Issue 5: October 5, 2020
Staff
Avery Wang: Contributor, Layout
Xander Starobin: Contributor, Web Design
Diya Britto: Contributor, Social Media
Maya Britto: Contributor
Andrew Szabo: Contributor
Wongel Gebru: Contributor
In this issue...
We're covering the effects of Australia's closed borders and suspension of certain visa grants, terrorist organization Boko Haram's brutal attacks in Cameroon, the current state of the Afghanistan refugee crisis, how the intense traumas refugees can face can lead to significant psychological illnesses.
Australia Restricts Immigration Amid COVID-19 Pandemic, Leaving Refugees Stranded
By Maya Britto
In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Australia has closed its borders to non-citizens and suspended offshore humanitarian visas grants. These decisions have created new challenges for refugees currently seeking asylum and refugees already in the country. Refugees that had hoped to resettle in Australia this year will have to remain in their home country or stranded mid-journey. Additionally, refugees in Australia face health risks along with potential job loss.
How do these decisions affect refugees on their way to Australia?
According to a tweet from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the Australian government closed international borders to everyone except Australian citizens, permanent residents, and their immediate family members on March 20th, 2020, in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The day before, the Australian government stopped granting offshore humanitarian visas, which allow people outside of Australia to resettle in the country for protection, as stated by their Department of Home Affairs. According to a report by the Parliament of Australia, those outside of the country who have been granted a “Global Special Humanitarian (subclass 202) visa” may still enter Australia.
These visas are specifically for people facing persecution in their home country, or those who may be at risk of harm because of their association with certain Australian agencies. Typically, it is granted to people who are mandated as refugees by the UNHCR, and then referred to Australia’s Department of Home Affairs for resettlement, according to a report by the Immigration Advice and Rights Centre.
Though these visa holders are allowed to cross the border into Australia, they must make their own travel arrangements. Many refugees are unable to arrange for their own travel, or have limited travel options. Due to the suspension of visa grants, refugees who hoped to relocate in Australia will have to wait wherever they are, leaving many stranded in the situations they are trying to escape or at some point along their journey.
How is the pandemic affecting refugees already in Australia?
According to a report from the Refugee Council of Australia, refugees hold Bridging Visas, Safe Haven Enterprise Visas (SHEV), and Temporary Protection Visas (TPV) are currently vulnerable to job loss due to the pandemic.
Bridging Visas allow refugees to lawfully remain in the country while their asylum application is being processed. SHEVs and TPVs offer protection to refugees who arrive in Australia by boat, for five and three years respectively, but a refugee with a SHEV must eventually work or study in Australia.
Refugees with these visas usually work in casual, low-income jobs in accommodation or food services--industries most threatened by COVID-19. As a result, rates of income loss, poverty, and homelessness within refugee communities may increase.
Refugees have also been affected by health risks disproportionately partially due to Australia's refugee policies. Overcrowding in private accommodation and detention centers will render efforts to reduce community transmission of COVID-19 useless, according to a report from the Refugee Council of Australia. The Australian Department of Health has identified people in “correctional and detention facilities” among those most at risk of contracting the virus. Physical distancing in detention centers is not possible and an outbreak would inevitably lead to harm for refugees residing in these centers.
What is Australia doing to help refugees during the pandemic?
According to a report from the Refugee Council of Australia, the Department of Home Affairs is taking steps to continue the processing of “onshore protection visa applications,” which ensure government protection for refugees in the country. The department is also implementing video and phone interviews, and methods of collecting biometric data without physical contact to help reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission for both asylum applicants and department staff.
According to a report from the Refugee Council of Australia, “settlement service providers are continuing to provide support to recently arrived refugees, particularly orientation, intensive and sensitive referrals and English language learning” while taking social distancing precautions. The Australian Department of Health has also made information regarding COVID-19 available in languages spoken by various refugee communities.
Terrorist Organization Boko Haram Targets Internally Displaced People in Central Africa
By Diya Britto
Brutal attacks from the terrorist organization Boko Haram have created a new threat for thousands of already Internally Displaced People (IDP) in Central Africa.
Boko Haram has been affecting refugees in Cameroon and Nigeria since they became active in 2002. According to a report by the International Organization of Migration, by December 2016, Boko Haram had affected 3,369,979 individuals in Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria alone. Among those individuals, 2.6 million IDPs and refugees had been displaced across those countries. Through the years, Boko Haram has continued their violent attacks, most of them targeted near borders, where “local populations live in volatile and insecure conditions.” Families often find themselves having to flee several times, because of difficult weather conditions and limited funding. The attacks have not stopped, and will likely continue to affect vulnerable individuals seeking refuge.
On August 2nd, 2020, Boko Haram attacked a camp near Nguetchewe, Cameroon, where hundreds of IDPs were being held. According to a press report from the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR), spokesperson Babar Baloch commented, “at least 18 people were killed and 11 injured in the incident...when assailants threw an explosive device, thought to be a grenade, into the makeshift camp while people were sleeping.”
The UNHCR deployed emergency missions to assess the amount of assistance required, and neighboring areas and local communities made efforts to share resources with the refugees. According to UNHCR statements, Cameroon had recorded 87 attacks near its northern border since January 2020.
On September 1st, a suicide bomb attack near Koyape, Cameroon killed 7 and injured 14 internally displaced people who were staying at a refugee camp. This attack followed countless other attacks by Boko Haram close to the border of Nigeria, where 18,000 internally displaced people have sought refuge for the past seven years.
According to a UNHCR report, Cameroon Representative Olivier Guillaume Beer said, “We are horrified by these senseless attacks on people who have been torn from their villages, fleeing violence perpetrated by armed gangs which rage in the region, only to be stripped of safety again after they just found refuge elsewhere.”
The attacks have caused a number of IDPs who were previously staying near the Nigerian border to flee. They are now looking for shelter in neighboring areas. According to reporting from the UNHCR, because of the rise in violent attacks near the north of Cameroon and affecting neighboring regions, “2.7 million people are now displaced internally in Northeast Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. Another 300,000 refugees have fled.”
Though the UNHCR and Republic of Cameroon are working hard and joining efforts to assist and ensure the safety of those displaced, they are still facing a number of challenges including underfunding, limited food and resources, and limited shelter. You can help by donating to refugee aid organizations such as the ones below and by spreading the word through social media platforms and within your community.
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The Situation in Afghanistan
By Xander Starobin
How the Crisis Began
The Afghanistan refugee crisis began just over forty years ago, during the communist-led Taraki and Amin government. According to a report from Amnesty International, an organization that fights human rights infringements and humanitarian crisis, hundreds of thousands of refugees fled the violence caused by this regime, and the numbers only grew after a Soviet invasion of the country occurred on December 24, 1979. There were more than 4 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan by the end of 1980. By 1984, 5 million Afghan refugees had fled to Pakistan and Iran.
Political and economic instability and further violence have perpetuated the refugee crisis in Afghanistan. According to a United Nations report, Anti-Government Elements, Pro-Government Forces, Afghan national security forces, international military forces, and ISIS and Taliban attacks have all contributed to volatile conditions. According to the report, in 2018 alone, these factors caused 11,000 Afghan civilian casualties.
According to a press release from the International Rescue Committee (IRC), an organization that provides aid to refugees in various countries, the Afghanistan government has also failed to provide clean water, electricity, safe roads, and education for its people, despite years of humanitarian aid. In 2014, the international community ceased many humanitarian and security efforts in Afghanistan, worsening Afghanistan’s economic struggles and it's already decaying security. Based on UNHCR statistics, the Afghan refugee population is the second highest in the world, after only Syria.
The Crisis Right Now
As of July 3, 2020, according to a press briefing from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 2.7 million Afghan refugees live outside Afghanistan, and 2.6 million are internally displaced. 95% of Afghan refugees live in Pakistan or Iran. According to the International Organization of Migration (IOM), a part of the United Nations, 488,578 undocumented refugees have returned to Afghanistan, whether due to deportation or on their own accord since January 1, 2020.
However, according to a UNHCR report, Afghan refugees represent the largest protracted refugee population in the world. Protracted refugees are those who have been living outside of their home country for five years or more with no immediate prospects for durable solutions. Although many Afghan refugees want to return home, a UNHCR report explained that in interviews, many also say they want to see the situation improve before they return to Afghanistan. They fear the abundant violence in addition to a severe lack of access to jobs, land, shelter and basic services.
International Response
Other nations have been largely unwelcoming of Afghan refugees. According to an Amnesty International report, Pakistan hosts over 1.5 million registered refugees and an estimated 1 million unregistered Afghan refugees. However, Pakistan did not sign the 1951 Refugee Convention, which means those refugees have not been able to access formal education opportunities, open a bank account, work, buy property, and have been denied access to healthcare. The 1951 Refugee Convention is a legal document that defines what a refugee is, what rights refugees have, and what legal obligations states have to uphold those rights.
In 2016 alone, roughly 365,000 Afghan refugees living in Pakistan were forcibly returned to Afghanistan. In a report, Human Rights Watch calls this the “largest unlawful mass forced return of refugees in recent times.” Estimates from the UNHCR state that 1.5 to 2 million Afghan refugees live undocumented in Iran. In 2018, political and economic issues in Iran forced roughly 770,000 to return to Afghanistan, according to the IOM.
One key principle established in the 1951 Refugee Convention is non-refoulement. Non-refoulement is the practice of not forcing a refugee to return to their home country if they will face persecution or serious threats to their life. According to an Amnesty International report, tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who have fled violence and applied for asylum in Europe have been forcibly sent back to Afghanistan, despite the fact that nearly every European state signed the Convention. These forced returns are clear violations of non-refoulement.
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Decades of conflict have left Afghanistan’s healthcare system broken. Now, Afghanistan is experiencing a severe lack of COVID-19 testing capacity, potentially endangering the lives of millions. In June, according to an IRC press release, the Afghan Ministry of Health said they only had the capacity to perform 2,000 tests per day. However, they were receiving between 10,000 and 20,000 samples each day, indicating that 80 to 90 percent of potential cases were not being tested. Afghanistan also had a very high test positivity rate at 40%, which suggests a high number of undetected cases in the country. According to an IRC report, there has been no sign of improvement in capacity or test positivity rate since the statements from the Afghan Ministry of Health made in June.
COVID-19 in Afghanistan
Traumatic Experiences Cause Alarming Rates of Mental Illness Among Refugee Populations
By Xander Starobin
The intense traumas refugees face before and during their arduous journeys can lead to significant psychological impacts, many of which go undetected or untreated.
Refugees often leave their home country for intrinsically traumatic reasons. According to a report from the Refugee Health Technical Assistance Center (RHTAC), an organization that provides mental health support and information for refugees, war, political oppression, religious oppression, imprisonment, torture, rape, loss of property, separation with family members, and physical assault are among the traumatic experiences refugees may endure before or during their journey. The same report claims that research shows the most common mental illnesses among refugee populations are post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depression, generalized anxiety, and panic attacks--all issues that can be directly correlated to trauma.
The BahçeÅŸehir Study of Syrian Refugee Children in Turkey revealed startling data about the mental health of refugee children. Of the children studied, 79 percent had experienced a death in the family, 60 percent had seen someone get kicked, shot at, or physically hurt, and 30 percent had themselves been kicked, shot at, or physically hurt. 45 percent showed symptoms of PTSD, which is a rate that is comparable to children who have experienced war. It's also ten times higher than the PTSD rate among all children around the world. The same study also showed that 20 percent of children studied had clinically diagnosable levels of depression. In comparison, the United States depression rate is roughly 3.2% among children between the ages 3 and 17, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to a research report from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), Syrian refugee children also have higher rates of emotional and behavioral issues than non-refugee children such as aggression and other disorders. The report also finds that there is a severe lack of mental health support options to address issues such as PTSD and depression, so refugees who suffer from these conditions are left to find ways to cope on their own. The MPI is a nonprofit organization that researches and analyzes immigration-related policies and ways to improve them.
According to a report from the RHTAC, refugees may endure betrayal at some point during their journey, whether by people they know, by government officials, by enemy militants, or by the politics of their region in general. Betrayal can severely damage refugees’ ability to develop trusting relationships with other people, even after those refugees have reached a safe environment or have resettled.
Not long after they witness traumas, refugees can experience a delayed asylum application process and/or detention, which can be highly stress-inducing. Refugees may also be forced to adjust to a new language, a new culture, find a job, and find permanent housing in a foreign country, which creates even more stress. This added stress is significantly detrimental to the mental health of refugees suffering from mental illnesses because, according to a report from Mental Health America, stress exacerbates mental health issues. Mental Health America is a nonprofit organization that addresses the needs of those living with mental illnesses and advocates for mental health understanding and awareness in general.
For decades, medical workers who work with refugees have screened for, diagnosed, and treated infectious diseases, but there has been little work to make mental illness identification and treatment more accessible to refugee populations until recent years, according to a report from the RHTAC. Refugees suffering from mental illnesses who are lucky enough to be able to receive treatment may be treated with pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy for PTSD, depression and anxiety, school-based trauma healing exercises for children, trauma disclosure and testimony therapy, Qigong and tai chi, and dance and movement therapies, and more.
The best way to thoroughly address refugee mental health issues is to build more complete mental healthcare infrastructure in countries that host refugees, according to a report from the Migration Policy Institute. Lebanon has taken a significant step in this direction. According to a report by Rabih El Chammay, Head of the National Mental Health Program in Lebanon, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health established the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) task force in 2014 in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The goal of the task force has been to provide better mental health care for the hundreds of thousands of refugees living in Lebanon by coordinating the services that different mental health-related agencies provide. It also aims to integrate refugees’ mental health care into primary care and build a better mental health infrastructure to address issues such as suicide prevention and the reduction of drug use.