July 2021 - Press Review
NATIONAL COVERAGE
Back to zero for uninsured migrant businesses caught in the looting
Times Live - 30/07/2021
Recently, widespread looting and violence engulfed parts of South Africa a few days after the incarceration of former President Jacob Zuma in parts of Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng. It is estimated that the damage will amount to between 10 and 20 billion rands. Unlike the previous looting, which took place in 2017, and 2019 targeting only foreign business shop owners, the recent attack affected nationals and foreign nationals alike. The only insurance company that covers such claims in South Africa is the South African Special Risk Insurance Association (Sasria) which most migrants do not have. While the government of South Africa is “thinking about something for the uninsured”, the Managing Director of Sasria – Cedric Masondo laments for foreign business owners as it is difficult in his view for them to benefit from the government scheme because they are foreigners. To many foreign business owners affected by the looting - this is the worst and the end of the road.
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Like gender and racial minorities before them, non-citizens fight a culture of exclusion in the legal profession
Daily Maverick - 28/07/2021
A recent publication detail how immigrants apart from being excluded based on gender and race, are also excluded through state legislation to license and practice as lawyers despite having been granted the right to work in South Africa. The article reveals the challenges confronting migrants at the intersection of race, gender, and citizenship. It argues that attempts to prevent immigrants from practicing in South Africa are not just exclusionary but xenophobic and unconstitutional. It posits that, in contemporary South Africa, there is still a wide divide between race and gender in the legal domain. Drawing from a study conducted by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies in collaboration with the Foundation for Human Rights in 2014, it established that besides experiencing gender discrimination as their white female colleagues, black women also suffer the double threat of race-based discrimination. Reports published that year indicates that less than 10% of the country’s advocate were black. The article digs down memory lane and argues that just like it was only through litigation that women and black people won the rights to practice as lawyers in South Africa pre 1994, in the same manner, the ASRM coalition (the Asylum Seeker, Refugee Coalition) seeks to assert the right of non-citizens to be licensed to practice in South Africa.
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Undocumented immigrants left out of vaccination programme
Ground Up - 19/07/2021
Many undocumented migrants will not be able to be vaccinated against COVID 19. Undocumented migrants living in South Africa are unable to register on the Electronic Vaccination Data System as it only accepts documented immigrants. Some community leaders and organizations advocating for the vaccination of all who live in South Africa argue that if undocumented migrants are not vaccinated, it will jeopardize the health of the entire community as they shop at the same malls and their children attend the same schools. Excluding undocumented immigrants will undermine the success of the vaccine rollout in their view. Some of these undocumented migrants have been living in South Africa for more than 34 years and have made several efforts to be documented, but have not been successful.
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https://www.groundup.org.za/article/undocumented-immigrants-left-out-vaccination-programme/
REGIONAL COVERAGE
Sex-for-food aid claimed by women in Burkina Faso
The New Humanitarian - 26/07/2021
Once a peaceful country in West Africa, Burkina Faso, recently, has come under attack link to al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State causing record displacement in the country. There are more than 1.3 million internally displaced people in Burkina Faso in 2021. In Kaya, for example, a mid-sized town in the centre-north region, there are close to 500,000 displaced people living there. Being displaced from their communities, this vulnerable population relay on the state and NGOs for food supply. The registration process of displaced people in Burkina Faso is managed by the central government and local authorities and, they sometimes ask community members to assist. It is through the list system that displaced people get food assistance from Aid organizations, for example, the World Food Programme. Through this system, government officials and community leaders sexually and financially exploit these vulnerable populations – promising them to add their names on the list for food supplies. This process is going on unabated despite complaints from victims
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Eritrean refugees in Ethiopian capital protest insecurity at Tigray camp
Times Live - 30/07/2021
Fighting between the special forces of the Tigray regional government and the Ethiopian National Defence Force has escalated in recent days - adversely affecting the refugee camps in the Tigray region – Mai Aini and Adi – which has led to the death of two refugees. The ongoing war around the refugee camps has caused demonstrations from hundreds of Eritrean refugees in the Capital of Ethiopia – Adis Ababa, calling on the United Nations Refugee Agency – UNHCR to relocate refugees in the Tigray region. The US has declared the area a war zone and urges UNHCR to move refugees from the camps in the region. About 100 refugees have been removed from the two sites in the region and relocated by UNHCR and the UNHCR is in talks with the Tigrayan authorities to secure a safe passage out of the camps for others.
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Libya: Horrific violations in detention highlight Europe’s shameful role in forced returns
Amnesty International - 15/07/2021
A report published by Amnesty International reveals the horrific human rights violation experienced by migrants – men, women, and children intercepted while crossing the Mediterranean Sea with the assistance of Europe and forcibly returned to detention centres in Libya. The report reveals that since 2020, Libya’s Directorate for Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM) is a centre for human rights abuse where intercepted migrants are arbitrarily detent, subjected to torture, sexual violence, and forced labour. In some instances, women are raped by guards or coerced into sex in exchange for food or their freedom. Paradoxically, those in charge of these centres are rewarded with positions of power - allowing the vicious cycle to continue. Amnesty International is calling on European states to suspend cooperation on migration and border control with Libya and create a safe path through which migrants escaping persecution can be protected.
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Migrant boat capsizes off Libya, killing 57, as regional toll for 2021 nears 1,000
The Guardian – 27/07/2021
A minimum of 57 people died, with at least 20 women and two children were among those who drowned, when, off the Libyan coast a migrant boat capsized. The total death toll in the central Mediterranean in 2021 to 987, which is about four times as many as in the same period last year. The IOM relates the substantial increase in deaths to the decrease in sea patrols. Departures from Tunisia and Libya have risen recently with the improved summer weather, pushing the reception centre on the Italian island of Lampedusa to its limit. Di Giacomo from the IOM said that sea patrols by European authorities and vessels in recent years have significantly decreased, resulting in a rise in deaths. In three days in excess of 1,500 people arrived on Lampedusa with tens of thousands intercepted and returned by the Libyan coastguard to detention centres in Tripoli at which migrants are subjected to abuse and torture, advise aid workers and charities. In June, Médecins Sans Frontières decided to halt their services in Tripoli at two detention centres because of unacceptable violence against detainees. More than 18,000 asylum seekers have been returned to Libya thus far in 2021, double the number of last year’s, says UNHCR.
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INTERNATIONAL COVERAGE
The 1951 Refugee Convention: 70 years of life-saving protection
UNHCR - 28/07/2021
The 28th of July 2021 marked the 70th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention. The 1951 Convention came into being to protect and safeguard the fundamental rights of people forced to flee. With 149 state parties to either or both the Convention or its 1967 Protocol, the convention defines the term “refugee” and outline the rights of refugees, as well as the legal obligation of the States to protect them. With the numerous crises engulfing our societies today (including climate change, war, conflict, persecution, and displacement) the relevance of the 1951 Convention cannot be overemphasized. Through the convention, millions of lives have been saved globally, and therefore, it requires the backing of the international community. The UN High Commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, speaking on this day, stated very clearly that in the current unprecedented and emergency challenges context around the world presented by COVID 19, the rights of the refugee remain clear and applicable as prescribed by the 1951 Convention. He also emphasized the need for the international community to uphold the key principles of refugee protection as prescribed by the 1951 Convention.
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Canada is deporting its “guardian angel”
Aljazeera - 23/07/2021
In 2017 when the previous US President Donald Trump instituted the so-called “Muslim ban”, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to social media and expressed his intention to welcome all those fleeing persecution. Four years down the line, his position has changed as Canada has embarked on a massive deportation programme in 2020 with the highest deportation figures since 2015 with the previous conservative government in power. The latest published data indicates that Trudeau’s administration has deported some 12,122 people in 2020 with thousands more facing deportation in 2021. Some of those facing the threat of deportation are those who once were front-line workers during the most difficult and deadly months of COVID 19. These workers were widely celebrated and considered in some parts of the country as “guardian angels”. In acknowledging their contributions (refugees and asylum seekers), the Quebec government, for example, initiated the “guardian angel” programme apparently to promote essential workers with precarious immigration status as a direct path to permanent residency. However, in reality it was limited in scope - as it included only included certain front line workers like some health workers who provided direct care to patients, while those who provided subsidiary services like janitors in the hospitals were excluded from the scheme.
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https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/7/23/trudeaus-canada-is-deporting-its-guardian-angels
Migration and Covid deaths depriving poorest nations of health workers
The Guardian -19/07/2021
Experts say that the global losses of health care workers from the pandemic is compounded in developing nations with medical staff leaving to assist in the counter Covid-19 effort abroad. With the escalation of the crisis with new waves in Africa and constant health emergencies in Asia and Latin America, the World Health Organisation says there has been a minimum of 155,000 health worker deaths from Covid-19 in May 2021 with the true figure likely to be substantially higher. In more wealthy countries, the proportion of foreign-trained or foreign-born doctors and nurses has been rising for the last 20 years. Hence the pandemic doubles the blow with death and migration leaving behind knowledge gaps and compromised health systems and difficult work conditions. Some global health specialists are launching initiatives in an effort to protect medical staff, and encourage them not to go abroad. In the world’s wealthiest countries, almost 25% of doctors and about 16% of nurses were born abroad (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) brief). The brief published in May, ‘examined how rich countries have sought to attract staff from developing countries in response to the pandemic’ and observed ‘that nations from where staff were being enticed “were already facing severe shortages of skilled health workers before the Covid-19 pandemic”.’ ‘Highly skilled researchers are scarce in low- and middle-income countries, said Glenda Gray, president of the South African Medical Research Council, adding: “Any loss of scientists, either through death or migration, is a concern.”… With emigration rates of doctors and nurses as high as 50% from some African and Latin American countries, it can mean that more doctors born in these countries are working in the OECD area than in their countries of origin… In Zimbabwe, a country with one of the highest doctor emigration rates, Dr Charles Moyo said Africa would face a healthcare crisis if the tide of health worker losses was not stemmed.’
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IOM Releases 2020 Return and Reintegration Key Highlights
IOM - 9/7/2021
Unprecedented challenges were posed to IOM’s return and reintegration activities due to mobility restrictions and the closure of borders imposed by globally by governments responding to the pandemic in 2020, resulting in a number of adaptations to allow the IOM to continue to provide return and reintegration support to migrants. In 2020, 42,181 migrants were assisted by the IOM to return home voluntarily, which included migrants who were in vulnerable situations or stranded. The 2020 figure constituted a 35% decrease from the 2019 figure. Among those assisted were ’4,038 migrants assisted to return from the humanitarian contexts of Libya and Yemen under IOM’s Voluntary Humanitarian Return (VHR) programme, as well as 1,100 stranded migrants assisted under the COVID-19 Return Task Force.’ The main host region in 2020 with 16,649 migrants assisted to return to their countries of origin, was the European Economic Area. The main host country was Niger with 9,069 migrants assisted to return, reconfirming the trend of increasing numbers of returns taking place from transit countries. Of the approximately 42,000 migrants assisted, 40% returned within the same region in 2020. Migrants in West and Central Africa assisted to return alone accounted for 65 per cent of such flows. Malians comprised the largest population assisted with voluntary return to their country of origin in 2020 with 3,249 returnees, followed by Guinea (3,145) and Tajikistan (3,106).
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https://www.iom.int/news/iom-releases-2020-return-and-reintegration-key-highlights
Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash
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