“The nexus of human trafficking, asylum seekers and refugees"
“Refugees at Risk: UNDOC uncovers human trafficking at camp in Malawi.” – UNDOC, May 2022. “IOM warns of increased risk of trafficking in persons for people fleeing Ukraine.” – IOM, March 2022. “Girls sold into forced labour. Largest group of trafficking victims identified by IOM in Bangladesh refugee camps” – IOM, October 2018. Human trafficking, or trafficking in persons refers to “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or...
“Still Fit for Purpose” – The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
Sudan, Niger, DRC, Ukraine/Russia, Israel/Palestine, the list is endless. The world is witnessing unprecedented levels of international and non-international armed conflicts across the globe; resulting in ongoing internal displacement of populations and mobility across borders as people search for refuge and protection no longer guaranteed in their homelands. + Now more than ever, individual citizens and activists must stand up for rights of asylum seekers and refugees; people who are being forced to leave their...
Paddling aganist the wind: Climate refugees
When Robin Wall Kimmerer spoke recently at the New York Times Events about Paddling against the Wind, she was speaking of climate refugees: she was speaking of snapping turtles laying their leathery eggs on a volleyball court because the familiar nesting grounds had been flooded. When snapping turtles seem to speak of perilous changes in the world that threaten their life cycle, it is awesome, poetic – even cute, to take notice. We stop, we listen to...
What it means to be a refugee? (Narrative from the media)
When I clicked the mouse on Berti and Borgman’s TED-Ed Talk What it means to be a refugee, I did not expect the electrifying play of shadows and smudges of charcoal figures in a jagged march across the beach on my screen. I heard haunting music, I saw hunched shoulders of people and vultures, I saw journeys presented as a maze which collapsed on people walking, and I saw drawings of people being...
World Refugees Day: Assessing South Africa's Refugee Protection System
Image: (left to right) Abdikadir Khalif Mohamed, Devon Turner, Fr. Peter-John Pearson, Corey Johnson, and Nabeelah Mia Of the 34.3 million refugees around the word (United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 2023a), South...
107th World Day of Migrants and Refugees
Human mobility is as old as human existence, with people moving from one place to the other for a myriad of reasons premised on the push and pull factors of mobility. While some move voluntarily from one country to another, others are forced to flee their home country to escape violence and persecution. With changes in world politics, ever-increasing political tensions, climate change, diseases, and globalization together with advances in communication and transportation, the world is experiencing an...
