Stories about Refugees from November, 2012
40,000 Syrian Lives Lost in 20 Months
According to human rights organizations, more than 40,000 Syrians have been killed during the 20 months conflict in Syria. The violence in Syria has caused rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation, where 4 million people expected to require assistance in Syria by early 2013, writes Rami Alhames
Homs: A Revolutionary Syrian City in Ruins
Homs is a Syrian city that is 4,300 years old and is the home of three Syrian presidents. Homsi protesters were among the first Syrians to take streets in thousands to protest against the Syrian regime. The colossal damage months of shelling has done can be seen in the destruction of historic buildings and architecture, hundreds of thousands of refugees and thousands of martyrs.
The Plights Of The Stateless Chakmas of Arunachal Pradesh
Paritosh Chakma recently visited Chakma villages in Papumpare district of the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh and wrote about their plights. Thousands of Chakma refugees were transferred to the Chakma Settlement Areas in this region during 1964-69 and most of them still remain stateless.
More Camps to Accommodate Detained Asylum Seekers in Israel
In June 2012 Israel began implementing the amendment to the Anti-Infiltration Law according to which all asylum seekers who cross the Israel-Egypt border are automatically jailed for a minimum period of three years without trial. Citizens of ‘enemy states' (such as Sudan) are jailed indefinitely. Elizabeth Tsurkov shares blog reactions as more prison camps are erected to receive the influx of refugees.
Refugees on Hunger Strike in Germany against Politics of Deterrence
On October 24, twenty-five asylum-seekers went on hunger strike in front of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. The protest in the highly symbolic location, which stands for the once violent division of a people by politics, is the latest in a chain reaction that began in February with the suicide of the Iranian Mohammad Rahsepar in a refugee camp in Würzburg.
Palestine: President Abbas Abandons Palestinian Right of Return
During an interview given to the Israeli Channel 2 News, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that he does not have the right to live in Safed, his birth town, now part of Israel. The declaration was considered by proponents of the "right of return" as an abandonment of Palestinian refugees' right to return to the villages and the homes they were forcibly displaced from during the 1948 occupation of Palestine and the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
D. R. of Congo: Human Rights Activist Assaulted, Guard Killed
Leading Human Rights Activist and gynecologist Denis Mukwege, was attacked outside his home, and his guard killed on October 25, 2012. Doctor Mukwege has campaigned tirelessly for the wellbeing of women and girls affected by the use of mass rape as a weapon of war. He recently gave a speech to the United Nations where he spoke of his outrage and shock at the violence that females have suffered in his homeland.
