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How do you document the most important event in contemporary European history and make sure that you do it justice? Is a neutral observer enough to truly capture the many faces of the refugee crisis, which had its peak in the summer of 2015 and still continues as thousands of people take on perilous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea on a daily basis?

German photographer Kevin McElvaney tried to find a way to portray this historic event more intimately and more authentically: by giving single-use cameras to refugees embarking on treks across nations, his RefugeeCameras initiative captured some of the most striking moments of this momentous migration wave.

"Let's try to see the individual behind the anonymous concept of a 'refugee,'" is the motto of his self-funded project.

From the refugees' perspective

McElvaney's premise was simple enough: in 2015, he would meet refugees at the major hotspots of the crisis in Turkey and Greece to get them to document their journeys using these cameras and have them send the cameras back in an envelope once they reached Germany. However, facing hunger, cold and even death on a daily basis many of them were reluctant.

In the end, Kevin McElvaney managed to recruit 15 refugees from diverse backgrounds to help him in his endeavor, with each of them getting one single-use camera. Three of those cameras, along with the refugees that accepted them, remain missing until today.

"The pursuit of happiness that may take your life," is how he describes the essence of the refugee experience.

The reality of the refugee crisis is often ignored in political debates, says McElvaney

Humanity on the move

With the material he collected, however, McElvaney put together a photographic journey that details the migrant crisis from the refugees' perspective - along with all its pitfalls, perils, and pressures.

The resulting exhibition has since travelled throughout Europe, sharing remarkable refugee stories in candid visual detail in such cities like Berlin, Edinburgh, Milan and Copenhagen.

Families stuck together and torn apart

At the most recent stop of the show at the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) in Bonn, McElvaney also held a talk, sharing detailed accounts about the experience of the people he encountered.

The opening of the RefugeeCameras exhibition in Bonn attracted people from all walks of life

He spoke about Dyab, a math teacher from Syria who had fled the war in his country along with his wife and his young son, who is prominently featured in many of the pictures he took.

McElvaney commented that it would have been impossible for him to capture the tenderness of this father-and-son relationship as a photographer in the way that Dyab's photos depict their bond.

Throughout Dyab's images it appears as if his son feels like he is on a great adventure - not on a journey filed with risk and uncertainty; the pictures bring the Academy Award-winning movie "Life is Beautiful" to mind, which features a similar relationship between an innocent child and a father doing his utmost to protect that innocence.

Dyab tried to shelter his son from the realities of the painful journey across the Middle East and Europe

Other migrants, however, weren't as lucky with having such strong support behind them along their journey. Zakaria for instance, who hails from an unnamed location in Syria, had to leave his families behind. His images are much more lonely and isolated in nature, even though he is surrounded by people.

Now settled in Berlin, Zakaria wants to find a way to get his wife and two children to join him in Germany. But his photos chronicling the journey from Turkey to the Greek island of Chios on a small dinghy highlight just how hazardous the way to Europe is.

Firas' story

McElvaney also spoke in great detail about Firas, a Yazidi from the north of Iraq who recounts how the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) invaded his hometown, raping women and killing children. However, leaving Iraq came with its own set of challenges and dangers. In one of his images, Firas shows the open door of a train carriage as it is about to take off. With the doors of the overcrowded carriages unable to close properly, he once again had to risk life and limb along the way as the train journeyed through Macedonia.

Firas' journey to Europe remained dangerous throughout, which he wanted tp document in this picture

In an earlier picture, Firas captured a small bonfire lit at a lay-by on a freeway in Greece. As the dilapidated buses took several stops along the journey to get the refugees to the Macedonian border, they would be forced to get off - even in bad weather conditions. In order to keep warm during these lengthy stopovers, the migrants would burn some of their clothes along with any waste they had accrued.

Firas proved himself to be quite a talented photographer, McElvaney says, even highlighting some aspects about picture composition that the migrant from Iraq seemed to intuitively know. Other refugees weren't as crafty with the single-use cameras; another participating refugee named Amr from Syria didn't manage to use the camera correctly, resulting in just very few usable images that were able to be featured in the exhibition.

Comic relief

But Firas also faced some hurdles of his own, which added some much-needed comic relief to the otherwise deeply touching narratives the refugees captured in their photos:

Without ever knowing a functional postal system at his home in Iraq, Firas was unaware of how exactly to go about sending the single-use camera back in the envelope that McElvaney had provided. Instead of depositing the envelope with the single-use camera in a mailbox (once he had reached Germany), he unwittingly left it in someone's private mailbox at their residence, thinking this was what a postal mailbox looked like. The pictures did, however, eventually find their way to McElvaney.

A voice for the voiceless

Now that more than a million refugees have come to call Germany their new home, the documentation of their stories perhaps matter more than before, with the images from the RefugeeCameras project serving as witnesses to a unique event that took place in our lifetimes. Their experiences could fade into oblivion if it wasn't for initiatives like this one and other photography projects - some of which are also highlighted at the RefugeeCameras exhibition.

"I want to give a voice to the voiceless," says Kevin McElvaney about his motivation for the project.

"With the refugees, I gave them a camera instead."

Zakaria received his camera on December 8 in Izmir, Turkey - one of the key hubs for refugees. The Syrian fled from the "Islamic State" terror militia and the government, according to McElvaney's #RefugeeCamera project. Out of safety concerns, Zakaria doesn't name his hometown. In his flight diary, Zakaria writes that only God knows if he will ever be able to return to Syria.

Zakaria documented his sea journey from Turkey to Chios. He was sitting in the back of his dinghy. At the Hamburg exhibition, which opens this weekend, the refugees' images will be complemented by a selection of shots taken by professionals, who helped to shape the representation of escape routes in the media. They all donated their works in order to support the project.

Hamza and Abdulmonem, both from Syria, photographed the perilous landing of their dinghy on a Greek island. There were no volunteers to offer them support. That is exactly what McElvaney had in mind when he launched #RefugeeCameras. So far, he says, the media have offered a "visual blank" in this respect.

After the landing, a young boy in wet clothes and life jacket stands on the pebbled beach. The image brings to mind Aylan Kurdi, the small Syrian boy whose lifeless body was washed ashore on a Turkish beach in September. The child in this picture made it to Europe alive. What became of him is not known.

Hamza and Abdulmonem also took this slightly blurred snapshot of the refugee group taking a break. McElvaney handed out 15 disposable cameras in total. Seven of them were returned, one was lost, two were confiscated, two remain in Izmir, where their holders are still stranded. The remaining three cameras are unaccounted for - just like their owners.

Dyab, a math teacher from Syria, tried to capture some of the better moments of his journey to Germany. Pictured here are his wife and his young son, Kerim, who shows us the packet of biscuits he was given in a Macedonian refugee camp. The images reveal Dyab's deep affection for his son, McElvaney says: "He wants to take care of him, even on this arduous trip which he was forced to take."

The story of Saeed, from Iran, is a different one. The young man had to leave the country after converting to Christianity. He could have been arrested or even killed. In order to be accepted as a refugee, he pretended to be Afghan. After his arrival in Germany, he explained his situation to the authorities' satisfaction. He now lives - as an Iranian - in Hanau, Hesse.

Saeed took this picture of a Syrian father and his child on a bus from Athens to Idomeni.

In another snapshot taken by Saeed, a volunteer working in a refugee camp somewhere between Croatia and Slovenia entertains a group of children, who try to imitate his tricks.

Author: Michael Borgers / ws

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Source:InfoMigrants2017

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RefugeeCameras project shows realities of migrant crisis in photographic detail - Deutsche Welle

Pitiful photos and information on the grief of migrants or news about raped women and other crimes allegedly or actually committed by migrants are among the most popular narratives of the current migrant crisis in the EU member states. For example, the tragic photo of Alan Kurdi, a migrant Syrian infant, spread throughout the international media became a supportive flagman for human rights activists and groups who endorse humanist approaches toward the migration crisis in Europe.

On the other side of the spectrum, the story of sexual assault by migrants towards the 13 years-old kidnapped Liza (ultimately accusations were not attested by investigation) or websites which use statistics as propaganda, erroneously reporting about the connection between migration and the increase in criminal activity which spreads the fear of migrants throughout the EU.

These accounts are used by national governments, political groups (from far-right to far-left), the EU and its allies, adversaries inside and outside of the EU in their communications for supporting and promoting their own interests; many of these and similar narratives are rooted in the range of public attitudes (from empathy to apathy of the citizens). All this leads to asking two questions: What might be the results of these negative communication campaigns? And is it possible to use these communication tools to reduce tensions arising from migration crisis?

Tracking the Shifting Narratives

In 2015, the EU saw their role change from being one of the strong solution-aimed brokers of migrant crises to becoming the home of a similar crisis itself. According to UNHCR data, more than 1.5 million migrants arrived through the Mediterranean over the last three years, and this years number (as of June 2nd) is already 71,080 people.

The origins of the arrivals are mostly from the Asian and the African countries; the majority originating from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. The cultural differences among migrants and the local population in the EU are obvious, and the unaccustomed attitudes of migrants have irritated local populations.

This has been compounded by the terrorist acts conducted by ISIS in Paris and Berlin as well as ISIS-inspired acts, like the recent bombing in Manchester which have ignited public concerns across the EU. Even before the aforementioned terror acts, there had been worries regarding the possibility of terrorist groups penetrating the EUs territories via the migrant flow.

In September 2015, Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, claimed that migrants are being sent to Europe as a campaign of hybrid warfare in order to force concessions to its neighbours. Despite these warnings, Germany and several other EU countries declared an open-door policy for migrants in late 2015, while Eastern European member states resisted this policy and refused to accept the refugee quota.

Since then, the number of so-called willing countries is decreasing, while the number of countries supporting the sealing of EU borders for newcomers along the Balkan routes is growing. According to research by the LSE Media and Communications department, the amount of pro- and anti-immigrant information in the media has been simultaneously changing, showing a marked decrease of the former and a substantial increase of the later since the beginning of the crisis. The findings suggest that despite significant differences across the European regions, time periods and political stances of news outlets, there is a generally consistent switch from promoting humanitarian efforts towards rationalizing a more militaristic solution to the problem in the newspapers portraying the crisis.

The Rallying Call from the Far-Right

Besides the expected divergences among decision makers of the EU regarding the migrant crisis, this issue is actively exploited by far-right parties for their political struggle as well. Throughout the EU, far-right political groups have accused governments of destroying Europe by allowing migrants from different cultures to flow in, stressing the idea that they are potential threats for the security of states and societies.

These groups use similar narratives in their political campaigns, and the strategic delivery of such messages have been accelerated on the eve of elections in several EU countries.

For instance, the negative effects of the migrant crisis were among the main subjects of Mari Le Pens election campaigns for the presidential election in France; a tactic which is being mimicked by the Alternative fr Deutschland (AfD) led by Frauke Petry for the forthcoming parliamentary election in Germany. In the Netherlands, the Party for Freedom actively exploited similar anti-migrant sentiments in the last pre-election campaign. Like Le Pens failure, it is improbable, though not impossible, that Geert Wilders or Frauke Petry will be able to win the presidency and head their respective governments any time soon, but they have already succeeded in strengthening the anti-migrant discourse in public debates. These discourses will preserve their role as the Sword of Damocles for governments and political establishments in the upcoming years.

The Escalation of Misinformation

Accompanying the migrant crisis is a boom of fake news and news portals across Europe. One of them is an anonymously-produced map which has started to make its way throughout German social media. The map called XY-Einzelfall claims to show the spread of refugee and migrant crime throughout Germany. Unlike other information sources which spread news about migrant sinfulness that have turned out to be false, this interactive map appears to be professionally prepared: each case refers to a police or media report of crimes committed in the country.

According to the analysis by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism,XY-Einzelfalls methodology is systematically misleading, more of migrants criminal cases on the map are referred to witnesses claims that the culprits were dark-skinned or Southerners. Although it uses police reports, the numbers on migrant crimes through skewed use of statistics were vastly exaggerated. The information on the maps is actively used in social media not only by the activists of the anti-immigrant party (AfD) in Germany, but it is also used by Russian and American far-right groups who are against Chancellor Angela Merkels open-door policy.

The main threat of this map is its slick distortion of reality which is much harder to track than easily fact-checkable fake stories. According to Jonas Kaiser, an expert on German media at Harvard Universitys Berkman Klein Center, these cases are more problematic than outright fake news and the instances of these cases are going to rise. He affirms that, fake news may not have an impact on the German election, but the unreliable maps could. Besides XY-Einzelfall, recently rightist websites that focus on the danger of open borders have strengthened their rhetoric by promoting the migration crisis ahead of elections in the Netherlands, France and Germany. Interestingly, the web outlets linked to conservative and far-right groups in Russia and the United States actively support such communication campaigns as well.

The Other Side of the Coin

Despite the negative impact of communication tools which aim to exert an influence on political and social processes in the EU, there are positive cases as well. One of them is WirZusammen or We Together, an initiative of entrepreneurs which envisages the integration of migrants through educational projects.

The initiative which was launched in 2015 by German billionaire Ralph Dommermuth encourages companies make jobs, apprenticeships, language training and housing available for migrants.

Along with this, a WirZusammen advertising campaign has also tried to motivate Germans to view migrants as potential partners, not threats. Three 20-second ads demonstrating friendships between Germans and refugees have garnered more than 47m internet views between September and November 2016.

Other communication channels which have been used for telling stories about the migrant crisis in Europe are comics and graphic novels. Comics such as A Perilous Journey(a series by Benjamin Dix and Lindsay Pollock) and the Marvel produced Madaya Mom depict the difficulties refugees must contend with and familiarises them with European readers through the dramatic realities that refugees face every day.

Similarly, graphic novels have also become useful instructional tools for some local and state governments that have turned to comics to inform the newcomers on the societal norms and appropriate behaviour of their new communities, like one such initiative from the Department of National Policy, Interregional Relations and Tourism in Moscow who teamed up with a German public broadcaster to published a comic guideline. Some of the information in these guidelines are practical, but in each of them the ethnic differences between local citizens and newcomers are noticeable and include examples of inappropriate behaviour such as the groping of women and the use of violence to solve conflicts.

However, there is an example of an empathetic and instructive guideline for refugees as well. International Medical Corps UK developed a series of comic books for children displaced by the conflicts in Syria and Iraq in order to teach them important messages about disease prevention, safety in the camps and about how to promote their well-being. It is appropriate and effective to use graphic novels as a communication channel to inform target audiences, especial the most vulnerable.

The Solution: A Well-informed Public

Correctly informed citizens play a huge role in the security and prosperity of states. Stephan Lewandowsky, a cognitive scientist at the University of Bristol in the UK, who studies the persistence and spread of misinformation, stressed that having a large number of people in a society who are misinformed and have their own set of facts is absolutely devastating and extremely difficult to cope with.

Information security, which is the pinnacle of national and public security, must be protected not only by technological and cyber tools, but also by narratives and other strategic communication methods. Technical solutions are not enough to protect information security in the modern world where the numbers of websites, social media accounts and trolls armed with a plethora of fake news stories and alternative facts continue their subversive activities.

The mechanisms of inoculation theory might be an appropriate strategy to combat with these fake news and misinformation operations. The theory is a model for building resistance for persuasion attempts by exposing people to arguments that are against their beliefs and give them counter arguments to refute those attacks.

Governments and public institutions should be continuing to work on the prevention of these misinformation activities through. For instance, they could launch reliable online resources and portals with data to explain, in an easily understandable way, information regarding the criminal situation of migrants to counteract unreliable statistics and statistical maps spread by far-right or simply misinformed sources.

Increasing security measures and sealing the borders will not be enough to prevent asymmetric threats, such as terrorist acts or the intervention of external actors in the political situation in the EU. Furthermore, appropriate and professional strategic communication activities and educational awareness campaigns might play critical roles in the softening of migrant crisis, and, more importantly, they might decrease the internal and external actors intentions to use the migrant crisis for their own interests, which are against the very values of the EU member states and their societies.

The author is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. His research area is primarily focused on political and social processes in Central and Eastern Europe countries, including strategic communication and asymmetric threats.

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The Art of Communication during Migrant Crisis - Visegrad Insight

Rescued refugees and migrants arrive at Trapani harbour in Sicily. Photograph: Yara Nardi/Italian Red Cross/EPA

Within 24 hours of the leaders of the G7 nations leaving Taormina, Sicily, the designer shops and sleek bars of the hilltop town were once again teeming with tourists. Hardly any trace of the summit remained, just some flags on the town hall, a half-dismantled stage in the Roman amphitheatre, a sign for a French press conference in the main square, and a small art exhibition including Caravaggios Ecce Homo.

The leaders had been invited to Taormina by their Italian hosts not just because of its beauty or views of Mount Etna but because Sicily is 300 miles from the Libyan coast, on the frontline in Europes battle over migration. Sicily is the island to which tens of thousands of people from Africa and Asia are heading, their first stop in Europe and an escape from poverty, war, religious conflict or personal rejection.

The Taormina summit did not prove to be the diplomatic turning point in the debate on migration that the Italian government had once hoped. The Trump administration squashed an ambitious plan for a positive statement defending the rights of refugees. Possibly the only practical outcome of the summit was that all refugee boats were banned from landing in Sicily for seven days. Taormina residents sent a discreet letter to the local prefecture after the world leaders had left saying they wanted no migrants housed in the town as it might put off the tourists.

The failure leaves migrants and refugees continuing to struggle to forge a new life for themselves in Sicilian towns such as Ragusa, two hours drive and a world away from Taormina. Many of those who have survived the hell of the Mediterranean sea crossing face the purgatory of Italian bureaucracy, and 18-month waits to find out whether they are to be granted asylum or instead be deported.

Numa Touray, 17, from the Gambia and now living in Palermo, summed up the choice refugees faced. I knew the journey would be dangerous but if you have the lion behind you and the sea in front of you, you take the sea. I was 100% certain to die at home, 100% certain to die in Libya, and thought I had a 50/50 chance to survive the sea journey.

In Ragusa, Chiekhou Giulro, a 21-year-old from Senegal, newly arrived via Libya, was sleeping rough after being served with an exclusion order by the Italian government, accused of being a smuggler.

Two years ago he had been a cattle herdsman close to Richard Toll, a town in northern Senegal. Tribal conflicts over grazing rights led him to flee, and he travelled to Sabha, an oasis city in south-west Libya, to one of the notorious connection houses where he said he witnessed innumerable beatings and death threats from the Libyan smugglers.

They force you to ring home and then start beating you with rubber pipes, so you scream down the phone and then they try to get family to send you more money. If you do not do what they want, they beat you. The Arab people shoot people for nothing, or 50. The Asma boys, the gangs, they chase you in the street. They only care about money. In Libya, if there is a difference, it ends with the gun. They are crazy people.

He said he escaped from Sabha and travelled to Tripoli, where he worked for six months in a storehouse to raise enough money to pay for the crossing. He paid 1,350 Libyan dinars (750), he said, adding that different nationalities had different rates. The smugglers told him the journey would take three to four hours.

He said that soon after being set to sea in a large inflatable dinghy with 130 or so migrants on board, the Libyan smugglers started to jump off the boat on to another smaller boat that had been escorting them. They demanded someone come forward to take over steering of the migrants boat, and handed over a compass and the keel.

They hit one man with a rifle butt when he refused to take over the steering. They showed me how to steer and pointed in the direction to go, but we drifted from 11 at night to 8 or 9 before being rescued. I did not know anything about boats.

On arrival in Sicily, the police demanded to know the identity of the boats helmsman, and Giulro was arrested on suspicion of being part of the smuggling ring.

He insisted he had been given no option but to steer the boat, and said he hated the smugglers. With the help of Oxfam, he has a lawyer looking into his case. Oxfam also provides the arrivals living on the streets with kitbags of clothing and essentials.

Alex Ceesay, from the Gambia, also accused of steering a boat and also receiving help from Oxfam, claimed Libyan army soldiers were involved in the smuggling. Marvel Inya, from Nigeria, claimed he too had been forced to steer. Ibrahim Thiam, a mild-mannered construction worker with swollen cheeks made worse by traditional African medicine, also proclaimed his innocence.

Each had a story of long journeys, beatings, connection houses, robbery and abandonment at sea by the smugglers. None of the stories can be verified, but the mens desire to risk so much and the brutality of the treatment of the smugglers is entirely credible.

Unicefs refugee spokeswoman Sarah Crowe said: In Libya the line between slavery, human trafficking and smuggling is very slender, but no one doubts the trauma these people suffer.

The pressure being placed on the Italian government is overwhelming. So far this year more than 59,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Italy, a third more than in the same period last year. On past patterns, a total of 230,000 will arrive this year, taking the total in the last three years to more than 600,000. A total of 1,569 people have died attempting the crossing this year, taking the total to more than 7,500 since the beginning of 2015.

Crowe said there was also an emergency within an emergency. More than 90% of the 28,200 under-18s who reached Italy last year were unaccompanied. None are supposed to leave the reception centre to which they are assigned until they turn 18, but more than 6,000 have absconded and are no longer traceable, living alone in cities such as Rome or leaving Italy.

The initial welcome in Sicily is tough. On disembarking at one of four registered ports, the arrivals are interviewed by police in batches of 50 to try to determine their legal status, and then sent to one of three Sicilian hotspots to be photographed, fingerprinted and to receive medical checks. Efforts are made to distinguish between so-called economic migrants and asylum seekers, but the legal basis for these decisions is flimsy.

They are then distributed in coaches from the hotspots to reception centres scattered all over Italy, in theory within 72 hours of arrival.

Adriana Zega, of Oxfam Italia, said: Some of these centres, those overseen by the local authorities, are good, providing Italian classes, focusing on integration and psychological counselling. Others, the vast majority run by the regional arm of the ministry of interior, provide no education and are subject to little scrutiny.

In either structure, the centres administrators are paid 35 (30) a day for each person in their care, of which only 2 goes to the client. Public buildings, former hotels and B&Bs are rapidly being converted. Interpreters are in high demand. Critics say it is turning into a large and under-regulated business. Some emergency centres in Sicily, notably the giant Cara di Mineo camp in a former US army barracks, have been prey to the mafia and low-level corruption.

Many people are caught in these reception centres for months, and as a result thousands abscond. In 2016, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, a third of those who arrived did not apply for asylum but joined the clandestini. The processing of asylum claims is laborious, with an initial claim taking as long as six or seven months and an appeal a further year. By the end of last year, 176,000 migrants and refugees were living in one kind of reception centre or another.

In defence of the government, the strain on resources is vast costing as much as 4.8bn in total. The former prime minister Matteo Renzi has urged Europe not to look away, but that is precisely what Italys neighbours have done.

With exceptions such as Germany, Sweden and Malta, European countries have done little or nothing to meet their obligations to take refugees from Italy under a quota system set up by the EU. It is not just the governments of eastern Europe that have turned their back, risking infraction proceedings by the European commission. By 27 April, only 5,920 asylum seekers had been relocated from Italy to elsewhere in Europe 11% of the EUs target. Just one unaccompanied child who disembarked in Italy has been given refuge outside Italy.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission, lauds Italy, saying its treatment of the arrivals has saved Europes honour, but diplomats wonder how much longer it will continue.

With local and possibly national elections looming this year, the Northern League and other populist movements are increasingly vocal, insisting the arrivals are economic migrants with no right to be in Italy, The populists describe the NGOs operating rescue missions off the Libyan coast as taxi services for migrants, and challenged their sources of funding.

A Catania magistrate, Carmelo Zuccaro, has hinted at suspicion without evidence of collusion between the NGOs and the smugglers. They are not all philanthropists, he said.

There is strong local resistance to the building of new reception centres, and figures such as Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Northern League, have travelled to Sicily to denounce the facilities as large shopping centres for human flesh. His language is unrestrained. You cant any longer speak about immigration but about an invasion organised, funded and planned by Brussels with the complicity of Rome, he said.

Salvini has said the Democratic party of Renzi and the current PM, Paolo Gentiloni, is an accomplice to this invasion along with the [leftwing] cooperatives and the pseudo aid associations. The calls from Brussels and Strasbourg for respecting the migrant programme are ridiculous. Im waiting for elections so that Italy can defend its borders again. Give me the interior ministry for three months and youll see what order and efficiency I bring back, from north to south, all over Italy.

The Italian government is taking an increasingly tough line, increasing the number of detention centres from five to 20, cutting back on the asylum appeals process and allowing appeal judges to rely on video evidence of the first asylum claim rather than hearing the case afresh.

The interior minister, Marco Minniti, points out that the balance of nationalities of the arrivals has changed. This year one in 10 are from Bangladesh, second only to Nigeria. The change increases the likelihood that many are in search of an end to grinding poverty rather than freedom from persecution.

Excerpt from:
Pressure builds in Italy after G7 leaders fail to tackle refugee crisis - The Guardian

Several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have severed diplomatic relations with Qatar. Saudi Arabia has blocked all land, sea and air routes to Qatar, and the UAE has closed its airports and harbors to Qatari flights and shipping.

The Arab states have accused their neighbor of supporting terrorism and destabilizing the region. Qatar says the claims are "unjustified" and "baseless."

Qatar has a population of just over 2.2 million but most of the people living there are foreign nationals.

The gas-rich state relies heavily on migrant workers to keep its economy ticking over. They include engineers, doctors and bankers, as well as construction workers hired to build stadiums for the Qatar 2022 soccer World Cup.

Philippines assessing risks

In a statement, the Philippine government said it was concerned about the fate of 140,000 Filipinos workers already in Qatar, particularly given suggestions that the blockade could lead to food shortages.

"We know for a fact Qatar does not produce it own food. If anything happens and they ran out of food and food riots take place definitely our [foreign workers] will be the first victims," said Silvestre Bello, head of the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment, in a statement.

Related: Arab blockade is nightmare for Qatar Airways

The suspension applies to newly-hired and returning Filipino workers.

"Even those who are ready to go we have to temporary suspend for their own protection because we have to assess the situation first before we could allow again the deployment of our migrant workers," Bello said. "This is for their own protection."

Indian government relaxed

There are also 650,000 Indian nationals in Qatar, making up the biggest expat community. The Indian government so far appears relaxed about their fate.

"There is no challenge that arises for us out of this situation," India's foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said on Monday.

"When it comes to us, we are only concerned that no Indians get caught in the middle of this because they have put in travel restrictions. If any Indian is stopped, we will bring them back here."

Nepali truck drivers out of work

Nepali citizens make up another big chunk of the population in Qatar, with over 400,000 living in the Gulf nation.

Ganesh Gurung, a labor and migration expert in Kathmandu, said some Nepali truck drivers have already lost their jobs because of the closure of the Saudi-Qatar border. Many more would lose their jobs if the crisis drags on, he added.

"This would directly impact the Nepali economy as it depends heavily on foreign remittances." said Gurung.

Egypt breaks ties but hasn't recalled workers

Egyptians in Qatar were confused when news broke Monday that Cairo was breaking off diplomatic ties with Doha. Egypt did not follow Saudi Arabia and the UAE in recalling its citizens back.

"We are prepared to welcome citizens home if such a decision is made," said Nabila Makram, Minister of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriate Affairs, in an interview with an Egyptian TV channel.

"We are now in a transition phase, and the embassy will become a caretaker and continue with consular services," Makram added. She estimates there are more than 70,000 Egyptians living in Qatar.

Related: Qatar is backed by a massive global war chest

The small country has used its huge oil and gas wealth to become an economic powerhouse. It's home to one of the region's biggest airlines, Qatar Airways. It has also built up a huge global portfolio of investments.

Qatar has repeatedly faced criticism for alleged support of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group considered a terrorist organization by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Analysts say the unprecedented diplomatic rift is also driven by the belief that Qatar is too closely aligned with Iran.

Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, told CNN on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia's claims were contradictory and "full of false information."

-- Karma Gurung contributed to this report

CNNMoney (Dubai) First published June 6, 2017: 8:33 AM ET

Continued here:
Philippines stops sending workers to Qatar - CNNMoney

Sorry I Drowned: Animated Film Depicts the Refugee and Migrant Crisis

A six-minute-animated film calledSorry I Drowned isinspired by a letter allegedly found on the body of someone who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea.

While we may not know of the truth behind who wrote the letter, we do know that what it depicts is real. This reality cannot continue, according to Mdecins Sans Frontires(MSF) or Doctors without Borders.

The film, created byStudio Kawakeb in Beirut and Mdecins Sans Frontires(MSF) or Doctors without Borders, sketches the refugee crisis of those forced to cross the sea looking for safety.

As wars continue to fail millions of people to stay in their countries and protect their hometowns and families, the sea takes the lives of thousands of people on their way to safety. Each year, morerefugees drown in desperate attempts to reach Europe.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), more than 3,740 were found dead in the Mediterranean in 2015.

William Spindler, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says that the number of people who lost their lives in the Mediterranean in 2016 passed 5,000.

That means that on average, 14 people have died every single day this year in the Mediterranean trying to find safety or a better life in Europe, Spindler added.

While the number of refugees continues to increase fleeing wars, MSF aims at raising awareness about the sufferings that the refugees and migrants are enduring, as they have no other choice but undertake this deadly journey.

MSF is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare.

MSF has been conducting Search and Rescue activities for two years to further spread awareness about the refugee crisis.

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Sorry I Drowned: Animated Film Depicts the Refugee and Migrant ... - Egyptian Streets