Judge blocks US policy barring asylum for gang and domestic violence victims. A federal judge on Wednesday struck down policies put in place by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in June that made it harder for individuals fleeing domestic and gang violence to obtain asylum. Judge Emmet Sullivan found the policies “arbitrary, capricious and in violation of the immigration law” and blocked the government from continuing to apply them. He also ordered federal officers to bring back to the United States individuals who were deported under the policy and provide them with new “credible fear” determinations. Meanwhile, a judge in San Francisco extended his decision to block a ban on asylum for people who cross the US-Mexico border irregularly. Judge Jon Tigar ruled in favour of keeping the ban on hold pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging it. He said the ban conflicted with immigration law, stating that individuals can apply for asylum regardless of how they enter the country. | | |
| UN officially affirms global migration compact. The UN General Assembly formally endorsed the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration on Wednesday, two days after endorsing the Global Compact on Refugees. The vote in the UNGA followed the migration compact’s adoption at an intergovernmental conference in Marrakech on 10 December. The General Assembly resolution on the migration compact was endorsed by 152 countries while five opposed it and 12 abstained from voting. The compact’s 23 objectives aim to boost cooperation in managing legal migration and to discourage irregular border crossings. “Better managed migration with more options for people to move in regular ways can help reduce pressure on overloaded asylum systems,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in a statement welcoming the UNGA’s endorsement. “At a moment when both refugees and migrants are too often the casualties of divisive politics, these two complementary compacts can help drive a more principled, humane and practical response.” | | |
| UN report documents rights violations driving displacement in eastern DR Congo. A new UN human rights report has documented “hundreds” of extrajudicial killings and cases of torture and sexual violence against civilians over the last two years in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu province . Women were found to be worst affected, with sexual violence being used by armed groups in what UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet described as “a deplorable, systematic and particularly brutal way”. The report describes how the widespread violence has caused massive displacement of civilians and hindered the emergency response to an Ebola outbreak in the region that has so far left as many as 319 people dead. | | |
| Migrants and refugees in France suffering “unprecedented” abuses. Migrants and refugees living in makeshift camps in northern France have been subjected to “unprecedented” violations of their basic rights over the past three years, the country’s human rights ombudsman said in a report on Wednesday. Jacques Toubon said that those camped out in Calais, Grande-Synthe and Ouistreham, as well as in Paris, were “in a state of extreme destitution” that had significantly worsened since French authorities cleared the so-called Jungle – a migrant settlement near the port city of Calais – in October 2016. Toubon accused the authorities of “trying to make [migrants] invisible” by regularly tearing down their camps without providing viable alternatives. | | |
| Cameroon’s displaced “hiding in the bush with no support”. The number of people forced to flee their homes as a result of the crisis in Cameroon’s Anglophone Southwest and Northwest regions has reached more than 430,000 in recent months. On Wednesday, the Norwegian Refugee Council warned that many of the displaced are “hiding in the bush with no support”. Insecurity and limited funding are preventing aid organizations from accessing many areas, said David Mann, the NRC’s country director in Cameroon. IRIN reports that the conflict is threatening the future of tens of thousands of children in the two regions who are out of school and vulnerable to recruitment by armed separatists. | | |
| More LGBT+ asylum-seekers seek refuge in South America. Reuters reports that an increasing number of LGBT+ people seeking to escape violence and discrimination in their home countries are heading to Latin American countries that have made advances on gay and transgender rights and recognize sexual orientation as grounds for asylum. Rainbow Railroad, a Canadian organization, helps LGBT+ people escape countries with anti-gay laws by working with FALGBT, an Argentine rights group. Brazil has also become an increasingly popular destination for LGBT+ asylum-seekers, mainly from West African nations. Despite progress on legal protections, however, Brazil still poses dangers for LGBT+ people. | | |
| We shared a shorter version of this video by former refugee Bertine Bahige back in June. It’s definitely worth watching this full-length version and reading the story of how Bertine went from child refugee in Mozambique to principal of an elementary school in the US state of Wyoming. | | |
Six out of 21 aid agencies polled by the Thompson Reuters Foundation named the Democratic Republic of the Congo the most neglected crisis of 2018.
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