 articles of the constitution stipulating that the state has the obligation to promote, respect, protect and guarantee human rights and prevent, investigate, punish and make reparations for human rights abuses.

The Calderón administration made use of Pillay’s visit to decree a mechanism for the protection of human rights defenders, which includes the granting of precautionary measures for activists at risk. But human rights groups say it is just a sop.

When the threats started, "we asked for protective measures, to no avail," said Morales.

One of the biggest concerns regarding the military fight against the drug trade is Mexico’s military justice code, which dates back to 1933. Under the code, all crimes committed by active-duty soldiers are tried in military courts.

Although three Inter-American Court of Human Rights verdicts have ordered Mexico to reform the military justice code, Congress has not yet begun to debate a bill introduced to that effect by Calderón in late 2010.

"There has been complete non-compliance with the sentences," said Gutiérrez. "There is no political will to move forward; we are not aware of any investigations or convictions in the last six years" for cases of torture or abuse by the armed forces, he added.

According to the defence ministry, a total of 159 members of the armed forces are under investigation by the military courts for abuse of authority, torture or murder, another 57 are facing prosecution and seven have been sentenced.

Human rights groups are pushing for approval of a law that would provide reparations for victims, a measure that was also mentioned by Pillay, who said she was particularly concerned about compliance with victims’ rights with regard to security, justice and reparations.

"The frequency of human rights violations and the degree of non-compliance is alarming," says the report by the "All Rights for All" National Civil Human Rights Organisations Network. "The Mexican state has not shown concrete evidence that it is implementing a serious human rights policy."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Crime, Featured, Human Rights, Justice, Latin America, Media Tagged With: , , ,

Urban Transformation for Interethnic Cities

June 7, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Marina Lalovic

ROME, Jun 7, 2011 (IPS) – Urban centres, marked by globalisation, migration and the intermingling of culturally and ethnically diverse communities were among the major topics of the International Conference on the Inter-ethnic City held in Rome last week on the eve of the celebrations of Italy’s national day.

The necessity of preserving the roots and the cultures of immigrants – especially in big European cities – is crucial according to Emma Bonino, vice president of the Italian Senate. "The most common error in dealing with the interethnic issue of the contemporary big cities represents the illusion of assimilation," Bonino said. "Expecting that those who arrive to our cities must become like us is an error."

The European Union is expected to receive 30 million immigrants over the short term.

Sharing practical solutions to manage and promote integration and tolerance in multicultural and multiethnic societies, plus the rising incidence of ethnic stereotyping in major European cities were the driving forces behind the conference – organised for the first time in Europe.

"The problem today is not necessarily immediate assimilation, but a recognition of different cultures," said Axumite Gebre-Egziabher, director of the global division of the U.N. Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). "Not a clash of civilizations but bringing them together, creating awareness and complementing each other is needed as soon as possible," Egziabher told IPS.

Jorge Sampaio, U.N. high representative for the Alliance of Civilizations said that today we mustn’t just think about multicultural, but intercultural cities where new intercultural citizenship is necessary.

"Rome in particular has been dealing with the interethnic issue since ancient times, mainly respecting two elements: the careful definition of citizenship, as well as the rights of its citizens," said Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno.

The conference, organised by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the support of the municipality of Rome, was a follow up to discussions held in New York in 2009 as well as in Rio de Janeiro in 2010 when emphasis was placed on the merits of finding ways and means to address the complex issues of inter-ethnic cities.

"European cities are international, but at the same time these urban centres are mostly mono-ethnic. However, today everything can be changed starting from urban design, and organisation of services – social and cultural," Vincenzo Scotti, under secretary of state of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told IPS.

Irena Guidikova, coordinator of the Intercultural Cities Project of the Council of Europe, presented the new project developed by the Council of Europe which specifically helps cities to integrate migrants – while stressing the importance of building an intercultural community.

The Intercultural Cities Project creates a new space, new culture and pluralistic identity in the society were it is employed, Guidikova said. She explained that the programme stresses the following attributes: diversity as a resource; diversity as a heart of urban policies; and the city as a space for integration.

In order to create a public inter-cultural space in European cities, it is necessary to de-segregate them, not just physically open them up to migration, but to provide new ideas too, Guidikova said, adding that people in the cities should not just be treated as a people with needs. We must focus on the resources people bring to cities, she said.

"This is a new way of dealing with integration and we have been experimenting with it in many European cities such as Copenhagen, Berlin, Lisbon, San Sebastian, London, Amsterdam, and Dublin," Guidikova told IPS. The Intercultural Cities Project also includes some national networks.

Various other concrete urban proposals, mainly aimed at responding to citizens’ needs, were suggested by the participants – a new urban environment designed to promote respect and civil coexistence among different peoples was just one of them.

High level representatives of international and regional organisations agreed that continuous involvement of civil society organisations and academics in the process of devising and implementing measures to respond to the problems of today’s inter-ethnic cities represents a first step in fighting back against intolerance.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon pointed out that: "Immigrants do not always fit into the stereotype of an unskilled group of people with low levels of education doing the so-called ‘3D’ jobs" – tasks that are considered "dirty, dangerous and difficult". He also invited mayors to regard inter-ethnic issues in cities with much greater urgency.

"We want to organise the next event dedicated to the inter-ethnic issue in September at the U.N., inviting countries that share our ideas in order to present, together, a resolution to U.N. This resolution would help us find concrete solutions and would permit us to experiment with better ways of integration and redesigning the cities," Scotti said.

Ban underlined the importance of the Rome conference in the lead-up to the next U.N. High-level Dialogue on Migration, to be held in 2013.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Europe, Human Rights, Report, Social Issues Tagged With: , ,

MIDEAST: Israel’s Cornered ‘Slaves’ Speak Out

May 25, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

JERUSALEM, May 25, 2011 (IPS) – A new Israeli law that would bind migrant workers in nursing or care-giving professions to their employers is raising alarm amidst human rights groups and legal experts, who say that the law infringes upon the workers’ right to dignity and freedom.

"This law mainly affects women caregivers who come legally to Israel. These caregivers will be able to stay in Israel as long as they work for the employer who brought them into the country, usually an elderly person or a handicapped person," explained Sigal Rozen, from the Hotline for Migrant Workers, a Tel-Aviv based organisation working to promote the rights of undocumented migrant workers and refugees in Israel.

"Very often it happens that these (employers) pass away and then the caregivers have to find a new employer. The new law will limit them tremendously in their possibilities to find a new employer," she said.

Amendment 21 to the Israel Entry Act – which has become known as the "Slavery Law" – would authorise the Israeli Ministry of Interior to bind migrant caregivers to their employers and to specific sectors of nursing services, limit the number of times a worker can switch employers, and only allow caregivers to work in a certain geographic area inside Israel.

Should a foreign worker leave his or her employer because of poor conditions or salary, or violate any of the above provisions, that worker would become an illegal resident that can then be deported.

The legislation faced widespread opposition from various groups in Israel and abroad, including an open letter signed by a group of prominent Israeli lawyers, law professors and judges which argued that the law would "wrongfully infringe on the basic rights of migrant workers, by creating and enhancing their dependence on their employers for their legal status, and by limiting their ability to escape from abusive employment conditions."

Ninety-one Jewish-American legal experts also sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli parliament (Knesset) Speaker Reuven Rivlin in early May, urging them to reconsider the controversial amendment.

Despite this, the law was passed by a vote of 26-6 in the Knesset on Monday, May 16. According to the Israeli Ministry of Interior, the new law will ensure that workers don’t abandon their employers while also helping reduce the number of illegal workers in Israel.

The government is also said to be concerned with the fact that there is a shortage of caregivers working in some nursing fields and in remote areas of the country.

Rozen, however, said that despite the government’s arguments in favour of the law, it contravenes a 2006 Israeli Supreme Court ruling.

Indeed, in March 2006, five human rights organisations challenged a similar binding arrangement of migrant workers to their employers in Israel. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that this arrangement should be repealed since it "violates the dignity and liberty of the foreign workers" and constitutes "a modern form of slavery."

Ultimately, the Supreme Court gave the Israeli government six months to cancel the binding policy; it didn’t.

"For five years actually, Israel is violating the Supreme Court ruling. What they are doing now is making a law that will go around the Supreme Court ruling and will make the binding policy legal," Rozen said.

Rozen added that while the specific details of the new law – how many times a caregiver can switch employers, for instance – have yet to be determined by the Ministry of Interior, another appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court is likely.

"We hope that it will be as less limited as possible. But in any case, I assume we will have to address the Supreme Court again the moment we will know exactly what (the law) means," she said.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) estimates that there are presently approximately 55,000 migrant caregivers in Israel, the majority of whom are women. Most come to Israel from Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and the Philippines.

According to Ramesh Sharma, the 28-year-old Head Representative of the Caregivers’ Union in Israel, a branch of the Koach Laovdim union ("Power to the Workers" in Hebrew), the "Slavery Law" will have a devastating impact on women caregivers especially.

"If you are getting sexually harassed in the employer’s house, what choice do you have? You can just do one thing: leave the employer. The new law will mean that in this case, you either leave the job and leave the country, or continue to be exploited," Sharma told IPS.

"A lot of the workers don’t want to say (that they were sexually harassed or abused) because they are ashamed. Even when they are exploited inside the employers’ house, they don’t want to say," he added.

Originally from the city of Indore, in the Madhya Pradesh region of India, Sharma has worked as a caregiver in Israel for nearly four years and currently takes care of an elderly man living with Alzheimer’s in Jerusalem.

He explained that the major challenges facing migrant caregivers in Israel are long working hours – sometimes 24 hours a day if the employer is severely handicapped – poor living conditions, and sexual harassment or abuse.

"(Israeli politicians) claim that they want to improve the conditions but they are not acting to improve the conditions. (This new law is) making it more difficult to stay here. It’s the start of slavery," Sharma said.

Major demonstrations were organised in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv over the past few months to demand migrant caregivers’ rights and attempt to draw attention to the impact of the "Slavery Law." Now that the law is passed, however, Sharma said that he wasn’t sure what steps will be taken next. "I was so disappointed," he told IPS. "But I believe that now the workers are forced to speak out and I hope we will go together to ask for our rights."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Gender, Human Rights, Middle East, Report Tagged With: , ,

Libyan Exodus Shrinks Remittances

April 13, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Simba Russeau

CAIRO, Apr 13, 2011 (IPS) – The exodus of migrants streaming out of Libya due to ongoing unrest has highlighted the heavy dependence of some countries on remittances from their citizens working abroad. In several countries this flow has now become choked.

"With thousands returning home the economic impact of the unrest in Libya is that remittances will be reduced," Dr. Mizanur Rahman, economist and research fellow at the National University of Singapore told IPS.

"Most workers travel to the region under adverse payment systems, which means they need to pay anywhere between 2,000 dollars to 3,000 dollars to secure their visas. In order to raise the money they resort to various means like selling their land, and in the end when this money halts it disrupts the entire family economics."

Recent World Bank statistics indicate that developing countries got more than 325 billion dollars last year from migrant worker remittances, outstripping foreign direct investment and development assistance combined.

According to a recent survey carried out by the African Development Bank (ADB), remittances sent home by African migrants have quadrupled in the last 20 years. They hit the 40 billion dollar mark in 2010.

Massive land grab in some African countries, forcing those that would be growing food to feed their families off their lands, has resulted in large numbers getting onto rickety boats and risking their lives to try and migrate out.

Stable economies like Libya were a hub for migrants from African countries, Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies based in Washington told IPS. Migrants headed to Libya, and out through there because they were unable to withstand huge increases in the price of food and staple goods back home.

"Remittances are this sleeping giant in terms of development finance that has awakened. They create a financial tie between people and their communities by helping to build clinics, schools, roads and other infrastructure development projects," says Woods.

"There are some efforts to harness more the strategic resources from remittances, which have created a space for governments to act independent of external actors like the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund (IMF) whose interest and loan conditions have failed to serve the needs of Africa."

Libya has been a major destination for migrant workers following the 1969 revolution led by Gaddafi against King Idris. Construction workers from Tunisia, teachers from Egypt and Palestine and healthcare workers from Yugoslavia and Bulgaria poured in to assist in rebuilding.

Two decades later, a second wave of migrants swept in, mainly from Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and West Africa, to take advantage of the relatively high salaries of almost 300 dollars per month for unskilled labour.

On the macro level, says Dr. Ibrahim Awad, Director of the Center for Migration and Refugees Studies at the American University in Cairo, remittances assist in reducing chronic trade deficits and contribute to balancing the economy in countries like Egypt due to their resilience and countercyclical nature. This helps sustain consumption and investment during economic downturns.

But, he says, the countries that sent labour now face an exodus of migrants fleeing violence in Libya. The countries face an increase in the demand of jobs as unemployed workers return. Reliance on remittances to spur economic activity as a means of reducing poverty is slowing down.

"The crisis highlights the dependence some migrant sending countries have on remittances. In some countries remittances constitute over 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) like in Egypt. Reliance on this money influx suggests that any reduction will mainly impact the household level as well as create external financing gaps, which are hard to fill," Dr. Awad told IPS.

With no end to unrest in sight, concerns are growing amongst some developing nations that turmoil in the region could spread to oil-rich Gulf states where foreign labour adds up to more than 11 million.

Instead of waiting for the rebellions to die down in order to send migrants to Libya again or redirect efforts in locating new markets, labour sending countries should adopt appropriate policy measures to end reliance on labour export, and create incentives that encourage their nationals to stay home, Dr Awad said.

"Migrant sending countries should not rely solely on migration as a means of solving unemployment. The issue of lack of jobs should be solved internally. Countries of origin should therefore put in place effective policies for the reinsertion of returning migrant workers into their labour markets by creating decent work where people live."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Economy, Featured, Middle East Tagged With: , ,
«Older Posts