Latest on International Migration from IPS

Tamaulipas state has become the black hole of organised crime in Mexico. But there are few accounts of the rapid social breakdown that the northeastern border state has experienced since the start of the year, because the local press is silenced.

Activists in Latin America have been galvanised by atrocities like the recent massacre of 72 migrants near the U.S. border to step up their efforts on behalf of migrant rights.

DUBAI Thursday, June 17, 2010 (IRIN) - Kyrgyzstan’s population of 5.3 million comprises three main ethnic groups: Kyrgyz, Uzbeks and Russians. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the number of ethnic Russians has declined, particularly in the south, where internal migration has also altered the balance between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks.

NAIROBI Thursday, June 17, 2010 (IRIN) - The 2010 FIFA World Cup is underway in South Africa and HIV/AIDS campaigners are taking advantage of the international focus on Africa to raise awareness about HIV. IRIN/PlusNews lists some of the campaigns running during the month-long tournament from 11 June to 11 July.

DAKAR Tuesday, June 15, 2010 (IRIN) - Logistical and funding constraints could cause shortages in the food aid pipeline from July onward, hampering distributions to some of Niger's 7.8 million food-insecure people, say NGOs and the World Food Programme (WFP). More cash distributions could be the answer.

NAIROBI Monday, June 14, 2010 (IRIN) - Help for people facing humanitarian catastrophe could be a text message or mouse click away, thanks to software that has proved vital in humanitarian disasters such as the Haiti earthquake.

ACCRA Thursday, June 10, 2010 (IRIN) - On a hot afternoon in Malam Ata market in the centre of Accra, capital of Ghana, when eight-year-olds should be in a classroom learning, or playing with friends, Berikisu is trading her education and health for cash.

DAKAR Monday, June 07, 2010 (IRIN) - A lack of transport, pastoralist lifestyles and pressure on women to prepare fields for harvest mean severely malnourished children are being taken out of therapeutic feeding programmes before their treatment is complete, say aid agencies.

LOUTA Friday, June 04, 2010 (IRIN) - Migration in search of work has long been common in Sourou Province, northern Burkina Faso, but the trend is increasingly for younger girls to join the exodus, according to the UN Children’s Fund and the NGO Terre des hommes.

JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, June 02, 2010 (IRIN) - Mozambique has launched a campaign called "Open Your Eyes" to combat child trafficking and unsafe child migration into neighbouring South Africa as footballers and fans start arriving there ahead of the Soccer World Cup kick-off on 11 June.

YANGON Monday, May 31, 2010 (IRIN) - Ko Hla* paid an agent US$800 and then started work on a Taiwanese fishing ship, thinking it was good money at $260 a month. He toiled 18 hours a day.

JOHANNESBURG Thursday, May 27, 2010 (IRIN) - South Africa is hosting the continent's first soccer World Cup but the mounting anticipation is not drowning out a vicious whispering campaign calling for the expulsion of foreign nationals within hours of the curtain going down on football's biggest jamboree.

HARARE Friday, May 21, 2010 (IRIN) - In the winter of 2005 the government uprooted some 700,000 Zimbabweans across the country in Operation Murambatsvina, officially described as a "slum clearance programme", but promises to re-house those who lost their homes and livelihoods five years ago have practically been abandoned, human rights groups say.

NAIROBI Wednesday, May 19, 2010 (IRIN) - Shortages of medical staff have been identified as one of the major impediments to achieving the health-related UN Millennium Development Goals. For example, one of the poorest countries in the world, Mozambique, has just 548 doctors for a population of more than 22 million, according to the UN World Health Organization.

BANGKOK Thursday, May 13, 2010 (IRIN) - The Thai government has helped legalize nearly one million previously undocumented labour migrants.

HARARE Thursday, May 13, 2010 (IRIN) - A new Zimbabwean temporary travel document (TTD) is not being recognized by neighbouring South Africa's immigration authorities, preventing cross-border traders from sourcing goods for resale.

NAIROBI Thursday, May 06, 2010 (IRIN) - China recently became the latest country to lift travel restrictions on people living with HIV, following in the footsteps of the United States.

CAPE TOWN Tuesday, May 04, 2010 (IRIN) - Michael Uredi, 37, a cabinet maker, came to South Africa from the Eastern Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) eight years ago. He is a member of the Bembe ethnic group, married to a woman from the Banyamulenge, so he is not welcome at home and his wife was raped by his "own people" before they fled. This is his story.

ADDIS ABABA Monday, May 03, 2010 (IRIN) - With more than half of all Ethiopian adults tested for HIV in the past five years and a campaign for behaviour change in place, specialists are now calling for a more targeted approach.

BLIKKIESDORP Friday, April 30, 2010 (IRIN) - Blikkiesdorp - meaning "tin-can town" in Afrikaans - has become a source of controversy in Cape Town, South Africa's most visited city and the host of several important matches in the much-anticipated 2010 Soccer World Cup.