• Bill to fight human smuggling only punishes victims
    Commentary
    Mar 30, 2012
    Parliament is currently debating legislation that would require one-year, mandatory detention for certain migrants arriving in Canada, including 16- and 17-year-old children. Ostensibly intended to prevent human smuggling, this bill in fact punishes victims of human smuggling, including those desperately fleeing persecution and violence.
  • Joint NGO Letter to NATO Regarding Investigations into Boat Incident from March-April 2011
    Letter
    Mar 26, 2012
    We are writing to inquire further about internal investigations into the fatal boat episode of March-April 2011, in which a disabled boat filled with migrants fleeing Libya drifted for two weeks in the Mediterranean before landing back in Libya on April 10, 2011.
  • Letter to Canadian MP's on C-31 Law
    Letter
    Mar 16, 2012
    Human Rights Watch is writing to raise concerns about certain provisions of proposed Bill C-31, Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, that we believe are harmful to refugees and asylum seekers and incompatible with international refugee and human rights law. Although the detention provisions of Bill C-31 are ostensibly proposed to deter human smugglers, Human Rights Watch believes that these provisions, in fact, target refugee claimants fleeing persecution, who will suffer their consequences.
  • Letter to Arab League on Syrian Refugees
    Letter
    Mar 15, 2012
    Human Rights Watch welcomes the Council of the League of Arab States’ February 12 call on Syria to end all forms of violence against Syrian civilians and to grant access to Arab and international relief organizations to bring humanitarian assistance to affected populations, and respectfully urges the ministers of the LAS Council to adopt a further resolution that calls upon all member states to provide at least temporary asylum to Syrian civilians fleeing conflict and persecution.
  • Ukraine: Stop Harassing Somali Asylum Seekers
    Press release
    Feb 1, 2012
    The Ukrainian authorities should immediately stop police harassment and threats against Somali asylum seekers held at the Zhuravychi Migrant Accommodation Centre.
  • Ukraine: Open Letter regarding the Arbitrary Detention of Somali Asylum Seekers
    Letter
    Jan 31, 2012
    We are writing to raise our concern about the arbitrary detention of some or all of a group of 125 Somali nationals detained at the Zhuravychi Migrant Accommodation Centre (MAC). Some of them are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or the Ukrainian authorities as asylum seekers. Around 80 have told UNHCR they want to apply for asylum in Ukraine, but have not been allowed to do so.
  • Iraq/Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization: Cooperate With UN
    Press release
    Nov 30, 2011
    Both the leadership of the exiled Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization and the Iraqi government should fully cooperate with the UN refugee agency, Human Rights Watch said today.
  • North Korea: Conference on Rights Abuses
    Press release
    Nov 22, 2011

    North Korea’s brutal prison camp system and its practice of kidnapping foreigners will be featured at the  11th International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees  on November 23, 2011, in Geneva, the  Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, Conectas Direitos Humanos, and Human Rights Watch announced today.  

  • Sudan: End Mass Summary Deportations of Eritreans
    Press release
    Oct 25, 2011
    The Sudanese authorities are increasingly deporting Eritreans to their country without allowing them to claim asylum, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 17, 2011, Sudan handed over 300 Eritreans to the Eritrean military without screening them for refugee status, drawing public condemnation from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
  • Sharing Greece's asylum shame
    Commentary
    Sep 29, 2011
    The EU’s border agency should not be sending migrants to camps deemed abusive by Europe’s top human-rights court.