STEP OUT Migration

NYT on the Iraqi Refugee Crisis

Here's a strong editorial on the Iraqi refugee crisis and the inadequacy of the U.S. response.  By the way, Villanova University's law school will be holding a forum on this issue in April 2008 in Washington, D.C.  More details to come soon.   

Refugees cling for life in the Mediterranean Sea

Another group of migrants were found this week clinging to a fishing pen in the Mediterranean Sea, the report is here.  Eight to ten of their fellow refugees were lost at Sea.  A brave Maltese fisherman defied orders from his government to bring the surviving group back to Libya, instead insisting that Malta take them in.  Apparently, it took negotiations between officials from Malta, Libya and Iceland (the boat is Icelandic) and the UNHCR to finally reach a resolution, all while the refugees remained at Sea.  Europe and Libya have to come up with a solution before more lives are lost . . .

More on refugees to Malta

Here is what the Economist is saying about the refugee situation in the Mediterranean region.

The Pope's meeting with Bush

The plight of Christian communities in Iraq was among the issues that the Pope raised with President Bush during their meeting on Saturday. 

more on refugees in the Mediterranean

After recent debacles, reported here , here and here, the Times of Malta reports that "Malta will be proposing to the other member states a new mechanism of burden sharing and a solidarity system with regard to patrolling search and rescue areas in international waters and those belonging to third countries that are not honouring their obligations, particularly Libya."  The proposal is supported by European Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini.  It's a step in the right direction. 

more from the Mediterranean . . .

The Mediterranean is a rough sea.  This time of year boatloads of refugees set off from Libya in the hope of reaching Europe on an almost daily basis.  Some reach European shores, and some don't.  The bodies of those who die along the way are regularly found by fishermen.  Others are found, alive, in small rafts or holding on to fishing pens.  But that usually leads to diplomatic stand-offs by the governments of Mediterranean countries.  Read this to learn about some of the recent issues facing diplomats in the region. 

the plight of Iraqi refugees on NPR

Listen to this NPR report on the plight of Iraqi refugees.  Georgetown Professor Andy Schoenholtz (his bio is here), a long-time friend, is terrific. 

We recently posted, here, about the plight of Iraqi refugees.  This year my clinic students and I won asylum for 10 Iraqis who fled Iraq after coming under attack by insurgent groups because they supported the U.S. military efforts.  All of our clients faced an arduous, costly and dangerous journey to find safety here.  The Iraqi refugees, including children as young as 3 years old, traveled (on foot, by raft, by train and by plane) through five countries before finally making it to the U.S. border where they sought asylum protection.  That's because until recently the U.S. government was not processing refugee applications in Iraq.  But after Senate hearings in January (at which one of our clients testified) the Department of State decided to process 7,000 refugees from Iraq each year.  But there are many more thousands of people in danger . . .