This article was in the New York Times on June 18:
Refugees From Wars and Persecution Increase, U.N. Agency Says
GENEVA — The number of refugees fleeing to other countries to escape conflict and persecution rose in 2007 for the second year as factors from climate change to over scarce resources threatened to increase the flow, the United Nations refugee agency warned Tuesday.
A total of 11.4 million refugees were under the care of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2007, including some 400,000 feeling conflict in their home countries, the agency said. The report for 2006 numbered 9.9 million.
The total was modest compared with the 17.8 million refugees in 1992 at the time of the Balkan wars, but after a steady drop between 2001 and 2005 it represented a worrying trend , the relief agency said.
“We are now faced with a complex mix of global challenges that could threaten even more forced displacement in the future,” Antonio Guterres, the high commissioner for refugees, said in a statement. “They range from multiple new conflict-related emergencies in world hotspots to bad governance, climate-induced environmental degradation that increase competition for scarce resources and extreme price hikes that have hit the poor the hardest and are generating instability in many places.”
The number of people displaced by conflict but remaining within their own countries also rose in 2007 to 26 million, the agency said, citing statistics provided by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, a private organization.
The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan accounted for more than half the world’s refugees in 2007. More than 2 million Iraqis have sought refuge in Syria and Jordan, and 3 million Afghans in Pakistan and Iran, the refugee agency said…
The latest statistics contradicted a number of misconceptions about the impact and distribution of refugee patterns, officials said, starting with the notion that Western countries admit most fugitives from conflict.
Instead, 80 percent of refugees remain in developing countries in the immediate vicinity of their own country, the UN agency said.
Pakistan accepted more than 2 million refugees and Syria 1.5 million in 2007 while the United States sheltered 281,000, the statistics showed.
The U.S. Committee for Refugees released its 2008 World Refugee Survey, which includes a list of the worst places for refugees to be in displacement or to try to resettle. These countries include Bangladesh, Russia, Europe, Malaysia, China, Iraq, India, Kenya, Sudan, and Thailand. More than 2 million of the world’s refugees are located in these countries. Ukraine, despite the small number of refugees residing within its borders as it rarely grants refugee status, has a serious problem with refoulement, and a rising problem with violence against visible minorities, is also among the world’s least safest places for refugees.
As the New York Times article stated, Iraq produced the highest number of refugees worldwide. According to USCR, this is the third year in a row that this has been the case. Although the U.S. stated in 2007 that it would resettle 7,000 Iraqi refugees, the U.S. only resettled 1,608. Refugees International, UNHCR, and Amnesty International recognize the situation facing Iraqi refugees as a crisis in desperate need of attention.
According to the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration in 2007, almost 5 million Iraqis had been displaced by violence in their country, the vast majority of which had fled since 2003. Over 2.4 million vacated their homes for safer areas within Iraq, up to 1.5 million were living in Syria, and over 1 million refugees were inhabiting Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and Gulf States.
There were reports last year that Iraqi refugees were actually returning to Iraq because of the decrease in violence. However, UNHCR noted that these refugees often returned to Iraq because they had ran out of resources in whatever country they had fled to after violence continued to spiral at home. As well, once they attempted to return home, they often found that their homes had either been destroyed or taken over, which forced them into secondary displacement contributing to an increased number of internally displaced persons.
With the number of refugees at over 14 million worldwide, there are, of course, other crisis situations that have lacked the kind of international attention needed to provide assistance to people fleeing from conflict and persecution:
Sudan, which is dealing with two separate refugee situations: Darfur/Chad and Southern Sudan. While the resettlement process is ongoing in Southern Sudan, it has been a fragile process as the situation regarding the Peace Agreement tends to shift on a regular basis. The crisis in Darfur continues to destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese, and is especially affecting women. In fact, it has come to a point where gender-based violence is a regular part of the lives of female refugees of all ages trying to survive the conflict that plagues their homeland.
Sudan is also home to over 300,000 refugees from the neighboring countries of Eritrea, Chad, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic. Unsurprisingly, it has been found that the human rights of these refugees are not protected during their time in Sudan.
Burma (or Myanmar), where refugees are displaced not only by the persecution they suffer in their home country, but also from the recent Cyclone that forced over a million people out of their homes and has shown that the government could care less about the survival and protection of its citizens.
Millions of people are currently forced from their homes in a kind of horror that no one should ever know. Today, we should remember them and pledge to support them as they struggle to survive.
- He’s Ukrainian!
(In part at least.) He’s the son of a Ukrainian Jewish father and a black mother of Caribbean descent. Kravitz considers himself both Christian and Jewish, describing the faiths as “all the same to me.” He also notes that the melange of spirituality he inherited “has been an important issue in my growth.”
-His father, Sy Kravitz, was a news producer for NBC television. He was also a jazz promoter, which allowed him to make friends with Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby Short, Miles Davis and other jazz greats. Ellington played ‘Happy Birthday’ for little Lenny one year.
- In 1993, Kravitz wrote ‘Line Up’ for Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, and appeared on Mick Jagger’s solo album ‘Wandering Spirit’, in doing a version of Bill Withers’ soul classic, ‘Use Me’. That year Kravitz also got to work with his idols Al Green and Curtis Mayfield, two of the great names in soul.
- He’s a vegetarian. Which is a shame for him really, as he’ll miss out on great Ukrainian cuisine such as shashlyk and salo.
In “The Sex Speech” (column, June 12), Nicholas D. Kristof urges Barack Obama to address women’s rights issues like maternal mortality.
As it happens, Senator Obama has an opportunity right now to demonstrate his commitment to women and girls.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act is up for reauthorization. In December 2007, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill strengthening the law to enable more effective prosecution of sex traffickers. Sadly, these criminal provisions were dropped by Senators Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Sam Brownback in the trafficking reauthorization bill they recently introduced.
Senator Obama could help ensure that the Senate legislation incorporates the criminal justice provisions included in the House bill and does justice to victims of sex trafficking. Such action could go a long way in establishing his credibility with women voters.
Jessice Neuwirth
President, Equality Now
New York, June 12, 2008
Yes, this would establish more credibility among women voters after Senator Obama fought a long, hard campaign against a woman candidate.
However, let us not forget that human trafficking increasingly affects men and children, as well. Also, women are increasingly found to be trafficked for purposes of labor as well as sexual exploitation. Modern slavery is really an issue that affects all people in all countries, whether they live in a country of origin, destination or transit (of victims). It is a criminal process that affects the security and challenges the law enforcement of every country, and it is a serious violation of human rights.
In the international community, trafficking is recognized as a form of gender based violence (article 2, United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women) because the problem, as it is currently known, disproportionally affects women.
While human rights are violated during the process of being trafficked, according to a report produced by La Strada International, trafficking in women is also connected to rights abuses that occur prior to being trafficked. This includes domestic violence, violations of women’s rights in the labor market, and a lack of rights and social protection for female migrants (now comprising approximately half of all migrants).
Domestic violence increases a woman’s risk to trafficking by acting as a catalyst to make the person feel the need to escape at all costs, which traffickers exploit. It also erodes self-esteem, leaving the victim to feel as if she deserves what is happening to her. In the case of children, it may force children to be absent from school, or to engage in risky behavior, which lowers their future job prospects and increases their vulnerability to trafficking.
(from Stephen Warnath’s “Examining the Intersection between Trafficking in Persons and Domestic Violence,” 2007)
A study on the physical and psychological health consequences of women and adolescents trafficked in Europe found that 60% of victims experienced some form of violence prior to being trafficked.
The violation of women’s rights in the labor market including the gender pay gap, discrimination in hiring practices, sexual harassment, and the feminization of poverty and unemployment worldwide, are factors that, in and of themselves, prevent women from advancing, but also fuel things like human trafficking.
While I agree with the writer that Senator Obama should actively engage in the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, it is also important that he continue to support measures against domestic violence and gender-based violence, as well as put effort into addressing women’s rights in the labor market as all of these issues are inextricably connected and need international support to overcome.
A topic near-and-dear to my heart, and an organization I spent my college years with, Journey’s End Refugee Services is holding a two-day celebration from June 20 to 21 for World Refugee Day. Here is the link to the website and the announcement listed below. The picture is from WRD 2006, but I absolutely love it.
Come Celebrate
WORLD REFUGEE DAY
June 20 & 21
With:
Episcopal Migration Ministries of WNY
St. John’s-Grace Episcopal Church
Journey’s End Refugee Services
Vive LaCasa Refugee Shelter
Friday 6/20 Attend an Inter-Faith service with refugee testimonies,
prayers, choir pieces, and concluded with a candlelight
vigil/walk to Colonial Circle.
Begins at 8:00PM –St. John’s-Grace
Lafayette & Colonial Circle(Richmond Ave.)
Bring a personal care item, or household item, to donate to the
refugee agencies!
Saturday 6/21 The celebration continues on Bidwell Pkwy. With musical
entertainment throughout the afternoon, refugee agency
displays and awards, films inside the church, liquid
refreshments, and others. Meet and greet refugees.
Begins at 12PM and ends at 5PM.
Bring a personal care item, or household item, to donate to the
refugee agencies!
Refugees in Western New York contribute to the community, and have an enduring and contagious spirit. I’ll still be in Ukraine when this happens, but I would encourage anyone to attend either of the days and get to know people with a tremendous life experience.
Secretary Rice remarked on the report with the following:
“The 2008 report covers more countries than ever — 170 total. It is the most comprehensive global compendium of human trafficking trends and efforts by foreign governments to eliminate this crime… And as required by Congress, the Trafficking in Persons Report examines both labor slavery and sex trafficking.
For the first time, in this year’s report, we closely examined prosecution data and made a disturbing discovery: Although more countries are addressing sex trafficking through prosecution and convictions, the petty tyrants who exploit their laborers rarely receive serious punishment. We see this as a serious shortcoming, and as we move our efforts forward, we and our allies must remember that a robust law enforcement response is essential.
This report is a key tool in our efforts to abolish human trafficking — by raising awareness, offering clear recommendations to combat these crimes, and offering advice and aid from the United States.”
