Issue 13: June 7, 2021
Staff
Xander Starobin: Co-Editor-in-Chief, Web design
Avery Wang: Co-Editor-in-Chief, Layout
Maya Britto: Contributor, Communications
Jade Xiao: Contributor, Social media
Diya Britto: Contributor
Julie Chen: Contributor
Marin Theis: Contributor
In this issue...
We're covering India's devasting COVID-19 outbreak as well as what President Biden has accomplished in his first 100 days, including declaring the 1915 Armenian killings a genocide and the history of that event. We're also giving an update on Ethiopia's current refugee crisis and the Kenyan government's plans to close the Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps.
COVID-19 Crisis in India Displaces Millions of Migrant Workers
By Maya Britto
The rapid spread of the coronavirus in India has resulted in the displacement of millions of migrant workers during the pandemic, and has presented the country’s preexisting internally displaced population with unprecedented challenges.
On March 24, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national 21-day lockdown with only four hours notice. This action forced more than 10 million migrant workers to return to their villages while the future of their employment statuses was highly uncertain. Public transportation was inaccessible, and most of the workers were forced to travel on foot. About 200 of them died mid-journey in road accidents.
India has an estimated population of 139 million internal migrant workers (workers who moved between two different places within India) employed in construction, manufacturing, and other industrial sectors in cities. Although these workers left their homes voluntarily to find employment in other parts of the country, the sudden restrictions on movement left many of them stranded. According to a 2020 Oxford study, along with migrants, many doctors and nurse practitioners have been evicted from their homes and subsequently displaced by neighbors and homeowners wary of “disease-carriers.”
A lack of data on Internally Displaced People (IDPs) makes it difficult to know how many of them have contracted the virus and how this number compares to numbers among non-displaced people. According to reports by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), internally displaced people already combat overcrowded living spaces, poor nutrition, and underlying health conditions that go untreated. These circumstances exacerbate the effect of COVID-19 on IDPs. Exclusion from public healthcare, lack of documentation, and high costs make accessing healthcare services difficult. Plummeting employment rates caused by the pandemic also intensify the exclusion of IDPs from the labor market, and thus the ability to pay for healthcare.
The National Disaster Management Plan, created in 2019 by India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), “provides a framework and direction to the government agencies for all phases of the disaster management cycle”, in accordance with the Disaster Management Act of 2005. Though the plan worked successfully in the past when used to cope with the aftermath of natural disasters, it has failed to address the challenges the novel COVID-19 wave, a biologicaldisaster, presents.
The COVID-19 Crisis Right Now
Between January 3rd 2020 and the time of this article’s publication, there have been 28,809,339 confirmed cases of coronavirus and at least 346,759 coronavirus-caused deaths in India. In late April and early May of 2021, India’s average number of COVID-19 cases per day reached nearly 400,000. Though these numbers are startling, they may very well be an undercount due to a recent drop in India’s testing rate. The massive number of cases has posed a significant challenge for India’s healthcare system. The scarcity of hospital beds, ventilators, and oxygen tanks have led to high death rates and the crowding of crematorium and burial grounds across the country.
Other crises
COVID-19 is not the only force causing displacement issues in India. 2020 alone resulted in 3.9 million new displacement cases caused by cyclones and other disasters in India. The passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2019, legislation which disenfranchises Muslims in India, also forced more than 1,800 people to shelter in camps after growing tensions between Hindu and Muslim communites led to violent protests in February of 2020. The current internal migration crisis is the worst India has faced since the Partition in 1947, which displaced more than 15 million people.
Here’s what you can do to help.
1. Donate to reputable non-governmental organizations, so you know your money is going to the people who need it most.
International Rescue Committee
2. Stay informed. The spread of misinformation during this pandemic has proved to be dangerous. Make sure your news sources are reliable and be mindful of what you share through social media.
3. Get vaccinated. Help stop the spread of COVID-19.
4. Hold your leaders accountable. Know how world leaders and others in authority are handling this pandemic.
President Biden's First 100 Days in Office: A Recap
By Diya Britto
President Joe Biden completed his 100th day in office on April 29th, 2021, having accomplished some and having fallen short of other goals he had set with regard to migration and refugee policy at that point in his Presidency.
On February 4th, 2021, President Biden signed an executive order that promises to 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 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. In April, President Biden participated in a Leaders Summit on Climate, where he discussed the impact of climate change on migration and what the US can do to handle this problem.
Biden ended some of the Trump administration’s policies during his first 100 days in office too. On his very first day, Biden put a stop to the Remain In Mexico program, a program which made asylum applicants stay in often dangerous territory outside the US while waiting for their asylum cases to be examined in court. Biden also ended Trump’s immigration limits that were primarily directed towards countries with a Muslim majority and revoked Trump Administration orders enhancing state and local involvement in the resettlement of refugees.
Despite these changes, there were many Trump era policies that Biden did not repeal. On April 17th, President Biden signed an order maintaining former president Donald Trump’s yearly refugee acceptance cap at 15,000. This order directly contradicted Biden’s campaign promise to significantly raise the refugee cap. Facing harsh backlash from his own party, Biden then reversed the decision, pledging to set an increased and final refugee cap for this fiscal year by May 15th. He eventually increased the refugee cap to 62,500, but the delay in policy changes caused many challenges for resettlement programs and refugees’ travel plans.
The Biden administration has failed to follow through on some other campaign promises as well. Biden promised to halt all deportations of migrants during 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 close migrant detention centers. Although some facilities have begun to shut down, several detention facilities are still open and running under President Biden.
The Tigray Crisis in Ethiopia: An Update
By Jade Xiao
Note: The IHA covered the Tigray crisis when it first arose in October, 2020. You can read the initial report here.
According to the situation report the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released on June 3, 2021, 63,110 Ethiopian refugees have fled to Sudan since November 7, 2020, and approximately 2 million are internally displaced. In 2021, NGO organizations such as Amnesty International, the United Nations, and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) continue to report growing hostility and instability across the region. According to an article by the IRC, the culmination of political instability, mass killing of civilians, and aggravating food and resource shortages has rendered 21.3 million Ethiopians in need of humanitarian support, the second highest number in the world.
Tigray is located in the northernmost region of Ethiopia, with an estimated 7 million ethnic Tigrayans, making up 6% of the nation’s population. In the 1970s, the Tigrayan people formed the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to seek self-determination, but gained prominent influence in the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the coalition of ethnic political parties. However, in 2019, the new Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed dissolved the coalition and sought to form a new party without the ethnic divisions, much to the opposition of the TPLF. After Abiy postponed the national election due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the TPLF accused him of conducting ethnic violence and unconstitutionally extending his term.
Military hostility officially erupted on November 4, 2020, when the TPLF launched a surprise attack on the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) in Mekele. Abiy Ahmed retaliated with a federal offensive order and sent the ENDF and troops from the Amhara region on November 6, condemning the TPLF’s aggression as a “treason that will never be forgotten.”
Since then, thousands of Tigrayans have been murdered by the Ethiopian armed forces and government, along with aid from Eritrean forces, according to reports from the National Public Radio, Associated Press, and Amnesty International. In an article by the OCHA, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has received and verified reports of ongoing violence, looting, indiscriminate shelling in Mekelle, Humera and Adigrat towns, and mass killings in Axum. In the same report, Bachelet stated that “Credible information also continues to emerge about serious violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict in Tigray in November last year,” including “reports of sexual and gender-based violence, extrajudicial killings, widespread destruction and looting of public and private property.”
In a report by the OCHA, citing statistics from the IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix fifth Emergency Site Assessment, there are 1,715,176 people internally displaced due to 265 conflict areas. According to a report from the International Rescue Committee in January 2021, data from the United Nations estimated approximately 9 million people may be directly affected by the crisis. A UN Spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, disclosed in a UN article in April 2021 that according to reports from humanitarian workers the region, tens of thousands of people across Tigray have fled to the cities such as Mekelle and Shire. According to Dujarric, data from a recent assessment by the UN estimates up to 450,000 people have sought refuge in Shire since the crisis began, and 2.5 million people in rural areas have not had access to essential services since December of 2020.
According to the New York Times, quoting an internal United States government statement, the Ethiopian government and forces are "deliberately and efficiently rendering Western Tigray ethnically homogeneous through the organized use of force and intimidation."
Women and children are the most vulnerable to persecution. According to UN reports, the offices received 136 reports of rape from hospitals of Mekelle, Ayder, Adigrat, and Wukro between December and January, and 1,288 cases of gender based violence between Febrary and Arpil, with many more unreported cases due to fear of retaliation and stigmatization. According to an article from the OCHA, there are 5,404 separated children in Tigray, but only 7.5 percent are under alternative, foster, and kinship care, while only 10 children were reunited with their families.
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Along with the preexisting drought and locust crises, the political conflict has exacerbated food and resource shortages. In a US AID report, the Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock warned that without a substantial increase in assistance, 1.25 million Tigrayans will be at risk of a famine with emergency levels of acute food insecurity. The report approximates 13 million will be in need of food assistance by June 2021. According to the statement from the OCHA, 21% of the 21,000 children screened are suffering from severe wasting, or an extremely low weight for height due to malnutrition, and the percentage will continue to increase.
According to the report from the UNHCR, the Tigrayans are suffering from “a full scale humanitarian crisis” from the worsening political tension, violence, pandemic, resource shortage, and “no end in sight to the conflict.” International nonprofit organizations and governments have been giving aid to Tigray, but struggle to access certain areas due to regional governmental interventions.
Joe Biden Declares 1915 Ottoman Ethnic Cleansing a Genocide
By Marin Theis
On April 24th, 2021, President Biden declared the Ottoman Empire’s systematic killing of Armenians in 1915 a genocide. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan immediately denied any actions of genocide in the history of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire, Turkey's predecesor. Biden’s declaration came on the 106th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
The United States government has refrained from declaring the actions of the Ottoman Empire a genocide due to an amicable US-Turkey relationship. Other nations, such as the United Kingdom, still have not made similar declarations for the same reasons. However, US-Turkey relations have somewhat deteriorated in recent years, meaning President Biden was not under the same diplomatic pressure as his predecessors to refrain from such a declaration.
The Turkish government has denied that the actions of the Ottoman government were genocidal, despite the fact that international media documented many of the events of the genocide.
The History of The Genocide
The Armenian genocide decimated over 90% of the Armenian population and resulted in the more homogeneous population of Turkey today. Armenians were a Christian minority in a majority-Muslim empire, and they historically conflicted both with the Muslim Kurds that also resided in Armenian lands and the government of the Ottoman Empire. Because they retained a degree of independence, the Ottoman government viewed Armenians as potentially disloyal to the empire and resented Armenians’ economic success.
Although there was sporadic violence against Armenians throughout the 19th century, state-sanctioned genocidal actions against Armeniens officially began in 1915. Ottoman leaders blamed the Ottoman loss to the Russians at the battle of Sarıkamış and the subsequent loss of the majority of Ottoman territory in Europe on Armenian disloyalty to the empire.
After the Battle of Sarıkamış, Armenian soldiers were transferred from active military battalions to labor battalions where they were then systematically murdered. Around the same time, Ottoman troops began systematically exterminating Armenian settlements near the Russian border, claiming that the Armenians there contributed to the Ottoman defeat.
The Ottoman government then declared Armenians a national security risk, ordering mass deportations. These deportations resulted in the death of anywhere from 600,000-1,000,000 Armenians as they were forced to march from Armenia to Syria. Deaths continued among the few who reached Syria, where Armenians were forced into prison camps where they frequently dehydrated or starved to death.
Kenyan Leaders Finalize Plans to Close Two Major Refugee Camps
By Julie Chen
In April 2021, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta finalized a plan to close the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps that includes the option for voluntary return for asylum seekers and alternative resettlement options in Kenya. He discussed the current circumstances surrounding Kakuma and Dadaab’s refugee camps that together house more than 400,000 refugees, including a large population of Somalians, with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi.
Somalia and Kenya have disputed their maritime boundaries since 2014 as both countries seek fishing rights and oil and gas resources in the region. Closing refugee camps along the Kenya-Somalia border, like Dadaab and Kakuma, and encouraging the mostly Somalian refugees to return to their homeland will burden Somalia with a sudden increase of migrants and may convince them to accede to Kenya’s border claim.
In late March of 2021, Fred Matiang’i, a Kenyan Cabinet Secretary, initiated a new procedure to close Dadaab and Kakuma, allowing the UNHCR fourteen days to establish a concrete plan. According to a press release by the UNHCR, the Kenyan government and UNHCR both recognize that refugee camps are merely temporary solutions to forced displacement, and that real solutions must be more sustainable.
Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary, Raychelle Omamo, said in a statement to the UNHCR, “We are not chasing people away, but a camp is not a permanent thing. It is a place of limbo. No one should live in a place of uncertainty or indignity generation after generation.”
Both the UNHCR and the government of Kenya currently aim to follow the goals of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) that prioritize enhancing the self-reliance of asylum seekers and finding long-term solutions to refugee issues with international cooperation. High Commissioner Grandi supported the commitment of Kenya’s government to the GCR in an UNHCR press release and feels “reassured by the government’s assurances that they will continue to provide protection and services for asylum seekers and refugees in Kenya while various solutions are pursued.”
Matiang’i said in a statement to the UNHCR that displaced refugees from East African countries will have the option of receiving free work permits in order to smoothly return to their country of origin or continue living in Kenya. The government plans to also remove the refugee statuses of those residing in Dadaab and Kakuma after their forced closures as an effort to better integrate refugees into local communities.
However, Kenya’s accommodations may not be enough for these refugees. “The Kenyan authorities are not giving Somali refugees a real choice between staying and leaving, and the UN refugee agency isn’t giving people accurate information about security conditions in Somalia,” said Bill Frelick, a refugee rights director from Human Rights Watch (HRW).
According to Doctors Without Borders, closing refugee camps while COVID-19 is still widespread is especially dangerous and irresponsible as well as allowing refugees to return to Somalia when it has increased in political fragility. Doctors Without Borders continues pointing out in their statement that refugees are “completely dependent on shrinking humanitarian aid and petrified of being pushed back into Somalia” and that in Somalia, “violence has only entrenched itself further, and an unpredictable climate of droughts and floods has made survival that much tougher.”
Trying to close these refugee camps is not new for Kenya due to previous national security concerns regarding violent Somalian groups at the border. In 2016, Kenya originally announced their intention to close Dadaab after an attack at Garissa University College by the Al Shabaab terrorist organization that killed 142 students. The government feared that Al Shabaab militants may infiltrate Dadaab and Kakuma, deeming these refugee camps as vulnerable to this Somalia-based terrorist group. However, the High Court of Kenya declared their plan unconstitutional, so the camps remained open.
By closing Dadaab and Kakuma, Kenya may not only hope to avoid violent confrontations with militant groups but also settle border disputes with Somalia. Although the government plans to follow a series of guidelines to better improve the refugees’ circumstances, the closure of these camps may ultimately force their lives into more chaos and confusion.