Issue 11: April 5, 2021
Staff
Xander Starobin: Co-Editor-in-Chief, Web Design
Avery Wang: Co-Editor-in-Chief, Layout
Maya Britto: Contributor, Communications
Diya Britto: Contributor, Social Media
Jade Xiao: Contributor
Julie Chen: Contributor
Marin Theis: Contributor
Wongel Gebru: Contributor
In this issue...
We're covering the historical phenomenon of statelessness, the hazardous Mediterranean sea travel conditions refugees face, and the European Union's fall in asylum applications. We're also exploring why wealthy countries don't host as many refugees as they can and how Libyan refugees are trapped in a cycle of abuse, bigotry, disease, and violence.
Monthly U.S. Migration Policy Update
By Diya Britto
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On February 4th, 2021, President Biden signed an executive order that will improve refugee resettlement programs and examine climate change’s impact on migration.
The order states that the United States Refugees Admissions Program (USRAP) will be renovated and expanded as well as offer more efficient and fair security vetting for applicants. The President also revoked Trump Administration orders enhancing state and local involvement in the resettlement of refugees.
The President ordered the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APSNA) to submit a report on climate change’s effects on migration, and to work with multiple agencies to make the report publicly available.
However, despite the president’s immigration reforms, the administration has failed to maintain some of Biden’s campaign promises. Biden promised to halt deportations for his first 100 days in office; however, deportations have continued each day of his presidency. After witnessing the cruelty child migrants faced in detention facilities like Texas’ Carrizo Springs, the administration also promised to put an end to detention centers. However, detention facilities have has now reopened under Biden.
Statelessness: A Persistent and Worsening Global Crisis
By Jade Xiao
Statelessness is a persistent phenomenon throughout history, and the crisis continues to worsen in recent years. According to data from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, at the end of 2019, there were 4.2 reported stateless persons in the world, but the number may have been as high as over 10 million.
The United States Department of State defines a stateless person as “someone who, under national laws, does not enjoy citizenship – the legal bond between a government and an individual – in any country.” Statelessness is categorized into two sub-groups, de jure and de facto: de jure is a legally stateless person, and de facto is an effectively stateless person who has no legal citizenship in any states but claims citizenship in one or more states.
A variety of factors can cause someone to lose their citizenship. States with restrictive or discriminatory laws may revoke citizenship or refuse to grant birth registrations to a child born out of wedlock, during migration, or without a father at the time of registration.
According to data from the World Bank’s 2016 Women, Business, and the Law report, 22 countries, including Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Syria, do not allow foley women to pass on their nationality to their child and require the presence and legal citizenship of the father; in regions where political and military conflicts are prevalent, these laws risks the citizenship of countless children as their fathers may be fighting, detained, or deceased. Secondly, during political successions, members of the former territory, especially foreigners and migrants, may lose their citizenship. The end of European Imperialism, the formation of new states after World War II, and recent political conflicts have left millions of people around the world stateless. Lastly, refugees and forced migrants are exceptionally vulnerable to statelessness. Their legal identifications may become lost or destroyed, or they may be rejected from their country due to violence and discrimination.
Statelessness’s consequences are severe as they deprive people of the benefits and rights as a citizen. Stateless persons receive no legal protection, making them more vulnerable to violence, exploitation, and human trafficking; they have no suffrage rights and property rights and are excluded from census data; they often have neither official identifications such as birth, marriage, and death certificates, nor access to public services such as education, health care, and employment. Stateless refugees are often denied entry into other nations while unable to return to their original state.
The number of stateless people around the world continues to increase. In a report from the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Fernand de Varennes, the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, warned, “Statelessness may in fact be increasing significantly in the coming years and even months, contributing to a potential humanitarian crisis and destabilizing situation.”
According to data from the UNHCR, the Rohingyas in Myanmar, with a population of 900,000, is currently the largest stateless group. They lost their citizenship after Myanmar passed its 1982 Citizenship Law, which excluded the Rohingya minorities from the 135 nationally-acknowledged ethnic groups. They have minimal freedom and opportunities in Myanmar and have difficulty gaining any official recognition due to a lack of documents. Since August 2017, over 742,000 Rohingyas have fled into Bangladesh due to violence in the Rakhine State by the Myanmar government, leading to a drastic rise in stateless refugees.
Based on the data from the Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Kurds are the largest non-Arab ethnic minority in Syria at 13.8 million people, and account for approximately 10% of the population. The Syrian Jazira census in 1962 revoked the citizenship of 120,000 Kurds, and currently, there are about 142,465 to 200,000 stateless, Syrian-born Kurds. Some are considered as foreigners and own a “foreigner identity card” issued by the Syrian government, but they are still deprived of most rights and access. Others, including a substantial number of children born to stateless parents, are unregistered and do not have any form of identification.
Children born under ISIS control also face statelessness at an alarming rate, as they have no officially internationally-recognized birth certificate, and their fathers are often deceased or arrested, eliminating any possibilities of obtaining citizenship outside the Caliphate control. According to the data from the Human Rights Watch (HRW), over 31,000 pregnant women still live under ISIS control; the Iraqi journalist Ghazwan Hassan al-Jibouri estimated about 300 stateless children born to ISIS members are unable to obtain education in Iraqi schools in May 2020. The HRW predicted the number is underreported and will continue to increase.
International organizations are aiming to reduce and eliminate statelessness. In 2014, the UNHCR launched The Global Action Plan to End Statelessness: 2014–2024, focused on resolving existing, preventing future, and protecting current stateless people. On May 21, 2020, the World Health Organization signed an agreement with the UNHCR to provide better health services to stateless persons.
You can support stateless persons around the world through donations and signing the UNHCR Open Letter:
Libyan Coastguard, Italian Government, EU Law Makes Already Hazardous Mediterranean Sea Travel More Dangerous
By Maya Britto
Refugees fleeing to Europe from Africa rely on sea travel routes through the Mediterranean Sea, which separates the two continents. Without seaworthy boats, the journey across the sea is incredibly dangerous and many migrants never make it to their destination. However, African refugees face much of the peril they will on their journey before they even make it onto the boats, because of Libyan and Italian authorities, and restrictive EU law.
Note: Refugees are often forced to use dangerous paths of travel to escape the cruelties they face at home. You can read more about the use of another popular but dangerous escape route for refugees here.
Reaching the Coast
Migrants from sub-Saharan Africa that aim to cross the sea face immense danger on their journey to the Libyan coast. Agreements within the Economic Community of Western African States allow for the migrants to move freely within Western Africa up to the country of Niger. However, migrants usually rely on smugglers and traffickers to help them reach Libya and Algeria, which are further North.
In response to the influx of refugees arriving in Southern Europe, the European Union attempted to restrict migrants’ northward travel out of Niger by pushing the Nigerien government to enact Law N° 2015-36. The law fights “against trafficking in persons and irregular migration,” and assists the end of criminal networks, according to statements by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). However, refugees still make the trip to Libya and Algeria and this law has only forced refugees to utilize more dangerous routes of travel to avoid arrest.
The increase of refugees looking to flee sub-Saharan Africa is a result of its rapid population growth, climate change, extreme poverty, food insecurity, cruel authoritarian regimes, and the rise in activity by terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda and Boko Haram.
Arriving in Libya
The struggles of the journey are not over once migrants cross into Libya, and in some ways, are much worse. On February 2, 2020, Italy and Libya renewed their 2017 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) without amendments. The renewal of this agreement has received widespread criticism from a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and disagreements over its legality have been discussed since October of last year, according to a report from StateWatch, a non-profit organization that monitors state and civil liberties in Europe.
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The MoU facilitates the return of migrants to Libya and encourages the cooperation of the Italian government and Libyan coast guard in the systematic abuse of refugees and migrants to restrict “migration flow.” The memorandum allows for Italy’s tacit support of the interception of boats at sea by Libyan authorities, after which migrants are returned to detention centers. According to reports by Amnesty international, an NGO focused on human rights protection, the rape and torture of migrants at these detention centers are commonplace. Refugees returned to Libya face arbitrary detention, sexual violence, forced labor, sale, and torture.
The Libyan government has not made any clear commitment to the protection of migrants’ human rights, and Italian support of the government through the MoU ignores the unlawful actions it has continued to take against refugees. It is in direct violation of the Hamburg rules adopted in the 1979 International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR). According to a report by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the goals of the convention were “aimed at developing an international SAR plan, so that, no matter where an accident occurs, the rescue of persons in distress at sea will be co-ordinated by a SAR organization and, when necessary, by co-operation between neighboring SAR organizations.” Sea rescues must end in a place of safety, but Libyan detention centers facilitate serious, systematic human rights violations.
Judith Sunderland, an associate Europe director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international NGO, stated in a report, “Migrants and asylum seekers detained in Libya, including children, are trapped in a nightmare, and what EU governments are doing perpetuates detention instead of getting people out of these abusive conditions.”
Crossing the Sea
Migration patterns used by refugees are constantly changing, but routes through the Mediterranean Sea have consistently remained the busiest sea travel channels. It is the world’s largest inland sea, with an area of 970,000 square miles (2,510,000 square kilometers). East to west, the sea starts at the Strait of Gibraltar and reaches the southwestern coast of Turkey. North to south, the sea spans 500 miles between the southern shores of Croatia and the coast of Libya.
The number of sea arrivals from Syria, Yemen, and African countries by refugees through the Mediterranean peaked in 2015 when more than one million people entered Europe. Greece, Italy, and Spain receive the bulk of these arrivals. So far, 2021 has witnessed the sea arrivals of 11,413 refugees to Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, and Malta, according to data collected by the UNHCR.
According to reports from Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian NGO, in 2020, an average of 10 migrants died or went missing each week in an attempt to cross the Mediterranean sea. This is a direct result of not only the inherent dangers that come with crossing the sea but also the inhuman actions performed by Libyan authorities that have been supported by the Italian government. Silence on this issue is being accepted by the international community. You can make sure these actions do not go unnoticed and help bring awareness to these injustices by donating to the organizations listed below.
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Asylum Applications in European Union Fall Dramatically During 2020
By Julie Chen
In 2020, the number of asylum applications in the European Union(EU) reached its lowest since 2013, and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) reported a decline of 30% in 2020 compared to the previous year. The same study continued to outline the sharp decrease in applicants from 61,421 refugees in February of last year to just 8,730 last April. European nations implemented emergency travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, causing this sudden downturn, and migrants still feel the lockdown’s distressing repercussions. Moreover, the travel ban not only generated fewer asylum applicants but also uncovered previous insufficiencies with the asylum systems in Europe.
Nations in the EU closed their borders in March with some even suspending the registration of asylum applicants. In April of 2020, Italy forbade migrant boats from using their ports due to the safety concerns caused by coronavirus, and Malta added that they could no longer receive any more refugees during the emergency. Moreover, EASO implicates in their report on asylum trends and COVID-19 that social distancing rules delayed the asylum process since officials were still determining the logistics of face-to-face interviews.
These safety measures and lockdowns resulted in a rapid accumulation of asylum cases in most European nations, especially during the first six months of 2020. Virginia Alvarez, a migration researcher at Amnesty International Spain, mentioned in an interview with The New Humanitarian (TNH), “It’s not because of the lockdown, but the lockdown made things worse.”
Throughout 2018 and 2019, Germany succeeded in reducing the processing time for asylum applications to an average of 6.8 months. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, however, any progress made in previous years is likely gone. “In corona times, the duration of procedures has certainly increased once again, but no figures are available yet,” said Karl Kopp, department head of the EuropeTeam at a German immigration advocacy group, to TNH. He continued, “In the courts, they are working under very difficult lockdown-like shutdown conditions.”
France has also experienced similar circumstances. France’s Office for the Protection of Refugees (OFPRA) and the national asylum court (CNDA) are two of the public offices that were closed for eight weeks during spring’s lockdown. Last summer, asylum procedures resumed with a restricted capacity, and remote hearings remained limited.
Even when public offices continued to open between October and December, OFPRA and CNDA could not regain any momentum in completing the backlog of cases. “The problem is that the vast majority of procedures at OFPRA and the CNDA require people to be physically present,” Elodie Journeau, a French migration and immigration lawyer, told TNH in an interview. “There’s now a longer delay by several months,” she added.
The EU’s issues associated with the pandemic revealed further defects in the continent’s asylum systems. Journeau emphasized the deficiencies that persisted even before COVID-19, mentioning the inadequate housing, a lack of social workers, and insufficient access to healthcare. Although the pandemic placed migrants in vulnerable situations, the asylum system’s shortcomings already left many refugees without enough support. The problems “should have been [resolved] before [the pandemic],” Journeau added.
Olivia Sundberg Diez, a migration policy analyst at the European Policy Centre, acknowledged in an interview with TNH that reception centers in many parts of Europe already operated at maximum capacity even prior to 2020, attributing the issue to the lack of structural investment for many years. The deficiency resulted in many challenges with abiding by social distancing guidelines. According to Sundberg Diez, most nations did not invest in housing for asylum seekers, leaving them even more vulnerable by resorting to ad hoc housing.
Many EU nations have, however, begun to respond to the issues migrants face. Several EU countries started initiatives to grant asylum seekers safer housing options, and some nations even expanded refugees’ rights to work.
The EU also implemented certain rules to provide precautionary health measures in the asylum offices: the usage of masks, regular temperature checks, social distancing guidelines, lowering the maximum occupancy capacity, and setting up plexiglass barriers. According to a December report from EASO, Finland, Greece, and the Netherlands successfully cut down their backlogs by allowing employees to work remotely and suspending in-person interviews.
Closing external borders in Europe discouraged many refugees from applying for asylum in Europe, leading to a dramatic fall in applications during 2020. However, many issues in the EU’s asylum system did not start after the pandemic but rather were present before 2020. Uncovering these problems is the first step in providing a better environment for migrants and establishing a more efficient asylum system.
Cycle of Abuse And Violence Against Libyan Refugees Continues to Worsen
By Wongel Gebru
Libya, a country that has been strained by years of violence and conflict, is becoming an increasingly dangerous place for refugees and migrants. A report, called Between Life and Death: Refugees and Migrants Caught in Libya's Abuse Loop, records the horrific stories of refugees and migrants who have endured or experienced a litany of atrocities in Libya. Some of the extreme realities refugees and migrants face, according to the report, include illegal executions, torture and other ill-treatment, rape and other sexual harassment, arbitrary incarceration, and slave labor and slavery at the hands of the Libyan government. The report also notes an alarming rate of relocation of people arriving in Libya to illegal places of detention (such as Tripoli's infamous Tobacco Factory) and the expulsion of thousands of refugees and migrants from Libya's eastern regions.
Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa said in a report, “instead of being protected, [Libyan refugees and migrants] are met with a catalog of appalling human rights abuses and now [are being] unfairly blamed for the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic on deeply racist and xenophobic grounds. Despite this, even in 2020 the EU and its member states continue to implement policies trapping tens of thousands of men, women, and children in a vicious cycle of abuse.”
Since 2016, European Union (EU) member states have worked with Libyan authorities to ensure that citizens trying to leave the country by boat are apprehended at sea and returned to Libya. EU states have provided speedboats and assistance in the planning of operations at sea. Approximately 60,000 men, women, and children were captured at sea and returned to Libya by the EU-supported Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) during this period, Europe’s assistance and Libya’s efforts are an attempt to bypass international human rights resolutions. Migrants whom the LCG returns to Libya face, permanent and unjust imprisonment, torture, extortion, and enforced disappearances where when a person is seized or imprisoned in secret by a government or political organization.
Thousands of refugees and migrants were held in the official Directorate for Countering Illicit Migration (DCIM) detention centers when they arrived in Libya in 2020. In these facilities, refugees and migrants are often at risk of being kidnapped or coerced by militias, militant gangs, and human smugglers. Some are tortured or raped before their families pay a ransom to free them. Others face torture, hunger, medical negligence, or other forms of violence. Hundreds of refugees and migrants have told Amnesty International about seeing their loved ones die while held at official DCIM centers or other smugglers' detention centers.
As Libyan officials have failed to stabilize their migration system, established relocation and evacuation programs are inadequate to provide secure and legal routes out of Libya for those in need, with only 5,709 vulnerable refugees benefiting from such programs between 2017 and September 11, 2020. Nations that receive Libyan immigrants, including EU member states, exacerbate the problem by offering few resettlement opportunities.
Exploitation, deplorable working environments, and abuse are all commonplace for refugees in their workplace or when pushed into forced labor by militias. According to Amnesty International's report, many people live in dirty environments with no access to safe water or washing services, rendering them more vulnerable to COVID-19 because physical isolation and preventative hygienic steps are difficult to enforce.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only fueled bigotry with politicians and private citizens openly blaming immigrants and migrants for the virus's spread and calling for their deportation. According to research conducted by Amnesty International, authorities in eastern Libya forcefully deported over 5,000 refugees and migrants in 2020 without due process or the right to contest their deportation. The arrestees were accused of being "carriers of infectious diseases," which was one of the reasons given for their expulsion.
People who are captured at sea and taken back to Libya are in dire need of assistance. They are already poor and struggling, and the unjust and dangerous detention facilities present even more challenges (especially during the COVID-19 pandemic). You can help by donating your time or money to organizations like the International Rescue Committee who work to help refugees that are struggling.