Issue 20: February 7, 2022
In this issue...
We're covering Pakistan's surge of incoming refugees, the humanitarian crisis on Pacific Islands due to climate change, and the causes and effects of refugee family separation. We're also covering how recent riots in the Solomon islands have caused significant displacement of Chinese individuals, and we're covering an unprecedented influx of asylum-seekers in Mexico.
US Immigration Policy Update
By Marin Theis
On Jan. 21, the White House released a statement describing various initiatives that the Biden administration and the Department of Homeland Security have planned in order to attract international “STEM scholars” and provide them with jobs to strengthen the US economy and increase competitiveness.
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In accordance with his previous statements, President Biden has increased the refugee cap to 125,000 for the fiscal year 2022, according to a press statement from Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken. However, despite increases in 2020, the number of refugees admitted remained well below the official cap. President Biden plans to admit as many refugees as possible in 2022 under the new rules.
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Admission numbers differ among regions of “special humanitarian concern” in Africa, East Asia, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, East and South Asia. An additional 10,000 unallocated refugee numbers are available where the need for additional admission rises.
President Biden also proposed policy changes in his Build Back Better bill. The bill was passed in the House in November 2021, and is currently being debated in the Senate. One of the key components of the Build Back Better bill aims to preserve Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a path to legal citizenship for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as minors.
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The bill also includes an increase in the amount of green cards and visas issued. President Biden intends to increase access to family-based green cards, employment-based green cards, the visa lottery, and H1-B visas (another form of employment-based visa), according to a report by the Pew Research Center.
At the annual United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Pledging Conference, the United States pledged $200 million for 2022 in support of the UNHCR and its mission. This is up from $125 million pledged for 2020, an increase of $75 million. This money will support refugees through various UNHCR programs facilitating resettlement and emergency aid.
Pakistan Overwhelmed by Influx of Afghan Refugees
By Luisfe Medina
After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, many Afghans have been fleeing the country, a trend which is creating one of the biggest refugee crises in recent history. Bordering countries––most notably Pakistan––are especially likely to receive many Afghan escapees. Pakistan has accumulated over 3.5 million Afghan refugees, most of which have historically been treated benevolently, according to the UNHCR. However, with Pakistani Prime Minister Imar Khan’s support for the Taliban and the Pakistani government’s statements that Pakistan cannot take in more Afghan refugees, Afghans’ hopes for an evacuation to Pakistan are in jeopardy.
Upon the rise of the Taliban, Pakistan has remained one of the most sought after locations of refuge for Afghans, as over 300,000 Afghans have crossed the border into Pakistan since the Taliban takeover of the Afghan government. According to the Pakistani Information Minister, about 105,000 evacuating Afghans had valid visas; approximately double that number did not, but attained short-term visas from the Pakistani government. Those holding visas have been allowed a stay in Pakistan, including those whose travel documents have expired, as the Pakistan government is planning on making visa-renewals for Afghan escapees.
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However, Prime Minister Imar Khan stated that Pakistan has already taken in too many immigrants and that the Pakistani economy cannot handle many more. After that statement, the Pakistani government took an incredibly active role in the deportation of many Afghan families since the Taliban takeover. According to Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Hussain, Pakistan does not recognize the Taliban-led Afghanistan as a nation with a “crisis,” meaning that these illegal immigrants must leave Pakistan within 3 months.
Additionally, the Pakistani government has been tightening the country’s border restrictions over a fear of the negative effect Afghan immigrants could have on their social security, with a lot of Pakistani people claiming that the government is too benevolent towards Afghans even during times of economic uncertainty. Many of the Afghan-Pakistani border checkpoints usually open to Afghan refugees are either closed or only intermittently open. For example, the Chaman District Border between Pakistan and Afghanistan usually takes in Afghan refugees without visas, yet it has been closed more often than open lately. Other borders like Torkham often only accept Afghans with visas or those looking for immediate medical care, and even those who are allowed through for medical attention are deported back to Afghanistan after they are cleared to leave their respective medical institutions. Oftentimes, even Afghans looking for medical care are denied entry to Pakistan and the necessary care for their health and safety. Pakistan is also setting a barbed wire fence into its border with Pakistan to ensure that Afghan people do not attempt to cross over anywhere apart from specific border locations like the Chaman District Border, but Taliban military officials have made efforts to hinder project on many different occasions; however, the fencing project is almost completed, according to Pakistani military officials.
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If you would like to help displaced Afghan refugees in Pakistan, please consider donating to the UNHCR at https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/pakistan.html.
A ​​Race Against Time and Nature: The Pacific Islands
By Harrison Huang
Within the vast Pacific Ocean are over 30,000 geographically isolated islands, such as Fiji, French Polynesia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and more. Despite contributing to only 0.03 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions around the globe, the Pacific Islands face brutal consequences of climate change. As the islands struggle with an ongoing population decline, rising sea levels and tropical cyclones are putting these islands’ residents in great danger.
The archipelago of Solomon Islands experiences 7 to 10 mm increase in sea level per year, and as a result, 5 islands, each with numerous villages, have become uninhabitable in the past 20 years. In October 2018, Hurricane Walaka (a storm which formed due to unusually warm ocean temperatures and tropical heat waves) nearly decimated the entire East Island of Hawaii.
A United Nations report on Sea Level Rise and Implications predicts bleak futures for Pacific coastal communities: even with immediate responses to the climate crisis, the Atoll islands with limited land area will almost certainly disappear before the end of the 21st century. Major cities, such as Jakarta (with over 30 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area) and Port Moresby also face a similar fate due to more severe and increasing occurrences of floods, saltwater intrusion in groundwater, and erosion associated with rising sea levels.
Soon, the Pacific islands will fully lose their ability to protect critical infrastructure and human settlements. According to empirical evidence, rising sea levels destroyed 75 percent of medical facilities near Samoan coastlines and 72 percent of medical facilities near the coast of the Solomon Islands––a fall of over 210 health infrastructures.
The nature and scale with which such disasters occur puts in question the sustainability of Pacific Islands under the existential threat of climate change. Livelihood insecurities, as an ILO and ESCAP report argues, are equally likely to force native populations into refugee status, further raising the demand for resettlement in host countries like New Zealand, Australia, and the United States.
Most inhabitants of the Pacific Islands base their diet on fish, shellfish, and crabs. The bottom of the Pacific Island food chain faces deterioration of coastal habitats, rise in ocean surface temperatures, and a decline in oxygen and nutrient levels due to ocean stratification and acidification. Such impacts drive critical food sources further to the east into international waters outside the Pacific Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), where fisheries are no longer exempt from license fees and therefore cannot obtain food as easily.
Many Pacific Islands will lose up to 80 percent of their marine species before the 21st century. This relocation of fish will result in an annual 15 percent revenue decrease, amounting to $60 million lost each year, for the fish-dependent Pacific Islands through the next 30 years.
Currently, the UNHCR’s preconditions for refugees to resettle in foreign nations does not include specific risks of climate change, and has thus far focused mostly on challenges presented by politics, religious intolerance, and war. Up to the date of this article’s publication, no country other than New Zealand specifically accommodates Pacific Island climate refugees.
Yet even in New Zealand, poor resettlement conditions and meager economic opportunities contributed to a sharp decline in satisfaction rates among Pacific migrants. They earned a considerably lower wage compared to their non-Pacific counterparts, while many Pacific migrants remain unemployed.
Australia, on the other hand, instituted a policy regarding Pacific Island asylum seekers known as the “Pacific Solution.” In order to deal with unauthorized arrivals by sea to mainland Australia, the government takes an aggressive stance towards foreign asylum seekers by authorizing the Australian navy to intercept SIEVs (Suspected Illegal Entry Vessels) and relocate asylum seekers to detention centers in other Pacific countries under the border protection initiative Operation Relex. Operation Resolute, involving the air force and land patrols, stemmed from this initiative as an ongoing, comprehensive surveillance operation.
The Pacific Solution, viewed from a humanitarian standpoint, is a burden-shifting policy that fails to fulfill Australia’s obligations “not to extradite, deport, expel or otherwise remove a person from their territory, where there are substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk of irreparable harm.” This outright refusal outlines a grim prospect for Pacific Island inhabitants, who cannot afford to lose more time in a race against the ruthless nature.
UNHCR and the initiative of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) on climate crisis together build a framework that addresses issues related to environment degradation and offers legal guidance to partnership countries. The Refugee Environmental Protection Fund also invests in long-term solutions——sustainable Carbon credits, clean cooking, and reforestation——that mitigate the devastating effects of climate change.
Perils of Refugee Journeys Separate Families, Leave Children Traumatized
By Jack Elworth
According to Hirokazu Yoshikawa, an NYU developmental psychologist focusing on separated refugee families, over half of the roughly 70 million forcibly displaced individuals around the world are under 18, and usually these individuals are separated from their families as they flee their homes.
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According to UNICEF, 15,000 refugee children travel the perilous Mediterranean route to Europe yearly. Further, UNICEF estimates that multiple children die every day on the route. Many travel with family members, but some of these children have been separated from their families before they seek refuge, and others become separated during the journey.
Refugee children separated from their families face particularly intense trauma. According to The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), the trauma caused by separation from family as a child can last a lifetime and profoundly affect the wellbeing of a child. These refugee children have a much higher risk of developing depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
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According to the NCTSN, separation can also cause trust issues; extreme guilt, anger, fear, and negative emotions; withdrawal and isolation; and intrusive nightmares and thoughts about the traumatic experience. Further, the emotions of many separated children become dulled and stress hormones become depressed in order for the children to cope, effects which result in a lasting lack of emotion.
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In the United States, refugee children are separated not only because of the conditions of their journey, but also due to legal policy. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, the “zero tolerance” illegal immigration policy of the United States causes these separations. When authorities catch a refugee family illegally entering the U.S., the adults, by U.S. policy, must await a trial for their border-crossing. While parents wait for a court opening, children are sent to detention facilities to be kept away from their family. These children may have to wait years to see their parents again, regardless of their age or needs. The Bipartisan Policy Center asserts that 40,000 children were sent away from their families to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) while their parents serve a prison sentence for illegal immigration.
Even after parents have served their sentence, barriers to reunion remain. The ORR may have released a child to a guardian in the U.S. or sent them to a detention center. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, necessary reunification information is often hard to find because of interdepartmental information sharing issues. Tracing these children can take months or even years, and in some cases, parents have been deported without being reunited with their child.
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PBS reports that, in studies of children of illegal immigrants who were suddenly detained in the United States, separated children tend to miss school and develop behavioral problems, even developing depressive symptoms.
Unfortunately, the number of separated refugee families is only rising. In light of the Taliban victory in Afghanistan, many children have been sent out of the country without their parents. Many, having no hope for a future in Afghanistan, have fled their homes and families out of desperation.
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Meanwhile, gang violence, femicide, and drug abuse continue to ravage Mexico and much of the Americas. According to UNICEF, push factors are the main driver of child refugees. Some legislators in the U.S. government have been trying to ensure that migrant families at the southern border stay together, but these efforts have so far been unsuccessful.
Political Unrest Leads to Violent Riot in Solomon Islands, displaces Chinese residents
By Jade Xiao
Riots in the Solomon Islands demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister were unsuccessful, and resulted in the destruction of buildings and the displacement of many Chinese residents.
Ongoing unrest escalated in Solomon Islands on November 24, 2021, when a 3-day long riot began in the capital city of Honiara. Protests originated in the Solomon Islands to force Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare to resign, but violence quickly erupted.
Shops and businesses were looted, and houses were destroyed. The riots halted public transportation and blocked roads. Health clinics closed, and only the National Referral Hospital remained open.
According to a report from the Central Bank of Solomon Islands, 63 buildings, including schools and police centers, were burned down, and the total damage to the economy may be as high as $534 million. 217 people have been arrested as of December 3.
In particular, Chinese businesses were targeted, and many buildings in Chinatown were completely destroyed in a fire. Only 6 were left standing, according to a report by the Washington Post. Three charred bodies were found in a supermarket on Friday, and more than 1,500 Asian residents have been displaced.
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Police attempted to overpower the protesters during the riots, but had little success.The riots finally came to an end on Saturday morning, and the central government imposed a 7 pm to 6 am curfew on Friday, with only authorized officers exempted. Sogavare did not step down, and the government remains in power.
Nearby nations have dispatched troops to aid the Solomon Island police forces in quelling the rebellion and maintaining peace. Papua New Guinea sent a security team of 20 police officers and 15 correctional service members. Australia sent over 20 police officers overnight, on November 25, and deployed over 100 officers and military personnels in total. Other Pacific nations, such as Fiji and New Zealand, also sent troops for reinforcement. The UN has yet to dispatch any military nor service personnels, but is monitoring the situation.
China responded to the riots through the foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian with “grave concern,” and demanded the government to protect the Chinese citizens, according to an article by the Guardian.
Multiple factors contributed to the social and political tension in the Solomon Islands. There has been a persistent hatred between the people of Malaita, the most populated island, and the central government, as the people believe that they are ignored and neglected. The pandemic increased economic instability and unemployment in the region.
Political dissent and animosity towards Chinese residents rose in 2019, when Sogavare shifted allegiance to China and broke relations with Taiwan by adopting the One-China policy. Solomon Islands had maintained ties to Taiwan for 36 years, even during the archipelago’s civil war, before this shift in allegiance.
Volunteers have responded to the government’s call to clean up the streets after the riot. The Solomon Islands Red Cross is currently providing food and transportation, according to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
However, the damage to Chinese business and homes and Chinatown has yet to be restored. Many remain homeless and are in need of displacement aid.
Increase in Asylum-Seekers in Mexico Creates Unprecedented Challenges, Requires UN Assistance
By Nick Costantino
An influx of refugees from Central American countries to Mexico has strained the government’s resources and increased the need for refugee aid in Mexico
As natural disasters due to climate change, corruption, and COVID-19 cases increase in Central American countries, more refugees and asylum-seekers are resettling in Mexico for safety. According to a report from the UNHCR, the number of asylum claims in Mexico reached 130,000 in 2021. This number is almost triple the amount of claims recorded in 2020.
The majority of refugees fleeing to Mexico from Central America and the Caribbean are from Honduras and Guatemala. Hurricane Eta and Hurricane Iota swept through the region just 14 days apart.
Between November 3 and November 17, the tropical storms displaced up to five million people in 16 of Guatemala’s 22 departments, according to a report from the United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The storms had the worst impact on impoverished rural areas that are home to the country’s indigenous population. The devastation from the hurricanes have incurred losses of up to an estimated six billion quetzals, roughly equivalent to US $781 million. In Honduras, the hurricanes affected approximately 4.7 million people. More than one million residents evacuated the country.
The border town of Chiapas received 70 percent of the asylum requests in July 2021, many of whom were expelled from the US under the Title 42 policy. Those expelled are left stranded in northern Mexico, and are at increased risk for robbery, sexual assault, and other attacks.
To address these challenges, the Biden administration has pledged to help modernize law enforcement and also strengthen public health and economic opportunities for those living in countries like Honduras that have been impacted by natural disasters.
However, the administration faces criticism from multiple activist groups for not doing enough to combat the mistreatment of refugees in Mexico that occurs at the border. Upon entering office, Biden expressed his administration’s commitment to a “fair and humane immigration system” and vowed to “undo Trump’s damage and reclaim America’s values.” However, following a spike of migrant arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Biden administration has carried out 990,000 expulsions under the Title 42 policy, according to a report by the Migration Policy Institute.
As a result of increased expulsions and asylum claims, multiple UN agencies are at work in Mexico to accommodate arriving refugees. The UN refugee agency is providing asylum seekers with shelter, and is reportedly in close communication with Mexican authorities to ensure that refugees can safely integrate into communities and are not targeted by cartels or mistreated.
The UN refugee agency is also assisting Mexican authorities process asylum applications. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is making it possible for those in transit to have access to food and other basic necessities. UN Resident Coordinator Peter Grohmann, the senior UN official in Mexico, is focused on preserving the rights of unaccompanied minors who are arriving in the country.
Here’s what you can do to help asylum seekers in Mexico.
1. Donate to reliable non-governmental organizations, so you know your money is going to the people who need it most.
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Border Angels - A volunteer organization advocating for human rights, immigration reform, and education along both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
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United We Dream - A youth-led organization coordinating advocacy and legal immigration services at the national level.
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UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) - The UNHCR is working with the Mexican government to facilitate the safe transit and settlement of refugees.
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International Rescue Committee (IRC) - The IRC helps support families seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
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2. Demand an end to Title 42 expulsions. Contact your government officials through emails, telephone calls, and social media.
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3. Stay informed about the movement of refugees and US law regarding immigration. Subscribe to the IHA newsletter here.