Continuing Conflicts That Create Refugees - November 2022

Deteriorated Situations: Syria, Djibouti, Myanmar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Chad, Ukraine.

Conflict Risk Alerts November: Pakistan, Yemen, Somaliland Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s federal and Tigray leaders met in South Africa for urgent peace talks. Absent an immediate cessation of hostilities; military offensives could result in mass atrocities against Tigray’s civilians in the coming weeks.

The postponement of Somaliland’s presidential election risks turning a months-long dispute over the electoral calendar into a broader crisis as the opposition has vowed it will not recognise incumbent President Bihi after 13 November.

Political tensions escalated in Pakistan as former Prime Minister Imran Khan began a protest march set to reach the capital Islamabad in early November, which could lead to further violent unrest.

In Yemen, the UN-mediated truce remained stuck in limbo after warring parties failed to agree to an extension, raising the risk of Huthi regional attacks and a return to front-line fighting.

Serious Conflicts throughout October

Intercommunal clashes erupted in Sudan’s Blue Nile state, killing hundreds and forcing thousands more to flee.

In Chad, authorities violently repressed countrywide protests against the extension of the transition period to civilian rule, leaving at least 60 dead and hundreds more injured.

Resistance forces in Myanmar staged deadly attacks on the regime, which clashed heavily with the Arakan Army in Rakhine State and Karen armed groups in the country’s southeast.

Russia stepped up its offensive in Ukraine by launching a series of strikes on cities and civilian infrastructure, which appear aimed at worsening living conditions as winter approaches.

In Syria’s northwest, Hei’at Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) advance into areas under the control of Türkiye-backed groups led to deadly clashes, upsetting the fragile status quo and risking a broader escalatory cycle of violence.

 Resolution Opportunities for November: None 

Source: International Crisis Group: https://rb.gy/uerrfx

Priti Patel Warned of Security Risks Before Attack on Asylum Centre

The Home Office was warned about lax security and the risk of far-Right attacks at its facilities for housing asylum seekers – including the Kent centre that was firebombed this weekend. In July, then home secretary Priti Patel was told by her own independent chief inspector, David Neal, that the Western Jet Foil facility in Dover that was attacked with petrol bombs on Sunday had a “poor level of security”.

Patel, who cancelled Neal’s six requests for meetings between March 2021 and September this year, was also warned in a separate report published in May about far-Right activity near temporary accommodation for asylum seekers.

That report reveals the Home Office was challenged over a potential far-Right threat at one hotel and responded that “they understand that [the location was unsafe], but that it had to open quickly”. The Home Office would not say what action, if any, it took following the warnings, other than having “continued to improve facilities at Western Jet Foil” since January.

Campaign group Hope Not Hate told openDemocracy it has recorded 165 incidents of far-Right groups, including Britain First, or anti-migrant activists harassing staff and migrants at hotels used by the Home Office in the past year.

Read more: Adam Bychawski, Open Democracy, https://rb.gy/o6i29j

Deadly Border Policies - 5,684 Deaths - Ja nuary 2021 to September 2022

The International Organization for Migration´s (IOM) announced it had documented at least 5,684 deaths on migration routes to and within Europe since the beginning of 2021. They highlighted increasing numbers of deaths seen on routes across the Mediterranean, on land borders to Europe, and within the continent. Records show that many of the deaths on migratory routes to destination countries in Europe could have been prevented by prompt and effective assistance to migrants in distress.

Perhaps most disturbingly, the IOM reported that at least 252 people died during alleged forced expulsions – illegal pushbacks – by European authorities since 2021. By area, it was 97 deaths in the Central Mediterranean, 70 in the Eastern Mediterranean, 58 on the Greece-Turkey land border, 23 in the Western Mediterranean, and 4 on the Belarus-Poland border.

Hunan Rights Watch, https://rb.gy/jao4kf

Unnoticed Expansion of Electronic Surveillance in UK Immigration Control

Through its use of GPS tags and smartwatches in immigration enforcement, the UK is extending the reach of surveillance and control of migrants to frightening levels. In early August, we learned that the Ministry of Justice had awarded a £6m contract for ‘facial recognition smartwatches’ to be worn by foreign national offenders. The devices will track their GPS location 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and will require them to scan their faces up to five times a day. The information obtained from the devices, including names, date of birth, nationality, photographs, and location data, will be stored for up to six years and may be accessed by the Home Office and shared with law and border enforcement agencies.

This is just the latest intrusive electronic monitoring (EM) technology to be used on migrants, after the Home Office moved from ‘traditional’ radio frequency tags (which measure the distance between the tag and the subject’s home) to GPS tags (which monitor the subject’s precise location 24/7). Electronic monitoring has been a key part of criminal justice for many years throughout the world, operational in many US states since the 1980s and implemented in England and Wales under the Criminal Justice Act 1991. It was introduced to address prison overcrowding and the rising costs of incarceration by diverting offenders from custody, but it is doubtful whether EM actually shrinks the size of prison populations or simply expands criminal justice interventions through a ‘net-widening effect.’

Read more: Institute of Race Relations, News Team, https://rb.gy/abg2xq

EDM 512: Proposed Re-Opening of Haslar and Campsfield IRC’s

That this House strongly opposes the Home Office’s plan to re-open Haslar Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) in Gosport, Hampshire, which was closed down in 2015;

notes the proposed re-opening of an IRC at the site of Campsfield House in Kidlington, Oxford, which combined with Haslar IRC will add a total of 1,000 new detention spaces, an increase of 33 per cent, and will cost the taxpayer £339 million;
expresses concern that this reverses the Government’s previous commitment to reducing the size and use of the immigration detention estate, made following Stephen Shaw’s independent review of immigration detention in 2016 commissioned by the Home Office; believes that the £399 million of taxpayers’ money could be spent in a more effective way to handle asylum cases humanely;

further notes with concern that the re-opening of the IRCs has been specifically linked to the detainment of people before they are sent to Rwanda under the UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Plan;

further notes that seeking asylum is not a crime;

raises concerns about the lack of effective safeguarding and inhumane conditions across the detention estate as a whole;

remembers the 55 people known to have died whilst held under immigration powers since 2000, including 30 through suicide;

calls on the Home Office to reverse its decision and to ensure that Haslar IRC remains closed;

and calls for an end to the practice of indefinite detention in the UK.

EDM 512: tabled by Layla Moran, 28 October 2022

https://members.parliament.uk/member/4656/contact

Petrol Bombs Thrown at Immigration Centre in Dover

A man threw petrol bombs attached with fireworks at a new Border Force immigration centre in Dover, police have confirmed, adding the suspect was found deceased nearby. This happened yesterfay Sunday 30th October.

Suella Braverman is under pressure to answer questions about worsening conditions at a migrant processing centre in Kent said to be overcrowded. The home secretary faces demands from Labour and a senior Tory MP to address the Commons over the situation at the site in Manston.

Hundreds of people were moved there on Sunday after a fire attack at a separate migrant facility in Dover. Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick and Tory MP Sir Roger Gale visited the Manston centre on Sunday to discuss solutions to ease pressure on the site. Sir Roger raised concerns over reports that Ms Braverman decided against moving more migrants to nearby hotels.

Concerns over the conditions facing migrants at Manston came as dozens of charities called for a "kind and effective system" for migrants.

BBC New & Others, https://rb.gy/b9ffno