Refugiados (Continuación)

MundoOriente Próximo,

The refugee burden that Syria’s neighbors are shouldering is heavy and should not be borne alone. But keeping people fleeing for their lives in buffer zones inside Syrian borders risks trapping rather than protecting them.

Yet this is precisely what President Michel Suleiman of Lebanon proposed on April 4, joining others such as Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey, who made a similar call in November 2011, and Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour of Jordan, who spoke in January of securing “safe havens” inside Syrian territory, saying of potential new refugee flows, “We will stop them and keep them in their country.”…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo, , ,

There is not much information about the Syrian Wars waged between the Seleucid Empire and the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt between 274 B.C. and 168 B.C.

What is known is that the wars so drained the infrastructure and manpower of both that their destruction and conquest by Rome and Parthia followed.

Today, two years after it started, the conflict in Syria threatens to cause not only tremendous loss of life but also destruction of property and the country’s social fabric.

According to United Nations figures, the conflict has caused over 70,000 deaths, of which about half are estimated to be civilians, many of them women and children.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

On Wednesday, my colleagues will register the one millionth Syrian refugee. A milestone in human tragedy. And a figure that should, after two years of death and destruction, stir the level of political action needed to put an end to this war before more lives are lost, more people forced to flee and the conflict destabilizes the region.

The exodus from Syria has accelerated dramatically in recent weeks. In early December, some 20 months after the crisis began, refugee figures stood at 500,000. It has only taken three months for that number to double. As violence in Syria spirals out of control, more than 7,000 people arrive in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq every single day.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Depuis plus d’une année, le conflit syrien force le monde huma­nitaire à se poser des questions fondementales sur son positionnement dans un contexte aussi complexe que celui de la guerre civile qu’on veut parfois nous faire prendre pour une guerre de religion.

Alors même que les gendarmes du monde se font silencieux et attendent qu’une solution s’installe d’elle-même, des dizaines de milliers de civils sont poussés à l’exil, pour fuir les bombardements et la répression.

Le 13 novembre, la Chaîne du bonheur organise sa Journée nationale en faveur des victimes et des réfugiés du conflit syrien. Elle sait qu’elle devra affronter des réactions diverses de la part du public.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

After decades of dictatorship followed by invasion and conflict, Iraqis began this year with a chance to build a peaceful future. If not managed carefully, however, a lingering issue from the past could stain this moment of opportunity with tragedy.

I am referring to the situation of Camp Ashraf, where a tense standoff has persisted between the government of Iraq and an Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), which for the last 25 years has occupied a self-enclosed camp only a few hours drive from Baghdad.

The government has made it clear that it wants Camp Ashraf shut down and MEK — which once fought alongside Saddam Hussein and is designated by the United States and some other governments as a terrorist organization — to leave Iraq.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Is Iran serious in threatening to block the Strait of Hormuz or is this simply saber-rattling? Whatever the motives, inaction is not an option - not any more.

Fearful of the impact of expanded U.S. sanctions, Iran’s first vice president Mohammad Reza Rahimi told the official news agency IRNA on Dec. 27, “If they impose sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, then even one drop of oil cannot flow from the Strait of Hormuz.” This could spell disaster for the whole region as skyrocketing oil prices would wreak havoc on the global economy.

In any contingency planning, it is imperative to establish who our allies are and who our foes are.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo, ,

As the United States tries to halt Iran’s nuclear program and prepares to withdraw troops from Iraq, American voters should ask why the Obama administration has bent to the will of Tehran’s mullahs and their Iraqi allies on a key issue: the fate of 3,400 unarmed members of the exiled Iranian opposition group, Mujahedeen Khalq, who are living in Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad.

The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, has brazenly murdered members of the Mujahedeen Khalq. Mr. Maliki justifies his attacks by noting that the group is on the United States’ official list of foreign terrorist organizations.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo, ,

Sixty years ago today the United Nations general assembly voted into existence a temporary body known as UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. UNRWA's task was to deal with the humanitarian consequences of the dispossession of some three-quarters of a million Palestine refugees forced by the 1948 Middle East war to abandon their homes and flee their ancestral lands. Just two decades later, the six-day war generated another spasm of violence and forced displacement, culminating in the occupation of Palestinian territory. Today, anguished exile remains the lot of Palestinians and Palestine refugees. The occupation of Palestinian land persists, there is no Palestinian state, and the human rights and fundamental freedoms to which Palestinians are entitled under international law do not exist.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

Canadians are rolling their eyes at the latest oddity to emerge from their confused, clogged immigration system: a white South African admitted as a refugee because he claimed he was being persecuted by black people.

His lawyer says the case sets a precedent, which it well might, although it's difficult to pin down exactly what it is. Brandon Huntley, a 31-year-old lawn sprinkler salesman who came to Canada on a work visa in 2006 and stayed illegally, told the Immigration and Refugee Board that he had been mugged and stabbed seven times by black people in his home country. He didn't report the attacks to the "untrustworthy" police.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

Last week, Abrehale Misghina, a 28-year-old Eritrean refugee, committed suicide in broad daylight in a public park in Tel Aviv. He had snatched a mobile phone from a young boy and, after a desperate attempt to make a call, collapsed in tears. He then returned the phone to its owner, dragged a dustbin to a nearby tree, climbed on top of it, threw a rope over a branch, placed a noose around his neck and hanged himself.

Misghina's story is typical of the suffering of Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers. Increasing numbers Eritreans have fled their country since President Isaias Afewerki came to power in 1993.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfricaMundoAmérica, , ,

For me and my family, Oct. 31 has always been significant. Not because it’s Halloween, but because that’s the day we arrived as refugees to a free part of the world.

Beginning in August 1972, thousands of Asian entrepreneurs fled the East African country of Uganda after its dictator, Idi Amin, declared us to be bloodsuckers, seized our property and gave us three months to leave or die.

My family and I had only Ugandan passports, so we couldn’t escape to Britain or India like many of our neighbors. We’d been in Africa for two generations; my father and his brothers owned a car dealership in Uganda’s capital, Kampala.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

It is a grave humanitarian crisis: 1.5 million Iraqi refugees living in deplorable and declining conditions in Syria and Jordan.

They are clustered not in camps but in overcrowded urban neighborhoods, crammed into dark, squalid apartments. Many have been traumatized by extreme violence. Their savings are dwindling; many cannot afford to pay for rent, heat and food; few have proper medical care.

After meeting with refugees, leaders in both Syria and Jordan and United Nations experts, we came to the inescapable conclusion that this crisis could endure for years and that much more help is needed now.

There is absolutely no denying that the United States has a special responsibility to help.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfricaEuropaUnión Europea, ,

Today is moral maze day again at the Home Office. Actually, so is every day, but today the show moves to the House of Lords in a case involving three asylum-seekers from Darfur.

One should spare a thought for the immigration officials. We pay them to keep the door shut but to open it discriminately, case by case. One of their rulings is that it’s OK to return Darfur refugees to Khartoum. Back in April this ruling was overturned in favour of the three Darfuris.

That was in the Court of Appeal, which decided that deporting them would be unduly harsh because of the conditions in the Sudanese refugee camps.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

For more than a year, men and women in our armed forces have been urging the United States to bring to safety the Iraqi translators and others who have worked beside them and are now the victims of retaliation. A Marine captain, Zachary Iscol, said he owed his life and the lives of his men to his Iraqi translator. “Just coming to work was an act of heroism and courage on his part,” Captain Iscol said.

On July 7, the administration received another urgent call to action on this issue, this time from Ambassador Ryan Crocker. In a cable to Washington, he laid out the dangers his Iraqi employees faced.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

The Bush administration correctly asserts that the entire Middle East, from royal palaces to terrorist camps, is watching the eventual outcome in Iraq to determine the state of American resolve. But the region is also taking a more immediate measure of America's commitment to its friends: our response to the Iraqi refugee crisis. And this, too, is a matter of national credibility and honor.

About 2 million Iraqis have been displaced within Iraq by sectarian violence and contagious fear; another 2 million have fled the country for Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and beyond. According to the United Nations, a steady flow of new refugees continues at about 50,000 each month.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial

Entre los diez grandes problemas internacionales, nueve son continuamente tratados, desde el cambio climático a la pobreza extrema. Pero hay uno del que apenas se habla: los refugiados y desplazados. Quizás lo fagocita el debate migratorio. El 20 de junio, Día Mundial del Refugiado, recordamos a aquellos que huyen de guerras y persecuciones políticas, religiosas, étnicas o por su orientación sexual.

Con el crecimiento demográfico aumenta también el número de hombres y mujeres que se embarcan en un proceso migratorio: 191 millones en 2005 frente a 99 millones en 1980. Lejos de disminuir, las migraciones internacionales aumentan y aumentarán.

Sin embargo, el número de refugiados disminuye.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

The near-blind eye the United States has turned to the humanitarian crisis now unfolding from the Iraq war threatens to undermine any hope for real peace and security in that region for years and perhaps decades to come. The displacement of 4 million Iraqis to date -- one in seven of the country's citizens -- is the largest the Middle East has known since 1948. Just as the displacement of the Palestinians has influenced the politics and security of the region, and indeed of the world, for almost 60 years, the impact of the Iraqi refugee population will be felt by the international community for a long, long time.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalONU

You cannot sue the United Nations. If the UN violates your rights, that's just too bad. There is no judge with jurisdiction, no independent tribunal, no possibility of compensation or justice. A culture of impunity is built into the DNA of the UN, and some of the clearest examples can be found in the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), mandated by the UN General Assembly to protect refugees around the world. Wherever UNHCR is responsible for determining refugee status, it fails to meet its own guidelines for fairness. And wherever UNHCR warehouses refugees in camps -- sometimes for decades -- it colludes in human rights violations on a large scale, with support from the American taxpayer.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

The crisis over Iraq’s refugees is the first major policy issue in which Iraqi civilians are front and center. We debate how the surge looks today or how oil will be distributed tomorrow on the banks of a swelling river of human misery: two million Iraqis who couldn’t bear to live in Iraq anymore, and another two million displaced internally but too poor to flee.

This week, representatives from dozens of countries and international nongovernmental organizations have gathered in Geneva to discuss what might be done in the wake of the largest population shift in the Middle East since 1948. The world is asking what George W.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia, ,

The Bush administration can point to precious few successes in its efforts to curb North Korea’s mounting menace — even last week’s celebrated nuclear deal with Kim Jong-il’s government is, for the moment, little more than a written promise from a highly unreliable negotiating partner.

Yet inexplicably, the Bush team continues to overlook a spectacular opportunity to deliver freedom to tens of thousands of North Koreans, to pressure the country from within for fundamental change and to lay the groundwork for a peaceful, reunified Korean Peninsula. By fostering an underground railroad to rescue North Korean refugees living in China, the United States could do all these things at once.…  Seguir leyendo »