IRIN - News on Migration

JOHANNESBURG 20 January 2012 (IRIN) - Asylum-seekers entering South Africa are no longer being issued with the necessary documents to apply for refugee status. Without a so-called section 23 permit, they are being turned away from Refugee Reception Offices (RROs) and denied the opportunity to legalize their stay in the country.

BAGHDAD 19 January 2012 (IRIN) - Suicide attacks, assassinations and bombings in Iraq have claimed the lives of at least 265 people and injured hundreds of others since 18 December, the date the USA withdrew all but 200 of its troops from the country, according to the health and interior ministries.

WASHINGTON 12 January 2012 (IRIN) - The African Union (AU) has unveiled an ambitious wish-list of priorities for Africa that would give the continent a stronger global voice, boost democracy and encourage peace and security.

TEL AVIV 10 January 2012 (IRIN) - Following a heated public debate, the Israeli cabinet passed on 9 January a tough new law intended to deter the entry of what the government calls “illegal migrants” or “infiltrators”.

DAKAR 04 January 2012 (IRIN) - A new report on child migration in West Africa says thousands of children are being sold, exchanged or transported out of their communities each year in violation of internationally-recognized rights of the child, and calls on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to persuade governments to better protect these children.

DUBAI 04 January 2012 (IRIN) - When hundreds of thousands of people across the Arab world poured into the streets in 2011 to demand freedom from dictatorship, they set in motion a series of events which not only created humanitarian needs in countries that were otherwise relatively stable, but also exacerbated existing humanitarian and developmental challenges.

JOHANNESBURG 29 December 2011 (IRIN) - In 2011 the global economic crisis combined with poor governance, financial mismanagement and unpredictable rainfall to push several southern African countries to the point of crisis. Others responded to rising unemployment and increased pressure on national budgets by hardening their attitude towards immigrants and closing their borders to asylum-seekers. IRIN covered developments from all over the region, but the following stories consistently grabbed headlines:

NAIROBI 29 December 2011 (IRIN) - Computers and mobile phones are already essential to humanitarian planning, and 2011 saw the growth of technology-based humanitarian interventions, from the use of GPS (global positioning systems) to provide early weather warnings to real-time health reporting.

GOROKA 21 December 2011 (IRIN) - Unchecked population growth is fast proving an additional source of conflict in Papua New Guinea (PNG), a country with a history of clan violence and clashes over land, experts say.

JOHANNESBURG 20 December 2011 (IRIN) - While most nations are dependent to some extent on the world’s 214 million migrants for skills and labour, few ensure these migrants have access to their health systems, something that could have dire public health consequences, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

JOHANNESBURG 12 December 2011 (IRIN) - At any given time, an estimated 130,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa are engaged in forced labour as a result of trafficking. It is a fraction of the global figure, which the International Labour Organization (ILO) puts at 2.5 million, but this highly lucrative and concealed crime is on the rise in Africa and traffickers usually operate with impunity.

JOHANNESBURG 08 December 2011 (IRIN) - About 214 million people were living and working outside their home country in 2010, and international migration has continued to grow despite the global economic crisis, but in many countries negative attitudes towards migrants are also rising.

DURBAN 08 December 2011 (IRIN) - People are the victims and the drivers of climate change, so the success of any response to the impact of climate change depends on the people it is supposed to help, say 20 UN agencies at the UN talks in Durban, South Africa.

JOHANNESBURG 06 December 2011 (IRIN) - A slump in the amount of money migrants sent home during the global financial crisis appears to have ended with officially recorded remittances to the developing world reaching an estimated US$351 billion in 2011, an 8 percent increase from 2010.

NAIROBI 06 December 2011 (IRIN) - Mohamud Mohamed Ali, 21, was a high-school student when he fled the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in June 2009, in fear of being forcibly recruited into Al-Shabab. His dangerous journey ultimately took him to South Africa. He spoke to IRIN about his experience:

BAGHDAD 05 December 2011 (IRIN) - While overall violence is decreasing in Iraq, the level of attacks and intimidation of religious minorities remains high, leading to increased displacement, a new report says.

JUBA 05 December 2011 (IRIN) - A steady stream of barges from the North arrives at Juba Port but Iklas Monu Ahmed and her four children are still camped out at the dock three months after their ship came in. More than 350,000 South Sudanese have come back of their own accord over the past year, and the International Organization for Migration will have helped 20,000 returnees since January, when the country voted to secede from Sudan.

JOHANNESBURG 05 December 2011 (IRIN) - Two years ago, Abdiselam Sheik Omar left his home town of Jijiga in Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region and embarked on a journey he hoped would take him across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen and eventually to Saudi Arabia. “It’s easy to find work there,” he told IRIN. “The problem is crossing the sea.”

HARGEISA 01 December 2011 (IRIN) - Continuing unrest and xenophobia in Yemen have prompted an upsurge in the number of migrants and refugees returning to Somalia, with up to 6,000 reported to have travelled back across the Red Sea since the beginning of October.

JOHANNESBURG 29 November 2011 (IRIN) - Nearly half a million asylum seekers in South Africa may lose their right to earn a living or study while their refugee status is being determined after indications that the government plans to amend legislation governing those rights.