How Kenya Welcomes Refugees |
Shot at and raped. Arrested and beaten. Detained and deported. Extorted and robbed. Threatened and insulted. Ignored and shunned. The treatment of hardened criminals in some far-flung police state? The fate of political opponents by a repressive regime? Not quite. For Somali refugees - 80 percent of them women and children - this is their welcome to Kenya.
Kenya's welcoming committee for Somali refugees is a notoriously corrupt and abusive police force. For many of the newly arrived Somali refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch in the Dadaab refugee camps, "Karibuni Kenya" - "Welcome to Kenya" - sounds like this:
"Four [officers] beat and raped us. They kicked me in the stomach, back, and head and held me in a choke position."
"For 10 minutes, the [officers] punched him in the head, kicked him, and whipped him with a nyunyo [a thin rubber whip]. He lost consciousness." |
Read more » Read the report » |
Photo: © 2009 Jan Grarup/NOOR |
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Europe Fails Migrant Children |
Pressure From Human Rights Watch Bringing Change to Canary Islands |
Many European countries are failing to care for migrant children who arrive alone from places like West Africa or Afghanistan seeking safety. But potential changes fueled by a Human Rights Watch report may improve the living conditions of migrant children on the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago.
The Canary Islands’ government has housed 250 unaccompanied migrant children in emergency shelters, with no formal occupancy limits or regulatory oversight. Since 2007, Human Rights Watch has investigated the poor conditions of these facilities. After reading our new report, the government told us that it plans to close the largest, and worst, of the centers – La Esperanza.
Children housed in La Esperanza told Human Rights Watch that they were given low-quality food, and that the facility does not have enough heat, hot water, or blankets. They also reported violent behavior among the children. The children, many of whom fled West Africa, will be moved to other emergency centers. Yet so far, the government hasn’t made a commitment to bring those centers up to its own legal standards.
In the rest of Europe, a growing number of countries now plan to deport Afghan children arriving alone to a reception center in Kabul. The British Government claims that deporting children will prevent others from making these hazardous journeys. But instead of discouraging children from fleeing their homeland, it could have the opposite effect. |
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Photo: © 2006 AP Images |
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Lebanon: Seize Opportunity to End Discrimination Against Palestinians Members of Lebanon's parliament should vote to end restrictions on Palestinian refugees' rights to own property and work. Lebanon has marginalized Palestinian refugees for too long. Parliament should seize this opportunity to turn the page and end discrimination against Palestinians. |
Indonesia: Stop Prosecuting Peaceful Political Expression Imprisoning activists for peacefully voicing their political views is an ugly stain on Indonesia's recent improvements in human rights. It's out of step with Indonesians' growing aspirations as a democratic and rights-respecting country. More than 100 Papuan and Moluccan activists have been imprisoned in Indonesia for peacefully voicing political views. |
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Editor's Picks |
The Black Widows of Dagestan: Media Hype and Genuine Harm by Tanya Lokshina OpenDemocracy.net On 9 April, less than two weeks after the explosions in the Moscow metro, the words "black widow" were all over the Russian and foreign press and rumours were actively circulating that 1,000 widows and sisters of dead militants had already been recruited by the North Caucasus underground movement. |
Mexico: Civilian Prosecutors Should Investigate Killings of Two Children National Human Rights Commission found that the Mexican military was responsible for the deaths of Brian and Martin Almanza, ages 5 and 9, and the wounding of five others, in an incident near Matamorros, Tamaulipas, on April 3. The commission also found that the military had interfered with evidence at the scene of the crime. |
China’s Public Health Whitewash by Phelim Kine The Guardian Pretend it didn't happen. That's apparently the strategy of the Chinese government, the World Health Organisation, and the International Olympic Committee toward China's melamine milk contamination scandal during the Beijing Olympics. |
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Rights Watch: Nyi Nyi Aung spent six months in a Burmese prison. He's a Burmese democracy activist and an American citizen. |
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Update: Security Forces Abuse Civilians |
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Photos Gallery: Migrants in Greece, many of them children who traveled alone |
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World Report 2010
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Indonesia’s Political Prisoners |
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No End to Unaccompanied Migrant Children’s Institutionalization in Canary Islands Emergency Centers |
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Ongoing Human Rights Abuses in the Marange Diamond Fields of Zimbabwe | |
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