Migration

Mediterranean

The Greek newspaper Kathimerini, carried a story on 31 October saying that that an estimated 2,500 Pakistani migrants had disappeared from reception centers in the Aegean islands, apparently fleeing due to fears that they would be deported. The Greek Reporter published an article on 1 November saying that a rescue operation was in progress off the southern Peloponnese to locate a vessel transporting an unknown number of migrants. The Guardian reported on 3 November that Amnesty International had described how European migration policies have led to the alleged torture, abuse and illegal deportation of asylum seekers arriving by boat in Italy. On 3 November BBC News reported that more than 200 migrants were believed to have drowned in two shipwrecks off the coast of Libya. On 4 November The Daily Mail reported that children bussed from the Calais…

Reprisals feared in Myanmar

The Star Online, a news agency from Malaysia, reports today on UN Special Rappor­teur on Human Rights Yanghee Lee’s visit to Myanmar. It notes that the Korean professor is one of the few international officials to have witnessed the situation in Rakhine State in person. It says gross human rights violations that border on genocide have been going on in the state for some time. “Reports of arbitrary arrests and illegal detention have little effect on the authorities, who seem unfazed by these serious allegations, which include rape and torture,” it says. http://bit.ly/2kmce81

Enforced disappearances persist in Pakistan

Dawn, a news agency from Pakistan, published an article yesterday about what it describes as a climate of impunity in Pakistan with regard to enforced disappearances. It says the authorities are not sufficiently dedicated to investigate cases of enforced disappearance and hold perpetrators accountable. It says impunity for human…

Missing Pakistani activists return home

Arab News reported yesterday that five Pakistani bloggers and rights activists missing since the first week of January returned home early on Saturday “as mysteriously as they disappeared”. Families of the bloggers confirmed that all of them are safe. They declined to comment further. Human Rights Watch and other rights groups said their near simultaneous disappearances raised concerns of government involvement, which officials and intelligence sources have denied. Pakistan has had a history of enforced disappearances over the past decade, but this has mainly been confined to conflict zones near the Afghanistan border or to Balochistan province. http://bit.ly/2kKpWP4

Mass grave containing remains of 27 Turkmen found near Mosul

Iraqi News reported yesterday that Iraqi troops have found a mass grave containing the remains of 27 Iraqi Turkmen in northern Mosul. “The bodies have traces of torture, and the majority of them have ID cards,” an army…

Iraq government criticized over abduction of Sunnis near Baghdad

Middle East Monitor reported yesterday that the Iraqi prime minister has been criticized by one of Iraq’s three vice presidents for the abduction and forced disappearance of dozens of Sunni Arab civilians from their homes in the township of Tarmiyah, north of the capital Baghdad. Vice President Ayad Allawi, who also heads the Iraqi National Accord parliamentary bloc, slammed Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi’s government, calling on the authorities to end their silence over the abduction of around 50 men from the Sunni villages in the Tarmiyah district. http://bit.ly/2jb7jY2

President of Malta: Dignity of children cannot be a fairy tale or simply a platitude

The Independent, a news portal from Malta, published an article yesterday on a speech delivered by the president of Malta, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, at a conference in Valletta on Lost in Migration – Working Together to protect children from…

Missing migrants from Nepal

The Nepal Times reported yesterday on the high mortality rate among Nepali workers abroad. The Gulf countries and Malaysia have become “a black hole for hundreds of migrant workers who have vanished without trace over the years,” it says. Their families are helpless, and do not know whether their loved ones are dead or alive. The report estimates that the total number of missing migrant workers could well exceed the 1,334 who went missing during Nepal’s ten-year civil war. http://bit.ly/2jQn0Bb

At least 12 dead in Caribean migrant tragedy

The Miami Herald reported yesterday that Turks and Caicos authorities have recovered the bodies of 12 missing Haitian migrants in their waters after a search on Wednesday turned up one more body. The migrants died after a wooden sloop they were traveling on from Haiti capsized on Tuesday morning, sending dozens of migrants overboard. Eleven bodies were discovered Tuesday after authorities conducted a massive search…

France to help Colombia in search for the missing

Prensa Latina reports today that the High Commissioner for Peace in Colombia, Sergio Jaramillo, has stressed that French help in the post-conflict period will have among its priorities the search for missing persons. He was speaking during a visit to Colombia by French President Francois Hollande. The conflict in Colombia has killed about 300,000 people, almost seven million have been displaced from their homes and at least 60,000 are missing. http://bit.ly/2jQjZk9

Filipinos killed in drug war crammed into mass graves

The Daily Mail reported yesterday that hundreds of dead bodies lie unclaimed in mortuaries in Manila as a result of the drug war. Horrifying photos taken inside the capital’s makeshift morgue show workers and their children living among the dead and cramming bodies into mass graves as the city fails to cope with the number of victims of extrajudicial killings, the report…