Gay and Lesbian Asylum Seekers

Newsweek has an article on the anecdotal evidence that suggests that there has been an increase in sexual orientation-based asylum claims in the US.

"When sexual orientation became an option [as a basis for asylum
claims] in 1994, the Internet was in its infancy, and it was difficult for
people to find out they could seek safe haven in the U.S.," says Rachel B.
Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality [http://www.immigrationequality.org/]. "Now we are seeing a steady
increase." Last week the nonprofit won its 60th case of the year, and it has
several others still pending. Immigration Equality won 55 cases in 2008 and 30
cases in 2007.

Angelina Jolie on Iraqi Refugees

The actress, a UNHCR goodwill ambassador, met with Iraqi refugees in Syria.

"Most Iraqi refugees cannot return to Iraq in view of the severe trauma they experienced there, the uncertainty linked to the coming Iraqi elections, the security issues and the lack of basic services," a UNHCR statement quoted Jolie as saying. "They will, therefore, be in need of continued support from the international community."

World Humanitarian Day...

is today. The UN General Assembly created it to remember those who have lost their lives while providing humanitarian aid.



UPDATE 8/20: On World Humanitarian Day, UNHCR announced the first phase of its plan to relocate some Somali refugees from the Dadaab camp in eastern Kenya to the Kakuma camp in northwest Kenya. The Dadaab camp house 3 times the residents it was intended to accommodate. The US Department of State announced a pledge of $160 million to support international humanitarian assistance.

Event Near DC: Unveiling of Global Refugee Mural

The unveiling of the "Global Refugee Mural" by Joel Bergner will be held at 10 AM Saturday at Kefa Café, 963 Bonifant St. in Silver Spring. The mural tells the story of three refugees living in Maryland.

While the three still fear backlash against themselves and their families, they hope their stories of perseverance and survival, captured in a new mural on Bonifant Street in Silver Spring, will illustrate the struggles of countless other refugees living in America and lead to change in their native lands.

Georges Mushayuma, a former mayor in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fled after finding himself between rival sides in his country's civil war. Mai Kyi, a Burmese woman, is afraid to return to her country after being exposed as a Christian while studying in the United States.

And an Iraqi woman, who asked to be referred to as "Zeena" for fear of backlash against her family, fled her native land after her brother was killed by Saddam Hussein's militia because her family showed loyalty to American troops invading her country.

All three established lives in the U.S. through the International Rescue Committee's Refugee Resettlement Center at 8700 Georgia Ave. in Silver Spring. The mural's artist used contacts at the center to find the three refugees and after interviewing them, immediately felt obligated to share their struggles with the public.

"With something this intense and important you can't just do a sloppy job," said Joel Bergner, a Washington, D.C., artist who spent three weeks painting the mural on the side of Kefa Café on Bonifant Street, using a $3,000 grant from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County. "You have to do them justice."

(Image: Charles E. Shoemaker II/The Gazette)

Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon

As the counting takes place in Lebanon's election, Al Jazeera profiles Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

However, of all the Palestinian refugees in the Arab world, it is those who have taken shelter in Lebanon who have suffered the most.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) the international body set up to ensure the welfare of Palestinian refugees, the highest percentage of Palestinian refugees who are living in abject poverty reside in Lebanon.

There are about 400,000 officially registered Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, or approximately 10 per cent of the population. Just under half of the refugees continue to live in camps.

The issue of "naturalisation" of Palestinian refugees has often been used as a political card in Lebanon, a small country built on a delicate confessional balance.

Due to the sensitivity of the issue, there has been no official census in Lebanon since 1932 that could determine the number of Christians and Muslims of various sects.

Mostly Sunni Muslims, the Palestinian refugees are seen as a potential boon to Lebanese Muslim political aspirations, especially Sunni ones.

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However, the future of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon will be among the first items on the agenda of Lebanon's new parliament.

The Sabra Shatila Foundation, after consultation with human rights organisations including International Lawyers Sans Frontieres and members of Lebanon's legislature, will table a draft law in parliament which promises, in the words of the foundation, to: "erase, in one vote, decades of illegal and immoral treatment of more than 10 per cent of Lebanon's population".

The draft text reads: "Be it enacted by the Chamber of Deputies ... that all Palestinian refugees in Lebanon shall immediately acquire, receive and enjoy the full faith and credit of all civil rights possessed by Lebanese citizens except citizenship or naturalisation."

The alternative can only mean that Lebanon's refugee camps will be a hotbed for further frustration and disappointment for their residents, and could well prove to be a fertile breeding ground for future extremism.

Darfur Rape Epidemic

A study by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) details the threat of rape faced by Darfuri women, both at home and at refugee camps.

PHR's report, titled "Nowhere To Turn: Failure To Protect, Support and Assure Justice for Darfuri Women," tells the stories of 88 women refugees living at the Farchana camp in Chad, a country that borders the Darfur region of Sudan.

Some 17 of the 88 women -- who were interviewed by four female researchers, including three physicians -- reported instances of "confirmed or highly probable rape" occurring in their Darfur villages during attacks. They and many other women fled and sought safety in neighboring Chad, but did not escape the danger. Another 15 of the 88 women reported being raped in the refugee camp, said PHR.

PHR's press release is available here.

Iraqi Refugees in The US

LA Weekly has a feature on the large community of Iraqi refugees in El Cajon, California and the struggles they face.

“Danger, bombings,” Silewa says, “everyday killings.” Denho explains that his parents, who are Christian, still live in Baghdad and receive threats because of their religion. “Now they can’t [step] outside,” he says. “They can’t buy anything.” A Muslim militia member killed a friend who lived near his parents. I ask Denho if he wants to bring his parents to the United States. “I wish,” he says, “but how?”

Silewa came to America in order to gain permanent residency and bring his wife and two sons, who ended up in Germany. But he hasn’t seen his family in three years. The family-reunification process can stretch on for many years, and even if all their papers were in order, Silewa says, he has no idea how he would pay for their airfare from Germany. With no car and no job, Silewa sits in his apartment and thinks about his family.

“I still can’t sleep,” he says through a translator from the local Chaldean Middle Eastern Social Services office. “I am still thinking a lot about my family. What really makes it worse is that I’m not finding a job to support myself and to help my family [come here].” He and Denho, Silewa says, “both sit all night and just cry. I really want to cry just to release it.” Almost every night is the same, their American dreams just out of reach.

As Mark Leon Goldberg points out on UN Dispatch:

As opposed to other western countries that have received large numbers of Iraqi asylum seekers, the United States has a smaller social safety net. . . . [R]efugee families in the United States face the double hurdles of chronic poverty and adapting to life in a country in which they do not speak the language. It is a pretty tragic situation.

Pressure from Thai Army Forces Closure of Refugee camp

Medicins Sans Frontieres has closed a refugee camp in Thailand that was serving about 5,000 Hmong asylum seekers from Laos. The group cited pressure and intimidation by the Thai army.

MSF says this was a difficult decision to make.

It is the sole international organisation allowed to work in the camp in northern Thailand which still houses nearly 5,000 ethnic Hmong who fled from Laos four years ago.

It provides most of the food and medical treatment for them.

But, says Gilles Isard, who heads the MSF mission in Thailand, the increasing restrictions imposed by the Thai military on its activities and the army's harassment of the Hmong have forced it to pull out.

"More and more, the Thai army is trying to use coercive measure to force the people to return to Laos. Also they are pressuring MSF.

"For instance they have been trying to demand MSF stop providing food distribution to the people in order to punish them," he told the BBC.

Thailand is notorious for its treatment of refugees. In its 2008 World Refugee Survey, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) named Thailand one of the "Worst Places for Refugees." According to the organization's report,

Thailand returned thousands of Myanmarese directly over to authorities in their home country, and informally forced nearly 25,400 more back across the border. Thailand does not recognize most of the Myanmarese refugees in its territories, and those that it does it warehouses in camps without the right to work. It allowed notorious Or Sor militia to administer some of these camps, provoking a riot when one shot and killed a refugee in December. On its website, the Ministry of Interior listed “to intercept and drive back refugees” among its key functions. Officials also confined nearly 8,000 Hmong refugees from Laos to a camp and vowed to force them back to Laos, “no matter how many bullet wounds they have.”

French Film on Illegal Migrants in Calais

From NPR's Morning Edition:

In France, illegal migrants often congregate in the port city of Calais hoping to hitch a covert ride across the Channel. A new French film about their situation has put the government on the defensive and provoked a public outcry over a law that makes it a crime to help them.

UNHCR Guidlines Show Iraq is Safer

New UNHCR Guidelines on Iraqi asylum requests, citing improved conditions in Iraq.

Under the new UNHCR guidelines, governments reviewing asylum requests from Iraqis from the semi-autonomous northern region and the south are urged to assess whether claimants are at direct risk because of their religious, ethnic or professional affiliation, or their sexual orientation.

"We are now saying rather than blanket consideration, these people can be given individual interviews to determine their status," [UNHCR Spokesman Ron] Redmond said, saying that specific groups of people in those regions may still require protection.

These include public officials, U.N. and other aid workers, journalists, human rights activists, homosexuals, and people seen to be affiliated with opposing armed groups, political factions, multinational forces and foreign companies, he said.