Refugiados

EuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Inmigración

En la Europa de estos últimos años, el asilo ha sido caracterizado por dos tendencias diferenciadas. La primera hace referencia a la demanda estructural de protección internacional. Con la excepción de 2020, cuando las medidas de confinamiento limitaron drásticamente la movilidad internacional, las solicitudes de asilo presentadas en Europa, durante la última década, siempre han sobrepasado el medio millón anual, superando el millón en el bienio 2015-2016 y, de nuevo, el año pasado, cuando se registraron 1.048.900 solicitudes (Eurostat). La segunda se refiere a la respuesta de los legisladores europeos (nacionales y supranacionales) ante esta demanda estructural. Una respuesta, marcada siempre por la emergencia, y la falta de solidaridad y consenso.…  Seguir leyendo »

An abandoned car left by fleeing Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan on Oct. 3. (Aziz Karimov/Getty Images)

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Azerbaijani television last week showed giant shovels demolishing what had once been the parliament building of the ethnic Armenian breakaway region known as Nagorno-Karabakh. It was a symbolic final blow to an area whose more than 100,000 people have fled, leaving deserted villages and empty streets.

“We are nobody”, said Artak Beglaryan, the former ombudsman of Karabakh and now one of its few public advocates. Like nearly every other Armenian resident of Karabakh, he escaped to neighboring Armenia when Azerbaijani troops took control in September. “It is a ghost country”, said Beglaryan of the rugged, verdant region where he was born.…  Seguir leyendo »

Burundian children stand behind a fence as they wait to be registered as refugees at Nyarugusu camp in Tanzania on June 11, 2015. Stephanie Aglietti/AFP via Getty Images

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John, a Burundian living in Tanzania’s Nyarugusu refugee camp, is the embodiment of the instability that more than 100,000 other Burundian refugees are facing as the Tanzanian government renews threats to forcibly repatriate Burundian refugees if they do not return “voluntarily”.

John, who we’ve given a pseudonym for his safety, says, “I have seen a lot of things. I have fled the genocide in 1972 and the war in 1993”.

In addition to fleeing Burundi multiple times, John, like many other Burundians, has also been displaced from Tanzania, the state that provided him refuge. During his second displacement from Burundi in 2012, the Tanzanian government forced John and thousands of other Burundians refugees to repatriate.…  Seguir leyendo »

A Syrian child and others sheltered in a former carwash in Antakya, Turkey, in the days after the earthquake in February. Emily Garthwaite for The New York Times

Europa, ,

It was the Syrians who were responsible for the earthquakes. That’s what a Turkish man told Seyfeddin Selim, a refugee from Homs, Syria, who used to sell groceries in Antakya, the capital of Hatay province in southern Turkey. When the earthquakes hit in February, Mr. Selim’s shop was cleared out by looters before he could get there.

The blame that followed added insult to injury, but it wasn’t anything new. Mr. Selim didn’t say anything to the man in his defense, he told me, because he was worried an altercation could get him deported. But when I spoke to him months later, the encounter still made him burn up inside.…  Seguir leyendo »

Dounia y Adnane Filali, pareja de periodistas marroquíes perseguidos por el régimen. DOUNIA Y ADNANE FILALI

EuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Inmigración,

En los últimos años nos hemos familiarizado con el término "refugiado" por su uso frecuente en los medios de comunicación. Pero ¿qué es un "refugiado" exactamente?

En pocas palabras, según la Convención de Ginebra de 1951, un refugiado es una persona que se ve obligada a huir de su país porque sufre una violación grave de derechos humanos por motivos étnicos, religiosos, de opinión política o de pertenencia a un grupo minoritario y su Estado se niega a protegerla, o bien son las propias autoridades de su país quienes la persiguen.

Dounia y Adnane Filali, una pareja marroquí de periodistas youtubers, responden perfectamente a esta definición.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Ante el éxodo más rápido desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial, la respuesta de la Unión Europea fue unánime: se daría protección a todos aquellos refugiados ucranianos que huyeran de la agresión rusa. Así, en pocos días, se puso en marcha la Directiva de Protección Temporal, que permitía garantizar la protección temporal de forma colectiva (sin las largas esperas que caracterizan los procedimientos de asilo) y dar acceso a un conjunto de derechos, incluidos el derecho a trabajar, a la educación y a la sanidad.

Un año después del inicio de la guerra, las cifras demuestran que el reto no ha sido menor.…  Seguir leyendo »

La misión de proteger y educar a los refugiados palestinos

MundoOriente Próximo, ,

Por cerca de 75 años, la Agencia de Naciones Unidas para la población refugiada de Palestina en Oriente Próximo (UNRWA) ha prestado servicios de educación a refugiados de Siria, Líbano, Jordania, Gaza y Cisjordania, incluido Jerusalén Oriental. Más allá de habilitar a los refugiados para que no interrumpan su educación, la UNRWA les brinda un espacio seguro en que pueden escapar del conflicto, la violencia y las crisis económicas cada vez más profundas que rodean su realidad cotidiana. Pero nuestra capacidad de satisfacer las necesidades de los niños y niñas refugiados se ve cada vez más limitada por una razón trágicamente simple: la falta de fondos.…  Seguir leyendo »

Passengers arriving from Tigray are greeted by relatives at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Dec. 28, 2022. AFP via Getty Images

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After two years of genocidal war, a fragile peace is settling on the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray. Local forces, led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), have handed tanks and rockets over to the federal army as a gesture of goodwill. Meanwhile, rival Amhara fighters are withdrawing from the region. But it is a fraught recovery—one that now needs the central government to act to guarantee the safety of returning refugees.

In November 2022, the International Committee of the Red Cross delivered 40 tons of medical supplies to Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, yet around 11,000 tons are needed, according to the World Food Program.…  Seguir leyendo »

© FT montage: AFP/Getty Images

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Polina Sydorenko, a 19-year-old Ukrainian student, was brimming with both hope and trepidation when she returned to Kyiv in late August, after five months sheltering from the war as a refugee in Italy. Yet her plans to pick up the pieces of her disrupted life at a prestigious university in Kyiv were depressingly shortlived.

Just weeks after her return, the veneer of normality that had been temporarily restored to the capital was shattered as Russia launched new missile attacks on key Ukrainian cities and critical civilian infrastructure — the most serious since the war began. The university where she studied drama shut down again.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Le 24 février dernier, les soldats russes ont pénétré sur le territoire de l’Ukraine pour commencer la plus grande guerre en Europe depuis le conflit 1939–1945. Selon les données de l’ONU, presque 14 millions de personnes ont été forcées de quitter leurs maisons, dont 8 millions, principalement des femmes, des enfants et des personnes âgées, ont dû fuir le pays.

Comme pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la Russie a organisé des déportations vers la Sibérie, et dans les localités conquises, elle a torturé les élites et les soldats, violé les femmes et perpétré des génocides. Des millions de femmes ont fui devant l’horreur que leur réservaient les militaires russes.…  Seguir leyendo »

The first plane of Ugandan Asian evacuees arrive at Stansted Airport on September 18, 1972.

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The plane carrying 193 passengers circled down over London Stansted Airport, where a cluster of journalists were waiting to document its arrival. Stepping onto the tarmac under typically gray English skies, the families clutched their scant possessions in briefcases and boxes, saris flowing in the wind.

Five decades after the first evacuation flight of Ugandan Asians touched down in the United Kingdom on September 18, 1972, their story has been held up as a triumph of British generosity and migratory success.

But the back story is less heroic, as the British government first tried to send them anywhere else.

In early August 1972, Uganda's brutal military dictator Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of the country's entire Asian population -- including my grandparents.…  Seguir leyendo »

A 10-Year-Old Refugee Has Met a Million People. How Will New York Welcome Her?

Internacional

Little Amal, a 10-year-old Syrian girl, left the Syrian-Turkish border in July 2021. She journeyed throughout Europe and met a million people on her quest to find safety and a better life. She was unaccompanied, like so many other refugee children who have lost their parents. She is also a 12-foot-tall puppet.

Too often refugees are forgotten when international attention and resources shift to newer conflicts. Little Amal represents all of the children who have had to leave their home in search of safety. She forces us to see that their plight demands our attention.

We wanted Little Amal to appear human, even given her size.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial, , ,

La guerra en Ucrania ha provocado el mayor éxodo en Europa desde hace décadas. Entre las personas que se desplazan, hay menores que viajan sin sus padres, acompañados de otras personas adultas. A su llegada a España, estos menores llegan en ocasiones indocumentados, por lo que no se puede comprobar su identidad y la relación con la persona con la que viajan. Estos menores se considera que están en situación de riesgo, son trasladados junto a la persona adulta con quien viajan a centros de acogida y se comunica su llegada a la Policía y a la Fiscalía, en tanto se obtiene más información.…  Seguir leyendo »

A child at Al Hol camp in Syria, March 2019. Issam Abdallah / Reuters

MundoOriente Próximo, ,

Three years ago, a global coalition of countries led by the United States retook most of the territory in Iraq and Syria controlled by the Islamic State. Once ISIS was defeated on the battlefield, the world moved on. Left unanswered was the question of what to do about the people, including thousands of children, who had come from abroad, either voluntarily or through coercion, to live under ISIS rule and were now abandoned by their governments.

Many of the women and children, and a small number of men, ended up in two detention camps in the middle of the desert in northeast Syria, where they remain today, with no way out.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa, , , ,

Vladimir Putin's war is an unimaginable tragedy for Ukraine and Ukrainians. Thousands have been killed, millions displaced and cities, roads and factories are in ruins. The scale of this tragedy—unprecedented in 21st-century Europe—eclipses the fact that, in addition to Ukraine, Mr Putin has also destroyed the livelihoods of many Russians.

There is, of course, no comparison between the suffering of Ukrainians and Russians. Yes, hundreds of thousands of Russians have had to leave Russia, but they did not run away from bombs. Some Russians dared to protest against the war and many thousands were arrested, but they were not killed. Some have seen their businesses and careers finished, but their homes are still intact.…  Seguir leyendo »

A member of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid carrying a Ukrainian child in Malaga, Spain, April 2022. Jon Nazca / Reuters

ReflexionesSocial

In the roughly two months since Russia invaded Ukraine, over five million Ukrainian citizens—more than one-tenth of its pre-invasion population—have fled their homes and sought refuge in other countries. It’s one of the fastest exoduses of refugees recorded in post-World War II history. By comparison, it took four years for five million Syrians to leave their country after civil war broke out in 2011, and more than four years for the same number of Venezuelans to flee after 2014, when their country’s political and socioeconomic crisis deepened. Unfortunately, the number of people running from Ukraine will likely increase as the war grinds on and as many of the Ukrainian men who stayed to fight join their families.…  Seguir leyendo »

A child looks out a train window as people, mainly women and children, pass through Przemysl, Poland, on April 6 after leaving Ukraine. (Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images) (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Europa, , , ,

More than 5 million people have fled Ukraine since Moscow’s brutal invasion began, the United Nations reported last week. I wonder how many of the children forced from their homes — some escaping by train, others on foot — will see their fathers again? How many will become war orphans, like my mother? How many will go on to raise a child who has a ghost family, like me?

My mother fled Kharkiv in 1943 at age 9. Caught between the Germans to the west and the Russians to the east, she and her older sister, Galina, escaped first in a Nazi officer’s car and then on foot.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa, , , , ,

We knew the war was coming. But we did not expect it to become a full-scale conflict, displacing millions of people, in just a month. We did not anticipate so much tragedy and destruction. In our worst nightmares we did not expect to witness atrocities not seen in this part of Europe since the second world war.

Millions of people have fled Ukraine and 2.5m have arrived in Poland alone. We estimate that more than half a million refugees have passed through Warsaw, Poland’s capital. Another 300,000 have chosen to stay in the city and its suburbs. In just a month the population of Warsaw has increased by 17%.…  Seguir leyendo »

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No es la primera crisis de refugiados en Europa pero sí es diferente. No hay duda de que es el éxodo más rápido desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial: 10 millones de desplazados en un mes, de los cuales más de tres millones están fuera del país. Esta velocidad en la huida no es solo por la violencia de la guerra. Tiene que ver también con la proximidad geográfica, unos medios de transporte relativamente buenos, el acceso de los ciudadanos ucranios a la UE sin necesidad de visado y la existencia de una red de apoyo al otro lado de la frontera.…  Seguir leyendo »

Bandera de Ucrania con mensaje escrito “Aceptad refugiados”. Foto: Matt Brown

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Tema

La llegada a la UE de varios millones de refugiados ucranianos plantea desafíos de gestión, financiación e integración, pero cuenta con un apoyo político sin precedentes.

Resumen

La UE ha activado por primera vez la Directiva de Protección Temporal para acoger a los millones de refugiados que están abandonando Ucrania tras la invasión rusa. Esta llegada ha encontrado un ambiente de completa aceptación por parte de la sociedad europea, incluso desde los partidos xenófobos. A corto plazo la oleada de refugiados plantea desafíos de financiación, coordinación y gestión, y a largo plazo retos para la integración, en un contexto de incertidumbre sobre la duración de la guerra y el volumen de refugiados que va a producir.…  Seguir leyendo »