Refugees

The Aquarius migrant rescue ship carrying passengers from Libya was ordered seized by Italian authorities who said passengers’ discarded clothes could have been contaminated with HIV, meningitis and tuberculosis. Médecins Sans Frontières has been fined €460,000 and 24…

Plans to voluntarily repatriate Rohingya refugees to Burma have stalled after no one wanted to go. Burma and Bangladesh are trading blame for delays to the plan they agreed to in October.   2,000+ Rohingya were due to return Thursday, and Burma said it was ready to accept…

After 9 months in a Libyan detention center, Abdulaziz decided that suicide was the only way out, and the Somali set himself on fire.   Libya's Department for Combatting Illegal Migration is holding thousands of refugees like Abdulaziz indefinitely. Many were intercepted en…

3 million people have fled crisis-ridden Venezuela amid dire food and medicine shortages and a decimated economy, according to the UN refugee agency. Import cuts and slashed domestic production have stripped Venezuelans' access to basic health care and nutrition. In 2017,…

Minnesota refugees get short shrift when it comes to much-needed dental care. Many have never seen a dentist, or lack access to toothpaste or fresh water; some practice cultural traditions that are harmful to the mouth like chewing betel nuts (Burma) or removal of infant…

Despite the release of hundreds of children separated from their families, the US is detaining more migrant children than ever.   Shelter populations soared to 12,800 migrant children this month, up from 2,400 in May 2017. Although the number of children crossing the border…

Shooting down the argument that illegal immigration fuels the spread of disease, Amesh Adalja called a Walter Williams column “a very obviously veiled attempt to use the prestige of science and medicine coupled with the real issue of health security in order to bolster a…

A devastating report from ProPublica recounts profound suffering and agonizing waiting endured by immigrant youth in the US living in 9 federally funded Chicago-area shelters.  

In Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps, religious teachers and spirit healers are helping to fill the massive gap in mental health services. 900,000 Rohingya now live in these camps, arriving with traumatic tales of Burmese soldiers slaughtering thousands. But only half of…

Migrants and asylum seekers arriving in northern Greece, fleeing countries like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, are subject to “appalling reception and detention conditions,” Human Rights Watch reported today. Under national and European law, Greece is obliged to treat asylum…