Corona
Aftershocks: Secondary Impacts Threaten More
Children's Lives Than Disease Itself
As many as 30 million children are at risk of
disease and death because of the secondary
impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. World Vision’s
Aftershocks report considers what would happen
if the devastating secondary impacts of the
2015-2016 Ebola outbreak on children were
replicated in the 24 most fragile countries
covered by the UN’s COVID-19 humanitarian
appeal.
“We are wrong if we think this is not a
children’s disease. Experience tells us that
when epidemics overwhelm health systems, the
impact on children is deadly. They are the most
vulnerable as other diseases and malnutrition go
untreated,” says Andrew Morley, World Vision
International President and CEO. “COVID-19 has
become a devastating pandemic, but the secondary
impacts will likely be a lot worse for children
in fragile contexts.”
Read more: World Vision, https://is.gd/KVrTlD
Questions
Immigrants Need Answered in Light of
Coronavirus Pandemic
(1) Will people in immigration detention
be released now that removal is no longer
possible?
Answered: The Home Office have indicated that
they will not be releasing immigrants from
detention despite the fact that removal is no
longer imminent due to the pandemic. Anyone in
detention should consider making a bail
application in order to challenge this policy
position.
(2) Will people who currently have
immigration bail need to continue reporting
regularly to the Home Office?
Answered: No. All reporting has been suspended.
(3) Do visitors, of any nationality,
currently in the UK need to apply for
discretionary leave or will an automatic
extension of leave be granted as was the case
with Chinese nationals?
Answered: Visitors can make a request to stay
until 31 May 2020 via the Coronavirus
Immigration Team. If a response has not been
received before the expiry of your visit visa,
an application for discretionary leave to remain
should be made before expiry to avoid becoming
an overstayer.
(4) Will my application be invalidated
if I do not attend a Visa Application Centre
to provide my biometric information?
Answered: No. Applications will not be
invalidated due to failure to provide biometric
information. Applications can continue to be
made online and will be placed on hold until the
UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service
centres re-open and applicants can provide their
biometric information (i.e. fingerprints and
photograph).
(5) Will immigration and asylum hearings
at the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal
continue?
Answered: Appeals will continue to be processed
by the Tribunal, with decisions made without a
hearing wherever possible. Where a hearing is
required, this will be held remotely.
(6) Do Chinese nationals who benefited
from the February 2020 policy need to apply
for further leave to remain before 31 March
2020?
Answered: A request can now be made, via the
Coronavirus Immigration Team, for an extension
until 31 May 2020. This is not automatic. If you
have not yet received confirmation that your
leave has been extended, you should make an
application for discretionary leave to remain
today to avoid becoming an overstayer.
(7) Do people overseas who have been
granted entry clearance need to apply for a
new 30 day vignette if they cannot travel to
the UK?
Unanswered: When a person’s application for
entry to the UK is granted, they have 30 days to
travel to the UK. This will become increasingly
difficult as more and more countries go in to
lockdown and international travel becomes a
rarity. It continues to be unclear whether those
who cannot travel need to apply for a new 30 day
visa vignette (at a cost of £154) or will they
be permitted to travel after expiry of the 30
day period?
Source: McGill & Co, https://is.gd/5HYUUZ
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Domestic Abuse in the
Time of Coronavirus
[Council of Europe Secretary General Marija
Pejčinović Burić has expressed concern about an
increase in domestic violence during the
lockdowns due to the corona virus. Reports from
member countries in the past few weeks already
have shown that women and children are now at
greater risk of abuse within their own homes.]
Anyone can be a victim of domestic abuse
regardless of sex or gender identity, cultural
heritage or ethnicity, sexual orientation,
religion or belief, or disability. There are
different kinds of abuse that can happen in
different contexts. The most prevalent type of
domestic abuse occurs in relationships, but the
definition of domestic abuse also covers abuse
between family members, such as adolescent or
adult child to parent violence and abuse and
abuse between siblings.
People with disabilities are more vulnerable to
domestic abuse for longer periods of time, and
experience more severe and frequent abuse than
non-disabled people.
Perpetrators are not all the same and the
factors that lead them to using violence and
aggression in their intimate relationships can
be as individual as the people themselves. There
is an increasing understanding that domestic
abuse is a child safeguarding issue, and the
damaging effects that either witnessing or
experiencing it can have on children are well
documented.
Domestic
Abuse Isn’t Caused By Coronavirus – We’ve
Been Ignoring Women For Years
It starts small, with employers assuming that
female employees can’t trusted to work from
home, or governments advising women to avoid
“nagging” during lockdown. It ends with a
“domestic abuse surge” which is blamed, not on
perpetrators and the choices they make, but on
the unique circumstances in which they find
themselves (somehow these circumstances are
always “unique”). As Annie Brown writes,
“domestic abuse was an epidemic long before we
heard of coronavirus”. What the current pandemic
has done is place it into sharper focus, since
families in isolation are more at risk than
ever.
Lockdown is not a cause of abuse, but a means by
which it is made visible, its consequences
suddenly accelerated. It’s a distinction we need
to make clear – for the our ability to deal with
it now relies on an understanding of its roots.
Right now, we are witnessing a particular
urgency in efforts to support victims of
domestic abuse. Priti Patel, the home secretary,
has announced that victims may leave their homes
during lockdown to seek help at refuges;
domestic abuse experts are calling on the UK
government to provide emergency funds to house
those in need; in France, the government is
pledging to house victims in hotels.
Read more: Independent, https://is.gd/4OE0v6
Continuing
Conflicts That Create Refugees - April 2020
Deteriorated Situations: Burkina Faso, Mali,
Chad, Somalia, Mozambique, Guinea, Korean
Peninsula, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Ukraine, Guyana,
Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Libya.
Conflict Risk Alerts: Yemen - Resolution
Opportunities: None
The 200th edition of Crisis Group’s monthly
conflict tracker highlights deteriorations in
March in seventeen countries, including fresh
tit-for-tat attacks in Iraq between Iran-backed
militants and the U.S. In Chad, Boko Haram's
deadliest attack on security forces to date left
nearly 100 soldiers dead. Amid ongoing jihadist
violence in Burkina Faso’s north, deadly attacks
on civilians by security forces and self-defence
groups increased, targeting the Fulani community
in particular. In Afghanistan, the Taliban
resumed their intense military pressure on
security forces in rural areas, ending a spell
of reduced violence in February.
CrisisWatch notes improvements in two
situations. In Syria’s Idlib province, a
Russia-Turkey ceasefire agreement froze the
regime’s offensive toward Idlib city, halting
much of the fighting, and after long delays EU
leaders gave the green light for North Macedonia
to start formal accession talks.
Looking ahead to April, we warn that violence
could intensify in Yemen as warring parties
prepare to battle for control of Marib
governorate. At the same time, the UN’s proposed
ceasefire gives all parties an opportunity to
de-escalate. With COVID-19 threatening to
compound an already dire humanitarian crisis,
conflict parties can demonstrate with a
ceasefire their commitment to the people they
purport to represent.
Read more: International Crisis Group, https://is.gd/JVNDCr
European
Convention on Human Rights: New Free Online
Training Course
The Council of Europe has launched an updated
version of its free online “Introduction to the
European Convention on Human Rights”, a
five-hour interactive training course aimed at
legal professionals, public authorities, civil
society and students. “Europe has the strongest
system of international human rights protection
anywhere in the world, thanks to the European
Convention on Human Rights. For the system to
fulfil its potential, we need lawyers, judges,
government officials, NGOs and other
professionals across Europe to learn how it
functions and to use that knowledge in their
daily work,” said Council of Europe Secretary
General Marija Pejčinović Burić.
The updated course is part of the Council of
Europe’s extensive HELP programme of Human
Rights Education for Legal Professionals. It
contains modules on the European Convention on
Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights
and – for the first time – the execution of
judgments from the Strasbourg court.
The updated course is now available in English,
with several other language versions due to be
released in the coming months.
https://is.gd/9smRZX
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