Migration Matters #21
HIGHLIGHTS - MOZAMBIQUE'S CRISIS OF CLIMATE MIGRANTS | UK DIVERTS REFUGEES TO RWANDA | SOUTH ASIAN MIGRANT WORKERS IN GREECE USE APP TO SHOW ILL TREATMENT | INDIA AND QATAR DISCUSS LABOUR RIGHTS
Dear Reader,
We hope you are doing well! In this new edition of Migration Matters, we take a look at developments in the field of migration such as the UK and Rwanda’s asylum pact, labour rights talks between India and Qatar, climate migrants in Mozambique and much more!
As always, please do share this newsletter and help us grow!
And now, on with Issue #21.
GLOBAL
The Lede: A four-day International Migration Review Forum was conducted in May 2022 towards implementing the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke about how migration is a fact of life but it is often ‘poorly managed, uncoordinated, misunderstood, and vilified.’ The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is the first intergovernmental agreement formulated under the aegis of the United Nations. It was adopted in 2018 with the aim to cover all verticals of international migration in a circumspect manner. The review forum will inspect the relation between migration and border concerns, which also includes the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, development finance, violence and conflict. The first two days saw roundtables and a policy debate, followed by plenary meetings. A progress declaration is underway.
READ: A review of the opening session of the International Migration Review Forum 2022.
What Else?
It has been two years since COVID-19 ravaged the world and countries sought to shut their borders as a public interest measure. The UNHCR chief has called to relieve the border restrictions that are still followed in about 20 countries. This issue creates a dichotomy between a sovereign state’s right to regulate the entry of non-nationals and the human right to seek asylum away from distressed regions. The US retreated from its decision to open up its borders by May 23, as decided by a nationwide injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays. Title 42, the US public health provision that denies asylum to migrants, has turned away migrants more than 1.9 million times since March 2020. However, states that have been admitting asylum seekers even during the pandemic provide cogent evidence of managing public health risks through protocols such as testing and quarantine.
As the spectre of climate change haunts Mozambique, the UNHRC raised an alarm over the invisibilised crisis. Since the beginning of the year, Mozambique has been razed by five tropical storms and cyclones along its northern coastal areas. Cyclone Gombe ravaged the country’s central provinces, affecting more than 736,000 internally displaced people and refugees. Droughts in the country have also devastated agricultural occupations for roughly 70% of the population. Mozambique is also a war-torn region due to the conflict between the Islamic state-linked insurgency and the military, which deepens their crisis. The country is still trying to recover from the storms that caused destruction in 2019, however, the percentage of aid they receive barely makes up for all the losses. For instance, in 2021, they received $67 million in foreign aid, which equals just 1% of its 2019 losses.
“There is a cruel irony in who climate change affects the most. The third poorest country in the world, which contributes an infinitesimal portion of the world’s CO2 emissions, is devastated year after year by climate disasters to which it has contributed virtually nothing.”
ALSO READ: The May issue of our newsletter Gotta Keep On Movin’ explores the major developments in climate migration research.
The UK and Rwanda signed a controversial immigration deal to transfer illegal migrants entering the UK to the eastern African state. UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said that Rwanda will invest in infrastructural support and also provide five years of training, integration, accommodation, and health care for their settlement. The UK will make a payment of £120 million to the Rwandan government for the first five years. The UNHCR criticised this agreement as an “egregious breach of international law” and “contrary to the letter and spirit of the Refugee Convention”. Many human rights and refugee organisations have raised concerns with this deal between the UK and Rwanda— citing the dangers of sending refugees to third countries without safeguards.
Every year, thousands of South Asian men migrate to Greece to find work in agriculture and the urban informal economy. They are underpaid and exploited to work strenuously for hours without breaks. Despite a significant migration pathway, their employment is undocumented and informal. They often migrate to Europe’s frontier due to climate change, poverty, political upheavals and ethnic or religious violence in their native regions. This article reports on Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers in Greece, who have been using Photovoice, an arts-based social justice tool, to tell their stories of marginalisation in a foreign space. Through photos, videos and voice messages these workers conveyed the precarity of their life there. This participatory technology enables us to understand lived experiences of these workers who otherwise live in the shadows.
INDIA
The Lede: India and Qatar conducted the 7th joint working group meeting, deliberating on issues about manpower and mobility of migrant workers. Qatar vouched for the protection and promotion of rights and welfare of the Indian diaspora. More than 700,000 Indian nationals are employed in Qatar, making them the largest expatriate community in the Arab country. They work in different fields such as medicine, engineering, finance and education among others.
What Else?
BJP leader Ashwini Upadhayay filed a PIL seeking direction from the centre and supreme court to ‘identify, detain and deport’ illegal immigrants into the country, including Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants. The Jharkhand government moved the Supreme Court, seeking dismissal of the PIL stating that the claims were baseless; detention centres have already been set up in the state. The state government’s affidavit also stated that the citizenship issue can only be dealt with under the ambit of the Citizenship and Foreigners Act.
A new report unveils the poor conditions of Indian migrant workers on fishing vessels across the United Kingdom. Workers who were interviewed said that they toil endlessly in their 20-hour shifts just for £3.50 an hour. They also experienced racism and ‘extreme violence’. Workers find themselves trapped in these conditions as their visas are bound to a single employer and they depend on them for access to food and other essentials. There is no scope for them to change jobs which gives the rogue shipowners the upper hand to continue exploiting them. This data was collected via an anonymous questionnaire distributed online by certain NGOs and charities. However, the report states the research can not be generalised throughout the industry due to the ‘self-selection’ of fishermen involved in the survey.
GOOD FINDS
At the end of 2021, over 59.1 million people around the world were internally displaced across 59 countries and territories. Children and young people make up for more than half of these people. This year’s Global Report on Internal displacement focuses on conveying the intensity of this issue. Internal displacement is rampant in sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, Pacific regions, Afghanistan, Yemen and Ukraine. The report aims to understand the immediate and long-term impacts of the ongoing global displacement crisis on children – and their broader impact on society.
This report Beyond Territorial Asylum: Making Protection Work in a Bordered World looks into varying narrations that play out in communities where forced migrants reside. It examines this in various geographic, socio-economic and historical contexts. It also inspects two categories of interventions into negative narratives about refugees and asylum seekers: “information campaigns that aim to defuse threat narratives and “contact-building” initiatives that seek to build connections between refugees and host communities.”
An interesting article by The Wire looks at the large-scale migration of thousands of Indians in the 1830s, who left the subcontinent and crossed the Kala Pani (Black Water) to work as indentured labourers in the sugar colonies. Although their stories exist in the popular imagination, they do not find much space in the curricula or political manifestos.
Book recommendation - Ground Down by Growth: Tribe, Caste, Class and Inequality in 21st Century India (Anthropology, Culture and Society)
This book explores the place of India’s Dalit and Adivasi communities in the Indian economy and why the benefits of the country’s economic growth have not reached those at the bottom of the socioeconomic hierarchy of Indian society. It also looks at the role of caste in migratory experiences and how households diversify their livelihoods in order to survive. Through such an exploration, the book highlights, how global capitalism leads to oppression and the seamless transformation of traditional hegemonic systems to new ways of exploitation and oppression.
Call for Papers: International Forum on Migration Statistics 2023
The forum is currently accepting submissions of abstracts on six core themes and subthemes such as new approaches to migration data, the impact of COVID-19 on migration data, etc. The deadline for submission of proposals is 11th June 2022!
And that’s all for this issue of Migration Matters; we will see you again next month!
Best,
The IMN Team
Research and Drafting: Priyanka Gulati
Editorial Support: Nidhi Menon
If you enjoyed this issue of Migration Matters, do share it. Any feedback is welcomed at communications@indiamigrationnow.org.