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UK’s Rights Assessment of Rwanda Not Based on Facts

Abuses Overlooked to Justify Cruel Asylum Policy

This week, the United Kingdom published its safety assessment on Rwanda, intended to justify a recently announced agreement to send asylum seekers crossing the English Channel or other so called “irregular” or dangerous routes to the Central African…
Protesters hold placards reading "refugees welcome here" at a demonstration
News

UK Plan to Ship Asylum Seekers to Rwanda is Cruelty Itself

Government Continues to Rip Up its Duties to Asylum Seekers

Shirking its obligations to persons seeking asylum at its shores, the UK government has today signed an agreement with Rwanda to send asylum seekers crossing the English Channel there. Under the new Asylum Partnership Arrangement, people arriving…
British Home Secretary Priti Patel (L), and Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Vincent Biruta sign an agreement
News

Lebanon: Questions for Candidates About Rights

Human Rights Watch Sends Questionnaire to Parliament Candidates

(Beirut) – Candidates for Lebanon’s May 15, 2022, parliamentary elections should make commitments to support key reforms that would improve the human rights situation in the country, Human Rights Watch said today in letters to major political parties…
Activists chant slogans demanding the end of corruption
News

Asylum Seekers Face Real Harm from US Border Policy

As People Are Expelled to Danger, States Sue to Keep Practice in Place

Following the Biden administration’s recent announcement that it would rescind an abusive Trump-era summary expulsion policy in May, the US states of Arizona, Louisiana, and Missouri this week sued to force the administration to continue turning…
202204americas_us_mexico_border_family
News

Restoring Access to Asylum at the US Border

Biden Administration Should Focus on Dignified, Humane, and Fair Treatment

Since March 2020, the United States has misused an antiquated section of public health law – Title 42 – to expel migrants quickly, without giving them a chance to ask for asylum. That looks to be coming to an end. The Centers for Disease Control…
People hold a protest sign that reads "Save asylum"
News

A Cry for Cameroon: How the United States Failed Refugees

As U.S. officials face continued criticism for the mistreatment and mass expulsions of Haitians who arrived at the U.S. southern border, with many given no chance to apply for asylum, the situation of another group of Black asylum seekers is now also in…
Report

“How Can You Throw Us Back?”

Summary After the United States rejected her asylum claim and deported her in October 2020, Esther,[1] a Cameroonian woman, found herself trapped in a nightmare in the country she had previously fled. “I was arrested and detained [by gendarmes]... I…
News

US: Deported Cameroonian Asylum Seekers Suffer Serious Harm

Flawed Asylum Denials; Abuses in Detention and After Deportation

(Washington, DC) – Cameroonian authorities subjected dozens of asylum seekers deported by the United States to serious human rights violations between 2019 and 2021, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 149-page report, “‘How…
A hand reaches through bars
News

UK Pushbacks are 'Morally Reprehensible'

The House of Lords Should Safeguard Life and Rights in the Channel

Today, the House of Lords has the chance to take a stand against the UK government’s attempt to “legalize” pushbacks in the English Channel. The House will debate an amendment to the Nationality and Borders Bill, which would ensure UK officials cannot…
A damaged inflatable small boat is pictured on the shore in Calais, northern France, November 25, 2021.
News

US: Slow Progress on Human Rights

High-Level Pronouncements Marred by Systemic Racism, Abuse of Asylum Seekers

(Washington, DC) – The administration of President Joe Biden has made slow progress protecting human rights in the United States, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2022. "The Biden administration has made some big-picture…
Hughes Van Ellis (left), a Tulsa Race Massacre survivor and World War II veteran, and Viola Fletcher (second right), oldest living survivor of the massacre, testify about the massacre’s ongoing impact before the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC, on May 19, 2021.
News

UK Set to Renege on Fundamental Protections for Asylum Seekers

Last Wednesday, the Nationality and Borders Bill ­– fittingly dubbed the “Anti-refugee bill”­– passed its third reading in the House of Commons, 298 ayes to 231 noes. The Borders Bill works to dismantle the international refugee…
Border Force officers assist 20 Syrian migrants aboard HMC Hunter after they were stopped as they crossed The Channel in an inflatable dinghy headed in the direction of England.
News

Draconian UK Law Puts Vulnerable Asylum Seekers at Risk

Proposed Borders Bill Would Cause More Suffering, Less Protection

Perhaps the most draconian immigration bill in the United Kingdom’s history is moving swiftly through parliament, currently in its final days of scrutiny in the Commons. The Nationality and Borders Bill seeks to dismantle core tenets of the…
A group of people on the deck of HMC Seeker as they wait to be brought ashore by the UK Border Force in Kent. September 22, 2020.
News

Joint Letter to DHS Secretary Mayorkas and USCIS Director Jaddou

Groups Urge Biden Administration to Rescind Trump Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) Rules

Hon. Alejandro N. Mayorkas           Secretary of Homeland Security          U.S. Department of Homeland Security           2707 Martin Luther King…
Lizbeth, una mujer salvadoreña que busca asilo en Estados Unidos, posa en la casa de un familiar en Tijuana, México, donde fue enviada a esperar por el resultado de su caso, el 5 de noviembre de 2019
Report

“They Treat You Like You Are Worthless”

  Summary In 2017, a US Border Patrol agent kneed a woman in the lower pelvis, leaving bruises and pain days later, according to her statement to a government official screening her asylum claim. In a separate incident that year, a Border…
News

UK’s Unlawful Cruelty in the English Channel

Proposed Pushbacks Show Disregard for Life and Safety at Sea

The UK government’s reported plan to “turn around” boats of migrants and refugees in the English Channel is irresponsible, dangerous, and unlawful. But talking about “turn-arounds” almost makes these tactics sound gentle. Pushbacks at sea would…
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought into Dover, Kent, by Border Force officers on September 5, 2021.
News

India: Release Detained Myanmar Asylum Seekers

Ensure Prompt Access to UN Refugee Agency for Protection

(New York) – Indian authorities should immediately free all detained Myanmar asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should investigate the deaths of two women who had fled Myanmar and died in custody in Manipur state from Covid…
A Myanmarese man looks towards the Indian side at the India-Myanmar border in Mizoram, India, Saturday, March 20, 2021. 
News

Biden Border Expulsions Continue to Harm Asylum Seekers

Delayed Reforms Endanger LGBT, Black, Other Adults Traveling Alone

“The officials didn’t let me tell them anything. They just sent me back.” That’s what “Dolores,” an asylum seeker in Mexico, told me after United States Border Patrol agents expelled her under the illegal and discriminatory Title 42 border…
Honduran men cross into the United States to begin the asylum process Monday, July 5, 2021, in Tijuana, Mexico. The administration of President Joe Biden continues to turn away thousands of asylum seekers under the illegal and discriminatory Title 42 summary expulsion policy.
News

UK Shouldn’t Detain Asylum Seekers Offshore

Costly, Abusive Approach Fails to Address System’s Flaws

The United Kingdom government’s new borders bill is expected to include the option of detaining asylum seekers offshore, according to multiple news reports. The emerging details of the policy shift suggest an approach that would not only likely cause…
A group of people on the deck of HMC Seeker as they wait to be brought ashore by the UK Border Force in Kent. September 22, 2020.
News

Exceptions to US Border Expulsion Policy Fail to Address Flaws

Thousands Have Been Expelled Under Abusive Policy

The New York Times reported last week that the United States would lift a public health bar on migrants crossing the border into the country for families, but that it would keep expelling single adults, at least until the end of the summer. The US has…
A migrant family crosses the border into El Paso, Texas, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Friday, Feb. 26, 2021.

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