RETURNING MIGRANTS: HIGHLIGHTING COTE D’IVOIRE

RETURNING MIGRANTS: HIGHLIGHTING COTE D’IVOIRE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

So many conflicts are happening across the globe at this moment, leading to mass migrations of affected non-combatants. Rebel groups bent on forming mini-states, such as those on the African continent, form a ceaseless phenomenal tapestry of violence and migrations.

Incidentally, many migrants have returned to the homeland, or as in the case of other migrants they get absorbed in the host countries. Let us take the case of Cote d’Ivoire that has been badly hit by the same rebel syndrome messianically forming mini-states in the most gruesome conflicts one can imagine.

Migrants that used to be sheltered in tent cities of sorts are back in the country. Let’s take a cursory visit to the life of these lucky migrants via the reportage of the IOM below.

[Philippines, 23 December 2011]

Source: http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/media/press-briefing-notes/pbnAF/cache/offonce/lang/en?entryId=30969

First Group of Internally Displaced Persons Return to Their Villages in Western Cote d’Ivoire

Posted on Friday, 18-11-2011

Cote d’Ivoire - Seven months after the end of the post electoral crisis in Cote d’Ivoire, hundreds of families who sought refuge in camps in the west of the country, are finally returning home with IOM assistance.

On 16 November 2011, IOM in coordination with government authorities and partner agencies carried out the first organized return of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from a displaced centre in the western town of Duékoué to surrounding villages.

A first IOM convoy of 103 families (459 individuals) left the overcrowded Catholic Mission holding centre in Duékoué for various nearby communities. Other returns are planned over the next few days, with the remaining families scheduled for relocation in a nearby camp in Nahibly.

Up to 25,000 IDPs sought refuge in and around the Catholic Mission in Duékoué at the peak of the conflict. Currently, an estimated 17,000 displaced persons are still living in camps throughout Cote d’Ivoire, in addition to thousands of others who are staying with host communities.

Security improvements in the region have encouraged many displaced persons to consider returning to villages, with many families excited at the prospect of returning home.

"I think I will do better by returning to my village," one of the returnees told IOM. "Life in the camp has been good because it has provided us with security. Now things are better, I need to go home and re-build my life for the sake of my children."

Residents of other IDP camps in Western Cote d’Ivoire who are willing to return to their villages will be assisted by IOM and its partners to do so.

Over the past weeks, IOM has organized several "go-and-see visits" for IDPs who saw that living conditions in their home villages had steadily improved. On their return, they shared information with those who stayed back in the camps. This information helped them in their decision to return or not.

However, many families are still too frightened to return immediately, though they intend to do so at a later date. Some say they will have nowhere to stay because their houses were destroyed during the conflict. Others are afraid of gun-carrying traditional fighters and other armed men, while a good number fear those who they say illegally occupied their plantations after they had fled.

IOM is currently rehabilitating some 300 destroyed homes in some of the worst conflict-affected areas in the west of Cote d’Ivoire and is stocking up on non-food items, which include plastic sheeting, mattresses, mats, kitchen sets, buckets, etc. for distribution to families in need.

As the IDPs return, they will undoubtedly face the daunting task of putting their lives back together. IOM will continue to conduct follow-up missions in the areas of return, to ascertain the living conditions, with the aim of providing the assistance that is needed for sustainability.

In order to do this IOM will appeal to the donor community for financial aid. The current activities are being carried out thanks to donations from the Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF), the European Union Humanitarian Assistance (ECHO), the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the Australian Assistance for International Development (AUSAID).

For further information, please contact:

David Coomber
IOM Cote d’Ivoire
Tel: +225 048 30 444
E-mail: dcoomber@iom.int

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WHERE GOES EGYPTIAN MIGRANTS RETURNING FROM LIBYA?

WHERE GOES EGYPTIAN MIGRANTS RETURNING FROM LIBYA?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

It seems that Egypt has become a catch basin for expatriates who were chased by the ghosts of the conflicts in Tunisia and Libya. The latter conflict has been particularly traumatizing, so a little empathy from any observer will lead to the conclusion that any migrant that sought shelter in neighboring countries wouldn’t eye going back to the source of that trauma.

Many migrants who escaped from the Libya crisis were actually Eqyptians, and so it pays to know the consequences of the conflict on them. They left Egypt for greener pastures, and were then unexpectedly yanked out of their productive pursuits in their host country to return empty-handed aside from tagging along the spectre of traumas that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Below is a briefer on the subject from the IOM.

[Philippines, 29 November 2011]

Source: http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/media/press-briefing-notes/pbnAF/cache/offonce/lang/en?entryId=30892

IOM Survey Finds Egyptian Migrants Returning from Libya in Need of Assistance to Start New Life

Posted on Tuesday, 01-11-2011

Egypt - An IOM survey on the socio-economic profile and needs of Egyptian migrants who have returned home because of the crisis in Libya reveals that most of them require support to restart their lives in Egypt.

The survey is based on a questionnaire distributed randomly to 1,283 Egyptian migrant workers during their evacuation from Tunisia and Misurata to Egypt and on focus group discussions organized by IOM in the Upper Egypt Governorate of Fayoum from where many of the migrants came and have returned to. Additional data from this survey was also obtained from the Egyptian Ministry of Manpower and Emigration.

The study confirms that the crisis in Libya, which triggered the return of an estimated 200,000 Egyptian migrant workers, continues to have a negative impact on poor and vulnerable families and communities, especially in chronically food insecure areas such as the Fayoum Governorate. Most respondents were semi-skilled adult males who said they had been supporting dependants through remittances, which have now dried up.

When asked about the future, 75% of respondents said they intended to remain in Egypt and seek work or start-up businesses. In some cases, the decision to remain in Egypt was linked to hopes that socio-economic development will take place alongside Egypt's political transition. In other cases, returnees said that the trauma and suffering they had experienced or witnessed as they fled Libya influenced their decisions to remain in Egypt.

Despite different motivations, the majority of those who preferred to remain in Egypt said they needed assistance to access financial services and assistance to start-up or reactivate their businesses. The survey found that financial assistance to start private enterprises was largely preferred over additional education and training because of the need for immediate access to income.

Prior to the crisis, Libya was an important source of employment for between 1 and 1.5 million Egyptians who remitted an estimated 33 million USD every year.

The survey is available online at: http://www.egypt.iom.int/publications.htm

For further information please contact:

Mathieu Luciano
IOM Egypt
Tel: +202 273 651 40/1 Ext. 391
+20 101 62 555 00
E-mail: mluciano@iom.int

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UK CONSUMERS TO HELP END HUMAN TRAFFICKING

UK CONSUMERS TO HELP END HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Gracious day from the Pearl of the Orient!

12.3 Millions of laborers work under severe, forced labor conditions at any given time today. Such conditions are akin to the involuntary servitude of the colonial heydays of Western imperialism. Come think of it, the slave trade hasn’t really ended, it only mutated into a new form.

During the halcyon days of the British Empire, no less than over 20,000 ships owned by British traders were plying the seas just for one key purpose: to trade slaves sourced from Africa. The same slave traders, working behind the British East India Company, paid every intellectual prostitute that they can tap in order to propound and popularize laissez faire as a doctrine that, in reality, defended the interests of the same slave traders. Free trade means the unhampered, unregulated, uncontrolled trading of human chattel by greedy and inhumane British slave traders.

Today, that situation of the Empire’s dirty business is reversing towards a humanitarian bent. British consumers are now being urged to support the campaign against human trafficking, which seems to be a karmic payment for the sins of commission of their not-so-ancient compatriots.

Below is a report from the IOM about the anti-human trafficking campaign.

[Philippines, 18 November 2011]

Source: http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/media/press-briefing-notes/pbnEU/cache/offonce/lang/en?entryId=30788

IOM Campaign Urges UK Consumers to Buy Responsibly to Help End Human Trafficking

Posted on Friday, 14-10-2011

United Kingdom - Eliminating the demand for trafficked and exploited labour is critical if efforts to end human trafficking are to be successful, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM) ahead of Anti-Slavery Day in the UK.

Launching its "Buy Responsibly" campaign in London on 18 October 2011 (http://www.buyresponsibly.org/), IOM is urging consumers in particular to play a greater role in ending human trafficking in the UK and across the world.

Encouraging the public to question "What's Behind the Things We Buy?" the campaign, designed together with Saatchi & Saatchi in Geneva, hopes to mobilise consumer power in dramatically changing consumer habits in the UK.

Estimates put the number of people in forced or bonded labour and sexual servitude in the world at 12.3 million at any given time. Although public focus has largely been on the issue of trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation, greater incidences are emerging of trafficking for labour exploitation involving all ages and both sexes.

Despite best efforts by all those involved in countering human trafficking, indications are that it is at least as widespread today as it was ten years ago.

In the UK, there is a slow but growing realisation that slavery is present in the UK itself and not limited to distant shores.

"A change in mindset and practices among consumers and businesses needs to occur," Swing adds. "Consumers in the UK who are increasingly demanding fair trade have the power to end labour exploitation by buying responsibly and getting businesses to rethink how they operate. It's also in the interest of business to ensure that supply chains are free of trafficked or exploited labour," says Swing.

The IOM campaign, part of a global effort to address the demand side of human trafficking for labour exploitation, has already been launched in Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands.

The IOM campaign, part of a global effort to address the demand side of human trafficking for labour exploitation, has already been launched in Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands.

For the UK launch on 18 October, IOM and NGOs, including the Human Trafficking Foundation, Anti-Slavery International, Barnardo's and Stop the Traffik, will be in Trafalgar Square, in the heart of London.

A 5x4 metre upside-down giant shopping trolley imprisoning people representing trafficked migrant workers, an image of the campaign, will be on site in Trafalgar Square. The public will be encouraged to stop and ask what it can practically do to make a difference.

The Buy Responsibly launch is one of the many awareness raising events being held in London and across the UK by NGOs as part of Anti-Slavery Week.

BROADCASTERS – The Buy Responsibly TV spot is available for use and download

Please go to:

http://www.quicklink.tv/IOM/download.asp?Clip_ID=1246

http://www.quicklink.tv/IOM/download.asp?Clip_ID=1244

For further information on the Buy Responsibly campaign, please visit: http://www.buyresponsibly.org/

For further information on IOM and its Counter-Trafficking Work, please visit: www.iom.int

For any media or interview requests, please contact:

Jean Philippe Chauzy
Tel: +41 79 285 4366
E-mail: jpchauzy@iom.int

or

Jemini Pandya
Tel: +41 79 217 3374
E-mail: jpandya@iom.int

For any further information on the launch itself, please contact:

Chiara Gnoli:
Tel: +44 20 7811 6053
E-mail: cgnoli@iom.int

or

Chris Gaul:
Tel: +44 207 7811 6077
E-mail: cgaul@iom.int

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UKRAINE DOWNPLAYS HUMAN TRAFFICK RISKS, WHAT’S YOUR TAKE?

UKRAINE DOWNPLAYS HUMAN TRAFFICK RISKS, WHAT’S YOUR TAKE?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Ukraine, that once mighty component state of the Soviet Union, hasn’t seen much of the light of day of the new republic post-USSR. The once imperious and grand USSR was the world’s 2^nd largest economy during its heyday, but historical mills have rolled on and the rugs under the feet of the Union peoples had drastically changed.

Badly sore on its feet for the dis-integration of that economic union, Ukraine had to scrounge for meager resources to re-start its sagging economy. It simply doesn’t have the experience to run a market economy, thus spawning mafia groups that took on every sector of the economy they can grab in a copycat of the Russian mafia.

Ukrainians, like their fellow ex-USSR folks, are compelled to seek for jobs overseas no matter what the mistreatment and risks they take. So desperate for cash are the Ukrainians that they’d opine a blindness to abuses and other mistreatments for the gainsake of pumping their cash-starved pockets.

What is your take of the Ukrainian downplaying of labor hazards overseas? Below is a report on the subject culled from the IOM.

[Philippines, 17 November 2011]

Source: http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/media/press-briefing-notes/pbnEU/cache/offonce/lang/en?entryId=30789

Ukrainians Underestimate Dangers of Human Trafficking, Report Finds

Posted on Friday, 14-10-2011

Ukraine - The overwhelming majority of Ukrainians have a limited awareness of the dangers of human trafficking, a newly published survey suggests.

The opinion poll conducted by a market research company GfK Ukraine for IOM Ukraine was carried out among a sample of 1,000 respondents (representative of Ukrainian population 14 – 65 years old by administrative units, types of settlements and gender). It found that 70 per cent of the interviewees believed they were not personally at risk of being trafficked.

While the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians (92 per cent) said they were aware of trafficking for sexual exploitation and 82 per cent conscious of the fact that Ukrainians are being trapped into forced labour, it is their low economic status and previous successful migration experiences which determine the level of risk they are under. 9 per cent of the poll respondents said they were planning to go abroad in search of living. Almost 80 per cent of this group's representatives would agree on illegal employment, 13 per cent are ready to work for any employer who would offer an attractive payment. Residents of the Central region are more inclined towards risky behaviour. According to GfK data, 36.6 per cent of Central Ukraine's population have to save on food and clothes. Up to 16 per cent of the Central Ukraine's residents have external migration experience.

"Although considerable numbers of Ukrainian migrants have experienced exploitation and abuse abroad, the poll suggests that many more are willing to engage in risky practices in their often desperate search for employment abroad," says IOM Ukraine's Chief of Mission Manfred Profazi. "This risk taking behaviour is often fuelled by migrants who have successfully escaped exploitation and have returned home with earnings."

Another disturbing finding of the survey is that Ukrainians tend to accept mistreatment and even rights violations in order to keep their jobs. According to the poll, 24 per cent of all respondents said they were willing to accept penalties from their employer for making mistakes at work. Further 11 per cent would accept withholding of their salaries, a method regularly used by traffickers to coerce migrants into exploitation.

More than 110,000 Ukrainians are believed to have fallen prey to traffickers since 1991 and Ukraine remains one of the main countries of origin of exploited labour in Europe.

As part of efforts to reduce the vulnerability of migrants to trafficking and exploitation, IOM Ukraine recently launched a website (http://www.stoptrafficking.org/) aiming to raise general public awareness of the irregular migration dangers and foster further cooperation among all partners fighting traffickers who increasingly use the internet to lure their victims into situations of exploitation.

"This is why IOM and its partners are increasingly going online to combat human trafficking," says IOM's Profazi. "This means getting our awareness message across job searching sites and employment portals, which regularly contain false promises of easy work abroad."

Since the start of its counter-trafficking activities in Ukraine in 1998, IOM Ukraine assisted almost 8,000 victims of trafficking, both women and men who suffered from sexual and labour exploitation mainly in the Russian Federation and Poland.

For more information please contact:

Varvara Zhluktenko
IOM Ukraine
Tel: +38-044-568-50-15
E-mail: vzhluktenko@iom.int

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YOUTH ANTI-XENOPHOBIA: WHAT’S UP COSTA RICA?

YOUTH ANTI-XENOPHOBIA: WHAT’S UP COSTA RICA?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

The drug menace has been identified as a top crime to boot in Latin America, rendering it as the top national security problem as well. The youth has been notably most direly affected by social problems spawned by the drug menace, so much that xenophobia has come to infect the likes of Costa Rica’s youth very recently.

Necessarily, xenophobia breeds hatred, and hatreds scale up hate crimes. For countries that have had histories of respectable tolerance to other Latinos such as Costa Rica and Dominican Republic, it is terribly challenging to sustain the tolerance for long and not cave in to distrust and violence.

Just exactly what measures are being taken to “dis-infect” the youth from going the road of intolerance and start a rampage of anti-foreign hate crimes or so? Below is a reportage from the UNHCR concerning the subject.

[Philippines, 01 November 2011]

Source: http://www.unhcr.org/4e9856c79.html

Costa Rican youth strives to combat xenophobia

News Stories, 14 October 2011

© UNHCR/P. Mora

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica, October 14 (UNHCR) – Sitting around a large table in UNHCR's San José office, four young friends discuss a topical subject in Costa Rica that impacts directly on the lives of each of them. The earnest quartet – one Costa Rican, a Colombian, a Nicaraguan and a Bolivian – are members of La Red de Jóvenes sin Fronteras (Youth Network Without Borders), which was set up earlier this year to combat the spread of xenophobia among the country's youth.

Gathering a core of about 70 members – Costa Ricans, foreign migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers – the group has been active in countering negative, stereotypical perceptions about foreigners in a country that lies on a major south-north mixed migration route but where many young people oppose integration of refugees.

The young activists regularly hold small meetings to discuss the scourge of xenophobia and draw up strategies to counter it and to spread understanding about refugees and migrants and debate why they deserve to be treated fairly. Using mediums such as art, sports, theatre and social media platforms to attract young people, they are starting to make progress and setting an example in the region.

Twenty-year-old Millerland Angulo is the Colombian among the group of friends around the table. She is a refugee who made her way to Costa Rica three years ago after fleeing from persecution and conflict in her homeland. It was not long before she encountered hostility.

"When I first moved here, I remember my neighbour asking our landlord why she was renting her house to Colombians," Millerland explains, adding that the woman "strongly believed we were only here as [drug] traffickers and would bring drug-dealing to the neighbourhood."

Such ill-informed and negative perceptions about refugees are widespread, especially among young people. A national study conducted in 2010 by UNHCR found that 64 per cent of the population had an unfavourable opinion of the 12,500 refugees from more than 40 countries in Costa Rica. Within that group, 87 per cent said they believed refugees have a negative impact on society and the economy.

It was against this background that UNHCR helped establish a project called Lazos sin Fronteras (Bonds Without Borders). As part of this project, a group of about 180 young refugees, migrants, and Costa Rican nationals set up La Red de Jovenes sin Fronteras, or La Red, at a conference in February and issued a declaration of their goals.

They have received support from the Dutch government and UNHCR, which wanted a project that would promote young people as leaders of the present as well as the future. The core members of the fledgling group, with technical help from the refugee agency, mapped out a programme of activities to address the integration challenges that refugees and migrants face in Costa Rica.

Jozef Merkx, UNHCR's representative in Costa Rica, said the programme was unique and a possible model for other countries where xenophobia is a problem. "It's the first initiative where migrants, refugees and Costa Ricans are working together towards integration," he says. "It's a completely different approach to addressing the issue because the affected population is getting involved in creating a solution. It's a terrific means of providing a strong sense of empowerment to these groups," he adds.

Martha Amada, the young migrant from Nicaragua in the UNHCR office meeting, agrees with Merkx about the potential influence of La Red. "If other young people all over the world came together to do something similar to what we are doing to make a difference, then the vision of change can become reality," she says.

Part of the problem in Costa Rica is that many young people are not being taught at school about toleration. La Red is trying to bridge that gap by promoting solidarity and friendship between youth of different cultures and nations and by spreading awareness about refugees and migrants.

UNHCR's Valentina Duque, who works closely with La Red, believes that the involvement of young people in countering xenophobia is vital. "If they are willing and the desire is there, they can achieve so many great things," she says. "Their only setback is that they often lack the tools and information necessary to make significant changes. This programme was designed to give them that opportunity."

They've been busy and creative using the tools that they do have to hand. On World Refugee Day (June 20) this year, members of La Red organized a flash mob performance in San José. In July, they created a TV commercial for UNHCR's "1" Campaign.

And they have been getting results, attracting interest from prospective new members as well as important outside organizations, including the Costa Rican Youth Parliament, which has agreed to promote the objectives of La Red. This could help the group get political support for tackling important integration challenges, including access to health care, employment and education.

Eduin Jane, a 25-year-old Costa Rican member, summarizes what motivates them. "The most important thing is that, as a group, we don't believe in borders. No one place and one person is better than anyone else," he says. "Everyone may have a different nationality or live in a different country, but we are all citizens of the world."

It's a sentiment that Millerland embraces wholeheartedly. "When I first moved to Costa Rica, I didn't have any friends. I spent all of my time watching TV and felt useless," she admits. "However, now that I am in the network, I forget that I'm in Costa Rica and it feels like I'm back in Colombia – for the first time, it feels like I am home."

By Erin Kastelz in San José, Costa Rica

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ANTI-TRAFFICK & LABOR EXPLOITATION

ANTI-TRAFFICK & LABOR EXPLOITATION

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Human traffick is meant to exploit laborers. This is a commonsensical truth that even kindergarten minds can pretty understand well.

Following the trend for crimes that have become globalized, so has human traffick become globalized as mafia rings and petty criminals engage in the luscious trade of peddling illegal human resource. Some human traffick outfits utilize the labor recruits for transiting narcotics and precious metals & minerals (gold, diamond), with many of such ‘mules’ landing in jail eventually.

Below is an apt news reflection from the International Organization for Migration about the subject.

[Philippines, 25 October 2011]

Source: http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/media/press-briefing-notes/pbnEU/cache/offonce/lang/en?entryId=30749

Awareness Campaign against Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Marks World Day for Decent Work
Posted on Friday, 07-10-2011

Germany -

The IOM led Berlin Alliance against Labour Trafficking is today launching a nationwide campaign to raise public awareness on the issue of trafficking for labour exploitation.

The campaign, which will run until the end of November throughout Germany, urges the public to think about the links that exist between human trafficking and labour exploitation, which are largely driven by a relentless demand for cheap labour and services.

According to estimates of the International Labour Organization (ILO), at least 12.3 million people worldwide are victims of forced labour.

"Trafficking for labour exploitation is often not recognized at first glance," says Philipp Schwertmann, Head of the IOM Germany Counter-Trafficking Team. "This crime is nevertheless widespread in many different industries, including the restaurant and catering sectors, private household services and in the construction and agricultural sectors."

Victims of trafficking for forced labour have no other choice but to work unduly long hours with little to no pay, with high debts often owed to recruitment agencies and threats of violence from employers.

As part of the campaign, a dedicated website containing general information about trafficking for labour exploitation, information on the rights of employees and available counselling services in 14 different languages is also being launched today.

It includes industry-specific indicator lists to help identify trafficking and labour exploitation as well as a selection of case descriptions from within Germany and abroad.

Billboards underlying the hidden and harmful nature of trafficking for labour exploitation will be distributed throughout the country and a video will be shown in movie theatres in Berlin and on the Berlin subway screens.

The World Day for Decent Work is commemorated globally. It was established in 2008 by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) to promote humane working conditions.

The Berlin Alliance against Labour Trafficking is a joint project between the IOM, the confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Berlin Senate Department for Integration, Work and Social Issues (SenIAS).

For more information, please go to: gegen-menschenhandel.de

For other information please contact:

Philipp Schwertmann
IOM Berlin
Tel: +49 30 27877818
E-mail: pschwertmann@iom.int

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ARE SOUTHERN AFRICANS TURNING INTO CITIZEN-LESS ZOMBIES?

ARE SOUTHERN AFRICANS TURNING INTO CITIZEN-LESS ZOMBIES?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Citizenless or stateless? Whichever is right, the situation in southern Africa seems to point to the compass of common folks sandwiched in terrifying conflicts ending up without clear citizenship status.

Maybe the better phrase is “their citizenship has turned fluid due to political thermodynamics.” Tragic! We can only but commiserate with our brothers and sisters in southern Africa who have been caught in the maelstroms of the south, whose very own entitlements have disappeared on account of statelessness or citizenlessness.

The affected folks are forced to eke out a living that is very uncertain, much like those fiction zombies that have turned into foul carcass walking listlessly in search of fresh flesh and blood.

Below is a situationer about the subject coming from the UNHCR.

[Philippines, 22 October 2011]

Source: http://www.unhcr.org/4e8d6de26.html

Statelessness: Falling through the cracks in southern Africa

News Stories, 6 October 2011

© UNHCR/P.Rulashe

Rosalind Elphick, a lawyer with UNHCR's statelessness project in Musina, South Africa, counsels Luwizhi on developments relating to his case.

MUSINA, South Africa, October 6 (UNHCR) – Luwizhi has been on a paper chase for the last four years – not as a student pursuing higher education, but as someone seeking documents while bouncing between being an asylum-seeker, migrant worker and stateless person.

Luwizhi was born in 1975 to a Zambian father and a Malawian mother who had met and married in Zimbabwe as migrant workers decades ago. He grew up in Zimbabwe and had a Zimbabwean identity card with the word "citizen" stamped on it. For a while, he worked at a mine in Mashonaland East province and headed the worker's committee.

A charismatic speaker, he was courted by two political parties to increase grassroots support ahead of the 2008 elections. But the attention soon turned ugly, with one party following and visiting him at odd hours.

In mid-2007, he fled to his mother's village south of Harare, Zimbabwe's capital. When he arrived, she told him a group of men had come to the homestead looking for him. A quick description confirmed that these were the same men who had sought him out the night before at his work place. He then escaped to Musina, South Africa's northernmost border town with Zimbabwe, crossing illegally in the dead of night.

As an asylum-seeker in South Africa, Luwizhi worked as a gardener. In 2010, the South African government started the Zimbabwe Documentation Project to regularize the status of thousands of qualifying Zimbabwean migrants. It also allowed asylum-seekers to change their status and obtain work, business or study permits valid for four years.

Luwizhi's employer insisted that all his workers change their status and obtain work permits. Luwizhi didn't argue with this as he saw it as a chance to explore better job opportunities in the mines surrounding Musina. Soon after, he decided to apply for a passport with the Zimbabwean authorities in South Africa.

"I got the shock of my life when they told me that I ceased to be a Zimbabwean citizen in 2002, with the implementation of the 2001 Citizenship of Zimbabwe Amendment Act," he said in disbelief. The law forbids dual citizenship in Zimbabwe and requires people with a claim to foreign citizenship – even if they are not aware of it – to renounce it in order to keep their Zimbabwean status.

"The law on citizenship in Zimbabwe has become increasingly restrictive," said Rosalind Elphick, a lawyer working in Musina for UNHCR's partner, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), on the agency's regional statelessness project. "The only claim Luwizhi has is that he was born on the territory. In Zimbabwe, he doesn't qualify at all for citizenship because the Constitution requires him to have at least one blood relative who is Zimbabwean as a parent or grandparent – and he has neither."

Luwizhi lamented, "So who am I? Where do I belong, because Zimbabwe is the only country I have ever known as home? That my parents were from other countries is meaningless because I know of no family in Zambia or Malawi."

By this time he had also surrendered his asylum application, rendering him undocumented and stateless in South Africa. He could have been arrested for breaking immigration laws, but luckily his asylum-seeker status was reissued after LHR appealed to the Musina Refugee Reception Office.

South Africa is not party to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons or to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. However, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation appears to have taken an interest in the issue.

'They have given LHR an audience on the matter and have really been cooperative, interested in the statistics we have and wanting to hear our stories," said Elphick. "Separately, we've managed to uncover several groups of people who are stateless or at risk of becoming stateless in this country."

LHR is working hard to present its findings to South Africa's Department of Home Affairs, the ministry charged with managing immigration as well as handling refugees and asylum-seekers.

In the meantime, Luwizhi is grateful that he can approach LHR for counselling and advice. "They're really interested in my situation and I have every confidence that somewhere along the line, they will help me overcome this problem," he said.

By Pumla Rulashe
In Musina, South Africa

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IMPROVING SHELTERS FOR CHILD VICTIMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICK: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC SHOWCASE

IMPROVING SHELTERS FOR CHILD VICTIMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICK: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC SHOWCASE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Governance reforms in the Dominican Republic have included strengthening institutional capacity to deal with problems of children and adolescents. The country’s National Council for Children and Adolescents (CONANI) is the lead agency created for the task.

The CONANI had so far been operating on an expanded mandate so as to cover problems related to human traffick. In this regard, the International Organization for Migration or IOM has been co-partnering with the CONANI’s efforts, with commitments going up through the sheltering of child victims of human traffick.

Below is an update report about the subject that makes the country a showcase in sheltering affected children.

[Philippines, 11 October 2011]

Source: http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/media/press-briefing-notes/pbnAM/cache/offonce/lang/en?entryId=30589

Improving Shelters for Child Victims of Trafficking in the Dominican Republic

Posted on Friday, 16-09-2011

Dominican Republic - This week IOM completed its Children's Shelter Improvement Plan in coordination with the Dominican National Council for Children and Adolescents (CONANI) as part of its programme to build the capacity of the Dominican authorities to manage cases of child victims of trafficking.

Four temporary shelters managed by CONANI have received structural improvements and material necessities in order to improve the conditions of vulnerable children in need of protection, including Dominican children, unaccompanied minor migrants and victims of trafficking, under the care of the Dominican child protection authorities.

Structural improvements to the physical structures of the four shelters included replacing broken doors and windows, painting walls, building walls to increase privacy, and paving outdoor patio play-spaces.

Based on the needs of each facility, IOM has furnished the shelters with games, books, and other educational materials, as well as a range of appliances including fans, water coolers, washing machines, lockers, and lawn mowers.

"IOM works closely with CONANI in the search for durable solutions for child victims of trafficking and unaccompanied minor migrants. Improvements to these shelters will help CONANI to provide enhanced care to child victims of trafficking that end up in the protection of the State. Other vulnerable children found in these facilities will also benefit," explains Cy Winter, IOM Chief of Mission in Santo Domingo.

These physical and material improvements have been carried out in conjunction with a series of trainings for the staff of five of CONANI's temporary shelters on how to identify signs that a child has been a victim of human trafficking, as well as how to provide specialized attention to child victims. The staff training complements an awareness campaign carried out with more than 300 members of the child protection system via 11 workshops held in late 2010.

Since the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, IOM has also formed part of the inter-agency CONANI Technical Assistance Committee seeking solutions for the unaccompanied minors under CONANI protection as a result of being displaced by the earthquake.

There are currently 234 children in the care of CONANI's temporary shelters; 45 are Haitian nationals.

In 2011 IOM has worked with the child protection authorities in the Dominican Republic and CONANI and with Haiti's Institute for Social Well-Being and Research (IBESR) to provide family tracing, return and reintegration assistance to 23 Haitian child victims of trafficking, including a large group of children trafficked for forced begging rescued by the Dominican General Directorate of Migration in a February 2011 raid.

As part of IOM's continued cooperation with the child protection authorities in both countries, IOM organized a bi-national meeting in May 2011 aimed at improving dialogue on short-term care and long-term solutions for unaccompanied minor migrants and child victims of trafficking. A follow up visit by staff of IBESR to CONANI is planned for October.

IOM's work to improve the conditions of child migrants and child victims of trafficking in the Dominican Republic is made possible through support from the United States Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) and the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (GTIP), and the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Santo Domingo.

For more information, please contact:

Gina Gallardo
E-mail: ggallardo@iom.int

or

Zoë Stopak-Behr
IOM Santo Domingo
Tel: 809 688 8174
E-mail: zstopak-behr@iom.int

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SOMALIA FAMINE SPREADS

SOMALIA FAMINE SPREADS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Tragic news comes from Somalia, as the folks affected by the drought & famine now number around 2.4 to 4 million people. This is just one side of the larger problem today in the entire Horn of Africa, where 11,000,000 people were severely affected by famine that resulted to dislocations, migrations, and hunger.

The FAO had already called for the most timely response to stem the tide of hunger or food crisis in the entire Horn of Africa. Report from the FAO has it that as much as 750,000 starving people in Somalia alone could die within the next four (4) months as of the release of the report.

Below is the reportage about the subject.

[Philippines, 10 October 2011]

Source: http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/89101/icode/

Famine spreads further in Somalia/ FAO calls for stepped up response

5 September 2011, Nairobi/Rome- - FAO today called for increased efforts to stem the food crisis in the Horn of Africa as famine spread to a sixth area of Somalia, threatening 750 000 people with starving to death in the next four months.

Latest data released today by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia (FSNAU), which is managed by FAO in close collaboration with USAID's Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), indicated that famine has spread to Bay region, one of Somalia's most productive areas. Five other regions had previously been declared in a state of famine.

Together with ongoing crises in the rest of the country, the number of Somalis in need of humanitarian assistance has increased from 2.4 million to 4 million in the last eight months, with 3 million of them in the country's south.

Bleak picture

"Though these figures paint a bleak picture for Somalia, there is a window of opportunity for the humanitarian community to stop and reverse this undesirable trend by supporting farmers and herders in addition to other emergency interventions," Luca Alinovi, FAO's Officer in Charge for Somalia, told a press conference in Nairobi.

Bay region is a breadbasket for Somalia, producing over 80 percent of the country's sorghum. Record levels of acute malnutrition have been registered there, with 58 percent of children under five acutely malnourished, and a crude death of more than two deaths per 10 000 per day.

Bay region joins five other areas hit by famine including Bakool agropastoral communities in Lower Shabelle region, the agropastoral areas of Balcad and Cadale districts of Middle Shabelle, the Afgoye corridor IDP settlement, and the Mogadishu IDP community.

Widespread famine

Despite current interventions, projections indicate that famine will become widespread throughout southern Somalia by the end of 2011.

"In the current food security situation, famine conditions are expected to spread to agropastoral populations in Gedo Hiran Middle Shabelle and Juba regions and the riverine populations of Juba and Gedo in the coming four months," said Grainne Moloney, FSNAU's Chief Technical Adviser.

Post-harvest finding showed this year's cereal crop to be the lowest in 17 years. Dwindling stocks of local cereals have sent cereal prices soaring 300 percent over the last year and nearly half a million acutely malnourished children across Somalia require urgent nutritional treatment.

FAO has appealed for $70 million for Somalia to provide agricultural emergency assistance for one million farmers and herders. With increasing access to many parts of southern Somalia, FAO is currently carrying out emergency interventions and is opening two new offices in Mogadishu and Dolo and several suboffices in each region.

Improved seeds

"We have already embarked on mass production of improved seeds and procured 5 000 tonnes of fertilizer, among other farm inputs, in preparation for the next planting season from October to December," said Alinovi. FAO's current interventions are benefiting of over one million people in Somalia's most affected regions.

FAO has received confirmed donations of $20 million from the United Nations' Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF), Australia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and another $21 million in pledges from the European Commission - Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO), the United States of America, Belgium and the World Bank. Talks with other countries are ongoing.

Famine is classified using a tool called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). FSNAU and FEWS NET adhere to the IPC standards when declaring a famine on the basis of at least three criteria being present: severe lack of food access for 20 percent of the population, acute malnutrition exceeding 30 percent and a Crude Death Rate exceeding two deaths per 10 000 population per day.

The current crisis affects the whole Horn of Africa region including the northern part of Kenya and southern parts of Ethiopia and Djibouti where large areas are classified as being in a state of humanitarian emergency.

Related Links:

Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit-Somalia (FSNAU)

Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET)

Web portal on the crisis in the Horn of Africa

Contact

Christopher Matthews
Media Relations (Rome)
(+39) 06 570 53762
christopher.matthews@fao.org

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