AUTHOR: Martin Hijmans
URL: http://the-pessoptimist.blogspot.com/
E-MAIL: m.hijmans [at] planet.nl

“They rape girls who are as young as her in Syria now. If they raped a nine-year-old girl, they can do anything. I will not feel OK if I do not see her married to a decent man who can protect her,” said the father of Hanadi, a pregnant child bride in Jordan aged 14.

In March of this year, the United Nations human rights chief, Navi Pillay, stated in an interview that security forces in Syria are systematically detaining and torturing children with the approval or complicity of President Bashar Assad. “They’ve gone for the children, for whatever purpose, in large numbers, hundreds detained and tortured,” she said. “It’s just horrendous, children shot in the knees, held together with adults, in really inhumane conditions, denied medical treatment for their injuries, either held as hostages, or held as sources of information” (BBC). The statement by Pillay came following a report the previous month which stated that there were at least 400 child deaths this year alone — some as young as 10 being held in solitary confinement. Many families also reported levels of systematic rape against young girls and women both in Syria and refugee camps in bordering countries such as Iraq.

Regardless of the reasons for parents and families to seek early marriage for their children, it is not an escape, but a sentence. A girl who is married young is at a greater risk of abuse, which in extreme instances can result in death.  Girls who marry young consequently give birth young, and therefore have an increased risk for complications or even death in childbirth. Child brides are also more likely to be voiceless in their marriage, regarding most, if not all, major decisions. Child brides are also less likely to compete their education, maintain social circles, In the developing world, it is estimated that one-third of girls are married as children.  Child marriage violate the rights of the child in many ways, but the most concerning violation is a girls right to consent, and this right is continually violated through the life of the marriage for most girls.

It is estimated that 10 million girls a year worldwide are victims of child marriage; therefore, this spike in child marriages by refugees must not be taken lightly.  Syrian refugee communites must be educated on the true effects of child marriage, and education must be made available for girls.   Additionally the fight against gender discrimination must be put on the forefront of the agenda in order to see an end to the cycle of abuse and poverty that fuels child marriages.  States must ensure that individual communities are adequately educated on the long-term effects of child marriage gender discrimination, and see that sustainable solutions are then put in place. Such solutions include, making education a priority and ensuring that girls have equal access to it, seeing that families have alternative ways to pay debts (so that girls are not used as an viable option), and providing health education on HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

AUTHOR: Cassandra Clifford
URL: www.bridgetofreedomfoundation.org and http://children.foreignpolicyblogs.com
E-MAIL: Cassandra [at] btff.org

The spontaneous movement and displacement of large numbers of people has significant impacts on the environment including deforestation. Trees are felled to provide support for rudimentary shelters, wood is collected to build a fire for warmth and as fuel for cooking. Problems associated with refugee-affected areas are not limited to deforestation, they also include soil erosion, and depletion and pollution of water resources.

Research on the environmental impacts of refugees demonstrate that huge sections of land can be adversely impacted. For example, at the height of the refugee crisis in Tanzania in 1994-1996, a total of 570 square kilometres of forest was affected, of which 167 square kilometres was severely deforested. An environmental impact assessment carried out in Zimbabwe in 1994, when Mozambican refugees had returned to their homelands, showed a reduction of 58 per cent in the woodland cover around camps. The loss of any forest cover is a major issue because of habitat degradation, the loss of ecosystem functioning and, often, reduced levels of income or a lower quality of life.

The welfare of people – whether refugees or local inhabitants – is closely linked with the well-being of the environment. In fact, the two cannot be separated.

AUTHOR: Richard Matthews
URL: http://thegreenmarket.blogspot.com/
E-MAIL: smallbusinessconsultants [at] gmail.com

MSF warns of dire medical needs in overcrowded and under-prepared refugee camps- London/Juba, 13 June 2012

In Upper Nile State around 35,000 refugees crossed the border over a three-week period at the end of May and beginning of June. They arrived to find refugee camps that were already overcrowded and struggling to provide enough water for the 70,000 refugees in the area. The new arrivals initially gathered at a temporary site but water ran out and, on Monday night, the 15,000 refugees remaining at this location walked en masse 25km to the nearest location with available water.

“We went early on Tuesday morning to provide medical assistance and rehydration points along the route,” says Dr. Erna Rijnierse of MSF. “It was a truly shocking sight as we witnessed some of the weakest dying as they walked – too dehydrated for even the most urgent medical care to save them.” The situation for these refugees could not be more urgent and they need to be provided a place with water, shelter and food as soon as possible.

In UnityState, the refugee camp at Yida expanded dramatically over the past two months to around 50,000, with up to a thousand new refugees arriving daily. “At this point what concerns us most in Yida is that half of our consultations are for water borne illnesses that are easily preventable with proper hygiene, sanitation and availability of potable water,” says André Heller Perrache, MSF head of mission in South Sudan. “We see many patients, mainly children for whom diarrhoea can be life-threatening, continue to come back to the hospital to be treated several times. We are also seeing increasing malnutrition.”

Many of the new arrivals from Sudan have walked for many days or even weeks and are in worse health than refugees who have crossed in the past few months. Despite the efforts of the organisations present, the conditions and facilities they find on arrival are completely insufficient to cope with the recent influx or with the needs of the existing population of the camps.

The start of the rainy season adds to the urgency. “As the rainy season intensifies, the situation for the refugees becomes increasingly precarious,” says Heller Perrache. “Some crucial access roads are already becoming unusable and MSF urgently calls upon aid organisations involved in providing the basic minimum services to catch up with the ever increasing camp populations.”

MSF is working on a large scale in the refugee camps, with more than 50 international staff and just over 300 local staff present. MSF is doing more than 6,500 consultations per week, including urgent medical care for the most critically ill of the new arrivals. We are also working towards preventing outbreaks of disease by conducting measles vaccination campaigns for children. At various temporary points in Upper Nile State, MSF is treating and distributing water but the available water will run out soon. “That’s why it is so important more organisations get involved in trying to move the refugees to more suitable locations and provide appropriate conditions in the existing camps without delay”, adds Rijnierse. 

AUTHOR: Shout Africa
URL: http://www.shout-africa.com
E-MAIL: news [at] shout-africa.com

According to Bhutanese Refugees .com, “Since 1991 over one sixth of Bhutan’s people have sought asylum in Nepal, India and other countries around the world. The vast majority of the refugees are Lhotshampas, one of Bhutan’s three main ethnic groups, who were forced to leave Bhutan in the early 1990s. There is ample evidence, as documented by Amnesty International and other human rights organisations that the expulsion of large numbers of Lhotshampas was planned and executed with meticulous attention to detail. Over 105,000 Bhutanese have spent more than 15 years living in refugee camps established in Nepal by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Thousands more are living outside the camps in Nepal and India, and some in North America, Europe and Australia.

Since 2008 a resettlement process has seen many thousands of Bhutanese refugees from the camps in Nepal being re-settled primarily in the USA but also in Canada, Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway.”

AUTHOR: Shreedeep Rayamajhi
URL: http://www.shreedeeprayamajhi.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: weaker41 [at] gmail.com

Representative Frank Wolf, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee that determines US funding, said he would try to block funding to Nepal unless it grants exit visas to Tibetans who seek refuge in the United States. We’re not just going to cut them, we’re going to zero them out,” said Wolf, a Republican from Virginia and outspoken critic of China. “If they’re not willing to do it, then they don’t share our values and if they don’t share our values, we do not want to share our dollars,” he told a congressional hearing on Tibet. Wolf said he would propose the aid cutoff if Nepal’s record does not improve by the time the United States looks at foreign aid funding next year.

The report further highlights Representative Frank Wolf, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee that determines US funding, said he would try to block funding to Nepal unless it grants exit visas to Tibetans who seek refuge in the United States. According to sources the US Agency for International Development poured in $57.7 million for Nepal in the 2010 fiscal year.

In the past few years Nepal has been pretty fixed upon Tibetan refugees issue and has been strict in focusing more towards illegal migration process. Nepal has been the main route for exile for the Tibetans who having been rebelling against the Chinese government over Tibet who believe in the autonomous and free Tibet concept. The cases of illegal migration has been an immense issue where at times Tibetan refugees have been arrested with fake documents and fake passport with legal VISA and support from the US embassy. The controversy has not only challenged the US government’s role in refugees issue but it also shows the local interference that US embassy does at times of helping these illegal immigrants.

A question of legality has been raised against the US government and it s role regarding the foreign policy and its operation in the third world country.

AUTHOR: Shreedeep Rayamajhi
URL: http://www.shreedeeprayamajhi.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: weaker41 [at] gmail.com

The report further highlights Representative Frank Wolf, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee that determines US funding, said he would try to block funding to Nepal unless it grants exit visas to Tibetans who seek refuge in the United States. According to sources the US Agency for International Development poured in $57.7 million for Nepal in the 2010 fiscal year.

In the past few years Nepal has been pretty fixed upon Tibetan refugees issue and has been strict in focusing more towards illegal migration process. Nepal has been the main route for exile for the Tibetans who having been rebelling against the Chinese government over Tibet who believe in the autonomous and free Tibet concept. The cases of illegal migration has been an immense issue where at times Tibetan refugees have been arrested with fake documents and fake passport with legal VISA and support from the US embassy. The controversy has not only challenged the US government’s role in refugees issue but it also shows the local interference that US embassy does at times of helping these illegal immigrants.

A question of legality has been raised against the US government and it s role regarding the foreign policy and its operation in the third world country.

AUTHOR: Shreedeep Rayamajhi
URL: http://www.shreedeeprayamajhi.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: weaker41 [at] gmail.com

International Organization for Migration (IOM) helped repatriate panic-stricken workers who poured into the neighbouring countries of Tunisia and Egypt. Hossain is confident that the country will be able to send tens of thousands of workers as there is need of a huge workforce to rebuild Libya. Thousands of Bangladeshi doctors, nurses and engineers have opted to stay back at their work station in Libya. In fact they were asked not leave the workplace by employers, despite risk of their life during the eight months civil war.

AUTHOR: Saleem Samad
URL: http://bangladeshwatchdog.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: saleemsamad [at] hotmail.com

Sources at the Department of Foreign Employment states that the total number of Nepali migrant workers was 354,716 in fiscal 2010-11 where there were 10,416 women. The last numbers year included 38,000 workers returning to their jobs after taking a break in their homes. According to data provided by NHRC, three women died following exploitation and abuse in 2008-09, and 20 in the last year. Only 29,000 women migrant workers are recorded with the Department of Foreign Employment while independent estimates put it at 140,000. Similarly, the Non-Resident Nepalese Association, states 140,500 Nepali women were in overseas jobs in 2009.

Manju Gurung President of the Pourakhi- Nepal, said, “We don’t encourage people to go outside, but we ask the worker to be skilled and to enquire about their jobs that they are doing. So that when they are there, they can hold their dignity and earn their respect. There is a good market of Nepalese laborers and workers in the Middle East it’s because we Nepalese are very loyal and honest but due to lack of proper training most of the worker have to suffer. It’s very natural that when you spend quality amount of money then you expect good service for that and if that is not fulfilled then certainly you would have issues. In this field the most important role is the role of the agent who know the people and they are the once who coordinate the workers to the placement agencies. First we have to target these agents and aware them, if they are aware then thing can change.”

“Reality is women going abroad is not just a condition but it has emerged as a problem in every prospect of its opportunity. The rise in case of women being exploited and attack are taking its toll where every day we are hearing cases of women death or torture. We need to develop a serious mechanism to counter this problem, “added Gurung

in the Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait the demand of Nepalese migrant workers have also increased. According to data 71,116 workers migrated to Saudi Arab, 44,464 and 15,187 in The UAE and Kuwait during the fiscal year of 2009-2010

Aasha Lama President of the Aasha H4 Foundation said, “Nepalese women are very strong and they have been respected in different fields but the way they are exploited is majorly due to our lack of skills and other carelessness. When we talk about foreign migrant workers then policies are not just enough. We need stronger mechanism to curb this problem. One thing that the government should of foreign migrant workers is just by issuing the permit and creating better policies won’t solve the problem. We need to have effective mechanism to tackle the problem. As the problem associated with migrant worker start after the migrant workers leave the country when they are in foreign land where they have no support. Yes we need specific policies about making our worker going abroad with certain skills which should be compulsion so that they would have something to hold on to their dignity. We have too many policies but at ground reality we lack adaption so we should focus more towards adaptability and consequences than the modality of policies. It’s a situation of disgrace when a Nepali woman gets exploited or is stranded in foreign soil, and it makes us feel sad to see a woman facing such situation where we want to save and rescues women and we are doing an effort. We just request the government of Nepal to make a good mechanism to handle the problem.”

“All women organization working on women issues should come together with one voice and one agenda about safety and protection of women within Nepal and overseas. Life and Death of Bhunti Maya is a tragic tale of Nepalese woman struggle for survival and ultimate death which cannot be denied at any point. We need to raise question with our government about how secure is TIA security system in controlling Women trafficking? And how many Bhunti Maya have to die to bring change in this country.” added Lama.

With unfolding the case of Bhunti Maya the Foreign Employment Promotion Board handed over NPR 65,590 (Approximate USD1000) to deceased family of Bhunti Maya as compensation.

Regarding Bhunti Maya there are so many issues raised with her death she was 8 months pregnant and whether she was a victim of sexual exploitation, harassment or torture or she had conceived the baby with her own permission the question lays unrest with her death. Apart from that the issue like illegal visa, lack monitoring mechanism and lack of carelessness showed at the TIA immigration is a question that also searches ground reality. One Bhunti Maya’s death certainly makes no difference when there are thousand to spare let’s see what the government will do regarding the issue of foreign migrant.

AUTHOR: Shreedeep Rayamajhi
URL: http://www.shreedeeprayamajhi.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: weaker41 [at] gmail.com

http://www.genocidewatch.org updated its Genocide warning for South Africa on 20 Aug 2011 from 'Boer farmers' being at risk of genocide stage 5 to include ALL WHITES and Women being at risk of Stage 6 genocide at the hands of "ANC Youth, black Marxist racists'. It did not continue its previous stage 5 warningthat 'foreign black Africans' were also at risk.

Genocide Watch: “Julius Malema must be removed as leader of the ANC youth league… he is a violent Marxist-racist just like Winnie Mandela.” Genocide Watch updates South Africa’s whites and women (high rape rate) to Stage 6 (of the 8 stages) of genocide at the hands of ANC Youths and Black-Marxist Racists”.

Stage 6 of 8 stages of Genocide: PREPARATION: Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. Death lists are drawn up. Members of victim groups are forced to wear identifying symbols. Their property is expropriated. They are often segregated into ghettoes, deported into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved. At this stage, a Genocide Emergency must be declared. If the political will of the great powers, regional alliances, or the U.N. Security Council can be mobilized, armed international intervention should be prepared, or heavy assistance provided to the victim group to prepare for its self-defense. Otherwise, at least humanitarian assistance should be organized by the U.N. and private relief groups for the inevitable tide of refugees to come.

7. EXTERMINATION begins, and quickly becomes the mass killing legally called “genocide.” It is “extermination” to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human. When it is sponsored by the state, the armed forces often work with militias to do the killing. Sometimes the genocide results in revenge killings by groups against each other, creating the downward whirlpool-like cycle of bilateral genocide (as in Burundi). At this stage, only rapid and overwhelming armed intervention can stop genocide. Real safe areas or refugee escape corridors should be established with heavily armed international protection. (An unsafe “safe” area is worse than none at all.) The U.N. Standing High Readiness Brigade, EU Rapid Response Force, or regional forces — should be authorized to act by the U.N. Security Council if the genocide is small. For larger interventions, a multilateral force authorized by the U.N. should intervene. If the U.N. is paralyzed, regional alliances must act. It is time to recognize that the international responsibility to protect transcends the narrow interests of individual nation states. If strong nations will not provide troops to intervene directly, they should provide the airlift, equipment, and financial means necessary for regional states to intervene.

8. DENIAL is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres. The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies, try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses. They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims. They block investigations of the crimes, and continue to govern until driven from power by force, when they flee into exile. There they remain with impunity, like Pol Pot or Idi Amin, unless they are captured and a tribunal is established to try them. The response to denial is punishment by an international tribunal or national courts. There the evidence can be heard, and the perpetrators punished. Tribunals like the Yugoslav or Rwanda Tribunals, or an international tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, or an International Criminal Court may not deter the worst genocidal killers. But with the political will to arrest and prosecute them, some may be brought to justice.

Dr Gregory Stanton of GenocideWatch.org has changed South Africa (and Zimbabwe) to Stage 6 of genocide – when death lists are drawn up, propaganda targetting the target-groups distributed, murder-groups are formed, armed attacks against the target-groups are starting to culminate in a full-out Genocide, and victims – (in this case more than 800,000 of the 3-million Afrikaner-whites are already living in hundreds of marginal land-sites in dismal squatter conditions) — are being forced into marginal land sites where they are denied food-aid by the regime. Stage 7 is the all-out genocide. Stage 8 is the denial of the genocide which in South Africa already occurred much earlier, during stages 4 and 5 — with the ANC-regime’s denial of its genocidal attacks against Boer farmers and its constant official attempts to hide these facts by stopping its recording these ‘farm-attacks’ in seperate categories on the official police statistics site http://www.saps.gov.za. Stanton writes: “Julius Malema must be removed as leader of the ANC youth league. He is a violent Marxist-racist. Just like Winnie Mandela.”.

Nearly 600 asylum-applications from South Africans
Legally, this designation by the world’s acknowledged expert-organisation on the process of genocide (genocide is not a singular event, it is a long-drawn out process), also means that Boers can use this status – as was already done under status 5 — to be legally admitted as ‘political refugees’ from this government-directed genocidal violence targetting them in South Africa.

Thus far 360 ‘South Africans’ have obtained political asylum in a variety of Western countries, including the USA, Canada, and Ireland. More than 200 applications also are still pending.

It also means that this fact will also be added to the two charges of genocide lodged by Boer-organisations at the International Criminal Court in The Hague in April and May this year.

Up to August 20 2011, two at-risk minority groups were listed in South Africa – the ‘Boer farmers’ and 10-million black-African Refugees. The Boers have been listed at stage 5 since 2002. On August 20 2011, this rating was changed to include ALL whites in South Africa, at risk of Genocide Stage 6. The ‘whites’ now are targetted actively ; they are being publicly demonised and identified as the ‘enemy-group’; many calls are placed in the public media calling for their mass-murders, including the murders of white babies with the song ‘One Bullet – One White Infant’. There are reports that name-lists of white local-level leaders, identified through their participation in the citizen-policing forums, are being submitted to central government agencies. ANC youths are actively engaged in planning and announcing plans to take over all the (estimated 12,000 white-owned private farms) with organised violence-driven youth groups; groups are being trained at military bases at the moment. These newly-trained (8,000-member) ANC youth league members officially are going to help carry out ‘rural census’ from early next year. The ANC-regime does not explain why it is necessary to provide military training and arms to these groups. Stage 8 is the denial of the genocide and attempts to hide it by the perpetrators.

Many of these stages blend into each other: for instance in Stage 6, the victims are also being ‘forced into marginal land-sites or camps’ where they would be left to starve. This has been happening with the whites in South Africa when they were still in Stage 5: when the ANC-regime made black-racist laws barring the Boers/Afrikaners from the entire labour market only because of their ethnicity: more than 800,000 of the 3-million Boers now languish on marginal land-sites: being denied food-aid, government benefits and denied access to the entire labour market under the ANC-regime’s sonamed ‘black economic empowerment laws’. These laws are used to ethnically-cleanse ‘whites’ from their traditional towns and smallholdings because they rapidly become empoverished and homeless.

AUTHOR: Adriana Stuijt
URL: http://censorbugbear.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: a.j.stuijt [at] knid.nl