Ghosts at the Border

On September 15th of last year, the New York Times reported briefly on the death of Felicitas Martinaz Barradas, a woman who died trying to cross the border from Mexico to Arizona by way of the Sonoran Desert. This is a frequent route for those making their way into the United States and it is fraught with injury and death. Those traveling with her report that before she died, a smuggler gave her a carbonated drink and some caffeine pills in an effort to combat her increasing weakness. She died a little over 10 miles from the border.

The US Border Patrol has reported a drop in the number of illegal immigrants apprehended at the border, the result of additional agents and heavy National Guard presence. However, the numbers of those perishing in the deserts of regions that remain less patrolled are rising. In the first 8 months of 2007, a Pima County medical examiner's office handled nearly 180 border crossing deaths, compared with 139 in 2006. Pima County is one of the busiest areas for illegal crossings, and the death toll continues to rise.

Those numbers reflect increasing police activity in areas around California and Texas, previous hotbeds for border crossings. The goal was to divert traffic away from places like San Francisco, and to allow the desert to become a natural barrier to decrease the numbers of people trying to find a way into the country. But the desert hasn't stopped them.

Amnesty International has called for efforts to be made to control the flow of immigration through methods other than police activity and bigger fences. All life is to be respected regardless of citizenship. Ask that immigration remain at the forefront of our new candidates' platforms with the focus on humanitarian solutions to what has become a crisis not only for the United States, but for Mexico as well.

Find the original New York Times story here.

Refugee, 9, dies from injuries sustained in Al Tanf

The death of a nine-year old Palestinian refugee on September 10th highlights the continuing danger in Al Tanf, a refugee camp located on the Iraq-Syria border. He died late Tuesday afternoon in an ambulance after being struck by a truck. The Baghdad-Damascus highway runs past the settlement and the young refugee, Mohamed Kamal Ibrahim, is not the first child to be killed by a vehicle on this road. He was due to be resettled in Sweden soon with his family.

Conditions in the camp are harsh and unforgiving. The camp suffers from sandstorms, fire risks, and extremes of cold and heat in the desert, while also being infested with snakes and scorpions. Many of the refugees, who cannot enter Syria, suffer from a range of ailments and traumas, yet the nearest hospital is in Iraq (400 km away) The UNHCR has repeatedly drawn attention to the lack of medical facilities, which they say points to the need for a humanitarian solution to be found for displaced Palestinians who cannot return home due to fighting in Iraq.

In fact, few of these displaced Palestinians will eve be accepted for resettlement or offered shelter in third countries. Only about 300 have been able to relocate to non-traditional resettlement countries such as Brazil and Chile, and recently a group of 29 made their way to Iceland from Al Waleed, another refugee camp. But this does very little to alleviate the suffering of the remaining 2300 or so still stranded in the desert.

Amnesty International (as well as the UNHCR) calls for alternative solutions to the refugee crisis in Baghdad. Solutions must be found to provide medical care, basic necessities, and safety to the residents of the camp, and more importantly, long term solutions must be found for their futures.

Find the original story by Dalia Al-Achi and Carole Laleve here.

Gori, Georgia

The world remains watchful of the situation in Georgia, especially as refugees begin to try to return home. One city, Gori, is exhausted from the effort of containing displaced persons within its shelter's borders. Most of the refugees come from the "buffer zone" between Gori and the South Ossetian border. Some of the latest arrivals from a town called Beloti are telling stories of harrassment and intimidation from the militia directed towards those who chose not to flee to surrounding towns. Many of the refugees had been traveling on foot for several days to 2 weeks, remaining in hiding in an effor to escape harrassment. They expressed fear for the safety of those who were unable to flee the violence, such as the elderly and bedridden.

Teams from the UNHCR report that people are worried for their family members who may have been left behind and fearful for their situation as displaced persons in the face of coming winter.

The UNHCR reports "At its height, more than 158,000 people were displaced during the conflict that erupted on Aug. 8 – about 128,000 within Georgia and some 30,000 who fled to the Russian Federation. The vast majority of those who fled to the Russian Federation have now returned to their places of origin in South Ossetia. Prior to the latest crisis, UNHCR had been working on behalf of some 220,000 previously displaced people, refugees, returnees, asylum seekers and stateless people in Georgia."

Amnesty International asks that you continue to demand that the United States use its considerable power to promote and encourage an end to the conflict, a long term resolution to the problem, and assurance that Georgian displaced persons and refugees can return home soon.

English Only

A recent debate has opened up in Nashville again with the reintroduction of the "English Only" bill before the city council. If passed, Nashville would be one of the first in the nation to take such sweeping measures. While Amnesty International does not take an official stand on this issue, we would like to take this time to remind everyone that they come from a grand tradition of immigrants. It is socially irresponsible, not to mention highly inflammatory, to target immigrants whether legal or not as a response to what has become uncertain times for the United States. "They" are, in fact, trying to learn English. "They" are not responsible for the downtrodden economy, lack of jobs, decline in the dollar, or the waste of tax dollars. Statistics consistently show that immigration has long term benefits for the economy, and elimination of translation services is not going to solve the immigration problem. It is ironic that as one of the new gateways for legal immigrants and refugees, Nashville is in danger of becoming a symbol for intolerance and closed doors. So, whatever you believe about immigration, please remember that all are entitled to the provisions of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the dehumanization of immigrants is the wrong stance to take in the face of such a complicated problem.

Egypt: Deadly Journeys Through the Desert

"Here it is like war for us and back home it is war also, there is no difference."

"We fled from death but death is after us; we don't know what is happening to our relatives back home in camps for the displaced. Staying there would have been better than what happened to us”

A Sudanese refugee from the Darfur region who attempted to cross the border of Egypt with Israel and served a one year prison sentence in Egypt

In a briefing published on August 20th, Amnesty International recognized the responsibility of the Egyptian government to respect the fundamental human right to life in their efforts to control their borders. While Amnesty understands the government's need to regulate the movement of foreign nationals in and out of its borders, the use of excessive force to curtail refugees fleeing one of the worst war zones in the world is a flagrant misuse of justice.

Since mid-2007 hundreds of refugees from the sub-saharan region have attempted to cross over Egypt in an attempt to reach Israel, and some end up paying with their lives. International standards restrict the use of deadly military force to a handful of circumstances; if lives are in danger and there is no other means to respond.

Even if refugees survive their journey, there is still no guarantee of safety. Amnesty has evidence against Egypt suggesting a disregard for international standards by forcibly ejecting refugees from the country without giving them access to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees office to assess their status claims. Once returned to their country of origin, refugees face a real and present danger to their safety and well-being. In a memorandum addressed to President Hosni Mubarak Amnesty is asking the following things from Egypt:

1. Restrict the use of force to comply with international standards
2. Ensure that military personnel are given human rights training
3. Investigate promptly and impartially instances of excessive force used on refugees
4. Ensure that refugees are not detained for immigration purposes, and stop trying civilians in military courts
5. Cease all forcible returns where those returned face risk of serious human rights violations, and comply with UNHCR guidelines.

More information here