AJE - Al Jazeera English

http://www.aljazeera.com

  • Persecution path: Following Myanmar’s fleeing Rohingya

    Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh from Myanmar since October 2016, when the military launched a crackdown in the wake of a deadly attack on an army post.

    The UN said in a report that Myanmar’s army and police had committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya in northern Rakhine State in a campaign that may amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

    The recent exodus of Rohingya, who have been stripped of their citizenship and face widespread discrimination, has once again brought their plight into the international spotlight.

    About one million Rohingya have fled Myanmar since the first brutal military action in 1977. The majority have taken refuge in Bangladesh, but other countries in Asia and the Middle East have opened their doors to one of the world’s most prosecuted communities.

    #cartographie #visualisation #Rohingya #Birmanie #réfugiés #asile #migrations #chiffres #statistiques

  • Birmanie Répression, discrimination
    et nettoyage ethnique en Arakan-FIDH 2000

    https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/birmarak.pdf

    I. L’Arakan
    A. Présentation de l’Arakan
    B. Historique de la présence musulmane en Arakan
    C. Organisation administrative, forces répressives et résistance armée

    II. Le retour forcé et la réinstallation des Rohingyas :
    hypocrisie et contraintes
    A. Les conditions du retour du Bangadesh après l’exode de 1991-92
    B. Réinstallation et réintégration

    III. Répression, discrimination et exclusion en Arakan
    A. La spécificité de la répr
    ession à l’égard des Rohingyas
    B. Les Arakanais : une exploitation sans issue

    IV. Nouvel Exode
    A. Les années 1996 et 1997
    B. L
    ’exode actuel
    C
    Conclusion

  • Guerre sale contre la santé

    La situation humanitaire à Gaza s’est fortement détériorée ces derniers mois à la suite de dissensions entre l’Autorité palestinienne et le Hamas. Les #médicaments font défaut.

    https://www.lecourrier.ch/152325/guerre_sale_contre_la_sante

    #santé #système_sanitaire #Palestine #Gaza
    cc @reka

  • Les pressions environnementales progressent en #Nouvelle-Zélande - OCDE
    http://www.oecd.org/fr/nouvellezelande/les-pressions-environnementales-progressent-en-nouvelle-zelande.htm

    ‌L’#agriculture est à l’origine de 49 % des émissions, un record dans l’#OCDE. [...]
     
    Du fait de l’expansion de la production laitière intensive, les concentrations d’#azote dans les #sols et les #eaux de surface et souterraines ont progressé. Entre 2000 et 2010, le bilan azoté (écart entre les éléments nutritifs entrant dans le système et ceux qui en sortent) s’est détérioré dans des proportions plus importantes que dans tous les autres pays de l’OCDE.
     
    Consciente du besoin de protéger la qualité de l’#eau, la Nouvelle-Zélande a engagé un processus de réforme de la politique nationale sur l’#eau_douce en publiant en février un programme pour la propreté de l’eau, dont les propositions répondent à certaines des recommandations de l’OCDE. L’administration centrale devra accroître son soutien pour aider les autorités locales à fixer des objectifs rigoureux et à accélérer la mise en œuvre.

    Why are New Zealand’s waters so polluted ? | New Zealand | Al Jazeera
    http://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/asia/2017/08/zealand-waters-polluted-170831090454283.html

    Every litre of milk produced requires about 1,000 litres of water. The most irrigated region of New Zealand is Canterbury, on the east coast of the country’s South Island. It has seen significant economic growth on the back of dairy farming but, over the same period of time, has also seen a drastic decline in the quality of its waterways.

    #co2 #lobby

  • Appeal bid to stop deportation of Afghan woman, 106, from Sweden

    #Bibikhal_Uzbek was 105 years old when she made the journey to the Swedish village of Hova in 2015 from her home in Afghanistan’s Kunduz through Iran, Turkey and the Balkans.


    http://www.aljazeera.com/video/news/2017/09/sweden-106-year-old-afghan-woman-appeals-deportation-170901152623862.html
    #Absurdistan #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Suède #renvois #expulsions #réfugiés_afghans #106_ans

  • 540 Nigerians to be deported from Libya Aug. 10 – NAPTIP DG

    Five hundred and forty Nigerians are set for deportation from Libya, beginning from Aug. 10, Julie Okah-Donli, Director-General, National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons(NAPTIP), has said.

    Mrs. Okah-Donli disclosed this on Wednesday in Osogbo, at the inauguration of the North-West Zonal Command Office of the agency.

    She said the deportees would be brought back to Nigeria in three batches of 180 each.

    The NAPTIP boss said more than 2,000 Nigerians were deported from various parts of the world from February till date, over various migration offences, including human trafficking.

    Mrs. Okah-Doni disclosed that the agency had rescued and supported more than 12,000 victims of human trafficking, and also secured 325 convictions since its inception in 2003.

    She decried the rising trend of deportation of Nigerians from different parts of the world, especially in Africa, and described the situation as “frightening”.

    “Such massive deportations are not good for us as a people. Government at all levels must take steps to halt it by initiating measures that will reduce the vulnerability of our people to being trafficked.

    “Nigeria is a source, transit and destination country. Women and young girls are recruited for sexual and labour exploitation in parts of Europe, the Middle East and even within the African continent.


    http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/239725-540-nigerians-deported-libya-aug-10-naptip-dg.html
    #pays_de_transit #pays_de_destination #pays_de_départ #Nigeria #migrations #asile #réfugiés #expulsions #renvois #migrants_nigérians #réfugiés_nigérians #Libye #traite #trafic_d'êtres_humains #femmes

  • Harassed by palm oil company, Thai village defends land | Thailand | Al Jazeera
    http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/06/harassed-palm-oil-company-thai-village-defends-land-170605105935706.html

    Kalasong would have been killed had it not been for two villagers who, upon hearing the shots, ran down the hill towards the car less than 200 metres away. Spooked by their approach, the gunman fled into the dense undergrowth of a palm oil plantation. Kalasong was taken to a hospital in the provincial capital, returning to the village 12 days later to recover.

    On that day, remarkably, he survived. Four other villagers from the Klong Sai Pattana community, however, were not quite as lucky.

    Since 2008, this community of around 70 families have been embroiled in a conflict with a palm oil company that locals believe is behind the violence.

    For decades the palm oil company Jiew Kang Jue Pattana Co Ltd has illegally occupied and cultivated palm oil trees on a 535-acre plot of land in the Chai Buri District of Surat Thani Province.

    The company operated with no official legal documentation or land concession, until the Southern Peasant’s Federation of Thailand (SPFT) began investigating them and collecting evidence.

    The SPFT was officially registered in 2008 but its founding members have long been fighting for land reforms in Surat Thani Province. The organisation works on behalf of landless farmers, identifying expropriated land owned by the state that can be made available for living and cultivation.

    #Thaïlande #terres #meurtres #industrie_palmiste

  • The legally blind photographer capturing refugee life

    A legally blind Syrian refugee photographs life in the camps of Lebanon and his family’s new start in Canada.

    But what Hani’s photos don’t reveal is that he is legally blind.

    He struggles to recognise people standing more than 10 feet away from him and doesn’t see all colours. Photographing moving objects is difficult, so he mostly focuses on still subjects and has memorised more than 10 exposure settings.


    http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2017/07/legally-blind-photographer-capturing-refugee-life-170731072559385.html
    #photographie #camps_de_réfugiés #Liban #réfugiés #asile #migrations #réfugiés_syriens #aveugle #cécité
    via @albertocampiphoto
    cc @philippe_de_jonckheere

  • Radiohead is art-washing Israeli apartheid
    Omar Barghouti, Al Jazeera, le 31 juillet 2017
    http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/07/radiohead-art-washing-israeli-apartheid-170730113743323.html

    L’épilogue d’une campagne qui dure depuis des semaines:

    Thom Yorke, this is why you should boycott Israel
    Gideon Levy, Haaretz, le 11 juin 2017
    https://seenthis.net/messages/606119

    Des artistes et des fans écrivent à Radiohead:
    https://seenthis.net/messages/614147

    He sang ’Creep,’ but we expected more of Thom Yorke
    Gideon Levy, Haaretz, le 20 juillet 2017
    https://seenthis.net/messages/616358

    #Palestine #BDS #Boycott_culturel #Royaume_Uni #Musique #Radiohead

  • Emmanuel #Macron veut créer des « hotspots » pour gérer les demandes d’asile en #Libye

    « La France va créer dès cet été en Libye des #hotspots », des centres d’examen pour les candidats à l’asile, a annoncé le président Emmanuel Macron ce matin en marge d’une visite d’un centre d’hébergement de réfugiés à Orléans (Loiret). « L’idée est de créer en Libye des hotspots afin d’éviter aux gens de prendre des risques fous alors qu’ils ne sont pas tous éligibles à l’asile. Les gens, on va aller les chercher. Je compte le faire dès cet été », avec ou sans l’Europe, a-t-il ajouté.

    http://www.liberation.fr/direct/element/emmanuel-macron-veut-creer-des-hotspots-pour-gerer-les-demandes-dasile-en
    #hotspot #externalisation #asile #migrations #réfugiés #France

    cc @i_s_

    –---

    voir la métaliste sur les tentatives de certains pays européens d’externaliser la #procédure_d'asile :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/900122

    • Ah bon ?!?

      La mise en place de Hotspots en Libye n’est finalement « pas possible » cet été comme l’avait annoncé Emmanuel Macron

      La mise en place en Libye de centres pour examiner les demandes d’asile n’est « pas possible aujourd’hui », a jugé l’Elysée, jeudi 27 juillet, dans la soirée. Plus tôt dans la journée, Emmanuel Macron avait annoncé la création, cet été, de « hotspots » dans ce pays devenu un lieu de passage pour des milliers de migrants tentant de traverser la Méditerranée vers l’Europe.

      http://mobile.francetvinfo.fr/monde/europe/migrants/la-mise-en-place-de-hotspots-en-libye-n-est-finalement-pas-possible-cet-ete-comme-l-avait-annonce-emmanuel-macron_2302719.html#xtref=http://m.facebook.com

    • Migrants : « Trier les gens avant leur arrivée en France serait intolérable »

      Identifier les personnes vulnérables, comme cela se fait au Liban ou en Grèce sous la supervision du HCR, est une option -bien que ce n’est qu’une goutte dans l’océan. Mais si l’objectif est de trier les gens -entre migrants économiques et réfugiés- avant leur arrivée en France, c’est intolérable. Pouvoir déposer sa demande d’asile avant d’arriver sur le territoire ne doit pas déboucher sur une restriction du droit de venir en France, que ce soit pour des raisons d’asile ou de migration économique. Ce serait contraire à la convention de Genève qui impose aux signataires d’assurer l’accueil des réfugiés.

      http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/migrants-trier-les-gens-avant-leur-arrivee-en-france-serait-intolerable_193

    • Déclaration de Filippo #Grandi, chef du #HCR, sur la réunion de Paris le 28 août

      Je me félicite de l’annonce d’un plan d’action complet pour l’appui à des solutions à long terme au problème complexe de la migration mixte ainsi que la résolution de ses causes profondes, en étroite coopération avec les pays d’origine et de transit, et conformément au droit international.

      http://www.unhcr.org/fr/news/press/2017/8/59a55689a/declaration-filippo-grandi-chef-hcr-reunion-paris-28-ao-t.html

      Le HCR se félicite... sic

    • Parigi e i migranti: quale idea di Europa? Ascolta la puntata

      Dal vertice di Parigi sembrano arrivare novità importanti sul grande tema dei nostri giorni, quello dei migranti. Italia, Spagna, Germania e Francia, insieme a Ciad, Niger e Libia, sono forse arrivati a un punto di svolta nella gestione dei flussi migratori. Una strategia complessa dal punto di vista politico e soprattutto umanitario, che mette di fronte l’aspetto della sicurezza e quello morale. Gli sbarchi nel mese di agosto sono diminuiti, ma cosa succede a chi rimane dall’altra parte del mare? L’Italia sembra finalmente non essere più sola, ma qual è l’Europa che viene fuori da questo accordo?

      http://lacittadiradio3.blog.rai.it/2017/08/29/19762

    • Parigi: l’accordo che “li ferma a casa loro”

      L’accordo è raggiunto (per il momento), la strategia definita: teniamoli lontani da noi, costi quello che costi: in termini di risorse pubbliche (le nostre), ma soprattutto in termini di vite e diritti umani, calpestati. Cosa succederà alle persone che resteranno intrappolate nei loro paesi o in quelli di transito? Non sembra preoccupare i Capi di Stato e di Governo che oggi si sono riuniti a Parigi.

      http://www.cronachediordinariorazzismo.org/parigi-laccordo-li-ferma-casa

    • Au Niger, les rescapés du nouveau poste-frontière de l’Europe

      Pour éviter les traversées périlleuses, décourager les réseaux de passeurs et rendre moins visible le flux de migrants, des dizaines de demandes d’asile sont examinées au Sahel depuis octobre. A Niamey, Moussa et Eden font partie des rares personnes acceptées. Loin des 10 000 qu’Emmanuel Macron a promis d’accueillir d’ici fin 2019.

      Au Niger, les rescapés du nouveau poste-frontière de l’Europe
      « Bonjour », articule Moussa, sourire un peu crispé, un sourcil levé en signe d’hésitation. Dans sa bouche, ces deux syllabes résonnent comme celles d’un mot-valise qui porterait tous ses espoirs et ses incertitudes. Le seul mot de français qu’il connaît. De la France, ce père de famille érythréen de 43 ans, à la petite moustache bien taillée et aux yeux fatigués, a « vu quelques photos », entendu parler de « la tour Eiffel ». Dans quelques jours ou quelques semaines, c’est sur cette terre européenne, aussi inconnue que fantasmée, qu’il sera « relocalisé », selon le terme employé par l’Agence des Nations unies pour les réfugiés (HCR).
      Moussa est l’un des rares gagnants de la loterie de l’asile, désormais mise en place bien loin de l’Europe : à Niamey, au Niger. Avec le récit d’une vie pour seul laissez-passer, Moussa a convaincu les agents de l’Office français de protection des réfugiés et apatrides (Ofpra), venus l’interroger dans le même conteneur préfabriqué où nous le rencontrons. Une enceinte sécurisée gérée par le HCR, au fond d’une ruelle poussiéreuse de cette capitale poussiéreuse, située au cœur du Sahel. Après deux entretiens, de nombreuses questions et vérifications, Moussa a obtenu le sésame auquel il n’osait plus croire : sa demande d’asile a été approuvée. « Je leur ai simplement dit la vérité, dit-il. J’ai beaucoup souffert. »
      Que font des fonctionnaires français chargés de l’examen des demandes d’asile loin de leurs locaux du Val-de-Marne, sur le sol africain ? Depuis octobre, l’Ofpra a effectué trois « missions de protection » au Sahel, deux au Niger et une au Tchad, pour une durée d’environ une semaine à chaque fois. L’objectif affiché : la réinstallation de réfugiés africains en France, après les avoir évalués dans ces « pays sûrs ». En principe, pour leur éviter « de prendre des risques inconsidérés » en traversant la Méditerranée. Mais il s’agit aussi de décourager les réseaux de passeurs clandestins qui ont longtemps prospéré dans ce pays au carrefour de l’Afrique noire et de l’Afrique du Nord.
      Sans laisser de traces

      Depuis deux ans, d’importants financements versés par l’Union européenne ont persuadé le gouvernement nigérien d’accepter de devenir de facto un de ses postes-frontières. Une loi criminalise désormais les passeurs : transporter des migrants au-delà d’Agadez, la « porte du désert » au nord du pays, est passible d’emprisonnement. Avec la mise en place de mesures répressives dans les pays qu’ils traversent, le nombre de migrants qui atteignent l’Europe a diminué, même si beaucoup empruntent à présent des routes plus dangereuses, à travers le désert, où ils disparaissent sans laisser de traces. Mais pour les gouvernements de l’UE, l’objectif est accompli, avec des migrants moins nombreux et en tout cas moins visibles. Reste en échange à accepter d’en accueillir quelques-uns pour que la logique de cette nouvelle plateforme en terre africaine fonctionne. L’an dernier, Emmanuel Macron s’est engagé à accueillir en France 10 000 réfugiés supplémentaires d’ici la fin de l’année 2019, dont 3 000 personnes en provenance du Tchad et du Niger.
      « Je n’ai absolument aucun doute que nous atteindrons ce nombre », affirme Pascal Brice, directeur de l’Ofpra. Pour l’instant, on est loin du compte. Environ 160 personnes, présélectionnées par le HCR, ont été vues par les agents de l’Ofpra lors de ces deux missions à Niamey. Après ces entretiens, 114 hommes, femmes et enfants - majoritairement érythréens, soudanais et somaliens - sont partis en France. Le nombre est dérisoire, mais le message politique est fort : ceux qui ont des revendications justifiées à l’asile ont une alternative légale et sûre à la dangereuse traversée de la Méditerranée, qui engloutit chaque année des milliers de personnes et leurs espoirs. Si la France leur ouvre ses portes, ils se verront offrir un billet d’avion, un titre de séjour et des mesures d’accompagnement pour faciliter leur intégration, telles qu’une aide au logement ou des cours de langue. Tous les autres devraient rebrousser chemin.
      « La rhétorique qui vise à tracer une distinction claire entre migrants et réfugiés recouvre des enjeux d’ordre politique majeurs, constate Jocelyne Streiff-Fénart, sociologue et directrice de recherche émérite au CNRS, spécialiste des migrations. L’opposition entre le réfugié, qui aurait des raisons légitimes de fuir et pour cela doit être accueilli, et le migrant économique, qui doit être repoussé, est devenue un élément essentiel d’une politique migratoire qui est clairement configurée comme une entreprise de triage. » Cette distinction entre « les bons et les mauvais migrants », qui appartiendraient à deux catégories imperméables, apparaît pour la chercheuse comme « une tentative de légitimation » de mesures de plus en plus restrictives, « voire brutales ».
      A Niamey, dans l’attente de son départ, Moussa fait les cent pas dans sa tête. Il a envie de parler. Les agents de l’Ofpra voulaient avant tout s’assurer de sa nationalité. Ce qui le prend aux tripes, qu’il régurgite d’une voix monocorde, ce sont les épreuves qu’il a traversées. La ligne de front lors de la guerre contre l’Ethiopie, la pauvreté, ses enfants qu’il ne voit qu’une fois par an, les frustrations, et le service militaire, quasi esclavagiste, qui n’en finit pas. En Erythrée, petit pays de la corne de l’Afrique dirigé par un régime autoritaire, celui-ci est obligatoire pour tous les citoyens. Sa durée est indéterminée. Moussa a passé douze ans sous les drapeaux. Puis, en 2011, il a craqué. « Une nuit, je me suis enfui, raconte-t-il. Je n’ai rien dit à ma femme. J’ai pris un chemin peu fréquenté, et j’ai traversé la frontière, dans l’obscurité. » Il part d’abord au Soudan puis au Soudan du Sud, à Juba, où il se fait embaucher dans un hôtel par un compatriote. Mais la guerre le rattrape. Avec ses économies, et un peu d’aide d’un beau-frère au pays, il prend finalement la décision qui le taraude depuis qu’il est parti : aller en Europe.
      Cul-de-sac libyen

      Une éprouvante traversée du désert le mène jusqu’en Libye, le principal point de départ pour les côtes italiennes. Un pays en plein chaos depuis la chute de Kadhafi, en 2011, où les migrants sont devenus une marchandise à capturer, à vendre et à exploiter. « Nous étions plusieurs centaines, peut-être 500, dans un hangar, raconte Moussa dans un anglais presque impeccable. J’y ai passé plusieurs mois, puis on nous a déplacés dans un autre endroit, puis encore un autre. Chaque fois, nous étions gardés par des hommes en armes. » Trafiquants, miliciens, gardes-côtes, bandits… tout se mêle et devient flou. Les geôliers aboient des ordres en arabe, une langue que la plupart des migrants ne comprennent pas. « Ils nous ont menacés, frappés avec des bâtons de bois ou des câbles. Quand ils étaient nerveux, ou défoncés, ils tiraient à nos pieds. Juste parce que ça les amusait, raconte-t-il. Mais, le pire c’était la faim. »
      Un soir, deux hommes s’emparent d’une jeune femme et l’emmènent à l’écart. « Quand ils l’ont ramenée, elle a pleuré toute la nuit. Que pouvait-on faire ? » dit-il, le regard sombre. Ceux qui peinent à rassembler l’argent dû pour le voyage sont maltraités avec une brutalité systématique, torturés, forcés de rester debout sous le soleil pendant des heures. Par téléphone, ils supplient leurs proches d’envoyer de l’argent, de les sortir de là. Moussa, lui, a déjà versé 3 500 dollars (environ 2 900 euros), mais son départ se fait attendre. La collaboration controversée de l’UE et de la Libye pour endiguer la venue de migrants africains en Europe, y compris par la détention de ces derniers et l’interception des bateaux en mer, a rendu la traversée plus compliquée. Elle a aussi accru la clandestinité dans laquelle opèrent les migrants et leur dépendance aux réseaux organisés de trafiquants.
      Parmi les milliers de personnes bloquées dans le cul-de-sac libyen, dans des conditions abominables, quelques centaines, comme Moussa, peuvent prétendre au statut de réfugiés. Le HCR travaille à les identifier et les faire relâcher. L’an dernier, l’agence onusienne a initié une procédure unique : l’évacuation par avion des demandeurs d’asile jugés les plus vulnérables vers un pays de transit où ils seraient en sécurité, le Niger. Un retour en arrière censé être temporaire, en vue de leur réinstallation, selon le bon vouloir de quelques pays occidentaux. L’enveloppe d’aide européenne ne venant pas sans contrepartie, les autorités nigériennes ont donné leur feu vert non sans émettre quelques craintes de voir leur pays devenir un « hotspot » où tous les recalés à l’examen de l’asile se retrouveraient coincés. « Nous avons environ 1 000 personnes sous notre protection en ce moment sur le territoire nigérien, dit Alessandra Morelli, représentante du HCR au Niger. Nous attendons que ces personnes puissent être accueillies par des pays tiers. Le succès de la démarche dépend de l’engagement des Etats membres de l’UE et de la communauté internationale. C’est seulement à travers cette solidarité que ces gens peuvent avoir l’espoir de reconstruire leur vie. »
      « On sait ce qui nous attend »

      L’initiative lancée par la France suscite l’intérêt d’autres pays. La Suisse et les Pays-Bas ont récemment effectué une mission au Niger. La Finlande, le Canada, l’Allemagne et le Royaume-Uni pourraient prochainement faire de même. Eden, 22 ans, doit bientôt être accueillie en Suisse. Avec ses traits fins, ses yeux brun profond soulignés d’un trait d’eye-liner et ses petites boucles d’oreilles mauves assorties à son vernis à ongles, la jeune Erythréenne mêle la coquetterie d’une adolescente à l’assurance de celles qui en ont déjà trop vu pour se laisser impressionner. Elle raconte son calvaire, parle de ses rêves d’avenir, son envie de « devenir esthéticienne. Ou médecin, si je peux aller à l’université ». La détermination ponctue chacun de ses mots. « Bien sûr qu’on sait ce qui nous attend lorsqu’on part », dit-elle en amharique, qu’une interprète traduit. Sur les réseaux sociaux, des photos circulent de ceux, tout sourire, qui ont réussi à atteindre le mythe européen. Mais les récits d’horreur, d’abandons dans le désert, de bateaux qui sombrent au milieu des vagues, de tortures dans les camps libyens, ont aussi fait leur chemin jusque dans les villages de la corne de l’Afrique. Dans leur bagage, certaines femmes emportent des contraceptifs parce qu’elles s’attendent à être violées. « Ça ne veut pas dire que l’on sait comment on va réagir, si l’on tiendra le coup, mais on sait que ce sera horrible. De toute façon, quelles sont les autres options ? »
      Pour quelques élus, extraits du flux migratoire au terme d’un processus de sélection en entonnoir, le voyage prend bientôt fin, à leur grand soulagement. A son arrivée en France, Moussa devrait obtenir la protection subsidiaire, un statut un cran en dessous de celui de réfugié. Il pourra le renouveler au bout d’un an, si ses raisons de ne pas rentrer en Erythrée sont toujours jugées légitimes. Aux yeux des autorités européennes, l’espoir d’une vie meilleure ne suffit pas.

      *Les prénoms ont été changés

      http://www.liberation.fr/planete/2018/05/03/au-niger-les-rescapes-du-nouveau-poste-frontiere-de-l-europe_1647600

    • EU to consider plans for migrant processing centres in north Africa

      Leaked draft document says idea could ‘reduce incentive for perilous journeys’

      The EU is to consider the idea of building migrant processing centres in north Africa in an attempt to deter people from making life-threatening journeys to Europe across the Mediterranean, according to a leaked document.

      The European council of EU leaders “supports the development of the concept of regional disembarkation platforms”, according to the draft conclusions of an EU summit due to take place next week.

      The EU wants to look at the feasibility of setting up such centres in north Africa, where most migrant journeys to Europe begin. “Such platforms should provide for rapid processing to distinguish between economic migrants and those in need of international protection, and reduce the incentive to embark on perilous journeys,” says the document seen by the Guardian.

      Although the plan is winning influential support, it faces political and practical hurdles, with one expert saying it is not clear how the EU would get foreign countries to agree to be “vassal states”.

      Migration is high on the agenda of the two-day summit, which opens on 28 June. EU leaders will attempt to reach a consensus on how to manage the thousands of refugees and migrants arriving each month.

      The German and French leaders, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, met near Berlin on Tuesday to agree on a common approach, amid fears in their camps that the European project is unravelling.

      Before the meeting France’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, said Europe was “in a process of disintegration. We see states that are turning inward, trying to find national solutions to problems that require European solutions.”

      He called for “a new European project” on immigration, as well as economic and financial issues, “to consolidate Europe in a world where you have the United States on one side, China on the other and we are trapped in the middle”.

      At the end of the meeting, which was dominated by eurozone reform, Macron said the EU would “work with countries of origin and transit” to cut off illegal people-smuggling routes, and build “solidarity mechanisms, both externally and internally”. The EU border and coastguard agency Frontex would be expanded to become “a true European border police”.

      Merkel is under pressure from her hardline interior minister, Horst Seehofer, to come up with a European plan by the end of the month. Germany continues to receive more applications for asylum than any other EU member state. Seehofer wants German border guards to start turning people away if there is no EU-wide progress.

      It was not immediately clear how the EU document’s proposal for “regional disembarkation platforms” would work, or where they might be set up.

      Elizabeth Collett, the director of the Migration Policy Institute in Brussels, said it was a “watered-down version” of Austrian-Danish proposals that had called for arrivals in Europe to be sent back to their point of departure to have their claims processed.

      “What has clearly changed is the level of political backing for this,” she said.

      The plan prompted questions about how it would work and the cost involved, she said. “It looks great on paper, but can you get countries to sign up from outside Europe and basically be vassal states?”

      The other big problem was ensuring the centres met EU standards, she said. “The conditions, the processing, all of the things that require a high degree of knowledge and are quite hard to manage within the EU, these are big questions.”

      The plan, however, appears to be helping unite EU countries that are deeply divided on migration.

      Italy and France support the idea of asylum centres outside EU territory, an idea that helped defuse diplomatic tensions after the two countries clashed when the new populist government in Rome refused to allow the docking of a ship carrying 630 migrants.

      Macron, who has previously raised the idea, proposed it when he met the Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, last week.

      The EU struck a deal with Turkey in 2016 that drastically reduced migrant flows, but the bloc has found it harder to work with north African governments, especially Libya, from where most sea crossings begin.

      The European commission has rejected a Turkey-style deal with Libya because of instability in the country. But Italy’s previous government struck deals with Libyan militia and tribes and helped relaunch the Libyan coastguard. These actions contributed to a sharp reduction in the number of people crossing the central Mediterranean, but critics reported an increase in human rights violations.

      According to the draft document, the EU would like to set up the centres in collaboration with the UN refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration, a UN-related body that has previously criticised the paucity of legal routes for African migrants to travel to Europe.

      Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU migration commissioner, is expected to spell out details of the disembarkation centres later this week.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/19/eu-migrant-processing-centres-north-africa-refugees?CMP=share_btn_tw
      #Afrique_du_nord

    • Not Without Dignity: Views of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon on Displacement, Conditions of Return, and Coexistence

      Discussions about a future return of refugees and coexistence among groups currently at war in Syria must begin now, even in the face of ongoing violence and displacement. This report, based on interviews with refugees, makes it clear that the restoration of dignity will be important to creating the necessary conditions for return and peaceful coexistence — and building a stable post-war Syria one day.


      https://www.ictj.org/publication/syria-refugees-lebanon-displacement-return-coexistence
      #rapport

    • New ICTJ Study: Syrian Refugees in Lebanon See Security, Restoration of Dignity as Key Conditions for Return

      A new report from the International Center for Transitional Justice argues that discussions about a future return of refugees and coexistence among groups currently at war in Syria must begin now, even in the face of ongoing violence and displacement. The report makes it clear that the restoration of refugees’ sense of dignity will be important to creating the necessary conditions for return and peaceful coexistence — and building a stable post-war Syria one day.

      https://www.ictj.org/news/study-syrian-refugees-lebanon-conditions-return

    • We Must Start the Conversation About Return of Syrian Refugees Now

      If millions of displaced Syrians are to go home one day, we need to understand refugees’ conditions for returning, attitudes to justice and the possibility of coexistence, say the authors of an International Center for Transitional Justice study of refugees in Lebanon.

      https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/community/2017/06/21/we-must-start-the-conversation-about-return-of-syrian-refugees-now

    • Nowhere Left to Run: Refugee Evictions in Lebanon in Shadow of Return

      Lebanon wants to evict 12,000 refugees who live near an air base where foreign military assistance is delivered. The evictions, which began in spring and recently resumed after a short respite, have left refugees more vulnerable amid rising demands they return to Syria.


      https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2017/09/28/nowhere-left-to-run-refugee-evictions-in-lebanon-in-shadow-of-return
      #Liban

    • Syrian Refugees Return From Lebanon Only to Flee War Yet Again

      Refugees who returned to Syria from Lebanon under cease-fire deals this summer have been displaced again by fighting. Those who stayed behind are pressing for international guarantees of safety on return, as Lebanese officials explore ways to get more refugees to leave.


      https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2017/10/11/syrian-refugees-return-from-lebanon-only-to-flee-war-yet-again

    • Dangerous Exit: Who Controls How Syrians in Lebanon Go Home

      AS HALIMA clambered into a truck leaving Lebanon in late June, she resolved that if the men driving the vehicle were arrested at the Syrian border, she would get out and walk back to her village on her own. The 66-year-old grandmother had not seen the son and daughter she left behind in Syria for five years. Wearing an embroidered black dress and a traditional headdress, her crinkled eyes shone with determination. “I’m coming back to my land,” she said.

      Having begged her not to leave, Halima’s two daughters staying in Lebanon wept on her shoulders. “We’re afraid she won’t come back,” 42-year-old Sherifa said, as her voice cracked. Sherifa cannot follow her mother to Syria; her eldest son, who has single-handedly kept the family afloat with odd jobs because of his father’s disability, would be sent to war.

      Huddled in groups at the checkpoint in northeast Lebanon, other families also said their goodbyes. A teenage girl knelt on the dirt road, refusing to let go of her 19-year-old brother’s legs. Their mother, Nawal, held her as he left for a truck to the border. “I don’t know how he will live on his own in Syria. Only God knows what will happen to him,” Nawal said. “I didn’t think he would actually leave. It all happened very fast.”

      A few months earlier, 3,000 Syrians in the Lebanese border town of Arsal had registered their names with Syrian and Lebanese intelligence agencies to return to their villages just over the mountains in Syria’s Qalamoun region. When the first group of several hundred people was approved to leave on June 28, many families were separated, as some members either decided not to register or were not approved by Syrian authorities.

      “We need a political solution for these people to go back, but the politics doesn’t start here in Lebanon,” a Lebanese intelligence agent said, as a scuffle broke out that scorching June morning. A Syrian man lunged at Khaled Abdel Aziz, a real estate businessman who had been put in charge of signing up fellow refugees to return. Abdel Aziz sweated in his suit as he dashed between television interviews, repeating that Syrians had a country of their own to go back to. “You’re protecting the army, not protecting yourself,” the man yelled, before being pulled away.

      The TV cameras rolled as dozens of trucks and tractors piled high with timber, water tanks and chicken coops were checked off a list by Lebanese intelligence agents and headed with an army escort to the Syrian border. A line of TV reporters announced to their Lebanese viewers that these refugees were going home.

      The next day, on the other side of Arsal, a small group of refugees held a sit-in, to much less fanfare. “We’re asking for return with dignity,” one banner read, “with guarantees from the international community and the U.N.”

      “We’re not against the return, but we want conditions, guarantees,” said Khaled Raad, one of the organizers. His refugee committee has been petitioning the U.N. and sympathetic Lebanese politicians for international protection for returning Syrians for a year. “I mean, this is not like taking a cup of tea or coffee to say, after seven years, go ahead and return to your houses. It’s not an easy thing.”

      “WE NEED A POLITICAL SOLUTION FOR THESE PEOPLE TO GO BACK, BUT THE POLITICS DOESN’T START HERE IN LEBANON.”

      By then, Halima had arrived back in Syria. Apart from some tractors breaking down en route, they had no problem crossing the border. Halima went to stay with her son while she waited to hear about the situation in her hometown, the mountaintop village of Fleeta. Her granddaughters had grown up quickly while she was in Lebanon, and she loved spending time with them in the neighboring town.

      But as more of their friends and relatives returned to Fleeta, with subsequent groups departing Arsal in July, word came to the family of empty homes and little power, water or work in the Syrian village. Sherifa received messages from relatives who had returned to Fleeta but now wanted to escape again. With no easy way to come back to Lebanon legally, they planned to smuggle themselves back across the border.

      Without her mother, and with bad news from Fleeta making it less likely she would ever return to Syria, Sherifa became increasingly desperate. Her husband, who is unable to work for health reasons, sunk into depression. “By God, dying is better than living,” Sherifa said. “I seek refuge in God from this return.”

      LONGING FOR HOME, AFRAID TO RETURN
      RETURNING TO SYRIA during this eighth year of conflict is both an excruciating personal decision and a political calculation: by refugees, the government in Syria, and other nations with a stake in the war. As the government recaptures more territory from opposition groups, and fighting quells in certain areas, some refugees are considering returning, while others are terrified of the increasing pressure to go back. After Lebanon began organizing small group returns this year, including from Arsal, these dilemmas became more urgent.

      To return is to take a political gamble: Refugees must weigh the risks of staying against the risks of going. They try to figure out who can be trusted to tell them the truth. They gather snippets of information from their cities, towns and villages about what happens to people who return. They struggle to decipher the intentions of the mercurial and multi-layered Syrian authorities and their foreign allies.

      Some of the broader dangers are well-known: an estimated half a million people killed in Syria’s war, including thousands dead this year; some one million people forced to leave their homes this year alone; a third of all houses and half of all schools and hospitals damaged or destroyed; in government-controlled areas, mandatory conscription into battle for men under 43, fear of arrest and torture, and the difficulties of reintegrating into a society and economy fractured by war.

      Until now, few refugees have considered this a risk worth taking. In 2017, the U.N. said 77,300 refugees went back independently to Syria, out of 5.6 million who had fled the country. The vast majority of Syrian refugees have consistently told U.N. and independent surveys they hoped to return home one day, but do not yet feel safe to do so.

      There are also risks to staying. More than 80 percent of Syrian refugees remain in three neighboring countries: Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. There, they face soaring poverty, years out of work or school, lack of official documents, risk of arrest and, above all, an increasing public clamoring for Syrians to be sent back.

      In Lebanon, where at least 1.5 million Syrians have sought refuge – increasing the country’s population by a quarter – the pressure to leave is the most intense. Few Syrians have legal status, even fewer can work. Many towns have imposed curfews or carried out mass evictions. At the U.N. General Assembly last year, Lebanon’s president Michel Aoun insisted Syrians must return, voluntarily or not. “The claim that they will not be safe should they return to their country is an unacceptable pretext,” he told world leaders.

      https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2018/08/08/dangerous-exit-who-controls-how-syrians-in-lebanon-go-home
      #Liban

    • Turkish minister: 255,300 Syrian refugees have returned home

      Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said on Sunday that 255,300 Syrian refugees have returned home over the past two years, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

      “Some 160,000 of them returned to the Euphrates Shield region after Turkey brought peace there,” added Soylu, speaking to reporters in the southern province of Hatay bordering Syria.

      Turkey carried out Operation Euphrates Shield between August 2016 and March 2017 to eliminate the terrorist threat along the border in the northern Syrian regions of Jarabulus, Al-Rai, Al-Bab and Azaz with the help of the Free Syrian Army.

      Expressing concern about a possible operation in the Idlib region of Syria by regime forces, the minister underlined that Turkey would not be responsible for a wave of migration in the event of an offensive.

      Soylu also noted that an average of 6,800 irregular migrants a day used to enter Greece from western Turkey in 2015 and that now it has been reduced to 79.

      https://www.turkishminute.com/2018/09/09/turkish-minister-255300-syrian-refugees-have-returned-home

    • The fate of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Between forced displacement and forced return

      Recent news reports have surfaced on a possible United States-Russia deal to arrange for the return of refugees to Syria—reports that coincided both with the announcement that thousands of Syrians have died in regime prisons, and with one of the worst massacres in the conflict, perpetrated by ISIS in the city of Swaida. The US-Russia deal has been welcomed by Lebanese politicians, particularly those who have been scheming to repatriate Syrians for years now. But, unsurprisingly, the absence of a clear and coherent strategy for repatriation by the Lebanese government puts Syrian refugees at grave risk.

      In June, UNHCR interviewed Syrian refugees in Arsal who had expressed their willingness to go back to Syria in order to verify that they had the documentation needed for return and to ensure they were fully aware of the conditions in their home country. In response, caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil accused the agency of impeding refugees’ free return and ordered a freeze on the renewal of agency staff residency permits.

      This tug of war raises two main questions: What are the conditions in Lebanon that are pushing refugees toward returning to Syria while the conflict is ongoing and dangers persist? And what are the obstacles preventing some Syrians from returning freely to their homes?

      Conditions for Syrians in Lebanon

      Syrians began fleeing to Lebanon as early as 2011, but the Lebanese government failed to produce a single policy response until 2014, leading to ad-hoc practices by donors and host communities.

      By the end of 2014, the government began introducing policies to “reduce the number of displaced Syrians,” including closing the borders and requiring Syrians to either register with UNHCR and pledge not to work, or to secure a Lebanese sponsor to remain legally in the country and pay a $200 residency permit fee every six months. In May 2015, the government directed UNHCR to stop registering refugees. These conditions put many Syrians in a precarious position: without documentation, vulnerable to arrest and detention, and with limited mobility. Municipalities have been impeding freedom of movement as well, by imposing curfews on Syrians and even expelling them from their towns.

      In addition to the difficulties imposed by the state, Syrians face discrimination and violence on a day-to-day basis. Refugee settlements have been set on fire, Syrians have been beaten in the streets, and camps are regularly raided by the Lebanese army. All the while, Lebanese politicians foster and fuel the hatred of Syrians, blaming them for the country’s miseries and painting them as existential and security threats.

      Despite the polarization among Lebanese politicians regarding the situation in Syria, there is a consensus that the Syrian refugees are a burden that Lebanon cannot bear. Politicians across the board have been advocating for the immediate repatriation of refugees, and state officials are beginning to take action. President Michel Aoun made a statement in May declaring that Lebanon would seek a solution regarding the refugee crisis without taking into account the preferences of the UN or the European Union. This was followed by Bassil’s move, to freeze the residency permits of UNHCR staff, the leading agency (despite its many shortcomings) providing services for, and protecting the interests of, Syrian refugees. While UNHCR maintains that there are no safe zones in Syria as of yet, Lebanon’s General Security has begun facilitating the return of hundreds of refugees from Arsal and nearby towns. This process has been monitored by UNHCR to ensure that the returns are voluntary. Hezbollah has also established centers to organize the return of Syrians to their homes in collaboration with the Syrian regime.

      Syrian regime obstructing refugees’ free return

      As the situation for Syrian refugees in Lebanon becomes more and more unbearable, conditions for them back home remain troubling. Since 2012, the Syrian regime has been taking deliberate measures that would effectively make the situation for returning Syrians extremely difficult and dangerous.

      Conscription

      Syrian males aged 18 to 42 must serve in the Syrian Armed Forces. While exemptions were allowed in the past, a decree issued in 2017 bans exemptions from military service. Refusing to serve in the Syrian army results in imprisonment or an $8,000 fine, which most Syrians are unable to pay, thus risking having their assets seized by the regime.

      Property as a weapon of war

      Law No. 66 (2012) allowed for the creation of development zones in specified areas across the country. Under the pretense of redeveloping areas currently hosting informal settlements or unauthorized housing, the law is actually being used to expropriate land from residents in areas identified in the decree, which are mostly former opposition strongholds such as Daraya and Ghouta.

      Law No. 10 (2018), passed in April, speeds up the above process. This law stipulates the designation of development or reconstruction zones, requiring local authorities to request a list of property owners from public real estate authorities. Those whose have property within these zones but are not registered on the list are notified by local authorities and must present proof of property within 30 days. If they are successful in providing proof, they get shares of the redevelopment project; otherwise, ownership reverts to the local authority in the province, town, or city where the property is located. Human Rights Watch has published a detailed Q&A that explains the law and its implications.

      These laws, coupled with systematic destruction of land registries by local authorities, fully equip the regime to dispossess hundreds of thousands of Syrian families. Reports indicate that the regime has already begun reconstruction in areas south of Damascus.

      Statements by Syrian officials

      Syrian officials have made several public statements that reveal their hostility toward refugees. On August 20, 2017, at the opening ceremony of a conference held by Syria’s foreign ministry, President Bashar al-Assad gave a speech in which he said: “It’s true that we lost the best of our young men as well as our infrastructure, but in return we gained a healthier, more homogeneous society.” On another occasion, Assad stated his belief that some refugees are terrorists.

      In September 2017, a video of Issam Zahreddine, a commander in the Syrian Armed Forces, went viral. In the video, Zahreddine threatens refugees against returning, saying: “To everyone who fled Syria to other countries, please do not return. If the government forgives you, we will not. I advise you not to come back.” Zahreddine later clarified that his remarks were meant for rebels and ISIS followers, but that clarification should be taken with a grain of salt given his bloody track record in the war up until his death in October 2017. Along similar lines, leaked information from a meeting of top-ranking army officers just last month reported the following statement by the head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence administration, General Jamil Al-Hassan: “A Syria with 10 million trustworthy people obedient to the leadership is better than a Syria with 30 million vandals.”

      Unknown fate

      Considering the unwelcoming policies in Lebanon and the treacherous conditions in Syria, what is the fate of Syrian refugees, specifically those who oppose the Assad regime? Until now, the return championed by Lebanese politicians implies return to a fascist regime that has caused the largest refugee crisis since the Second World War and unapologetically committed countless war crimes. While Lebanese politicians continue to focus on repatriation, they are failing to acknowledge the major barriers preventing Syrians from returning home: the Assad regime and ongoing mass violence.

      We cannot speak of safe, dignified, and sustainable returns without demanding justice and accountability. Regime change and trials for those who committed war crimes over the span of the last seven years are a long way off, and all evidence currently points toward the Assad regime retaining power. Any strategy must therefore prioritize the safety of Syrians who are likely to be detained, tortured, and killed for their political views upon return, or simply denied entry to Syria altogether. Lebanese policy makers must take into account that Syrians residing in Lebanon are not a homogenous entity, and some may never be able to return to their homes. Those Syrians should not be forced to choose between a brutal regime that will persecute them and a country that strips away their rights and dignity. It is time for Lebanon to adopt clear policies on asylum, resettlement, and return that ensure the right of all Syrians to lead a safe and dignified life.

      http://www.executive-magazine.com/economics-policy/the-fate-of-syrian-refugees-in-lebanon

    • Le retour des réfugiés en Syrie commence à préoccuper la communauté internationale

      Lors d’une conférence sur la Syrie à Bruxelles, le retour des réfugiés syriens dans leur pays a été évoqué. Démarrée en 2011, la guerre en Syrie touche à sa fin

      La situation en Syrie est loin d’être stabilisée. Les besoins de financement, de nourriture de matériel sont même en constante augmentation. Selon un haut fonctionnaire de l’ONU, un éventuel assaut contre la dernière enclave rebelle pourrait entraîner une « catastrophe humanitaire ». Pourtant, alors que 12 millions de Syriens, soit près de la moitié de la population syrienne avant la guerre, a fui le pays ou a été déplacée à l’intérieur, la question du retour, étape indispensable à la reconstruction, commence à se poser.

      C’est le principal message ressorti de la conférence « Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region » , qui vient de se tenir à Bruxelles. Les diplomates européens ont mis l’accent sur les difficultés de l’Europe à isoler le Président Bashar al-Assad, vainqueur de la guerre, soutenu par la Russie et l’Iran, pendant que les États-Unis retirent leurs troupes.

      L’UE a rappelé qu’un soutien à la reconstruction à long terme dépendrait du processus de paix de l’ONU pour mettre fin à une guerre responsable de la mort de centaines de milliers de personnes.

      Les Européens sont toutefois divisés sur la question de la reconstruction du pays, dans la mesure où le processus de paix de l’ONU est bloqué, que l’intervention militaire russe de 2015 s’avère décisive et que les pays arabes voisins envisagent de rétablir des liens diplomatiques.

      « Les États-Unis se retirent et les Russes n’ont pas l’argent. Voilà le contexte », a expliqué un haut fonctionnaire de l’UE, cité par Reuters. L’Allemagne, la France et les Pays-Bas défendent ouvertement l’idée de libérer les fonds de reconstruction uniquement quand le pays aura démarré sa transition politique et que Bashar-al-Assad ne sera plus au pouvoir. Aucun représentant officiel de la Syrie n’a été invité à la conférence. L’Italie, l’Autriche et la Hongrie, grands détracteurs de la politique migratoire européenne, plaident en revanche pour une négociation avec les autorités syriennes pour que les millions de réfugiés puissent rentrer chez eux.

      Mogherini craint le « ni guerre ni paix »

      La cheffe de la diplomatie européenne, Federica Mogherini, a déclaré qu’il y avait un risque que le pays se retrouve coincé dans une situation de « ni guerre ni paix ». Le Haut Commissaire des Nations Unies pour les réfugiés, Filippo Grandi, a déclaré qu’il était prévisible que 2019 soit la première année depuis le début de la guerre « où il y aura plus de Syriens (réfugiés et déplacés internes) qui rentreront chez eux que de nouveaux déplacés. S’étant rendu en Syrie la semaine dernière, le Haut Commissaire a déclaré avoir été « marqué et touché » par la résilience du peuple syrien.

      « C’est dans un contexte de grandes destructions, avec des zones encore dangereuses et un manque de produits de première nécessité (nourriture, médicaments, eau) et d’emplois que de nombreux Syriens rentrent chez eux. Les agences humanitaires font ce qu’elles peuvent, mais un très grand nombre de déplacés internes et quelques réfugiés prennent la décision difficile de rentrer chez eux, et les besoins en produits de première nécessité ne font qu’augmenter », a-t-il expliqué, ajoutant que la plupart des réfugiés voyaient leur avenir dans leur pays natal et que « nous savons que 56 000 Syriens sont rentrés chez eux via des mouvements organisés l’année dernière, mais ce chiffre est certainement plus élevé ».

      Engagements financiers

      « Je suis heureux de vous annoncer que nous collaborons notamment avec le gouvernement syrien. Et j’aimerais particulièrement remercier la Fédération de Russie pour sa coopération face aux problèmes que le retour des réfugiés syriens implique pour eux », a ajouté Filippo Grandi. Dans le cadre de l’appel de l’ONU, 3,3 milliards de dollars seraient nécessaires pour venir en aide aux déplacés internes et 5,5 milliards de dollars pour les réfugiés et les communautés d’accueil dans les pays voisins.

      Le Secrétaire général adjoint aux affaires humanitaires, Marc Lowcock, a déclaré à la presse que les engagements financiers s’élevaient « au moins à 6,5 milliards de dollars » et peut-être même à près de 7 milliards de dollars. « C’est un très bon résultat, et si nous y parvenons vraiment en fin de compte, nous serons très heureux », a-t-il déclaré. Federica Mogherini a déclaré que l’UE contribuerait à hauteur de 560 millions d’euros pour venir en aide au peuple syrien durant l’année 2019 et que le même montant serait libéré les années suivantes.

      Filippo Grandi a également exprimé son inquiétude quant à la situation en déclin de la ville d’Idlib, près de la frontière turque. Près de 90 personnes y ont été tuées par des obus et des frappes aériennes, et la moitié d’entre elles étaient des enfants.

      « La pire des catastrophes humanitaires »

      « Permettez-moi de répéter ce que nous avons déjà dit à maintes reprises. Une attaque militaire d’envergure sur la ville d’Idlib occasionnerait la pire catastrophe humanitaire du 21ème siècle. Ce serait tout simplement inacceptable », a déclaré Filippo Grandi.

      Avec l’aide d’avions russes, l’armée syrienne a attaqué des villes au mains des forces rebelles dans la région d’Idlib, dernier bastion rebelle du pays. Ce bombardement a été le plus important depuis des mois. Les forces rebelles qui se sont battues depuis 8 ans pour faire tomber le Président al-Assad sont désormais confinées dans une enclave du nord est du pays, près de la frontière turque. Près de 4 millions de Syriens y vivent aujourd’hui, dont des centaines de milliers d’opposants au régime qui ont fui d’autres régions du pays.

      La Turquie, qui a commencé à patrouiller dans la zone tampon vendredi, a condamné ce qu’elle a qualifié de provocations croissantes pour mettre fin à la trêve et a averti qu’une offensive des forces russes et syriennes causerait une crise humanitaire majeure. De nombreux résidents sont exaspérés de l’incapacité des forces turques à répondre aux bombardements. L’armée syrienne a appelé au retrait des forces turques.

      L’enclave est protégée par une zone de « désescalade », un accord négocié l’an dernier par les pays qui soutiennent Bashar al-Assad, la Russie, l’Iran ainsi que la Turquie, qui avait auparavant soutenu les forces rebelles et envoyé des troupes pour surveiller la trêve. Le ministre turc des Affaires étrangères, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, a déclaré que 320 000 Syriens avaient pu rentrer chez eux grâce aux « opérations anti-terrorisme » menées par la Turquie et la Syrie.

      https://www.euractiv.fr/section/migrations/news/return-of-refugees-to-syria-timidly-comes-on-the-agenda

    • Assad asks Syrian refugees to come home — then locks them up and interrogates them

      Guarantees offered by the government as part of a ’reconciliation’ process are often hollow, with returnees harassed or extorted.

      Hundreds of Syrian refugees have been arrested after returning home as the war they fled winds down — then interrogated, forced to inform on close family members and in some cases tortured, say returnees and human rights monitors.

      Many more who weathered the conflict in rebel-held territory now retaken by government forces are meeting a similar fate as President Bashar al-Assad’s regime deepens its longtime dependence on informers and surveillance.

      For Syrian refugees, going home usually requires permission from the government and a willingness to provide a full accounting of any involvement they had with the political opposition. But in many cases the guarantees offered by the government as part of this “reconciliation” process turn out to be hollow, with returnees subjected to harassment or extortion by security agencies or detention and torture to extract information about the refugees’ activities while they were away, according to the returnees and monitoring groups.

      Almost 2,000 people have been detained after returning to Syria during the past two years, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, while hundreds more in areas once controlled by the rebels have also been arrested.

      “If I knew then what I know now, I would never have gone back,” said a young man who returned to a government-controlled area outside Damascus. He said he has been harassed for months by members of security forces who repeatedly turn up at his home and stop him at checkpoints to search his phone.

      “People are still being taken by the secret police, and communities are living between suspicion and fear,” he said. “When they come to your door, you cannot say no. You just have to go with them.”

      Returnees interviewed for this report spoke on the condition of anonymity or on the understanding that their family names would be withheld, because of security threats.

      Since the war erupted in 2011, more than 5 million people have fled Syria and 6 million others have been displaced to another part of the country, according to the United Nations – together representing slightly more than half the Syrian population.

      In the past two years, as Assad’s forces have largely routed the rebels and recaptured much of the country, refugees have begun to trickle back. The United Nations says that at least 164,000 refugees have returned to the country since 2016. But citing a lack of access, the United Nations has not been able to document whether they have come back to government- or opposition-held areas.

      Assad has called for more homecomings, encouraging returnees in a televised address in February to “carry out their national duties.” He said forgiveness would be afforded to returnees “when they are honest.”

      According to our data, you are the exception if nothing happens to you

      A recent survey of Syrians who returned to government-held areas found that about 75 percent had been harassed at checkpoints, in government registry offices or in the street, conscripted into the military despite promises they would be exempted, or arrested.

      “According to our data, you are the exception if nothing happens to you,” said Nader Othman, a trustee with the Syrian Association for Citizens’ Dignity, which said it had interviewed 350 returnees across Syria. “One of our most important takeaways is that most of those people who came back had thought that they were cleared by the regime. They thought their lack of opposition would protect them.”

      The Syrian government did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the treatment of returnees and other Syrians now back under government control.

      Outside Syria, many refugees say they were already apprehensive about going home, with fears over a lack of personal security only growing with reports that the government is reneging on its guarantees. Aid groups say there are few signs that a large-scale return will begin anytime soon.

      And in conversations with UN representatives, senior Syrian officials have made it clear that not all returnees are equally welcome. According to two European officials who recounted the conversations, individuals with links to opposition groups, media activism or humanitarian work will be least well received.

      But pressure on the refugees to return is rising across the Middle East, with Syria’s neighbours tightening restrictions on them in part to get them to leave.

      Homs

      Hassan, 30, left his home in the western province of Homs in 2013. Before returning at the end of last year, he secured what he believed were guarantees for his safety after paying a large bribe to a high-ranking security official.

      But officers from the state security directorate met him at the airport and took him for interrogation. “They knew everything – what I’d done abroad, which cafes I’d sat in, even the time I had sat with opposition supporters during football matches,” he recalled.

      A week later, he was arrested during a visit to a government registry office and taken to a nearby police station. In a dingy room, officers took turns beating and questioning him, he said, accusing him of ferrying ammunition for an armed opposition group inside Syria in 2014.

      “I kept telling them that they knew I wasn’t in the country then,” he said. “All they did was ask me for money and tell me that it was the way to my freedom.”

      At one point, he said, the guards dragged in a young woman he had never met. “They beat her with a water pipe until she screamed, (then) told me they would do the same if I didn’t cooperate,” Hassan said.

      He said he was released at the end of January after relatives paid another bribe, this time $7,000.

      Syrians returning from abroad, like Hassan, often have to gain security approval just to re-enter the country, in some cases signing loyalty pledges and providing extensive accounts of any political activities, according to documents listing questions to be asked and statements to be signed.

      https://nationalpost.com/news/world/assad-asks-syrian-refugees-to-come-home-then-locks-them-up-and-interro

    • Weighed down by economic woes, Syrian refugees head home from Jordan

      Rahaf* and Qassem lay out their plans to return to Syria as their five-year-old daughter plays with her toys in their small apartment in the Jordanian capital, Amman.

      It is early October, six years after they fled their home in Damascus, and the couple have decided it’s time to give up trying to make a life for themselves in Jordan.

      Last year, 51-year-old Qassem lost his job at a cleaning supplies factory when the facility shut down, and Rahaf’s home business as a beautician is slow.

      For months, the couple have resorted to borrowing money from friends to cover their 200 Jordanian dinar ($282) monthly rent. They are three months overdue. “There’s nobody else for us to borrow money from,” explains Rahaf.

      Weeks later, Qassem crossed the border and headed back to their old neighbourhood, joining an increasing tide of Syrian refugees who are going home, despite the dangers and a multitude of unknowns.

      According to the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, 34,000 registered Syrian refugees have returned from Jordan since October 2018, when a key border crossing was reopened after years of closure. It’s a fraction of the 650,000 registered Syrian refugees remaining in Jordan, but a dramatic jump from previous years, when annual returns hovered at around 7,000.

      Syrian refugees from the other main host countries – Turkey and Lebanon – are making the trip too. UNHCR has monitored more than 209,000 voluntary refugee returns to Syria since 2016, but the actual figure is likely to be significantly higher.

      Some Syrian refugees face political pressure to return and anti-refugee rhetoric, but that hasn’t taken hold in Jordan.

      Here, many refugees say they are simply fed up with years spent in a dead-end job market with a bleak economic future. The uptick appears to be driven more by the fact that Syrians who wish to go home can now – for the first time in three years – board a bus or a shared taxi from the border, which is about an hour and a half’s drive north of Amman.

      People like Rahaf and Qassem are pinning their hopes on picking up what is left of the lives they led before the war. Their Damascus house, which was damaged in the conflict, is near Qassem’s old shop, where he used to sell basic groceries and cleaning supplies.

      Qassem is staying with relatives for now. But the family had a plan: if and when he gave the green light, Rahaf and their children would join him back in Damascus.

      While she waited for his signal, Rahaf sold off what little furniture and other possessions they acquired in Jordan. “Honestly, we’ve gotten tired of this life, and we’ve lost hope,” she said.
      Money problems

      Before he lost his job, Qassem endured years of verbal abuse in the workplace, and few clients made the trip to Rahaf’s home.

      When she tried to set up a salon elsewhere, their refugee status created bureaucratic hurdles the couple couldn’t overcome. “I did go ask about paying rent for one shop, and they immediately told me no,” Qassem said. “[The owners] wanted a Jordanian renter.”

      Their story echoes those of many other refugees who say they have found peace but little opportunity in Jordan.

      Syrian refugees need a permit to work in Jordan – over 153,000 have been issued so far – but they are limited to working in a few industries in designated economic zones. Many others end up in low-paying jobs, and have long faced harsh economic conditions in Jordan.

      Thousands of urban refugees earn a meagre living either on farms or construction sites, or find informal work as day labourers.

      Abu Omran, who returned to Syria three months ago, fled Damascus with his family in 2013, and for a while was able to find occasional car mechanic jobs in Amman. Work eventually dried up, and he struggled to find ways to make money that did not require hard manual labour.

      “He spent the past three years just sitting at home, with no job,” recalled Abu Omran’s wife, Umm Omran.

      Speaking to The New Humanitarian in her Amman living room several months after her husband’s departure, she was soon joined for coffee and cigarettes by her youngest son, 19-year-old Badr. Newly married, he wore a ring on one finger.

      Times were so hard for the family that Abu Omran left Jordan before he had a chance to attend the wedding, and Badr has also been contemplating a return to Syria – the country he left as a young teenager.

      Badr works in a factory near Amman that produces cleaning products, but the pay is low. And although his older brother brings in a small salary from a pastry shop, it’s getting harder and harder for the family to pull together their rent each month.

      “I’m not returning because I think the situation in Syria is good. But you don’t enter into a difficult situation unless the one you’re currently in is even worse.”

      Entering a void

      While return may seem the best option for some, there are still more unknowns than knowns across the border in Syria.

      President Bashar al-Assad’s government forces control most of the country, but there are still airstrikes in the rebel-held northwest, and the recent Turkish invasion of the northeast has raised new questions about the country’s future.

      “I’m not returning because I think the situation in Syria is good,” said Farah, a mother of three who spoke to TNH in September – about a month before she packed up her things to leave. “But you don’t enter into a difficult situation unless the one you’re currently in is even worse.”

      In 2012, Farah and her husband left their home in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus for Jordan, where she gave birth to her three children.

      Her husband suffers from kidney stones, and the manual labour he has managed to pick up is just enough for them to pay for the rent of a shared house – crammed in with two other refugee families.

      The vast majority of Syrian refugees in Jordan – including Farah and Abu Omran’s families – live in urban areas like Amman, rather than in the country’s three refugee camps. They are still eligible for aid, but Farah had decided by October that she was “no longer able to bear” the poverty in Amman, even though UN food vouchers had covered some of her expenses.

      She took her three young children and crossed the border into Syria to stay with her mother, who lives in a southeastern suburb of Damascus. TNH has not been able to contact her since.

      Farah’s husband stayed behind in Jordan, fearing arrest or forced military conscription by Syrian government authorities.

      This has happened to other people who have gone back to Syria from Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, or other host countries. Despite promises to the contrary from the government, hundreds – and possibly thousands – of returnees have reportedly been detained.

      “There are issues with what information is made available to refugees… about what is going to happen to them on the other side, in Syria.”

      Lebanese authorities have also forcibly deported thousands of Syrian refugees, and Human Rights Watch says at least three of them were detained by Syrian authorities when they got back. It isn’t clear if any Syrians have faced the same fate returning from Jordan.

      Sara Kayyali, a researcher for Human Rights Watch based in Jordan, told TNH she has yet to verify reports of disappearance, conscription, and detainment of returnees from Jordan.

      “There are issues with what information is made available to refugees… about what is going to happen to them on the other side, in Syria,” said Kayyali. “Partially because people inside are too scared to talk about the conditions in government-held areas, and partially because the restrictions applied and the behaviour of the Syrian security forces is so arbitrary that it’s difficult to predict.”

      Kayyali pointed to the 30 Jordanian citizens detained in Syria since the border opened a year ago – Amman said they entered for tourism and were arrested without reason – as a sign of what could be to come for Syrians.

      “[If those threats] apply to Jordanians, then they’re most certainly going to be applied to Syrians, potentially on an even larger scale,” said Kayyali.

      There are other obstacles to return, or challenges for people who manage to get back, including destroyed homes and lost jobs. Healthcare and water provision is scattershot in certain parts of the country, while violence and war is ongoing in others.

      Francesco Bert, a UNHCR spokesperson in Jordan, said the agency “does not facilitate returns, but offers support to refugees if they voluntarily decide to go home”.

      Asked whether it is safe for refugees to go back to Syria, Bert said the agency “considers refugees’ decisions as the main guideposts”, but gives refugees considering or planning to return “information that might inform their decision-making”, to help ensure it is truly voluntary.
      The waiting game

      Despite the obstacles, more and more people are making the trip. But families often can’t travel back together.

      For Rahaf, that meant packing her things and waiting, before finally joining her husband last weekend.

      For Umm Omran, however, that means wondering if and when she will ever see her husband again.

      The family had hoped that Abu Omran could find a job repairing cars again in Damascus, and if that didn’t work out at least he could live rent-free with his sister’s family.

      But plans for his wife and sons to join him someday, once he had found his footing, now look increasingly unlikely.

      “He hasn’t said yet if he regrets going back home,” said Umm Omran, who communicates regularly via WhatsApp with her husband and other family members who never left Syria. They live in government-controlled Damascus and don’t give away much in their chats for fear of retaliation by security forces, who they worry could be monitoring their communications.

      What Umm Omran has managed to piece together isn’t promising.

      Her husband has yet to find a job in Damascus, and is beginning to feel like a burden at his sister’s home. Their own house, where he and Umm Omran raised their sons, is bombed-out and needs extensive repairs before anyone can move back in.

      For the time-being, Umm Omran has ruled out her own potential return to Syria, fearing her two sons would insist on joining her and end up being conscripted into the armed forces. So, for now, the family remains split in two.

      “When I ask him how things are going, he just says, ‘Thank God’. He says little else,” said Umm Omran, scrolling through chats on her mobile phone. “I think he’s upset about leaving us.”

      https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2019/11/19/Syrian-refugees-return-Jordan
      #Amman #Jordanie

  • Why is neoliberalism back in Latin America? | Business & Economy | Al Jazeera
    http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/07/neoliberalism-latin-america-170711085354385.html

    Curiously enough, some 25 years later neoliberalism has made a comeback to the region. Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Paraguay and Peru have proud neoliberals serving as presidents these days.

    And this is just when the whole world - Donald Trump in the US, Theresa May in the UK, Narendra Modi in India, Vladimir Putin in Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey to name but a few - is clearly going protectionist. 

    In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Latin America could not keep pace with other rising states and started to consider an anachronistic repertoire of solutions. In the end, under the risk of “playing the sucker”, developing countries from the Western hemisphere decided to open their economies to the outside world, without enjoying any reciprocity in terms of tariffs and trade preferences.

    Why so? Despite all bad memories that neoliberalism evokes in Latin America, political leaders appear to be self-assured: That is the only way to economic salvation. There is no alternative!

  • Inside Congo’s Fast-Growing Displacement Crisis

    Congo has the most internally displaced people in Africa. In Tanganyika province, their number is rapidly expanding amid militia fighting. Yet the government insists the area is peaceful and is forcing displaced people home, William Clowes reports for IRIN News.


    https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2017/07/18/inside-congos-fast-growing-displacement-crisis
    #RDC #Congo #réfugiés #asile #migrations #IDPs #déplacés_internes

  • Palestinians have a legal right to armed struggle | Conflict | Al Jazeera
    http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/07/palestinians-legal-armed-struggle-170719114812058.html

    Never ones to hesitate in rewriting history, long before the establishment of the United Nations, European Zionists deemed themselves to be an occupied people as they emigrated to Palestine - a land to which any historical connection they had had long since passed through a largely voluntary transit.

    Indeed, a full 50 years before the UN spoke of the right of armed struggle as a vehicle of indigenous liberation, European Zionists illegally co-opted the concept as the Irgun, Lehi and other terrorist groups undertook a decade’s long reign of deadly mayhem. 

    During this time, they slaughtered not only thousands of indigenous Palestinians but targeted British police and military personnel that had long maintained a colonial presence there.

    #Israel

    • Ouh la vilaine frontière bien rectiligne en bas à droite...
      Ça me fait penser à la chanson d’IAM « J’aurais pu croire », toujours terriblement d’actualité après 24 ans...

      L’extrait en question :

      J’aurais pu croire l’Occident si
      Tout ces pays n’avaient eu de colonies
      Et lors de l’indépendance ne les avaient découpés comme des tartes
      Aujourd’hui il y a des guerres à cause des problèmes de cartes