Archive for the ‘Migrant Crisis’ Category

Drowned migrants washing ashore overwhelm African nation, ‘radical solutions’ sought as cemeteries fill up – Fox News

Authorities in Tunisia are weighing the construction of new cemeteries amid a recent swell of migrants washing ashore after drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.

The United Nations has noted that the first three months of 2023 proved to be the most fatal for people escaping Africa for Europe since the migrant crisis in 2017, according to The Guardian.

Local morgues and cemeteries are reportedly overflowing as funerals are held every day for the many bodies that have been found on the Tunisian coast.

Many of the dead are children and pregnant women whose boats wrecked during the treacherous trek to Europe, the Guardian noted.

TUNISIA SAYS MORE THAN 2 DOZEN MIGRANTS DIED OFF COAST WHILE HEADING TO ITALY

Migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa sit in a makeshift boat that was being used to clandestinely make its way towards the Italian coast. (FETHI BELAID / AFP)

According to data from the Tunisian Red Crescent, more than 800 bodies washed ashore last year in the region of Sfax, a city located 170 miles southeast of Tunis and the capital of the Sfax Governorate. The number of bodies recovered in 2023 has already reached 300.

Approximately 12,000 migrants who reached Italy this year set sail from Tunisia, marking a 90% spike from the same period in 2022.

"Due to the influx of a large number of victims, more than 170 bodies have exceeded the capacity to accommodate the forensic medicine department of Habib Bourghiba university hospital," the Sfax Governorate said in a statement.

Migrants rescued by Italy's coast guard arrive in the harbor of the Italian Pelagie Island of Lampedusa on July 29, 2020. (ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images)

WAVE OF 640 MIGRANTS SMUGGLED TO TINY ITALIAN ISLAND FROM TUNISIA

Among the "radical solutions" to the public health crisis, authorities have proposed "quickly allocating a cemetery for immigrants and the provision of refrigerated trucks to transport often decomposing bodies."

People fleeing war-torn, poverty-stricken countries in Africa routinely hitch rides on boats from Tunisia headed for Europe, though the central Mediterranean is among the most dangerous migration routes in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Police check a fishing boat with some 500 migrants in the southern Italian port of Crotone, early Saturday, March 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Valeria Ferraro)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Tunisias coast guard prevented more than 14,000 migrants from departing in boats during the first three months of this year, compared with nearly 3,000 during the same period last year, according to statistics from the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights.

Fox News Digital's Bradford Betz contributed to this report.

Go here to see the original:
Drowned migrants washing ashore overwhelm African nation, 'radical solutions' sought as cemeteries fill up - Fox News

The Syrian Refugee Crisis and the Lebanese Response – E-International Relations

This is an excerpt from Policy and Politics of the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Eastern Mediterranean States, edited by Max O. Stephenson Jr. & Yannis A. Stivachtis. You can download the book free of charge from E-International Relations.

Roughly 865,531 (194,331 households) Syrian refugees registered by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reside in Lebanon (UNHCR 2021). However, the Lebanese Government states that the country has the largest per capita population of Syrian refugees in the world estimating the number to be 1.5 million Syrian refugees. They are located in the north, center, and south regions of the country (UNHCR 2021). The refugees live in informal tent settlements or camps, deserted buildings, or cramped spaces either in community housing or the countrys decades-old Palestinian camps (American Near East Refugee Aid 2021). This situation with the addition of the COVID-19 pandemic has put more burden on the countrys already struggling economy, infrastructure and social systems (Abdallah 2020; American Near East Refugee Aid 2021).

According to the latest statistics Lebanon hosts 15.5 per cent of the total registered Syrian refugees in the MENA region (UNCHR 2021). This situation has created a need for Lebanon in all its components, governmental and non-governmental entities, to address and respond to the large influx of people and safety seekers. The official governmental response during the early stages of influx could be described as a response of no response. On the opposite side, several nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) and international institutions took the lead in helping the Syrian refugees to fulfill their basic needs. As the situation developed and the conflict continued, forcing more people to flee, the responses of the Lebanese government and NGOs also changed. This chapter discusses the Lebanese response to the Syrian refugees crisis from both governmental and non-governmental perspectives.

Lebanese Government Response

Lebanon has not signed the 1951Geneva convention and also does not have precise asylum laws (Lenner and Susanne 2016). Collaboration with the UNHCR has been based on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) (Lenner and Susanne 2016). There is a lack of an updated MOU regarding Syrian refugees in Lebanon, which means that the Lebanese government does not recognize UNHCR registration as a type of legal status (Janmyr 2016). Consequently, most Syrian refugees are unprotected legally and vulnerable to arrest as unauthorized immigrants (Janmyr 2016). In 2015, the Lebanese government directed UNHCR to temporarily suspend registration for both new guests and those already inside the country (Frangieh 2015). This led refugees to leave Lebanon (Lenner and Susanne 2016).

The Lebanese government was non-functional with weak state establishments; therefore, UNHCR has led the crisis response (Janmyr 2016). In 2014 the Lebanese administration issued new visa and residence regulations to replace its open-door policy and reassert itself (Frangieh 2015). The new laws made entry into Lebanon and the renewal of residence permissions extremely difficult (Frangieh 2015). Consequently, about half or more of the displaced Syrians in Lebanon are now considered to be without valid status documents (Frangieh 2015). This precarity greatly raises the vulnerability of refugees in Lebanon and blocks access to healthcare, education, and other services and limits mobility inside the country (Lenner and Susanne 2016).

Lebanon does not have official camps for Syrian refugees; nonetheless, new laws have strongly curtailed mobility in the country over the years (Lenner and Susanne 2016). The Lebanese government mostly gave the humanitarian response to various local and international organizations (Janmyr 2016). Due to security concerns, the government maintained a firm stance against building formal refugee camps for Syrians (Atallah and Mahdi 2017). The non-camp policy is also connected to demands for a readily available Syrian workforce (Lenner and Susanne 2016).

This disorganized management has led Syrians to mobilize their long- standing social relationships and work connections inside Lebanon (Lenner and Susanne 2016). Syrians live across the nation, mainly in the Bekaa Valley, the west/central region, and north Lebanon (Reliefweb 2017). Living conditions vary broadly, while some refugees live in informal tented settlements, others live in ruins, building shells and garages, and more than half rent an apartment or house. This flexibility of settlement and movement has become more limited. In 2014, a few cities imposed curfews, and during 20152016, numerous individuals lost their legal status documents and mobility (Frangieh 2015; Lenner and Susanne 2016); As a result, many now stay inside their living area, fearing being stopped at a checkpoint (Lenner and Susanne 2016).

The Lebanese healthcare system is largely private, and that fact has had a great impact on the Syrian refugee crisis (Parkinson and Behrouzan 2015). Private facilities as the American University Hospital provide excellent care; nevertheless, those facilities are accessible only with good insurance or extensive financial means (Parkinson and Behrouzan 2015). The Lebanese government has played a minimal role in building and managing healthcare (Batniji et al. 2014). Diverse providers control the health system, most of them connected to political parties who usually favor their supporters in health and social assistance (Batniji et al. 2014; Parkinson and Behrouzan 2015).

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UNHCR, made a partnership with international and national NGOs to increase the accessibility of basic primary health care services (Blanchet, Fouad, and Pherali 2016; Truppa et al. 2019). Syrians registered with the UNHCR are given healthcare insurance; insurance covers

75 per cent of costs, and Syrians pay 25 per cent. Payment for the unsubsidized portion of care has imposed an additional burden on Syrians. While some poor refugees received financial aid from Islamic associations, others have gone into debt (Atallah and Mahdi 2013). Those who cannot pay have had their legal papers confiscated by hospitals, exposing them to detainment and deportation by Lebanese authorities (Parkinson & Behrouzan, 2015; Truppa et al. 2019). Syrian refugees have entered a fragmented, complex, and uncoordinated healthcare system that was already strained in Lebanon and has been put under additional pressure because of the abrupt influx of Syrian refugees (Blanchet et al. 2016). The system is informally discriminatory against non-citizens and many Lebanese citizens with limited financial resources (Blanchet et al. 2016; Parkinson & Behrouzan 2015). Therefore, Syrian refugees living in the North, the Bekaa Valley, Mount Lebanon, Beirut, and the South reportedly had trouble accessing healthcare (International Rescue Committee and Norwegian Refugee Council 2015).

In Lebanon, Syrian refugees encounter obstacles in accessing formal work opportunities and education (Lenner and Susanne 2016). The pledge for UNHCR-registered refugees work prohibition has led to full reliance on aid assistance. Limited access to formal work opportunities puts refugees at risk of being blocked from obtaining jobs or pushed towards informal and exploitative labor (Janmyr 2016). The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) field assessment (2014) proved that restricted legal status for Syrian refugees doubles the risk of abuse and exploitation, also diminishes their ability to seek redress and access justice (NRC 2014). Syrian nationals are exposed to the same risks in the sponsorship system, which builds upon Lebanons sponsorship system for other migrants (Janmyr 2016). Under sponsorship, Syrian refugees can be subjected to state-sanctioned exploitation (Janmyr 2016). The sponsorship system was created to provide a legal relationship between employer and employee; however, this system has not improved legal or social security for Syrian employees (Lenner and Susanne 2016; Janmyr 2016). The sponsorship system has increased reliance on the employer, creating harsh work conditions due to fear of expulsion and deportation (Janmyr 2016; Lenner and Susanne 2016).

The Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) is the only entity in charge of managing education in Lebanon and prohibits any handling or opening of schools by other entities, even NGOs. The MEHE facilitated the access of Syrian refugees into the schools by mandating Syrian students to be enrolled irrespective of their legal status. Moreover, it mandated the waiving of school fees (Reliefweb 2013). The Ministry also introduced second shift classes to public schools for refugee students (Charles and Denman 2013). However, access to formal education came with many challenges for these refugees, including transport costs, bullying, verbal and physical abuse, and adapting to the language of instruction (Charles and Denman 2013; Mahfouz et al. 2020). These challenges, caused many of the Syrian refugees students to drop out of school (El-Ghali, Ghalayini, and Ismail 2016; Mahfouz et al. 2020). With all its efforts the MEHE schools and the education system was not able to accommodate the large numbers of refugees due to cost burden and lack of capacity (Reliefweb 2013; Mahfouz et al. 2020).

Nongovernmental Organizations Response

As the Syrian refugee crisis gained momentum in Lebanon over the years, several NGOs and international institutions took the lead in helping Syrian refugees to address their basic needs. This section presents how NGOs and international entities responded to this crisis. The complexity of the donors and sources of funding makes it hard to get a clear picture of the actual number of donors and total donations that has come to Lebanon related to the Syrian refugees crisis. In the early phases of the Syrian refugee crisis, the Lebanese government authorized the UNHCR to take charge of the response (Anholt 2020).

One of the areas that donors worked on is to reduce the tension between the Syrian refugees and the host communities in Lebanon and assist local communities. For example, the UN-Development Program (UNDP) implemented a project called Support to Integrated Service Provision at the Local Level (known as 4M) with the help of the European Decentralized Cooperation, to address issues in the health, social, and educational sectors. The project also supported the development of regional health services and plans with the aim of improving vulnerable local communities access to excellent primary health care (Ministry of Public Health 2015). ODriscoll (2018) reported on donors response to the refugee crisis. According to that report the UNHCR has introduced a variety of community support initiatives in regions with high poverty and refugee populations, including new wells, community centers with water, sewage, and waste management systems, and enhanced medical facilities. Another form of the response funded by the EU is supporting a number of initiatives, attempting to enhance waste collection, water distribution, public health delivery, and community services, which have helped to reduce tensions between host and refugee populations to some extent. In addition, the Department for International Development funds were used by humanitarian organizations to support both refugees and Lebanese by implementing initiatives that include vaccination and food for livestock, work schemes for Lebanese and refugees, water and sewage infrastructure, repair, and school upgrades (ODriscoll 2018).

The NGO response covered multiple areas including health care, education, food security, housing, and employment. The response for health care took many shapes and activities. The majority were to sport local communities and addition to the refugees. HelpAge International (HAI); AMEL Association International, Medical Teams International, and the Center for Public Health Practice at the American University of Beirut (AUB) implemented a program to improve primary healthcare services that are introduced for both Syrian refugees and Lebanese local host communities. This program targeted patients with Diabetes Miletus (DM) and Hypertension (HTN) for individuals older than 40 years. The interventions were carried out at six of AMELs healthcare facilities: three Primary Health Centers and three Mobile Medical Units situated in deprived areas in Lebanon: North Bekaa, West Bekaa, and Beirut suburbs. The interventions were divided into three components: 1) logistics and technical support Centers, which included supplying the facilities with essential technologies and tools such as blood pressure devices, glucometers, stethoscopes, weight/height scales, blood glucose test strips for managing and screening HTN and DM; 2) human resource development and the promotion of good practice through training the medical and pharmaceutical staff on HTN and DM management; and 3) improving patient knowledge by on-site patient educational and awareness-raising events.

In 2013, a Mdecins Sans Frontires clinic was established as a nongovernmental primary healthcare center at Shatila Refugee Camp, south of the capital Beirut. It provided care for refugee patients and vulnerable host communities who suffer from non-communicable diseases such as DM, HTN and other cardiovascular diseases. Although this center allowed both host community and refugee patients to benefit from its program, this descriptive cohort study showed that from 3,500 patients who visited the center at the end of 2017, 76 per cent of them were Syrian refugees and they were not only from the catchment area of Shatila, but they came also from other different areas (Kayali et al. 2019). The other major organization contributing to the health care response was the UNHCR. The agency primarily covered the costs of entering primary health care centers in Lebanon for registered Syrian refugees. However, the UNHCR has criteria of eligibility for health care coverage with a payment scale of $1,500 (Akik et al. 2019).

The NGOs response to other areas was provided in the form of cash assistance which covered education, food security, housing, and employment. The cash assistance program consisted of providing Syrian refugees with financial aid in the form of monthly multi-purpose cash assistance with unconditional cash transfers. This package provided each refugee with $27 per person to cover food needs and $173.50 per household to meet other basic needs, for an average of $332 per household per month (Bastagli et al. 2021).

The NGO sector considered a main source of support for the Lebanese government and public to handle the Syrian refugee crisis impact on the Lebanese Education System. The involvement of the NGOs in education assistance included offering alternative classes to school aged students within the public schools, fast-tracked learning curricula to facilitate refugee students integration in the Lebanese system, and basic literacy and proficiency for children who have never been to school (El-Ghali, Ghalayini, and Ismail 2016). Another method NGOs followed to aid is opening schools for the Syrian refugees, but those often had to risk operating without accreditation and certification by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education which prohibited such activities as it is the only authority in charge of managing education in Lebanon (El-Ghali, Ghalayini, and Ismail 2016). Moreover, help to cover their fees and transportation costs was provided by the UNHCR and other NGOs (UNHCR 2013).

Food security is another sector in which NGOs have aided and responded to refugees needs. This aid and response came in the shape of providing a monthly food card or multipurpose cash card by the World Food Bank and other international agencies (Medina 2020; Bastagli et al. 2021), food items and care-packages by individuals and private donors (Medina 2020). Over the years of the refugee crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic burden hit them hard and high percentage of them survive on less than $2.90 per day (Medina 2020). According to the Country Director of the UN World Food Program (WFP) the hardship of the pandemic that was added to the collapsed Lebanese economy has pushed many refugees to adopt coping strategies like reducing health expenses, borrowing money from acquaintances and relatives living abroad, or withdrawing children from school. In the words of the WFT Director, If they had been eating meat twice per month, now they would not eat meat even once and they skip meals. The WFP also reported plans to deliver in-kind food parcels to the families of school students who were included in the WFP school snack program (Medina 2020).

In terms of the NGOs response to the refugee employment, at the early stages of Syrians residing in Lebanon they were allowed to work until early 2015 based on the 1993 Lebanese-Syrian bilateral agreement for Economic and Social Cooperation (Errighi and Griesse 2016). Starting in 2015, the Lebanese authorities suspended all Syrians work rights under mounting social unrest and problems with public services provision. Since these changes Syrians who were displaced to Lebanon were required to sign a pledge not to work in the country (UNHCR 2015). This resulted in them only sustaining their livelihoods through humanitarian assistance provided by the Lebanese government and NGOs (UNHCR 2015). However, in some cases Syrian refugees were able to obtain sponsorship and a work permit, but their legal status was changed to migrant workers. Nevertheless, they were employed without permit with less pay, facing harmful working conditions, and exploitation (Rescue 2016). Also, it was reported that they were able to work in three restricted sectors, construction, agriculture, and cleaning services, because of Lebanese nationals labor shortage in these sectors as these occupations do not match the income expectations and skills of the Lebanese labor force (Rescue 2016). In a report by the International Labor Organization (ILO) (ILO 2020), the COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a high number of permanent and temporary job lay-offs in Lebanon, particularly among informal workers, which Syrian refugees made the majority. Additionally, 60 per cent of the Syrian refugees were permanently laid-off and 31 per cent were temporarily laid-off (ILO 2020).

In conclusion, the Lebanese response can be described as complex, strategic at times, unresponsive at other times, with total reliance on international agencies and donors. The response covered multiple sectors including health care, education, food security, housing, and employment. The economy and health care system were hard hit by the crisis. Moreover, the response appeared not to be strategically planned. It was also evident that the response appears to have been based on perceived short-term political imperatives, and the availability of donor funds.

References

Abdallah, I. 2020, 2/12/2020. Lebanese crisis deepens Syrian refugee misery. Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-crisis- syrian-refugees-idUSKBN28D1SJ

American Near East Refugee Aid. 2021. Lebanon. Retrieved from https:// http://www.anera.org/where-we-work/lebanon/

UN High Commissioner for Refugees, U. 2021. Situation Syria Regional Refugee Response. Retrieved from https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/syria/ location/71. Retrieved 19/3/2021, from UNCHR https://data2.unhcr.org/en/ situations/syria/location/71

Akik, Chaza, Hala Ghattas, Sandra Mesmar, Miriam Rabkin, Wafaa M. El-Sadr, and Fouad M. Fouad. 2019. Host country responses to non- communicable diseases amongst Syrian refugees: a review. Conflict and Health 13 (1): 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-019-0192-2. https://doi. org/10.1186/s13031-019-0192-2.

Anholt, Rosanne. 2020. Resilience in Practice: Responding to the Refugee Crisis in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. 2020 8 (4): 12. https://doi. org/10.17645/pag.v8i4.3090. https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ politicsandgovernance/article/view/3090

Atallah, Sami, and Dima Mahdi. 2013. Law and Politics of Safe Zones and Forced Return to Syria: Refugee Politics in Lebanon. Lebanese Center for Studies and Research. https://www.lcps-lebanon.org/ publications/1515749841-lcps_report_-_online.pdf

Bastagli, Francesca, Fiona Samuels, Maria Stavropoulou, Nur Tukmani, Hiba Abbani, and Georgia Plank. 2021. World Food Programme Multi-purpose Cash Assistance in Lebanon: Protection outcomes for Syrian refugees. (reliefweb). https://reliefweb.int/report/lebanon/world-food-programme-multi- purpose-cash-assistance-lebanon-protection-outcomes-syrian

Batniji, Rajaie, Lina Khatib, Melani Cammett, Jeffrey Sweet, Sanjay Basu, Amaney Jamal, Paul Wise, and Rita Giacaman. 2014. Governance and health in the Arab world. The Lancet 383 (9914): 343355. https://doi.org/https://doi. org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62185-6. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article/pii/S0140673613621856

Blanchet, K., F. M. Fouad, and T. Pherali. 2016. Syrian refugees in Lebanon: the search for universal health coverage. Confl Health 10: 12. https://doi. org/10.1186/s13031-016-0079-4.

Charles, Lorraine, and Kate Denman. 2013. Syrian and Palestinian Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: the Plight of Women and Children. Journal of International Womens Studies 14 (5): 96111. https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/ viewcontent.cgi?article=1729&context=jiws

El-Ghali, Hana A., Nadine Ghalayini, and Ghida Ismail. 2016. Responding to crisis: Syrian refugee education in Lebanon AUB Public Institute. https://www. aub.edu.lb/ifi/Documents/publications/policy_briefs/2015-2016/20160406_ responding_to_crisis.pdf

Errighi, Lorenza, and Jrn Griesse. 2016. The Syrian Refugee Crisis: Labour Market Implications in Jordan and Lebanon. European Commission. https:// ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/dp029_en.pdf

Frangieh, Ghida. 2015. Lebanon Places Discriminatory Entry Restrictions on Syrians. The Legal Agenda. 22. http://english.legal-agenda.com/article. php?id=679&lang=en

ILO, International Labour Organization. 2020. Impact of COVID-19 on Syrian refugees and host communities in Jordan and Lebanon. https://www.ilo.org/ wcmsp5/groups/public/arabstates/ro-beirut/documents/briefingnote/ wcms_749356.pdf

International Rescue Committee and Norwegian Refugee Council, Rescue & NRCR. 2015. Legal Status of Refugees from Syria: Challenges and Consequences of Maintaining Legal Stay in Beirut and Mount Lebanon. http:// http://www.nrc.no/arch/_img/9202281.pdf

Janmyr, Maja. 2016. Precarity in Exile: The Legal Status of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon. Refugee Survey Quarterly 35 (4): 5878. https://doi.org/10.1093/ rsq/hdw016. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdw016

Kayali, M., K. Moussally, C. Lakis, M. A. Abrash, C. Sawan, A. Reid, and J. Edwards. 2019. Treating Syrian refugees with diabetes and hypertension in Shatila refugee camp, Lebanon: Mdecins Sans Frontires model of care and treatment outcomes. Confl Health 13: 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-019- 0191-3.

Lenner, Katharina, and Schmelter Susanne. 2016. Syrian Refugees in Jordan and Lebanon: between refuge and ongoing deprivation? EMed Mediterranean Yearbook 2016: 122126. http://www.iemed.org/observatori/arees-danalisi/ arxius-adjunts/anuari/med.2016/IEMed_MedYearBook2016_Refugges%20 Jordan%20Lebanon_Lenner_Schmelter.pdf

Mahfouz, Julia, Nizar El-Mehtar, Enja Osman, and Stephen Kotok. 2020. Challenges and agency: principals responding to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanese public schools. International Journal of Leadership in Education 23 (1): 2440. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2019.1613570.

Medina, Alicia. 2020. Syrian refugees strive to avoid the nightmare of food insecurity in Lebanon.

Ministry of Public Health. 2015. Support to Integrated Service Provision at the Local Level in Coordination with UNDP. Accessed 4 April. https://www.moph. gov.lb/en/Pages/6/783/support-to-integrated-service-provision-at-the-local- level-in-coordination-with-undp

NRC, Norwegian Refugee Council. 2014. The Consequences of Limited Legal Status for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon. https://www.nrc.no/resources/reports/ the-consequences-of-limited-legal-status-for-syrian-refugees-inlebanon/

ODriscoll, Dylan. 2018. Donor response to refugee tensions in Lebanon. University of Manchester. http://gsdrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/ Donor_response_to_refugee_tensions_in_Lebanon.pdf

Parkinson, Sarah E., and Orkideh Behrouzan. 2015. Negotiating health and life: Syrian refugees and the politics of access in Lebanon. Social Science & Medicine 146: 324331. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j. socscimed.2015.10.008. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S0277953615301520

Reliefweb. 2013. Lebanon: RRP5 UpdateAugust 2013 Education. https:// reliefweb.int/report/lebanon/lebanon-rrp5-update-august-2013-education

Reliefweb. 2017. Lebanon: Inter-Agency Coordination January 2017 Statistical Dashboard. https://reliefweb.int/report/lebanon/lebanon-inter- agency-coordination-january-2017-statistical-dashboard

Rescue, International Rescue Committee. 2016. Overview of Right to Work for Refugees Syria Crisis Response: Lebanon & Jordan. rescue.org. https:// http://www.rescue.org/sites/default/files/document/987/policybrief2righttoworkforref ugees-syriacrisisresponsejanuary25.pdf

Truppa, Claudia, Enrica Leresche, Arlan F. Fuller, Ariana S. Marnicio, Josyann Abisaab, Nicole El Hayek, Carla Zmeter, Warda S. Toma, Hilda Harb, Randa

S. Hamadeh, and Jennifer Leaning. 2019. Utilization of primary health care services among Syrian refugee and Lebanese women targeted by the ICRC program in Lebanon: a cross-sectional study. Conflict and Health 13 (1): 7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-019-0190-4.

UNHCR. 2015. Refugee Response in Lebanon: Briefing Documents. https:// http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2014_2019/documents/droi/dv/95_ finalbriefingkit_/95_finalbriefingkit_en.pdf

UNHCR. 2021. Syria Regional Refugee Response. https://data2.unhcr.org/en/ situations/syria/location/71

UNHCR, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 2013. The future of Syria: Refugee children in crisis. https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/529c3b4d4. pdf

Read more:
The Syrian Refugee Crisis and the Lebanese Response - E-International Relations

Albanian prime minister Edi Rama accuses UK of having a ‘nervous breakdown’ over Channel migrants – Daily Mail

By David Wilcock, Deputy Political Editor For Mailonline 09:44 01 May 2023, updated 13:01 01 May 2023

Albania's prime minister has launched another scathing attack on the UK for accusing his country of fuelling the Channel migrant crisis.

Edi Rama said the UK was in 'a bad place' and having a 'nervous breakdown' over the flow of thousands of people from the Continent in small boats.

He has already attacked the language used by Home SecretarySuella Braverman in the Commons last year when she blasted 'Albanian criminals' sneaking into the UK.

Speaking at an economic event in Greece, Mr Rama said the UK was targeting his nation 'to feel like they still have muscle'.

'We have fought against [this language] and now we see they have calmed down a bit. But they are going through something of a nervous breakdown as a country so we have to understand them,' he told the Delphi Economic Forum, according to the Independent.

'It is not something we can't understand, we have to understand them. They have lost a lot of points of reference and they are really in a bad, bad place.'

It came as a Border Force boat carrying 80 migrants picked up in the Channel arrived in Dover this morning.

Figures showed that at least 13,000 Albanians entered Britain on small boats last year - just under a third of all arrivals.

Mr Rama signed a bilateral deal with Rishi Sunak in December designed in part to help tackle illegal immigration.

But he has made no secret of his distaste for remarks made by Ms Braverman and others.

Butfigures obtained by The Mail on Sunday show 75 per cent of Albanian nationals who have arrived illegally have since committed at least one criminal offence in the UK.

And 30 per cent of Britain's class-A drug trade is now controlled by Albanian gang lords.

Albanians many of whom arrived illegally in Britain on lorries and small boats are now the biggest contingent of foreign prisoners in UK jails, with 1,582 locked up here.

This year so far, 93 Albanians have been jailed at a cost to the taxpayer of 17million for serious offences such as murder, rape and kidnapping and burglary, including 14 in the past week.

They include six killers, one rapist, a kidnapper, five class-A drug dealers and 56 cannabis growers.

Of the 93 jailed, at least 53 came to the UK illegally, either on small boats or in the back of lorries.

Albanians made up the biggest proportion of the more than 45,000 people who crossed the Channel illegally last year.

At one stage last summer, they represented 60 per cent of arrivals in small boats.

Thousands sought asylum, even though Albania is considered 'safe and hospitable' by the Foreign Office.

Here is the original post:
Albanian prime minister Edi Rama accuses UK of having a 'nervous breakdown' over Channel migrants - Daily Mail

Whistleblower to tell House that US govt is ‘middleman’ in multibillion dollar migrant child trafficking op – Fox News

FIRST ON FOX: A House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Wednesday will feature the testimony from a whistleblower who will warn lawmakers that the U.S. has become the "middleman" in a multibillion dollar migrant child trafficking operation at the border.

The hearing, "The Biden Border Crisis: Exploitation of Unaccompanied Alien Children," will be held by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement and will examine the surge in unaccompanied children (UACs) at the southern border.

According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics, the number of UACs who arrive at the border has swelled from 33,239 in fiscal year2020 to more than 146,000 in fiscal year2021 and 152,000 in fiscal year2022. So far in fiscal year2023, there have been more than 70,000 encounters of unaccompanied children.

When child migrants are encountered at the border, they are transferred into the custody of Health and Human Services (HHS) and then united with a sponsor typically a parent or family member already in the U.S.

HHS CHIEF UNFAMILIAR WITH REPORTS THAT AGENCY CAN'T CONTACT 85,000 UNACCOMPANIED MIGRANT KIDS

According to Customs and Border Protection statistics, the number of unaccompanied children who arrive at the southern border has surged since fiscal year2020. (AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills / Pool / File)

But the Biden administration has been rocked by a number of reports that officials have been unable to make contact with more than 85,000 child migrants; and more recently, administration officials reportedly ignored signs of "explosive" growth in child labor. A number have been forced into indentured servitude to pay back smugglers and have worked in dire conditions.

The Wednesday hearing will hear from three witnesses: Tara Lee Rodas, a HHS whistleblower formerly with an inspector general's office; Sheena Rodriguez, founder and president of Alliance for a Safe Texas; and Jessica Vaughan, director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies.

Rodas will warn of a problem that predates the administration but has increased significantly during the recent migrant crisis, according to a copy of her written testimony obtained by Fox News Digital.

"Today, children will work overnight shifts at slaughterhouses, factories, restaurants to pay their debts to smugglers and traffickers. Today, children will be sold for sex," she will say. "Today, children will call a hotline to report they are being abused, neglected, and trafficked. For nearly a decade, unaccompanied children have been suffering in the shadows."

Rodaswill talk about her volunteering at an emergency intake site in California to help the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) identify sponsors for minors who have come across the border.

"I thought I was going to help place children in loving homes. Instead, I discovered that children are being trafficked through a sophisticated network that begins with being recruited in their home country, smuggled to the U.S. border, and ends when ORR delivers a child to a sponsor some sponsors are criminals and traffickers and members of Transnational Criminal Organizations. Some sponsors view children as commodities and assets to be used for earning income this is why we are witnessing an explosion of labor trafficking," Rodas' written remarks show.

DHS REMOVED JUST 409 OF 345,000 UNACCOMPANIED CHILD MIGRANTS SINCE FISCAL YEAR 2021

"Whether intentional or not, it can be argued that the U.S. Government has become the middleman in a large scale, multi-billion-dollar, child trafficking operation run by bad actors seeking to profit off the lives of children."

Rodriguez, of the Alliance for a Safe Texas, will share her experiences of encountering unaccompanied children at the border, including teenage boys whom she said told her that cartel cooperatives transported children through Mexico and held them at warehouses with armed guards. She will also call for the investigation of federal agencies responsible and for the ending of releasing migrants to sponsors.

"We can no longer turn a blind eye and pretend this isnt happening. Congress has the power to stop this, which is why I am calling on you to do what is right," her testimony says.

BIDEN ADMIN WARNS MIGRANTS THAT ENTERING ILLEGALLY WILL RESULT IN REMOVAL AMID FEARS OF POST-TITLE 42 SURGE

Vaughan will call, too, for congressional action, including the ending of legal loopholes that she says force the government "to operate a massive catch and release program for illegally-arriving alien children."

"They have been carelessly funneled through the custody of U.S. government agencies and contractors, and handed off to very lightly vetted sponsors (who are usually also here illegally) in our communities without regard to their safety and well-being," she will say. "There is no question that the system for processing minors who cross illegally is dysfunctional, and has been for some time, and needs to be fixed."

Last month, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra pushed back on the agency being unable to contact 85,000 minors, and he also said HHS authorities are limited by Congress.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"I have never heard that number of 85,000, I dont know where it comes from and so I would say it doesnt sound at all to be realistic, and what we do is we try and follow up as best we can with these kids," he said.

"Congress has given us certain authorities. Our authorities end when we have found a suitable sponsor to place that child with. We try and do some follow-up, but neither the child or the sponsor is actually obligated to follow up with us," he said.

Meanwhile, domestic policy adviser Susan Rice who left her role this week responded to the Times report that her team was shown evidence of a growing migrant child labor crisis.

"We were never informed of any kind of systematic problem with child labor or migrant child labor," she said.

See the article here:
Whistleblower to tell House that US govt is 'middleman' in multibillion dollar migrant child trafficking op - Fox News

Adams blames $4.2B budget shortfall on Biden admin’s migrant crisis inaction – New York Post

Metro

By Bernadette Hogan, Steven Nelson and Jesse ONeill

April 19, 2023 | 12:56pm

Mayor Eric Adams blasted President Biden on Wednesday, saying the White House had turned its back on the Big Apple and left the city to handle the arrival of thousands of migrants on its own a situation Hizzoner said had triggered one of the largest humanitarian crises that this city has ever experienced.

The national government has turned its back on New York City, said Adams, blaming a projected $4.2 billion budget shortfall on the feds inaction. Every service in this city is going to be impacted by the asylum seeker crisis.

This is in the lap of the president of the United States! The president of the United States can give us the ability to allow people to work.This is in the lap of the executive branch of the United States of America, the mayor added, claiming that most migrants had come to New York to work and support themselves but are prohibited from doing so legally for the first six months of their stay.

More than 55,000 foreigners claiming to be seeking refuge from persecution and violence have arrived in NYC over the past year.

Some 200 asylum seekers arrive in the city every day, and it costs $380 per day per household to provide them with food and shelter, according to City Hall.

Most of the migrants, about 34,600 of them, are being put up in taxpayer-funded emergency shelters mostly hotels with thousands more dropped off at eight Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers (HERRCs).

Over 50,000 people come to the city of New York seeking assistance and we are told, You will not allow them to work, you have to give them food, clothing if they need, give them the basic services that they need, youre supposed to make sure they have three meals a day, make sure that all the children are educated and while youre doing that, New York City, were not going to give you anything in return,' Adams complained.

The situation will only become more costly and dire next month, when the Title 42 health policy is set to expire, the mayor said. The pandemic-era emergency measure that was continued by the Biden administration let officials quickly expel millions of asylum seekers on public health grounds.

Thousands of people are waiting to come across the border and potentially come to New York City, Adams warned. So 52,000 can jump to 100,000, if we dont get this under control. It does this great city a disservice and were calling on the Biden-Harris administration, the United States Department of Homeland Security, they must use all tools that are available to resolve this issue.

The mayor later claimed that in some ways, the city was a victim of its own success because it had paid for sheltering migrants without raising taxes or laying off municipal workers. However, Adams recently ordered city agencies to slash $4 billion from their budgets over the next four years to pay for the massive humanitarian effort.

The money god just doesnt appear and drop it in front of us, he said. As it currently stands, our national government has abandoned the city and their action or inaction could undermine this city. Everything weve fought for is in jeopardy if we dont get this right.

Gotham is set to receive about $1 billion from Albany to mitigate migrant costs in addition to a still-to-be-determined share of an $800 million relief package approved by federal lawmakers.

When asked what DC has said in response to his repeated requests for cash, Adams answered: We constantly hear, We understand your pain.

I dont need to understand, I need help, he implored. We need help from the federal government.

The White House responded by attempting to deflect criticism for insufficient funding onto fiscally conservative House Republicans, even though Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress until January.

Were proud of our partnership with Mayor Adams and the significant investments weve made in New York City through the Presidents historic legislative accomplishments, including the American Rescue Plan and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, a White House official said.

Weve invested historic funds to improve the citys infrastructure, including its iconic bridges, tunnels, and airports. We quickly worked to get vaccines out to New Yorkers and provided the city resources to safely re-open its schools. FEMA is also providing assistance to support the city as it receives migrants and will announce additional funding for receiving cities like New York City in the coming weeks, but we need Congress to provide the funds and resources weve requested to fix our long-broken immigration system.

Adams was set to go to Washington on Friday for the African American Mayors Association conference and to meet with White House officials about the migrant crisis.

Meanwhile, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams joined members of New Yorks congressional delegation and immigration activists at the Capitol on Wednesday to demand federal action on immigration reform and migrant funding.

Load more...

https://nypost.com/2023/04/19/eric-adams-biden-has-abandoned-nyc-to-migrant-crisis/?utm_source=url_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons

See the rest here:
Adams blames $4.2B budget shortfall on Biden admin's migrant crisis inaction - New York Post