October 11-18, 2021 Mixed Migration Update

Welcome to MMU! Here—in the time it takes to read one feature—you get a global sweep of the last week's most relevant migration policy developments, & links to all the articles you need to dig deeper.

Spotlight

Last Thursday, Mexican authorities announced they would suspend an agreement allowing visa-free travel between Mexico and Brazil. It appears this decision was taken under pressure from U.S. authorities, keen to shut down an informal migration pathway colloquially known as cai-cai (fall-fall), which involves flying to Mexico, crossing the border irregularly, and surrendering to U.S. authorities. Cai-cai has facilitated the arrival of under 50.000 mostly impoverished Brazilians to the U.S. this year, and of under 20.000 the year prior—thin grounds on which to reimpose travel barriers lifted over 15 years ago between the two largest economies in Latin America.

On the same day, Mexican authorities expelled an Afghan family—including a 7-month pregnant woman—which arrived from Turkey on a tourist visa, was then held for 24 hours by immigration officials (during which, according to these officials, the family did not once state its intention to claim asylum) and turned back to Turkey. As of this Monday, Mexican authorities had re-admitted this family into Mexico, but the damage to their mental health is done.

This on the heels of violently repressed caravans, of the accumulation of tens of thousands of Haitian asylum seekers in Del Rio, of the Biden Administration’s involuntary resumption of MPP, of its voluntary keeping in place of Title 42.

Last week, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador modified his predecessor Porfirio Díaz’s lament, “pobre México, tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de Estados Unidos,” to a more conciliatory “bendito México, tan cerca de Dios y no tan lejos de Estados Unidos.” Near or far, an impoverishment or a blessing, Mexico’s relationship to the United States seeded two profoundly strange migration policy decisions last week—one as macro, and the other as micro, as they come. This hardly bodes well for the fate of asylum seekers whom U.S. authorities will soon resume parking south of the border, while the horribly backlogged U.S. immigration court system processes their claims.

As much as Mexico deserves admonition for its misdeeds, its impossible position also deserves recognition. As far as transitory migration is concerned, former President Díaz’s lament describes the U.S.-Mexico relationship much better than AMLO’s tricolor-washing of it. Incoherent migration policymaking in Mexico cannot be understood independently of incoherent migration policymaking in the U.S.; if Mexico’s behavior is confounding, the U.S.’s has long been callous, to asylum seekers themselves and to Mexico’s sovereignty.

An airfield in Veracruz in 1928. Photo credit: National Archives and Records Administration, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Asia

Post-occupation Afghanistan
Last Tuesday, Taliban spokesmen admonished Western states to halt sanctions against their government, warning that continuing economic instability would trigger instability in Afghanistan and could lead to increasing refugee departures. On the same day, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to disburse €1 billion in EU funding to support the Afghan people, likely directed toward humanitarian NGOs and carefully distinguished from conferring recognition to the interim Taliban government. | On Wednesday, officials in Peshawar disclosed that, confounding expectations, large-scale arrivals of Afghan refugees across the Torkham border crossing have not taken place, leaving the 43 camps prepared in the area mostly empty. | On Friday, ISK carried out a small-arms and triple-explosion attack against a Shia mosque in Kandahar, killing 47 worshippers and wounding over 80, one week after a similar grisly attack against the Hazara community in Kunduz just one week ago.

Myanmar and its neighbors
Last Tuesday, Bangladeshi authorities announced they had arrested nearly 40 individuals in multiple refugee camps near Cox’s Bazaar since the murder of Muhib Ullah, 5 of whom are suspected to have direct links to his killing. | On Wednesday, Facebook filed an objection to a U.S. magistrate judge’s order that it turn over data on private posts, deleted but backed up on Facebook’s servers, that are believed to have been used to incite violence against the Rohingya community, and are now sought in association with an investigation into possible crimes of genocide at the ICC. | On Thursday, local authorities reported that heavy fighting between the Tatmadaw and local resistance groups near Thantlang township in Chin State has displaced at least 300 civilians into neighboring Mizoram in India. | On Friday, news media revealed that the MoU signed between Bangladeshi authorities and UNHCR in the week prior will not allow unhindered movement by Rohingya refugees between Bhasan Char and Cox’s Bazaar.

Internal Migration in India
Last Sunday, local police ordered that all migrant workers in the Kashmir Valley go into lockdown following the killing of two migrant workers, the third deadly attack against this community in less than 24 hours. | This Monday, officials announced they had moved thousands of migrant workers into secure accommodation on the heels of the killing of 11 civilians, including 5 migrant workers, over the prior few days. On the same day, Indian officials disclosed that transactions under the national “One National One Ration Card,” which allows migrant workers to access subsidized food beyond their municipalities of residence, had increased from under 30.000 in July to over 75.000 in September—and numbered at 46.000 thus far in October—indicating that migrant workers have begun traveling internally to look for work in significant numbers again.

Sources: AFP, Associated Press of Pakistan, the Guardian, Benar News, Voice of America, EFE, Devex, Press Trust of India, Reuters, Hindustan Times.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Ethiopia’s civil war
Last Monday, IOM suspended its chief of mission to Ethiopia after audio leaked from an interview she delivered criticizing perceived bias in the UN system against Ethiopian authorities and using demeaning language to describe Tigray. | On Tuesday, news media reported an outbreak of deadly violence in East Wollega, in Amhara state, with Amhara and Oromo militias blaming one another for the bloodshed. | On Wednesday, TPLF leadership disclosed that the Ethiopian military’s assault against its position in Amhara and Afar had intensified and caused staggering casualties, as aid workers in the field reported that Eritrean troops may have re-engaged in the fighting in Tigray. | This Monday, TPLF leadership accused Ethiopian authorities of conducting air strikes in Mekelle. On the same day, TPLF leadership denied credible accusations of atrocities, including sexual violence, committed by Tigrayan fighters in areas of Amhara State held until recently by Tigrayan fighters.

Migration developments in West Africa
Last Tuesday, ECOWAS states met in Abuja for a 3-day consultation to discuss implementing the Global Compact on Migration ahead of the 2022 International Migration Forum. | On Wednesday, Nigerian National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim announced that federal authorities intended to shut down camps hosting over 830.000 IDPs in Borno and Benue States, arguing that these camps have operated for longer than initially intended and that community integration would benefit both displaced and host communities.

Sources: AFP, Addis Standard, Reuters, Daily Trust.

Middle East and North Africa

Asylum seeker abuse in Libya
Last Tuesday, UN OHCHR spokesperson Marta Hurtado impugned Libyan authorities’ use of unnecessary and disproportionate violence against asylum seekers in last week’s raids and mass detentions, and called for an impartial and independent inquiry, and for those responsible to held accountable. | On Wednesday, UNHCR lamented the perishing of a 25-year old Sudanese asylum seeker who was severely beaten in the streets of Tripoli after escaping from the Al-Mabani detention center, and managed to reach a hospital but succumbed there to his injuries.

Asylum seeker pushbacks and refugee livelihoods in Turkey
Last Thursday, news media revealed that the Provincial Directorate of Migration Management in Turkey’s southeastern Van province have ceased accepting asylum applications from Afghan refugees arriving in Turkey, as Turkey’s border with Iran has become reinforced with technology and patrols to deter irregular crossings. | On Friday, advocates further documented the systematic nature of violent asylum seeker pushbacks from Turkey to Iran. | On Sunday, Turkish officials announced the pledging of an €71.3 million loan from Germany’s state-owned KfW Development Bank to Turkey’s Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization destined to create work opportunities for Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Yemen’s Civil War
Last Saturday, OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke demanded a ceasefire in Marib to allow some 35.000 civilians trapped by the fighting to flee and seek safety and medical care. | On Sunday, Ansar Allah announced it had seized a further 3 districts in Marib, leaving Yemen’s internationally recognized government in control of Marib city itself and just one other contested district.

Sources: Al Jazeera, EFE, the Guardian, Human Rights Watch, Anadolu Agency, Voice of America, Reuters.

Maritime Migration Routes to & through Europe

Ruta Canaria
Last Monday, Salvamento Marítimo rescued 102 asylum seekers from 2 crafts in waters ~100 and ~50 kilometers south of Fuerteventura. | On Thursday, an infant born at sea on a distressed craft perished shortly after birth, during a medical evacuation which saved the child’s mother and twin sibling. | On Friday, the Spanish Red Cross tallied that, over the 52 hours between the night of Wednesday prior and the early morning hours of Friday, 1.070 asylum seekers arrived in numerous crafts to the Canary Islands, an unprecedented pace of arrivals. | On Saturday, Salvamento Marítimo rescued 65 asylum seekers from 2 crafts in waters off of Lanzarote. On the same day, Moroccan authorities announced they had detained 35 asylum seeker preparing to attempt irregular crossings to the Canary Islands. | On Sunday, Salvamento Marítimo rescued 44 asylum seekers, retrieved 1 lifeless body, and tallied one missing person from a distressed craft in waters south of Gran Canaria. On the same day, Salvamento Marítimo rescued another 28 asylum seekers in waters off of Gran Canaria.

Central and Western Mediterranean
Last Friday, the Spanish Coast Guard rescued 3 survivors from a craft that sank in the Straits of Gibraltar with 28 asylum seekers on board, 10 of whose lifeless bodies were found in the water, and 15 of whom remain missing. | On Saturday, Salvamento Marítimo rescued 15 asylum seekers from a craft in waters off of Cartagena. On the same day, 42 asylum seekers arrived autonomously in the coast of Cádiz in 4 separate crafts. Also on Saturday, authorities confirmed that between Monday prior and Saturday, 391 asylum seekers had been pulled back by Libyan Coast Guard, and 15 lifeless bodies had been retrieved from the Central Mediterranean. | On Sunday, 19 craft carrying 243 asylum seekers arrived autonomously or were rescued from waters near the Balearic Islands. On the same day, the Algerian Coast Guard announced it had retrieved 13 asylum seekers and 4 lifeless bodies from a distressed craft just over 15 nautical miles north of Algiers. Also on Sunday, Tunisian Coast Guard rescued 7 asylum seekers from a craft that sank in waters south of Tunis, also retrieving 2 lifeless bodies and tallying 22 missing persons. | This Monday, Sea-Watch 3 rescued over 410 asylums seekers from 5 crafts in the Central Mediterranean. On the same day, the Seabird also documented a Libyan Coast Guard vessel ramming an asylum seeker craft at full speed, endangering the lives of 80 people on board. Also this Monday, RESQSHIP retrieved 34 asylum seekers from a distressed craft in Malta’s search-and-rescue zone, whom it now urgently needs to disembark.

Aegean Sea
Last Monday, 27 asylum seekers arrived in Lesvos and reached out to Aegean Boat Report to document their arrival and try to avert being summarily removed from European soil. | On Tuesday, the Turkish Coast Guard rescued 313 asylum seekers from numerous crafts at multiple points in the Aegean, charging that at least some crafts had been pushed back from Greek waters. On the same day, Mare Liberum released quarterly findings tallying 91 pushbacks in September affecting just under 2.300 people, and just under 200 pushbacks affecting over 4.900 people over the 3rd quarter of 2021. Also on Tuesday, local police subjected 3 Dutch activists to abusive investigative practices, including sexual violence, on suspicion that these activists may have been involved in the landing of an asylum seeker craft in Lesvos. | On Thursday, 26 asylum seekers reached out to Aegean Boat Report to signal that they had reached Samos intending to seek asylum. | On Friday, Turkish authorities disclosed that they had detained 212 asylum seekers across Turkish territory, over 150 of whom, rescued at sea, they believe had been returned from Greek territorial waters. | On Sunday, 23 asylums seekers arrived in Ikaria, and though police informed local press that they would be transferred to a reception center in Samos, 22 of the same individuals were found adrift in Turkish waters in the early morning hours of the following day.

The English Channel
Last Saturday, local media reported that about 60 asylum seeker arrived autonomously in Kent across the English Channel, as French authorities announced they had prevented another 33 asylum seekers from departing France. This Monday, the tally had risen to 800 arrivals in 11 boats over between Saturday and Monday.

Sources: EFE, Morocco World News, Teleactualidad, Diario de Cádiz, Crónica Balear, the New Arab, Sea-Watch, Aegean Boat Report, Documento, Daily Sabah, Mare Liberum, Kent Online, BBC.

Europe

Baltics border brinksmanship
Last Monday, authorities announced that just under 400 asylum seekers had crossed into Germany from Poland, the latest of just over 2.600 to have thus entered Germany since the beginning of the year. | Last Wednesday, Lithuania’s Interior Ministry proposed amendments to the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens that would allow differentiation in how irregular migrants and asylum seekers are processed upon arrival, the former having their claims processed by border police, and the latter by migration authorities, while also formalizing regulations over restrictions on freedom of movement through the asylum process. On the same day, Lithuanian border police commander Rustamas Liubajevas stated to the press that, in reviewing the 17 Serious Incident Reports filed since Frontex began operating in Lithuania last August, no evidence of violations of fundamental rights have been uncovered. | On Thursday, Poland’s parliament approved legislation that will allow border guards to turn back irregular entrants, after which the expelled individual would remain banned from re-entry for 6 to 36 months, and also allow asylum officers to leave unexamined asylum claims from petitioners known to have entered Polish soil via a third country; separately approving the construction of a €353 million border barrier. On the same day, EU Commissioner Johansson summoned the Polish, Lithuanian, and Latvian EU envoys to discuss the plight of vulnerable asylum seekers stranded in increasingly dire conditions at these countries’ borders with Belarus, although the meeting did not ultimately take place. | On Friday, Polish authorities disclosed that they had found the lifeless body of a 24-year old Syrian man near the Belarussian border, the 7th fatality since this ongoing border confrontation began. | On Sunday, news media reported that Belarus appears to be receiving regular flights from Damascus bringing Syrian refugees to Europe, to facilitate irregular entry into the Schengen Zone, and issuing 90-day tourist visas Pakistani, Egyptian and Jordanian nationals, as Germany’s asylum service surpassed 100.000 asylum applications thus far in 2021 last September.

Balkan migration management
On Tuesday, news media revealed the details of Croatia’s recently-created border violence monitoring mechanism, which human rights advocates criticize as lacking in operational capacity and constrained in mandate to effectively prevent abuse or pushbacks at Croatia’s borders. | On Thursday, Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović admonished EU authorities for speaking from both sides of their mouths, pressuring states at external borders to prevent irregular entries and feigning shock at the methods these states resort to in order to fulfill that mandate. On the same day, news media relayed the concerns of residents of the Bosnian border town of Velika Kladusa regarding an informal asylum seeker camp that has formed near the town, lacking electricity, running water, or proper facilities as winter weather looms. | On Friday, Greek authorities disclosed that they are considering tasking the National Transparency Agency with investigating maritime pushbacks in the Aegean Sea, as demanded by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson. | This Monday, advocates issued a report documenting at least 35 violent pushbacks in the Balkan, affecting 815 asylum seekers, last September. On the same day, 28 NGOs issued a joint letter blasting Greek authorities’ negligent takeover of cash and food distribution schemes for asylum seekers, which left 36.000 people without crucial cash benefits, despite a 3-month delay in the handover, initially scheduled for July but pushed back to give Greek authorities time to prepare.

UK migration and border control
Last Tuesday, human rights lawyers commissioned by Freedom from Torture released a report finding that the Home Office’s proposed Nationality and Borders bill violates domestic and international law in 10 separate ways, describing it as the most serious assault on international refugee law to have ever emerged from the UK (you can find the full analysis here). On the same day, the High Court ruled that victims of trafficking, thousands of whom languish in the backlogged asylum system at risk of deportation to the countries from which they were trafficked, ought to be granted leave to remain by the Home Office en masse. | On Wednesday, advocates revealed a discreet provision in the proposed Nationality and Borders Bill that would protect Border Force agents from legal liability if a pushback maneuver led to the injury or death of asylum seekers at sea. | On Friday, the Home Office introduced amendments to the proposed Nationality and Borders Bill that would allow asylum authorities to use X-ray imaging to conduct age determinations of asylum seekers claiming to be minors, and to suspend visa issuance for nationals of countries that refuse to accept deportations of irregular migrants with expulsion orders from the UK. On the same day, ISU union head Lucy Moreton stated that Border Force staff do not need such immunity, as they always act with regard to human life and in compliance with relevant laws. | On Saturday, advocates spoke out about the poor quality guidance issued to irregular migrants to the UK facing deportation proceedings under the Detained Duty Advice Scheme, accusing the service of contracting inexperienced attorneys who often issue poor advice, effectively denying them access to justice and at times putting them at risk of harm. | This Monday, advocates released data documenting that over 4.650 victims of trafficking have been held in UK immigration detention over the last 5 years, and that an unknowable additional number may have been deported over this time.

Med5 maritime migration jurisprudence
Last Wednesday, a group of 32 asylum seekers filed suit in Malta’s Constitutional justice system, arguing that their detention on tourist boats anchored in international waters off of Malta violated their fundamental rights, notably their right to freedom from arbitrary arrest and their right to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment. | On Thursday, a court in Naples sentenced the captain of the cargo ship Asso28 to a year’s imprisonment for turning over 101 asylum seekers his ship had rescued in the Central Mediterranean to the Libyan Coast Guard, rather than transferring them to a rescue ship or taking them to a European port. | On Friday, advocates released a report documenting the Italian justice system’s persecution of asylum seeker boat drivers, which have seen 24 drivers issued prison sentences of more than 10 years, and another 6 issued life sentences, since 2013, despite the fact the drivers are often asylum seekers themselves, while traffickers remain safely ashore (see Arci Porco Rosso, Alarm Phone, and Borderline Sicilia’s full report here). On the same day, human rights defenders issued a report documenting that Italian authorities spent nearly €44 million to administer 10 repatriation centers, which seldom hosted more than 400 detainees in total, in deplorable conditions, most of them irregular migrants whose countries of origin refused to accept their repatriation (see the Coalizione Italiana per le Libertà e i Diritti civili’s full report here). | This Monday, news media announced that an international commission has convened to demand Maltese authorities drop hijacking charges against 3 asylum seeker accused of hijacking a cargo ship that had rescued them in March 2019 in the Central Mediterranean, and whose return to Libya they resisted. On the same day, a court in Sicily sentenced 11 Nigerian men to imprisonment terms lasting between 6 and 20 years, pursuant to their conviction for human trafficking and forced prostitution of at least 15 Nigerian women and girls.

Afghan evacuation efforts
Last Thursday, Italian authorities announced they had opened 3.000 places in the Sistema di accoglienza e integrazione for Afghan evacuees, describing it as a step toward moving from an emergency evacuation to a more regular relocation program.

Sources: InfoMigrants, BNS, Euractiv, the Guardian, Deutsche-Welle, Balkan Insight, AP, Ekathimerini, Border Violence Monitoring Network, the Independent, BBC, Newsbook, Avvenire, Times of Malta.

The Americas

U.S. migration policy development
Last Tuesday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued guidance ending workplace immigration enforcement raids, arguing that those punished irregular workers, rather than the employers who hired them fraudulently, and announced future guidance that would protect workers who come forward to denounce workplace immigration fraud. | On Wednesday, the Biden Administration announced it would reopen U.S. land borders to non-essential travel, allowing foreigners who are vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter U.S. soil after a 19-month freeze. On the same day, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard admonished that U.S. investment was crucial to reducing northbound migratory pressure, as U.S. President Biden announced he had requested $861 million in regional foreign aid for the coming fiscal year. | On Thursday, news media revealed that, out of the more than 1.160.000 occasions in which Title 42 was used to expel an individual asylum seeker from U.S. soil, only 3.217 of them were referred to interviews with asylum officers on humanitarian grounds—and of these, only 272 were granted leave to remain. On the same day, Biden Administration officials stated that they are ready to resume MPP, pending the approval of Mexican authorities, as compelled by the U.S. Court for the Northern District of Texas. Also on Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard announced it had returned 10 Haitian asylum seekers to the Dominican Republic, and arrested two suspected smugglers, after interdicting an attempted crossing to Puerto Rico.

Migration drivers in South America
Last Tuesday, news media revealed that, last June, Brazilian police investigating a child abduction derived from a child custody dispute discovered evidence of human smuggling, and broke an operation that allowed about 200 Brazilians to enter the U.S. without a valid visa over the last 20 years. On the same day, Colombia’s Ministry of Labor announced the launch of a scheme to certify professional competences among displaced Venezuelans to help them access the labor market. | On Thursday, Mexican authorities announced they would shortly suspend an agreement in effect since 2004 allowing visa-free travel between Mexico and Brazil, in response to an increase in irregular migration from Brazil to the United States, transiting through Mexico.

Migration drivers in Central America and Mexico
Last Thursday, the Institute of Women in Migration charged that Mexican authorities deported an Afghan family that recently had arrived in Mexico, detaining them for 24 hours and then compelling them to board a Turkish Airlines flight rather than allowing them to lodge an asylum petition. On the same day, Mexican authorities explained that the Afghan family turned away had arrived with a tourist visa, but could produce neither a address for where they would be lodging, or a return ticket, which led to their questioning and denial of entry. | On Friday, Mexican authorities announced that the Afghan family, since then returned to Turkey, would be allowed to re-enter Mexico on a humanitarian visa, and to apply for asylum once back on Mexican soil. On Sunday, Mexican authorities announced that this family had been admitted to Mexico.

Sources: ABC News, AP, Reuters, CBS News, the Washington Post, HSToday, Reuters, Descrifrando, el Destape, La Razón, El Financero, AFP, Diario de México.

Oceania

Last Wednesday, an Australian court ordered immigration authorities to release from detention, either to community release in Nauru, or supervised release in Perth, a rejected asylum seeker—stuck in detention for the last 8 years as Iran has refused to facilitate his deportation—ruling that prolonged detention was destructive to his mental health.

Sources: the Guardian