OAS General Secretariat and Venezuelan Civil Society Present Proposals to Improve the Situation of Venezuelan Migrants and Refugees during the COVID-19 Crisis

The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS), in conjunction with Venezuelan civil society organizations established in the Americas and the Caribbean, today published the document Recommendations to Improve the Situation of Venezuelan Migrants and Refugees in the Context of COVID-19. This document is the result of 13 meetings held between the Office of the General Secretariat for the Crisis of Venezuelan Migrants and Refugees and the Coalition for Venezuela, made up of 63 civil society organizations that provide assistance to Venezuelans in 23 countries in the region.

The document is available here in Spanish and here in English.

"The situation of Venezuelan migrants and refugees represents one of the greatest challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, given that it has increased the difficulty in fully exercising their rights, such as: access to health, education, the right to life, to housing, to food, to work and the safeguarding of livelihoods, the document states in the introduction.

The document acknowledges the effort made by the member States of the Organization, as well as the efforts of organized civil society, considering that the resources assigned by the international community have been insufficient to overcome difficulties and implement suitable care policies that allow the Venezuelan migrant population to integrate in a stable and secure way into the social and economic dynamics of the host countries.

In this sense, the document is published with the aim of helping member States reach common and pertinent solutions that improve the conditions of Venezuelans in their respective host countries through the necessary collaboration with different sectors of society. In line with this purpose, recommendations and proposals are indicated in the following areas:

The document issues 9 recommendations in the area of health, 5 related to education, 9 with livelihoods, 6 in relation to food security, another 6 related to the need for protection and 4 in the area of housing, all focused on improving the situation of Venezuelan migrants and refugees.

On the other hand, the document points out the multiple benefits of the implementation of the proposals for the recipient countries, such as better economic development, the decrease in violence and the strengthening of the health system to respond to the pandemic emergency.

The mission of the OAS General Secretariat Office to address the crisis of Venezuelan migrants and refugees, coordinated by David Smolansky, is to work with OAS member countries to address the situation of more than 5.2 million Venezuelans who have been banished. Since the publication of its regional report in June 2019, the Office has expressed the need to create the basis for a regional consensus that grants Venezuelans refugee status and guarantees them permanent protection.

Coalition for Venezuela is the union of Venezuelan civil society organizations that focuses on the well-being of all Venezuelans and the peoples that receive them as migrants or refugees, without distinction. It is an independent initiative currently made up of 63 organizations present in 23 countries in the region that work in the defense and promotion of human rights, freedoms and democratic values.

Reference: E-080/20

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Recommendations to Improve the Situation of Venezuelan Migrants and Refugees within the Context of COVID-19 (June 2020) - Venezuela (Bolivarian...

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Since 2017, more than one million Central Americans have made their way to the U.S. southwestern border, triggering a disjointed but brutal crackdown by the administration of President Donald Trump. Although the combination of tighter border controls and the coronavirus has reduced these flows, they will resume when the Covid-19 lockdowns lift.

Only this time, Mexicans are likely to join the exodus. The resulting tensions could destabilize one of the worlds most tightly woven bilateral relationships, jeopardizing cooperation on everything from counternarcotics to water rights and the prosperity that closer ties have underpinned on both sides of the border.

Mexican migration to the U.S. peaked at the turn of the last century. At the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans moved north every year, many evading border sentries along the way. They fanned out across the nation, drawn to enclaves in California, Texas, Illinois, and Arizona, but also to newer locations: Colorado, Florida, Georgia and Idaho. And many switched from seasonal work in the fields to more permanent year-round jobs in childcare, landscaping, hotels and car services.

By the mid-2000s, the exodus slowed. For the past 15 years, more Mexicans have left the U.S. than come each year. This shift reflects economic progress at home, not least an end to the financial booms and busts of the 1980s and 1990s. Beefed-up enforcement at the U.S. border has also discouraged circular migration, with workers now rarely returning home for a few months between planting seasons.

Better schooling also helped. With the number of years of education nearly doubling since 1990, the average Mexican 16-year-old is in class, not the workforce. So have changing demographics: Starting in the 1980s Mexican families have had fewer kids, now averaging just over two per household. Compared with the 1990s, fewer Mexicans are turning 18 every year and searching for work either at home or in the U.S.

But in place of Mexicans came a swelling wave of Central Americans, driven by poverty, violence and devastating droughts due to climate change. The majority have been women and children, pulled, too, by the presence of family, friends and economic ties in the U.S.

The Trump administration has made aggressive efforts to stop them. It changed asylum rules, attempting to disqualify those fleeing gang or domestic violence, to limit the right to apply to those arriving at official border crossings, and to otherwise make it more difficult to seek protection. Those families who did enter the U.S. system were often subjected to inhumane living conditions, with children separated from parents and placed in detention pens resembling cages.

The U.S. leaned hard on Central American governments to stop these would-be migrants from leaving in the first place. Under pressure, Mexico also acquiesced to holding tens of thousands of Central Americans for months or more as they waited to have their claims heard in U.S. immigration courts.

The number of Central American migrants did decline. In the start of 2020, flows fell almost by half compared with the year before. With Covid-19 restrictions, the movement nearly ceased in April and May. Yet the reasons pushing families to leave havent changed. Instead, the pandemic is making them all the worse. And not just in Central America, but also in Mexico.

The biggest factor driving a resurgence of Mexicans north is economic desperation: Mexicos economy is expected to shrink by more than 10% this year. Even before the pandemic, both public and private investment had fallen to historic lows. Since then more than 12 million Mexicans have lost their livelihoods, as the government is doing little to keep companies going or preserve jobs. And in addition to the consequences of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors misguided economic policies, his reversal of education reforms has made it less important and likely that students will stay in school. Those who do will be less likely to learn the skills needed in a 21st-century Mexican economy.

Rising violence is also driving hundreds of thousands of Mexicans from their homes and communities. Last year homicides topped 34,000. The first half of 2020 has been even more deadly.

Story continues

As these factors push Mexicans to leave, economic and familial ties pull them north. Mexicans represent the biggest migrant population in the U.S. (the majority here legally). Even with a soft U.S. economy, these fellow citizens can provide a contact, a first place to stay, and a lead on a job for future aspiring migrants.

If the past is any guide, many more Mexicans will head north. Their numbers are already ticking up: Since January, more Mexicans than Central Americans have been apprehended at the border.

The Trump administrations methods to discourage Central Americans wont work with Mexico. Lopez Obrador and his National Guard arent able to stop citizens who have a constitutional right to leave their country. Mexican migrants are less likely to be asylum seekers (even as many flee incredible violence), so the rule changes wont dissuade their journeys. And Mexicans are also more likely to succeed in making it into the U.S.; the nations proximity means that those who have been deported can easily try their luck again.

A migration surge could be a game changer for U.S. politics and policy. On the foreign policy side, it could rupture the bonhomie between Lopez Obrador and Trump, as migration becomes a defining electoral campaign issue. Mexicos president has so far ignored or endured U.S. slights, but a full frontal attack on his citizens would be harder to take given his long-standing (and popular) defense of Mexican migrants.

For the U.S. presidential race, a surge in Mexican migration would mobilize both sides. It would provide anti-immigrant fodder that Trump could use to feed his base. But his tirades could also motivate more of the tens of millions of Mexican-Americans, weary of the ugliness directed at them by association, to turn out to vote. With Latinos representing 13% of the electorate, Democratscould benefit.

The hardest part will come later. Whoever wins in November wont have the policy tools to manage this migration effectively or humanely. Outdated laws and an already strained immigration system provide little recourse, and political polarization makes it all the harder to fix them. Mexican migration could easily become the new administrations first big crisis.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Shannon O'Neil is a senior fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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Mexican Migration Could Be the First Crisis of 2021 - Yahoo Finance

The House of Representatives of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina has on Thursday confirmed the appointment of Selmo Cikotic as the new Minister of Security of BiH.

Out of 32 deputies present, 17 were in favor, 12 against, while three abstained. After the repeated voting, which was requested by MP Branislav Borenovic, out of 33 MPs present, there were 18 in favor, 13 against, and two abstentions.

Cikotic was nominated by Council of Ministers Chairman Zoran Tegeltija, saying the appointment was made following a proposal by the SDA party and a review by the relevant agencies, Klix.ba news portal reports.

The newly elected Minister Cikotic, said that the issue of illegal migrants will be the first to be dealt with after taking office.

Cikotic said for Srna news agency that he will probably take over the duty of minister tomorrow and that he will work diligently on resolving the issue of the migrant crisis.

Asked whether he would insist that illegal migrants return to their countries of origin, Cikotic said that he did not already know that and that these were details.

I will talk to the deputy and those who have been informed, Cikotic said.

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Newly elected Security Minister reveals Issues to be dealt with after taking Office - Sarajevo Times

[emailprotected] | Rethinking Humanitarianism: This year, The New Humanitarian (founded in 1995 as IRIN News) marks 25 years of journalism from the heart of crises. This story is part of a series that looks back on crisis response over the last quarter century and examines what it may look like in the future.

As we mark 25 years of reporting from the heart of crises, weve hand-picked some of our favourite stories from the archives.

In no particular order, here are stories published by The New Humanitarian and our previous incarnation, IRIN News, that resonated with our editors or you, our readers sometimes both. They have also chronicled the evolution of humanitarianism over the last quarter century, informing our look back on the sector as part of our new series, Rethinking Humanitarianism. We tried to choose only 25 stories, but in the end we cheated a little.

Hover over the circle for a glimpse of our favourite stories from the past 25 years. Click on the image to find out more about the story behind it or scroll below for the full list of our top 25 (or so) pieces.

Welcome to our time machine. Tap and hold the circle for a glimpse of our favourite stories from the past 25 years. Release your finger from the image to find out more about the story behind it or scroll below for the full list of our top 25 (or so) pieces.

Published just this year, this story quickly became our most popular of all time, attracting more than 350,000 readers. It highlights the wild allegations, fear mongering, and suspicions about both billionaires and the World Health Organization that spread in the wake of a global pandemic from a false claim that Bill Gates had a secret plan to insert microchips into patients to a non-profit lobby group that became an unlikely focus for a convergence of conspiracies. The piece showed how misinformation could undermine international efforts to contain the virus and triggered some lively hate mail too!

In this long-form narrative piece, Africa Editor Obi Anyadike takes us inside efforts to de-radicalise members of what at the time was rated the worlds deadliest militant group. One of the first journalists to be granted access to Boko Haram prisoners, Anyadike unpacks the goals and motivations of the group and builds on our years of reporting (stretching back to 2009 and 2011) to track how a local religious sect developed into one of the worlds most protracted insurgencies. His work offers clues to tackling violence in the Sahel which continues spreading today (see our in-depth series The Sahel in flames) and was referenced by The New York Times and shared by Longform, among others.

This horrific account, dating back to some of the worst days of war in Iraq, reveals the gruesomeness of the sectarian violence that ravaged the country from 2006-2009. The first person testimony details a mothers impossible choice: submit to rape by militants or see her husband killed. The Arabic version of the story travelled widely, becoming our third most-read story of all time.

We teamed up with the research outfit Humanitarian Outcomes to map attacks against aid workers globally. In 2000, 41 serious attacks on aid workers were recorded. By 2014, that number had risen to 190. In those 15 years, more than 3,000 workers were killed, injured, or kidnapped. This data visualisation tells the story of each of those attacks. It went on to prompt a petition signed by more than 1,400 aid workers urging the UN secretary-general to prioritise aid worker security.

Want to support another 25 years of reporting from the heart of crises? Become a member of The New Humanitarian.

This short documentary series earned IRIN an honourable mention at the 14th annual Webby awards, hailed as the internets highest honour by The New York Times. From the Nepali woman rescuing girls from the sex trade to the South African Catholic bishop promoting condoms, the videos profile exceptional people involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS. IRINs PlusNews website published dedicated news about HIV/AIDS until 2011. For more of its offerings, take a look at this award-winning 2007 piece on a medical trial gone wrong in the search for products to prevent the disease.

This intimate account of the war in Yemen was one of the last articles contributor Almigdad Mojalli wrote before he was killed outside the capital city of Sanaa in January 2016. He had considered fleeing Yemen several times since the beginning of the war in early 2015, but decided to stay and document his countrys downward spiral and its impact on civilians. In this piece, he details his attempts to protect his family from the war and the day that several of his family members were hit in an apparent airstrike. Less than one year later, he died the same way.

Our early coverage of instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo, then known as Zaire, is special to us for a couple of reasons. This 1996 briefing on the unrest in South Kivu province, one of our earliest pieces of original content, was the first comprehensive analysis on the conflict, which would challenge the stability of the country for years to come. And this 1999 coverage of clashes between pastoralists and agriculturalists in eastern Ituri province sparked an early example of user-generated content: exclusive amateur video from a missionary group showed children with deep machete wounds as well as mass graves and burning villages, drawing much-needed attention to the crisis. Over the years, our coverage of Congo has won awards, prompted mainstream media coverage, sparked a lobbying campaign at the UK Parliament, and contributed to a potential investigation into war crimes.

This series of short films shows the effects even back then in 2008 of a warming Earth. It tells the stories of a village chief in Lesotho who is mourning poor harvests due to declining rainfall and of Senegalese who fear their homes will be swept away by rising seas. Such was reader interest in the subject that this short news story about the 12 countries at highest risk of drought, flooding, storms, rising sea levels, and agricultural uncertainty still remains one of our most-read pieces.

On a reporting trip years ago, Middle East Editor Annie Slemrod met a young boy at a camp in Iraqs western desert, his body and face covered in scars. It was a few months after his home near the city of Fallujah was hit during fighting, killing his mother, brother, and cousin. Two years later, without knowing his name or much else about him, she returned to Iraq to find one boy in a country of 37 million people. Her longread about that search, and what happened to the boy called Othman, tells the story of what displacement, return, and war really mean for Iraqis who have been through so many years of conflict. And it inspired our readers to donate towards his medical costs.

The question has no clear answer under international law. Some experts argue that children cannot be held criminally responsible for acts they committed when they were not yet mature, and after experiencing intimidation or indoctrination. Others say failure to prosecute child soldiers would incentivise commanders to continue recruiting them. The debate has stood the test of time: This analysis exploring arguments on both sides continues to be among our most-read pieces, year after year.

Given the subject matter, our stories can often be heavy reading. But there are exceptions. Our piece exploring the challenges of dating among aid workers was a hit. Years later, its title became the name of a Facebook support group for aid workers 24,000 people strong. For more racy content, check out this 2011 story about HIV/AIDS, which led with: Vaginal sex, thigh sex, even armpit sex people have sex in lots of ways And for a look at the benefits of horny expatriate aid workers, check out this 2015 piece on the rise in use of the Grindr dating app in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

Sticking with the lighter side of humanitarianism, our curation of memes circling the internet about the so-called nexus between humanitarian aid, development, and peacebuilding provoked a lot of reader reaction (for a more serious examination of this key if controversial policy priority, see our series on the topic).

Our Forgotten Conflicts series gathered reporting from the heart of several hidden insurgencies and collated the worlds conflicts onto a single map, which attracted the attention of National Geographic, Wired magazine, and the UKs Daily Mail. Among our favourite entries in the series are this award-winning, interactive multimedia feature from Sudans Blue Nile State described as visually stunning and extraordinarily timely and this moving audio slideshow from a town destroyed by the civil war in South Sudan. We were the first news organisation to embed with Cameroons anglophone secessionists (footage from the trip was provided to TV5 and the BBC); took an inside look at the struggling peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic; and uncovered details of a hidden war in Congo-Brazzaville thanks to satellite imagery which Congolese lawyers say they plan to use as evidence in a genocide case to be filed at the International Criminal Court.

Read more 25 Crises that Shaped History

In this investigation, we revealed that the man at the heart of a sexual exploitation scandal at aid agency Oxfam in Haiti was dismissed for similar misconduct by another British NGO seven years earlier. We also revealed that the Swedish government was made aware of his track record even before he got to Haiti, but that it funded programmes he was running (at the time in Chad) anyway. Following our story, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency suspended its humanitarian support for Oxfam until it could investigate the charity's systems and procedures (it has since resumed). The story made headlines around the world and sparked a conversation within the aid sector about how NGOs can better share information to prevent sexual predators from being re-hired while re-organising to prevent abuse.

Worldwide, more than one billion people live in slums often the poorest of the poor, denied government services and the most vulnerable to natural disasters. This documentary tells the story of people who refused to be defined by their environment in one of Africas largest slums, Kibera, in Nairobi, Kenya. The film inspired British celebrities to spend three nights in the slum, living in tiny shacks with local residents, working menial jobs, and sharing their stories as part of a fundraiser for Comic Relief UK, which aired on the BBC as Famous, Rich and in the Slums. In the same vein, this short feature on Africas biggest metropolis, Lagos, the mega-city of slums, remains among our top 10 most-read stories, nearly 15 years on.

This special package on The Four Famines of 2017 explored the dangerous mix of conflict, weak governance, poor infrastructure, and failing markets at the heart of one of the worlds largest food crises. It followed this briefing on drought in Africa, among our most-read pieces, summing up El Nios impact on east and southern Africa: consecutive seasons of drought that scorched harvests, ruined livelihoods, increased the malnutrition rates of rural children, and drove up food prices. They are among several stories we published on the topic that year from Kenya to Ethiopia as drought ravaged many parts of Africa. The stories were reminiscent of our earlier reporting in 2011, during the driest period in the Horn of Africa in 60 years, when famine killed more than 250,000 people in Somalia. Its a narrative that seems to keep repeating itself.

This article traces the origins of ready-to-eat therapeutic nutritional food a breakthrough in treating starving and malnourished children to a blender and a jar of Nutella in Malawi. Three years after our article was published, French pediatric nutritionist Andr Briend became a humanitarian celebrity of sorts, featured in a New York Times article, The Peanut Solution, as the creator of the nutritional supplement Plumpy'Nut and credited with significantly improving survival rates of dangerously hungry children.

Our coverage of the Rohingya people has set the agenda since we began flagging systematic discrimination against the ethnic and religious minority in Myanmar as far back as 2008. Its hard to pick just one story over the years, but this award-winning recounting of a brutal 2016 attack on a Rohingya village, including testimony from a woman allegedly raped by seven soldiers a claim dismissed as made-up by a government official we interviewed foreshadowed what would follow months later in the mass exodus that shocked the world. You also read with interest our feature on uncounted male rape survivors; these timelapse GIFs made from satellite images; this first-person account of why the Rohingya risk their lives at sea; and these portraits of Rohingya entrepreneurs. This reportage on how the Rohingya have been systematically stripped of citizenship, belonging, and their very identity gets to the heart of the crisis. Our coverage informed a call for the UN Human Rights Council to launch an inquiry into abuses against the Rohingya, prompted new areas of focus in humanitarian responses, and inspired donations from readers.

Stories of asylum seekers and migrants getting on rickety boats have become commonplace since Syrian refugees began fleeing to Europe at scale in 2015. But this early example of the trend was received with interest by our audience, and our 2012 in-depth package of migration stories, Crossing into the unknown, continued to forecast migration to Europe early on. Other favourites on the topic of refugees and migrants include TNH Director Heba Alys 2013 account of her overnight stay at Jordans largest refugee camp; Africa Editor Obi Anyadikes hike up Mount Selouane in 2015 as part of this feature on Moroccos forgotten frontline of the migrant crisis; and this award-winning raw, atmospheric film on the reality for unaccompanied minors on the border between Hungary and Serbia.

When we broke the news that senior human rights official Anders Kompass was resigning from the UN over a peacekeeper sexual abuse scandal in Central African Republic, the story reverberated around the world. In one of our most-read stories of all time, the Swedish diplomat who, when he reported the abuse, was condemned for his misconduct, suspended from his job, and marched out of his office opened up about the lack of accountability entrenched in the United Nations. In our follow-up on-the-ground reporting with the survivors of the abuse, we found stark gaps in victim support and justice, and a TNH investigation revealed a series of blunders in the UNs own internal investigation of the scandal.

Readers were moved by the story of Sally al-Sabahi, a Yemeni girl who was forcibly married at the age of 10 to an elderly man in exchange for a $1,000 dowry. After being drugged and beaten by her husband, Sally escaped. But without the money to pay back the dowry, she couldnt divorce him. Our article prompted offers of financial help from readers as far as California, allowing Sally to pay back the dowry and get her divorce. Covering violence against women has always been an important part of our work, from this moving audio slideshow, Still Standing, following the journey of one Kenyan rape survivor in her quest for justice, to the award-winning film Our Bodies; Their Battleground, one of IRINs first feature-length documentaries, about sexual violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia. Our collection of stories about female genital mutilation remains one of our most-visted pages. This profile of Milly Wonder, a Kenyan self-defence trainer for girls, is one of our favourite short videos ever, and is bound to brighten up your day.

With many of todays conflicts taking place in Muslim-majority countries or involving Muslim combatants, aid agencies are arguably more than ever before working in areas governed by Islamic norms. This four-part series, nominated for an AidEx Journalism Award, explores in depth the intersection between Islamic law, jihadism, and humanitarian norms.

Our annual listing is always popular with readers and helps shape the agenda for the year ahead. It began in 2018 with a spotlight on secessionists in Cameroon and sub-Saharan migrants in Libya. Our 2019 look-ahead focused on climate displacement and infectious diseases. This years list highlights why increased militancy in the Sahel and macro-economic turbulence are drivers of humanitarian need.

We couldnt resist revisiting this 2012 story tracking efforts to fight Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony with beer, spy planes, and YouTube. And for more that is a little offbeat, check out this news report detailing the sordid kidnapping of Chadian orphans by French aid workers in 2007; and the story of Order #81707503 tracking a single delivery of cooking oil from a decision at a US Agency for International Development office to the hands of a displaced woman in Chad. Weve looked at language too, from this 2008 guide to HIV/AIDS slang (getting a red card means your life is over) to this 2018 introduction to disaster aid acronyms, from GDACS to MIRA.

Our journalism has always been free and independent and we need your help to keep it so.

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TNH@25: Our and your favourite stories of all time - The New Humanitarian

In India, the coronavirus pandemic will be remembered for the migrant crisis that the last-minute announcement of the lockdown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi created. Thousands of migrant workers flocked from the big cities to their native villages in Indias vast rural expanse, as the lockdown left them unemployed.

Scenes of helplessness and misery dominated the media space with painful videos going viral, be it the one of a child trying to wake up his dead mother on a railway station or the video of a migrant carrying his children on a bicycle walking barefoot in the soaring temperatures prompting a journalist to gift his shoes to the worker as he broke down.

The virus has also badly hit the Kashmir Valley that is still struggling with an unfolding crisis. However, with cases shooting up every day and the virus turning deadly, fear and panic has once again gripped the populace.

The condition that has brought anxiety among the residents of the Valley is the emergence of bi-lateral pneumonia, killing and affecting people irrespective of their age and comorbidities. So when 64-year-old Afroza Makhdoomi of Srinagars Ilahi Bagh area succumbed to the fatal disease, Kashmirs ongoing pandemic crisis slipped and showed itself through the shroud of silence.

A viral video showed M.s Makhdoomis distraught sons struggling to remove their mothers body from the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), the only help being provided by the hospital being a shabby stretcher. The video was filmed by one of the sons and showed the Makhdoomi brothers wearing full PPE kits and masks as they yell angrily before breaking down over the hospitals apathy.

She was my everything, my support during my struggling days and my backbone, Mr. Rameez Makhdoomi said of her mother, one of the more than 200 victims of COVID-19 in Jammu and Kashmir. While she was fit and suffered from no comorbidity, what further broke our heart was how her dead body was desecrated, she deserved a better stretcher and a better farewell. Everyone does.

Mr. Rameez further said that he was now looking to do something in the remembrance of his mother. She died a martyr and did so much for us. I want to do something for her too, I dont want people to suffer like we did. Therefore, I might set up a group that can help those who find themselves in situations like we did. And have no one to help except God, he said.

The video was shared by hundreds and garnered thousands of views as well as angry and emotional reactions from netizens who termed the hospitals action, or rather inaction, as sheer incompetence and questioned the administrations failure.

In response, the hospital stated: When the patient in question expired, it was conveyed to District Administration and Health authorities by control room SKIMS, Nodal officer as well as Medical Superintendent. The Institute, through the statement, also said that the delay in receiving team from concerned officials created anxiety among patient attendants when SHO Police Station Soura was contacted to receive dead body from SKIMS.

SKIMS has stopped providing ambulance services, coffins and staff for burial, as theyre not part of a protocol, the statement added. While the stretcher saga ended after the woman was buried, there seems to be a serious crisis situation brewing in Kashmir.

The anger over the administration failure has turned people against the frontline workers-doctors. In one week, doctors have been harassed and beaten by attendants at least twice in Srinagar, prompting the COVID-19 warriors who have been toiling hard to save lives despite a faulty infrastructure to call strike which was thankfully called off soon.

However, hours after the doctors and other paramedical staff called-off their strike, the resident doctors on Saturday evening fled from the hospital to save their lives after two of their colleagues and a security guard was assaulted by the attendants at the cardiology ward.

Talking to a local news gathering agency Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Dr. Bilal Ahmad Mir, Senior Resident General Medicine, said that a patient was very ill while a resident doctor who was treating the patient at cardiology ward was beaten by some attendants.

The incident garnered widespread reaction, with some blaming the doctors of the valley saying that they have made a bad reputation for themselves over the years. However, the vast majority of people seem to be on the side of doctors who they say are vital to fight the pandemic. A raging debate on social media has also ensued over the unfortunate incidents with people mostly taking side of the doctors.

As if this crisis was not enough to add to the anxiety of Kashmiris, the shortage of Remdesivir drug used for treating mild or severe cases of COVID-19 is running short in the valley, I dont understand what was the administration doing during the imposition of lockdown. I mean how can drugs that are saving lives run short, said Mr. Rameez Makhdoomi while questioning the government. Although we were able to get it through using our contacts, most people are complaining that they are not able to get it.

While the effectiveness of the drug is not yet established, doctors in valley are prescribing it which is clear by the scores of social media posts requesting for it, Need only one dose of Remdesivir for my cousin who is on ventilator, wrote Shazia Shah on a Facebook group dedicated for COVID-19. Posts like these are replete on other platforms too.

The shortage has led to questions about the administrations role in tackling the virus and whether it is prepared to cater to patients that are only growing with every passing day.

While the barefooted migrant worker on his way home was lucky enough to find a samaritan who gifted him his shoes, it remains to be seen if Kashmiris will find a samaritan to get them out of the crisis that looms large.

now, more than ever to give a voice to the voiceless. The press in Kashmir has operated under tremendous pressures of reporting from a conflict zone but since August 2019 we find ourselves in unchartered territory. The Kashmir Walla is among the oldest independent media outlets in Kashmir and has withstood successive lockdowns as well as attempts to suppress us, fighting back with authoritative ground reports based on facts.

We need your solidarity to keep our journalism going. Your contribution will empower us to keep you informed on stories that matter from Kashmir. Show your solidarity by joining our community. Kashmir thanks you.

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Coronavirus pandemic is giving rise to a messy crisis in Kashmir - The Kashmir Walla

EUROPEAN states are playing dangerous games in the Mediterranean.

These waters are the graveyard of many people from the Middle East and Africa.

These desperately poor people are today the playthings of reactionary Italian politicians and there is many a European Union functionary who will make pious noises about the chauvinist policies, racist language and general boorishness of Lega boss Matteo Salvini.

But todays real-life and death policies of the EU are just as pernicious as those of any of the right-wing demagogues who make political capital out of the migrant and refugee wave that seeks entry to the precarious security and low-paid work of capitalist Europe.

The people who first land on Greek, Maltese or Italian shores are in many cases fleeing war or climate catastrophe on the African continent.

We can easily divine the basic causes of the interminable strife that affects these lands.

It is not only due to the catastrophic effects of the Western wars on Iraq, Libya,Syria and Afghanistan.

Plenty more is conditioned by the bizarre territorial boundaries and regional rivalries which owe many of their origins to the division and redivision of the lands of the Ottoman empire defeated in the first world war.

The resurgence of Turkey as a regional power is one factor in these new conflicts but the basic cause lies in the heritage of colonial rule and the present-day realties of imperialist war, plunder, subversion and sanctions.

And the structural problems of the African economies are more a manifestation of a climate crisis made in the West than ofany home-grown problems.

Refugees and migrant workers aim for the countries of Europe because this is where the fruits of centuries of exploitation are embedded in their more highly developed economies.

But they also head this way because, in many cases, they speak the languages of their former colonial overlords.

Those who avoid a watery grave make their way through one state or another each glad to speed them on their way unless, for example like Angela Merkels Germany, they have a particular labour market shortage to fill.

Those who finish up at Calais are there because they speak English, have relatives here orcan access support networks of various kinds.

The reactionary right the bourgeois Brexiteers who cloaked their racism in the opaque language of sovereignty are more contemptuous of the human rights of refugees than even the hypocritical EU apparatchiks who devised the Fortress Europe migration regime which necessarily entails dead children on the beaches of Greece.

And Boris Johnson and his calamitous collection of ministers are quite happy to support the subsidy which has turned the Libyan coastguard into a protection racket for the racist slave holders who presently compete for power in a land which once provided secure employment and rising living standards but now is a bomb-site.

Recollect it was David Camerons missile-borne alliance with Hillary Clinton that bombed oil-rich Libya into penury.

British taxpayer pounds, along with EU euros, furnish the barbed wire that tops the fence which Turkey maintains as a lucrative service to the racist migration policies that our government shares with the EU.

The resolution of the refugee and migration crisis is impossible without an end to the exploitation of the lands south and east of the Mediterranean.

It requires a transformation of the political climate and the foreign policies of the European states.

A few months ago we had the prospect of a government committed to an ethical foreign policy that might have made Britain a pioneering peacemaker. It seems like another age.

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Pernicious life and death policies in the Mediterranean - Morning Star Online

UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees Kelly T. Clements meets new arrivals at UNHCRs transit site in the North of Lesvos Island UNHCR/Tamara Simidrijevic

This article is brought to you in association with theEuropean Commission.

Today the Commission is launching an EU-wide public consultation to gather views on new actions that could be taken at EU level to promote the integration and social inclusion of migrants and people with a migrant background. The Commission is also launching a call for applications to set up an expert group composed of persons with a migrant background to participate in the development and implementation of migration, asylum and integration policies. Involving migrants, asylum applicants and refugees is essential to make the policies more effective and better tailored to needs on the ground.

Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas, said: When people settle in Europe its important that they enjoy the same rights and obligations as anybody else. Access to healthcare, housing, education and employment allows them to reach their full potential. Integration of migrants is in everyones interest, it promotes strong and harmonious communities and protects against the ills of isolation and segregation. With this consultation and expert group we will ask those most affected by our policies to be involved in policy-making. This is the European Way of Life.

Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, said: The coronavirus crisis showed once again that migrants and refugees contribute in a crucial way to our societies. However, across Europe many still face challenges in finding accommodation or accessing employment, education or healthcare. We need to step up our work on integration at EU level. I invite all stakeholders, especially migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, to reply to the consultation to help us design future actions on integration that can improve quality of life and make our societies more cohesive and inclusive.

With both the consultation and the expert group, the Commission seeks to gather input from a broad range of stakeholders including national, regional and local authorities, civil society organisations, social and economic partners, businesses, education and training providers, academia, cultural and sport organisations, migrant organisations and private individuals. The results of the consultation will contribute to the development of the Action Plan on integration and inclusion announced in the Commissions work programme.

The public consultation will be available in all EU official languages until 21 October 2020. The call for applications to become a member of the Commission expert group on the views of migrants will be open until 21 September.

Background

Well-managed migration to Europe contributes to our societies, culture and economy. The integration and social inclusion of people with migrant background is crucial for cultural exchange and community cohesion. It also helps address skills gaps, labour shortages, and to boost economic performance overall. Currently in the EU, too many migrants face challenges in terms of unemployment, lack of educational and training opportunities, and limited social interaction within their broader communities challenges which adequate public policies could turn into opportunities.

The responsibility for integration policies lies primarily with the Member States. However, the EU has established a large variety of measures to incentivise and support national authorities but also local and regional authorities and civil society in their efforts to promote integration. This includes dedicated funding and instruments addressing social and economic cohesion across Member States. In 2016, the Commission launched an Action Plan on the integration of third country nationals, which included fifty actions to promote integration.

The von der Leyen Commission will put forward an Action Plan on integration and inclusion, whose development will be informed by the results of both consultation and the expert group.

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Integration of migrants: Commission launches a public consultation and call for an expert group on the views of migrants - The European Sting