Asylum Statistics United Kingdom 2007 (Home Office, August 2008) [text]
Forced Evictions and the Right to Housing of Roma in Russia (Intl. Fed. for Human Rights, July 2008) [text via Refworld]
The Looming Crisis: Displacement and Security in Iraq (Brookings Institution, August 2008) [text]
Manuel pour la protection des déplacés internes (IASC, 2008; English version issued earlier) [text via...
In
Housing,
China,
Iraq,
Russia,
united kingdom,
asylum,
internally displaced persons,
protection,
disasters,
statistical data,
manuals,
Roma
The latest issue of the Journal of Refugee Studies is now available: vol. 21, no. 3 (September 2008). Articles focus on displacement resulting from the Iraq war, refugee returns, integration, linking asylum seekers and host communities, predicting forced migration, peace education, and refugee business. Nine book reviews are also included.
Posted in...
The Iraqi government is growing in size, steadily moving towards pre-2003 levels, according to this NY Times piece by Campbell Robertson. Not only the growth in the size of the government is putting pressures on the budget, it is also a sign of another worrisome trend - the inability of the private sector to generate jobs and provide opportunities outside of the public sector.
One interesting stat:
In 2006, 31 percent of Iraq’s labor force was working in the public sector, according to the agency for statistics in the Ministry of Planning. The agency expects that figure to reach 35 percent this year, about 5 percentage points short of where the C.I.A. estimated it to be on the eve of the 2003 invasion.
As the article puts it, the problems of private sector growth and job creation...
Good Intentions: A Review of the New Asylum Model and its Impact on Trafficked Women Claiming Asylum (POPPY Project and Refugee Women's Resource Project, June 2008) [text]
Iraq Displacement and Return - 2008 Mid-Year Review (IOM, June 2008) [text]
Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings: Checklist for Field Use (IASC, June 2008) [access via ReliefWeb]
Outsourcing abuse:...
In
women,
mental health,
detention,
gender-based persecution,
international protection,
urban areas,
inhuman treatment,
flight by sea,
Iraq,
asylum,
internally displaced persons
Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, no. 2008-1 [full-text]
- This issue focuses on psychosocial support programs.
AWR Bulletin, vol. 46, no. 1 (2008) [contents]
- Mix of articles on migrants/asylum seekers in Europe.
Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, vol. 22, no. 2 (Winter 2008) [contents]
- Mix of articles including one on the use of teleconferencing in asylum removal...
Children in US Custody Held Without Due Process
US forces in Iraq should ensure that children it takes into custody are treated according to their status as children, and given prompt judicial review and access to independent monitors, Human Rights Watch said today. On May 22, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child will meet in Geneva to review US compliance with the international treaty banning the use of child soldiers, which requires states to help with the recovery and reintegration of such children under their control....
"From Isolation to Integration" Conference, Papers and Presentations, Jan. 2008 [access]
Kenya: Setting the Stage for Durable Peace? (USIP, April 2008) [text]
McAdam, J., ed., Forced Migration, Human Rights and Security, Studies in International Law, no. 17 (Hart Publishing, March 2008) [description & TOC]
Memorandum to the JHA Council - Ending the asylum lottery: Guaranteeing refugee...
In
European Union,
Security,
kenya,
humanitarian assistance,
asylum seekers,
asylum policy,
Greece,
elderly,
forced migration,
Iraq,
disasters
Court Ruling Ends Case Against Bilal Hussein
US forces should immediately release Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein – detained nearly two years ago – in accordance with an Iraqi judicial ruling ordering a halt to legal proceedings against him, Human Rights Watch said today....
Internally Displaced Persons in Iraq - Update (IDP Working Group, March 2008) [text via Refworld] [text via ReliefWeb]
The Rise and Fall of Asylum: What Happened and Why?, Centre for Economic Policy Research Discussion Paper, no. 577 (Australian National University, March 2008) [text]
Sharing Responsibility for Refugee Protection in Europe: Dublin Reconsidered (ECRE, March 2008) [access]
Stay...
In
Publications,
Malaysia,
Timor-Leste,
safety of humanitarian personnel,
undocumented migrants,
European Union,
refugees,
Iraq,
asylum,
internally displaced persons,
protection
from The HawkeyeLoneliness, ostracism and poverty plague women who have no safety net.By KIM GAMEL and BUSHRA JUHIThe Associated PressBAGHDAD -- The car exploded near a popular ice cream parlor, sending flames and shrapnel through the busy square and killing 17 people.It was another deadly explosion quickly forgotten by the outside world. But Aug. 1, 2007, changed the life of 28-year-old Maysa Sharif. It was the day she became one of nearly a million Iraqi women who have lost husbands as the country has suffered through three wars and Saddam Hussein's murderous regime.Such vast numbers of widows would tax any society, and all the more Iraq's. With virtually no safety net and few job opportunities, most widows have little choice but to move in with their extended families and depend on...
In Science News, Julie Rehmeyer writes a short piece on Humanitarian Statistics, with a focus on the “controversial” Iraq war studies carried in the Lancet. I haven’t posted about the Lancet studies before; I recognise that the Lancet studies have an important role to play in tallying the cost of the Iraq war, but anything I could add to the debate would be largely redundant, since it’s been driven by political rather than humanitarian interests.
Although Deltoid characterises the article as being “about the Lancet studies” - and fair enough, that is his particular interest - it is thankfully wider than that, noting the increase in the use of statistics in the human rights (and to a lesser extent, humanitarian) sector while also being aware of the...
Five Years Later, A Hidden Crisis: Report of the IRC Commission on Iraqi Refugees (International Rescue Commission, March 2008) [text]
How is the Term "Armed Conflict" Defined in International Humanitarian Law? (ICRC, March 2008) [text via Refworld]
Independent Asylum Commission Report: Executive Summary (The Independent, March 2008) [text]
Iraq: No Let-Up in the Humanitarian Crisis (ICRC,...
Amnesty International et al., "The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion," A Joint Agency Report (Oxfam, March 2008) [access]
Baraka, H., “Palestinians in Lebanon: Chains of Misery (Bound by the Law and the Market),” FMRS Working Paper, no. 9 (Forced Migration & Refugee Studies, American University in Cairo, Feb. 2008) [text]
Gammeltoft-Hansen, T., "The Refugee, the Sovereign and the Sea: EU...
from ReutersBy Aseel KamiBAGHDAD, March 14 (Reuters) - As a teenager, Mazin Tahir dreamt that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq would bring new freedoms and democracy with the fall of Saddam Hussein.As a young adult, his hopes have been replaced by despair after five years of unremitting violence."It's sad, or funny. The Iraqi dream has turned into a nightmare," said Tahir, who was 15 when the Americans came."When I was young I dreamt of getting rid of the dictatorship and replacing it with democracy. Saddam has gone but Iraq is in worse shape. There are killings every day, politicians are like thieves ... it's like a curse from God."Tahir had his life before him when the invasion started and his heart was full of hope. Now, like many others who grew from teens to adults during the...
Last week, we released the findings of yet another CIPE survey of the Iraqi business community. Why such a survey? Well, if you are going to do anything related to the economic rebuilding of the country shouldn’t you have an idea of what the private sector thinks? It helps to know business views because it is the private sector that must ultimately attract investment, create jobs, provide products and services, pay taxes, and become a key player in facilitating political stability.
So, working with our local partners, we went out and polled 1,630 Iraqi business owners. The sample was selected randomly from the registers of various Iraqi chambers of commerce and the Iraqi Businessmen Union. Although it is difficult task as one might imagine, we tried to cover the whole country...
from the Zimbabwe GuardianTHE cost of the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have grown to a shocking US$3 trillion already exceeding the 12-year war in Vietnam, according to a new book to be published next week written by Joseph Stiglitz, former World Bank chief economist, and Harvard University lecturer, Linda Bilmes.The cost to the UK in the two wars is expected to rise to more than US$40 billion, including social costs, by 2010, compared to the estimated US$14 bn so far set aside in direct operating expenditures.The US is also said to be $12.3 billion short in money for war, in spite of this huge funding.U.S. assistance to Africa over the past four years was approximately $3.2 billion, according to the Brookes Institute.The only other war in history to cost the US more in inflation...
Expand Fairness Guarantees, Prevent Politicized Dismissals
Iraqi political leaders should revise the new Accountability and Justice Law to assure basic guarantees of fairness, focus on individual acts rather than group affiliation, and limit the scope for politicized abuse, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Iraq’s Presidency Council. Human Rights Watch urged the council’s three leaders to follow through on their pledge to seek needed amendments to the law....
Applying the Lessons of Bosnia in Iraq: Whatever the Solution, Property Rights Should be Secured (Jan. 2008, Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement) [text]
The conditions in centres for third country national (detention camps, open centres as well as transit centres and transit zones) with a particular focus on provisions and facilities for persons with special needs in the 25 EU...
In
Kyrgyzstan,
children,
statelessness,
humanitarian personnel,
right to property,
climate,
Kazakstan,
Publications,
asylum seekers,
Europe,
detention,
Iraq
Parliament Approval Key to Ending Culture of Impunity for Serious Abuses
Iraq’s parliament should approve legislation to end immunity for foreign private security contractors, Human Rights Watch said today. The legislation would effectively rescind Order 17 of the now-defunct, US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which grants foreign contractors and their non-Iraqi employees immunity from Iraqi criminal prosecution....
Merry Christmas from 4Basra and thank you so much to everyone who has helped and supported us this year.
In the past six weeks or so, with the help of Nicholas Wood, Dr Chris Burns-Cox, the guys at Media Lens, and thanks to donations from a number of doctors in the UK and Ireland and a [...]...
from the Gulf TimesPublished: Wednesday, 5 December, 2007, 02:39 AM Doha TimeBy Cesar ChelalaIT is the kind of news that everybody had been dreading. An outbreak of cholera in Iraq, which started in two Northern provinces, has already reached Baghdad and has become Iraq’s biggest cholera outbreak in recent memory. “This frightening and dangerous situation,” as stated by Bahktiyar Ahmed, a Unicef emergency health facilitator, serves to underscore the unrelenting threat to their lives of people already affected by a devastated health care system.Statistics from the WHO indicate that there have already been more than 3,300 cases of cholera in the country, and more than 33,000 cases of watery diarrhoea –which could be a milder form of the disease. The cholera epidemic aggravates what...
World's Fastest-growing Refugee Crisis In Iraq - Funny blooper videos are hereRelief organizations say almost one third of Iraqis need emergency humanitarian aid Tuesday July 31st, 2007 The war in Iraq has led to the greatest mass exodus of people ever in the Middle East and threatens to overtake Darfur in the numbers of displaced. A report by Oxfam International and the NGO Coordination Committee of Iraq concludes 'the slide into poverty and deprivation since the coalition forces entered the country in 2003 has been dramatic, and a deep trauma for the Iraqi people.' One in seven Iraqis have fled for fear of being killed. More than 2 million are now in Syria and Jordan. Another 2 million are believed to be living away from their homes inside Iraq, often in makeshift camps. The report...
11th European Country of Origin Information Seminar, Vienna, 21-22 June 2007, Country Reports (Nov. 2007) [access]
- Country reports published on Afghanistan and Iraq.
African Migration Workshop, Accra, Ghana, September 2007, Papers (Nov. 2007) [access]
- Abstracts/full-text papers in English and French.
Asylum Deaths: What to do Next (Institute of Race Relations, Nov. 2007) [access]
Asylum...
In
Africa,
Policy,
public health,
Aids,
Migration,
country of origin conditions,
refugee status determination procedures,
suicide,
Afghanistan,
conflict,
European Union,
asylum seekers,
women,
Iraq
from Yahoo NewsBy Missy RyanBAGHDAD (Reuters) - Some Western aid groups driven from Iraq in recent years are cautiously coming back, weighing the danger to their staff against the lives they may save among increasingly desperate Iraqis. "The risk is still high but ... right now you need life-saving operations in Iraq," said Kasra Mofarah, who heads the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq, an umbrella aid group.Non-governmental groups like Medecins Sans Frontieres and the International Rescue Committee both set up offices in safer parts of northern Iraq this year after earlier withdrawing from the country."The security situation remains dire," said Melissa Winkler, an IRC spokeswoman. Still, she said, "we felt compelled to return and respond to the growing humanitarian crisis."In a country...
Please click here! http://www.irishwhiskeynotes.com/2007/11/help-good-cause-win-case-of-irish.html
Thanks to David at Irish Whiskey Notes.
And thanks to Stephen Teeling and David Horgan at Cooley Whiskey for your kind donation.
I’m also very grateful to a number of people in the UK who are helping me as we try to gather some further support.
I should also thank Terence at the Irish Medical [...]...
from IRINAMMAN, (IRIN) - Jordan’s public mental health institutions lack expertise, according to aid agencies, prompting Iraqi refugees or Jordanians suffering from mental disorders to rely on NGOs under the umbrella of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).Marwa el-Ansary, refugee team leader for CARE, an aid agency, said Jordan lacked the capacity to treat the increasing number of Iraqi refugees with mental health symptoms.According to the UNHCR, there are an estimated 750,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan, accounting for more than 10 percent of the population. In addition to the Palestinians, this means Jordan now hosts the largest number of refugees, per capita, of any country in the world.“The Jordanian government has been extremely cooperative and has done an excellent job as it struggles...
For most Irish doctors and nurses, the daily battle to save lives doesn’t begin until they reach their workplace.
In the southern Iraqi city of Basra however - about 600km south of the capital Baghdad - it’s a battle just to get to work safely through the dusty, rubbish-strewn and war-torn streets without being kidnapped or [...]...
Addressing Internal Displacement in Peace Processes, Peace Agreements and Peace-Building (Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, Sept. 2007) [text]
Developing Media in Stabilization and Reconstruction Operations (USIP, Oct. 2007) [text]
Exiled and Suffering: Palestinian refugees in Lebanon (Amnesty International, Oct. 2007) [text]
Human Rights Report, 1 April to 30 June 2007 (UN...
In
Media,
UNHCR EXCOM,
internal displacement,
reconstruction,
Lebanon,
Palestinians,
Publications,
Human Rights,
refugees,
peace efforts,
integration,
Iraq
I’ve written about the role that mobile telephony can play in humanitarian assistance quite a few times now, without really talking about it directly. The one line I have consistently taken is that cellphone coverage is not reliable or secure enough to be used as the primary means of communication in an insecure environment. Putting that to one side for a moment, however, it’s clear that mobile telephony really is the key communications technology for the poor - and that means it should be the key communications technology for the humanitarian community.
Now, via the NGO Security Blog, I read that UNHCR and WFP have been using SMS to notify Iraqi refugees in Syria about upcoming food distributions. A total of10,000 SMS have been sent out, which should be enough to reach...
The situation in Iraq has been worsening over the past few months.
A colleague of one of the doctors working in the children’s hospital in Basra was recently found dead in a rubbish dump, her body cut into pieces.
One important ward of the chilren’s hospital will close if my colleague in Vienna cannot help, and I hope [...]...