Issue 23: May 2, 2022

In this issue...

We're covering genocide's history and continued use as a political tool in the modern day, global responses to the Russia-Ukraine war, and an update on the crisis in Afghanistan. We're also covering the ongoing war in the Tigray region of Ethiopia and the huge dangers that the enormous Kutupalong refugee camp poses.

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US Immigration Policy Update

By Marin Theis

On April 21, President Biden announced a long-awaited Ukrainian refugee policy. Under the new program, titled Uniting for Ukraine, US citizens will be able to sponsor a Ukrainian refugee’s resettlement in the US. This program will help President Biden achieve his goal of resettling 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. Uniting for Ukraine will also ensure that resettled refugees become eligible for work authorization within 2 years of their arrival in the United States.

The Biden Administration also plans to expand the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) in Europe to facilitate resettlement. This expansion includes more resources for processing refugees under the Lautenberg Program. The U.S. also continues to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine as well as countries that host large numbers of Ukrainian refugees, like Poland.

In accordance with U.S. immigration policies aimed at preventing the trafficking of migrant children, border authorities are separating Ukrainian children from their caretakers at the southern border. Many Ukrainian parents who cannot flee with their children are entrusting their children to a caretaker, often a friend or relative, to take them to safety in the U.S. Many enter the U.S. through the U.S.-Mexico border. Though caretakers have notarized letters declaring their temporary custody over the children, they are still separated because they are not the parents of the children they accompany.

Officials then take the children into custody under a law that requires unaccompanied minors to be held in government shelters. This law has affected Central and South American children for years.

The CDC is slated to lift Title 42, a restrictive public health immigration policy, in late May. Title 42 has allowed the US to turn away over 1.7 million migrants at the southern border under the justification of COVID-19 spread-prevention. The lift is expected to lead to a doubling in the number of migrants at the border. Homeland Security officials are now preparing to receive over 8,000 migrants per day. The CDC has faced pressure to lift Title 42 since it was first issued in March 2020.

Anchor 1

Genocide: A Tragic Political Tool with Long-Lasting Effects

By Harrison Huang

Genocides have come into public view in recent years due to escalating conflicts between and within nations around the world. United Nations associates the term with “great losses of humanity” in the Genocide Convention of 1948, a document that broadened the definition of genocide. Genocides can occur at both times of peace and chaos, and ought to be legally treated, according the convention, in the same way as are criminal offenses. While the specific motivations behind genocides vary, genocides are deliberate, organized, discriminatory, and dehumanization.

The Holocaust marked a turning point in human history––a point when genocides were no longer abstractions and became practical concerns of humanity. According to Dr. Gregory H. Stanton’s research on historical genocides, they are gradual processes that are rooted in systemic hate towards certain identities and culminate in massacre and mass persecution.

One of the earliest events that demonstrated Stanton’s case was the Armenian Genocide during World War I. Authorities of the Ottoman Empire backed the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), a radical organization which first forced Armenians to adopt Turkish names before confiscating property through anti-Armenian laws and propaganda. In the end, the CUP destroyed thousands of Armenian villages and slaughtered their inhabitants in a notorious event called the Death March to the Syrian desert. In 1915, around one million Armenian men, women, and children of all ages were expelled from their homeland and were forced to line up in a march to starvation and dehydration in the deadly Syrian desert.

Genocide is also a political tool that threatens a group of people into submitting to a totalitarian regime. Holodomor, a combination of “starvation” (holod) and “death” (mor) in Ukrainian, happened in the Ukraine administrative region of the USSR twenty years after the Armenian Genocide. Growing concerns over Ukraine’s open resistance to the government’s collectivization of agriculture led Stalin and his administration to repress such sentiments by denying people in the Ukraine region access to food. The crisis ended up wiping out 13.3 percent of the population and forever left a mark on the totalitarian government’s legacy.

Ongoing in the 21st century is the genocide in Myanmar that has terrorized the Rohingya people, a Muslim minority rendered stateless by religious persecution and violent attacks conducted by the xenophobic Burmese government. Over the course of the last decade, about 900,000 Rohingya people have left for overcrowded camps in neighboring countries while the Myanmar government has denied access to food, healthcare, education, etc. to around 600,000 that stayed behind.

In February 2021, a military coup that overthrew the democratic government of Myanmar exacerbated the Rohingya crisis. Led by the radical General Min Aung Hlaing, the Burmese military regime killed over 6,700 people in less than a month’s time, including at least 730 children under the age of five. The number of internally displaced people has reached historic highs, as more than one million people fled abroad before the coup.

Although genocides still tragically occur in the modern world, genocide recognition has grown, and international resolve to end them has strengthened. On April 24th, 2021, President Biden recognized the Armenian Genocide in a govenrment press release, an action which came over 100 years after the atrocities were committed. Multiple other nations followed suit, including recognizing the horrors of Holodomor as an act of genocide. The US built the Holodomor Memorial to Victims of the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide in Washington D.C. in 2008, two years after Ukrainan authorities defined Holodomor as a genocide, to denounce it outright.

Last month, Secretary Antony J. Blinken addressed the violence and persecution of the Rohingya people in a speech at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “There is compelling evidence that Burmese military committed crimes against humanity and genocide against Rohingya,” he said.

To learn more about the genocides and how they have influenced cultures throughout history and into the modern day, you may refer to the following:

USHMM (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Beyond Genocide (a list of genocide museums around the world)
Council on Foreign Relations, Rohingya specific (global conflict tracker)

Anchor 2

Nations around the World Present Diverse Responses to Russia-Ukraine War

By Jade Xiao

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 23, nations around the world have responded to the crisis in several ways, including verbal criticisms, economic sanctions, military support, and neutrality claims.

The EU and the UK

The European Union (EU) response to the invasion is one of the most active and influential. Relations between the EU and Ukraine have been relatively close since a 2016 association agreement establishing economic, political, and legal ties between the two nations. On the day of the invasion, the European Council denounced the Russian government, stating that the invasion was “grossly violating international law.”

The EU imposed various economic, military, and political sanctions against the Russians on February 22, and these sanctions were expanded on February 25, February 28, March 2, and March 15. The EU has denied Russian access to EU markets and transactions through bank restrictions, frozen assets, and banned trade with Russia.

On April 8, the EU adopted another round of sanctions, banning coal, fossil fuel, wood, cement, and liquor imports; access to EU ports; and jet fuel and other military exports. The European Commission announced a plan to terminate the EU's reliance on Russian energy, with a possibility of reducing demands for Russian gas by two-thirds by the end of 2022, according to a recent statement from the Commission.

The EU has provided significant military assistance to Ukraine since February 28. The European Peace Facility allocated 450 million euros for lethal military supplies and 50 million euros for non-lethal supplies, and on March 21, it allocated an additional 500 million euros for direct assistance to Ukraine.

The EU has also allowed temporary protection in member nations for Ukrainian refugees, including Ukrainian nationals, any third-country nationals, and stateless persons, for up to three years. The protection includes access to jobs, housing, medical aid, and education. The EU Civil Protection Mechanism has provided an emergency support package of 500 million euros to EU member nations that are receiving Ukrainian refugees.

The United Kingdom has also given significant support to Ukraine with a £400 million assistance package. 200 million pounds of the package provide for humanitarian aid, and 25 million pounds of public donations have gone to the Disasters Emergency Committee, according to a report from the UK Government.

Britain has also provided over 4,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine thus far as well as other military and medical supplies, and Britain has placed various sanctions of their own on Russia. However, the government stated that it will not offer refugee status to Ukranians. Overall, the UK response has been slower and weaker than those of the European Union and the United States, but it has still been forceful.

In other parts of the world, however, responses to Russia have been less unified and robust.

Africa

In Africa, responses to the invasion vary. In a UN General Assembly session, only about half of the African states supported a resolution denouncing the Russian aggression. While some nations were adamant about reprimanding the Russians, many abstained from voting.

Latin America

In Latin America, the opinion of the invasion likewise remains heavily divided. Many nations, such as Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, have yet to explicitly criticize Russia or take any meaningful action against Russia, but some nations have adopted some forms of condemnation. Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, and Uruguay have adopted several internationally agreed-upon restrictions and publicly criticized Russia.

Asia

In Southeast Asia, while nine of 11 states voted for criticizing Russia in the UN session, Vietnam and Laos abstained due to their trade relations with Russia. In South Asia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh remained neutral, while Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives have explicitly criticized Russia. However, overall, these states have been generally less active in their responses to the conflict.

China continues to attempt to remain neutral. The nation does not publicly condemn Russia, as Chairman Xi Jinping refuses to refer to the crisis as an invasion, but China has explicitly stated their wish to remain unaffected by the sanctions. It currently maintains trade with both sides, has not adopted any sanctions against Russia, and has not offered any aid to Ukraine. However, pressure from Western nations has been mounting for China to repudiate the Russian aggression.

Anchor 3

As Ukraine Crisis Fills News Cycle, Afghanistan Crisis Remains Unsung Tragedy

By Nick Costantino

Since August 2021, when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and established their own government in the country, hundreds of thousands of Afghans have fled their homes due to fear of the new regime.

On March 23, 2022, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan announced that it would reopen schools for women of all ages, but before the day was over, this policy was revoked and girls above the sixth grade were told to go home. Some women, who lived through the Taliban takeover of 1996, think this moment shows a glimmer of hope for improvements in women's rights and education compared to what was seen in the past, but others were left only appalled, according to an article by Nikkei Asia. Some people, mostly in the rural areas of Afghanistan, were glad that the government decided to close schools off from girls above the sixth grade, but others, mostly in the cities, started protesting for womens’ education and some were imprisoned for weeks, according to an article by Nikkei Asia.

According to a report by Nikkei Asia, girls are now afraid to go outside alone, and some girls have been stopped outside for wearing pants that didn’t cover their legs or for not being accompanied by someone else. Other girls, who were able to leave the country, are now in refugee camps and are still unable to have a full education.

According to a report by the UNHCR, 23 million people in Afghanistan face acute food insecurity and 8.4 million face emergency level food insecurity. The largest causes of this crisis is a wheat shortage that the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has caused and drought in the region. People in both rural and urban areas are sometimes foodless for days. According to Bloomberg, Afghanistan’s wheat yield dropped 30 percent during last year’s harvest. However, access to food is not only by a lack of product but also by high prices. Organizations like the World Food Program (WFP) are attempting to help solve the food insecurity crisis.

Due to such high levels of food insecurity and resulting malnutrition, millions are in need of medical support, and according to a report by the United Nations, only 17 percent of the 2,300 health facilities previously supported by the World Bank are fully functional in Afghanistan. Measles and diarrhea case numbers have shot up recently, and polio is also now a major risk, according to a report by the UN. The COVID-19 crisis also remains a threat.

Violence in Afghanistan is also still a problem. ISIS-K, an adversary of the Taliban, has increased its attacks in the country since the Taliban takeover, and other bombings have also occurred, according to an article by Aljazeera. A mosque in Kabul was hit by a grenade in early April, an attack which wounded six people, and in November, ISIS-K attacked a military hospital, leaving 19 dead. The group also claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a Shia mosque that left 60 dead in October. Taliban officials have claimed that they have defeated the group, but clearly, the group still poses a serious threat.

Even though stories about the Afghanistan crisis no longer remain common in mainstream media headlines, dire circumstances continue to face millions in the country. To contribute to Afghanistan humanitarian relief, you can donate to the UNHCR here, and you can stay informed by reading articles like this one.

Ongoing Tigray War Leads to Huge Humanitarian Crisis

By Luisfe Medina

Note: The IHA has covered the Tigrayan-Ethiopian Conflict in the past. You can find previous reports here (June 2021) or here (November 2020).

On November 4, 2020, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a nationalist military group located in the northernmost region of Ethiopia, attacked Ethiopian forces in search of self-determination. Since then, the Amharas, a separate Ethiopian ethnic group inhabiting a region adjacent to the area of Tigray, have dealt a great deal of damage to Tigrayan citizens and militant forces alike, while the Ethiopian government has expressed great complicitness and further aggression towards the impoverished group. The fighting has left thousands of innocent civilians endangered.

Since the beginning of the Tigrayan War on December 3, 2020, Ethiopians in the Tigray region have suffered from what multiple human rights organizations have labeled “crimes against humanity.” A report from the organization Human Rights Watch described that the Tigray Region has been subject to great instability, as brutal violence has become commonplace. According to a joint report by the human’s rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, Amhara forces have engaged in sexual assault, unlawful detention, and genocide against Tigrayans.

Human rights associations also pointed to Ethiopia’s government for its complicitness, its support of the ethnic cleansing of Tigrayans, and its denial of humanitarian assistance for Tigrayans living in unlivable conditions. Furthermore, Ethiopian citizens––particularly the Amharas––have targeted Tigrayans with racial slurs against their Tigrayan identity.

Until recently, Ethiopian officials refused to comment on Ethiopia's treatment of Tigrayans, while Amhara officials have mostly denied allegations of mistreatment. However, on March 24, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called for a “humanitarian truce” to investigate Human Rights Watch’s and Amnesty International’s allegations of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in the Tigray Region.

Some human rights groups claim that Amhara forces have been engaging in ethnic cleansing since the beginning of the war; according to an estimate from Ghent University, Tigrayan casualties directly caused by the war may range anywhere from 50,000-100,000. However, overall effects of the war have resulted in over half a million total casualties. The Ethiopian government’s evident indifference to the people of the region and a pre-existing lack of healthcare has also heavily contributed to over 100,000 deaths in the region.

Eritrea, a neighboring nation to Ethiopia, involved itself in the Tigrayan-Ethiopian conflict as well; According to a 2021 report by the United Nations, the Eritrean military attacked several humanitarian camps that housed tens of thousands of abjectly impoverished Tigrayans. Eritrea has also sent military support to Ethiopian authorities––particularly to the Amhara Region.

Furthermore, according to a recent article from the Washington Post, the Ethiopian government has blocked food aid to the Tigrayan region, resulting in the deaths of up to 200,000 ethnic Tigrayans. Prior to the war, almost half of ethnic Tigrayans were suffering from acute hunger, 400,000 of which were either in or on the verge of famine, according to a report by the UNHCR. The vast majority of Tigrayans who experienced acute hunger relied on food aid to survive; therefore, the Ethiopian government’s rescinding of food aid has been disastrous for the region of Tigray.

Fortunately, after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s announcement declaring a humanitarian truce with the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, the Ethiopian government allowed the World Food Program to send twenty trucks filled with food to aid starving Tigrayans. However, a report from the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) claims that so far, only a fraction of the food required to effectively aid famine-stricken communities in Tigray has been delivered.

Due to the Tigrayan conflict and environmental factors––particularly heavy winds, floods, and natural disasters––a grave number of Ethiopians have been the subject of mass displacement. According to a recent report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), the Tigray-Ethiopian conflict has directly led to the displacement of about 1.7 million people.

The United Nations is now acting quickly to aid Ethiopian and particularly ethnic Tigrayan citizens, as the UNHCR is appealing nations globally for over $205 million of assistance to the area with the goal of providing shelter and emergency relief items to over 60,000 civilians in need in the Tigray region. The organization is seeking an additional $16 million in aid for Tigrayan refugees fleeing to neighboring countries, money which will be provided to Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya, and Somalia––countries which have taken in tens of thousands of Tigrayan refugees.

If you would like to help struggling Tigrayans, please consider donating to Omna Tigray, the UNHCR, or the International Rescue Committee.

Kutupalong Remains Notorious for Immense Dangers and Size

By Jack Elworth

Kutupalong, a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, is by far the largest refugee camp in the world. According to Malteser International, about 800,000 refugees inhabit the camp, the vast majority of whom being Rohingyan people fleeing violence at home in the neighboring country, Myanmar. Kutupalong’s location makes it uniquely vulnerable to natural disasters in addition to overwhelming monsoon rains.

Flooding and landslides are regular occurrences during the monsoon season, flooding and destroying the flimsy shelters the camp provides. The UNHCR relays the account of a 60-year-old woman, one of tens of thousands of refugees devastated by the annual flooding. She described how the water first seeped in, then built to her family members' chests before they escaped with nothing but a solar panel, their stove, and a gas cylinder. The area is also prone to violent cyclones that can destroy hundreds of houses and endanger lives.

Fires are another threat to the safety of these refugees. With refugees living in close, cramped conditions under tarps supported by bamboo sticks, it’s no surprise that fires are common. Just this past January, a massive fire ripped through the camp, leaving roughly 5,000 people without houses, according to a spokesman for the security detail of the camp. This fire is no isolated incident: the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported six large fires in the first two months of 2022 alone.

These cramped conditions are conducive to not just fires, but disease. While many basic clinics exist, quality medical care is rare; fires, lack of funding, and natural disaster risk precludes the institution of a comprehensive and permanent healthcare system. Cramped quarters, dirty living conditions, and a failing infrastructure all create perfect conditions for disease to spread. While the camp attempts to provide basic water and sanitary facilities, the massive swarms of refugees fleeing persecution have overwhelmed all efforts. Latrines and wells have sprung up from the efforts of refugees, often haphazardly placed side by side, leading to a high risk of water-borne disease. These refugee-made facilities are incredibly dangerous from a public health perspective, being in no way sanitary.

Malnutrition is widespread, especially among children. The camp attempts to provide 2,100 calories to each and every refugee, but this vision is too often unrealized. According to reports from refugees in a report by Malteser International, it is common to not receive consistent meals. Furthermore, the meals that are delivered mostly consist of vegetable oil, rice, and beans according to Malteser International. These foods are not nutritious, as they lack key nutrients like protein and some vitamins.

The refugees have incredibly limited access to the world outside the camp; authorities have imposed strict rules and restrictions on freedom of movement in response to complaints of local Bangladeshis. Locals have complained in the past that the refugees were creating stiff competition for jobs, as well as participating in drug, human, and sex trafficking.

The refugees themselves, however are tragically frequent victims of sex trafficking. Women and girls of all ages are preyed upon by sex trafficking rings that lure the women from their families and camps with the false promise of jobs and a life elsewhere, only for them to be enslaved and sold for sex. For some, the situation is not one of deception: with no means of making a living, women and girls are often left no choice but to become prostitutes and enter a hellish world of sexual violence, rape, and abuse.

Kutupalong is notorious for its size and hazards, and as climate change and overpopulation in the region only worsen, the situation shows no signs of improvement.