The statement expresses grave concern over Pakistan’s “Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan,” which was publicly announced on October 3, 2023. The plan has faced widespread criticism from local and international bodies, including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the International Organization for Migration, which have called on Pakistan to uphold its international obligations and continue offering protection to at-risk Afghans.

The joint statement also appeals to the international community to provide safe and legal pathways for Afghan journalists, writers, artists, human rights defenders, and other vulnerable individuals seeking refuge from Taliban persecution due to their peaceful expression.

Read the full joint statement here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Retno Marsudi said she met on Monday with Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees who heads UNHCR, and emphasized the need for a collective approach to the refugee crisis, after more than 1,500 Rohingya had arrived in Indonesia by boat since November.

“I told UNHCR in the meeting that they should continue to urge states [that are] party to the refugee convention to start accepting resettlement,” Retno told a news conference from Geneva. 

“The U.N. high commissioner understood the challenges faced by Indonesia and UNHCR will try its best to help solve this problem … by providing assistance to support the lives of the refugees,” Indonesia’s top diplomat told a news conference in Geneva.

Retno did not specify whether UNHCR’s assistance would go towards the Rohingya in Indonesia.

A UNHCR Indonesia spokesperson in Indonesia, Mitra Salima Suryono, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BenarNews.

Retno was in Geneva, the headquarters of the UNHCR, for talks on the crisis in Gaza and Israel at events to mark International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.

Her plea to the U.N. refugee agency came after some residents of Aceh province in Indonesia, where most Rohingya boats have arrived in recent weeks, rejected the refugees and refused to let them land. 

The Indonesian government then agreed to provide the Rohingya temporary shelter. On Sunday, another 400-odd Rohingya arrived on a boat that reached Aceh, a province at the northwestern tip of Sumatra island.

Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, but has a long history of hosting refugees from various conflicts. It allows refugees to stay temporarily, while they wait for a third country to resettle them, a process that can take years.

UNHCR has said that about 12,000 refugees and asylum seekers were in Indonesia as of June. They are  mostly from Afghanistan, Somalia, Myanmar and other countries, and face uncertain futures as prospects of being resettled in a third country are increasingly dim.

Refugees in Indonesia have no access to formal education and jobs.

For the Rohingya, Indonesia is a gateway to Malaysia, which is a top destination in Southeast Asia for migrant-workers from many South Asian and Southeast Asian nations.

Last week, Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said that an entire criminal network was in place to smuggle hundreds of Rohingya into Aceh. He promised strict action against human traffickers.

In Indonesia, the smuggling of people is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Police arrested three people in Aceh last week on suspicion of smuggling six Rohingya refugees from a shelter, local media reported. 

They had planned to transport the refugees by bus to Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province, to allow them to travel to Malaysia, police reportedly said. 

Since 2017, about 740,000 Rohingya have fled their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and settled in Bangladesh refugee camps in and around Cox’s Bazar after the Burmese military carried out a brutal crackdown that the U.N. called “ethnic cleansing.”

Human rights groups say the Rohingya refugees had undertaken and continue to take perilous sea journeys to escape the deteriorating situation in Myanmar since the military coup in February 2021 and the worsening conditions in the refugee camps in Bangladesh.

ASEAN efforts ‘have always failed’

Still, few countries are willing to open their doors to large numbers of refugees, said Poltak Partogi Nainggolan, a researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency. 

“On the other hand, efforts to find a joint solution through ASEAN have always failed,” he told BenarNews, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar and Indonesia are members. 

Last week, local rights groups gave the administration a severe tongue lashing after it said it was contemplating a plan to return the Rohingya to Myanmar. 

But Mohammad Mahfud MD, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, had said any return, if it happened, would be through the U.N.

Amnesty International in Indonesia approved of Indonesia’s continued coordination with UNHCR on the Rohingya issue.

“But Indonesia must not shirk its responsibility to ensure that the refugees have a decent and safe place to live, free from threats of violence,” Usman Hamid, executive director of the human rights watchdog group, told BenarNews. 

“[I]t must be committed to protecting the right to life and freedom for everyone, as mandated by its 1945 Constitution.” 

Some Indonesians, in comments and content posted on social media, have accused the Rohingya of being colonizers and demanded their deportation. 

The controversy has been fueled by misinformation and propaganda on social media platforms such as X and TikTok, where fake accounts and anti-Rohingya posts have gone viral. 

Nazarudin Latif in Jakarta contributed to the report.

BenarNews is an online news outlet affiliated with Radio Free Asia.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pizaro Gozali Idrus for BenarNews.

Somali-born Abdullahi Mire, who sought refuge with his mother at the vast Dadaab refugee complex in northern Kenya in the 1990s, told UN News the prize money was “a milestone for us” that would benefit kids in the camp by expanding bookshelves and boosting internet connectivity.

The education advocate who founded the Refugee Youth Education Hub at Dadaab, told Thelma Mwadzaya he was dedicating the award to all the displaced children and volunteers who are determined to help turn lives around, one book at a time.

This content originally appeared on UN News - Global perspective Human stories and was authored by Thelma Mwadzaya.

That’s the urgent message from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR’s) Dominique Hyde, who’s just back from White Nile state, where she witnessed the deadly impact of months of conflict on the country’s most vulnerable people, who are now sheltering in hundreds of displacement camps.

Here she is now, speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

This content originally appeared on UN News - Global perspective Human stories and was authored by Daniel Johnson.

In the letter dated June 21, the government’s customs department stated it would not release imported goods destined for UNHCR until the U.N. agency paid US$7 million for alleged irregularities in the vehicles’ transfers. The letter was signed by Md. Abdul Hannan, deputy commissioner of the National Board of Revenue, which oversees the customs office.

The board has locked the humanitarian aid organization’s business identification number (BIN), which is required for all exports and imports.

“The 46 vehicles were imported duty-free for official use, but transfers of those vehicles violate NBR rules,” the letter reads, adding UNHCR was notified in a letter demanding that it pay the $7 million, which includes fines and interest.

“But it didn’t pay any amount,” the letter states.

The vehicles, which were imported into Bangladesh in 2018, include a Toyota Land Cruiser, Land Cruise ambulance and trucks. NBR alleged that the vehicles were used by the Bangladesh government’s Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief as well as the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner without permission.

It was unclear whether the vehicles that UNHCR shipped into the country duty-free were later sold second-hand or given away or donated.

On Monday, Md. Bodruzzaman Munshi, deputy commissioner of NBR’s Customs House in Chittagong, confirmed the freeze.

“UNHCR has violated the rules in the case of 46 vehicles – that is why they have been asked to pay customs duty and other taxes,” he told BenarNews. 

The UNHCR office in Bangladesh did not immediately respond to a BenarNews request for comment.

On Monday, a local UNHCR official asked a BenarNews reporter to send questions that were to be relayed to more senior U.N. representatives, but the official did not pick up subsequent follow-up calls after the questions were emailed to him. 

Last week, the U.N. agency did issue a statement to Bangladesh media.

“UNHCR has not violated any government regulation on import and export. However, UNHCR is currently in discussion with the Government of Bangladesh to solve this issue,” Bangladesh spokesman Mostafa Mohammad Sazzad Hossain told The Financial Express.

Concerns for Rohingya

Meanwhile, the executive director of the Policy Research Institute called the NBR action reckless.

“If the organization’s imports are disrupted because of this decision, how will UNHCR work for the Rohingya? Since UNHCR is working in the greater national and international interest, it should be resolved in an amicable way, taking consideration of small mistakes,” Ahsan H. Mansur told BenarNews.

“They [UNHCR] did not sell any vehicle. Maybe another organization is using them,” he said, adding UNHCR should not be forced to pay for a small mistake.

“They are bringing relief and feeding people and now you want them to pay taxes,” he said. “Now if they fail to import, then the government will have to feed the Rohingya.”

About 1 million Rohingya who have fled Myanmar live in refugee camps in and around Cox’s Bazar, a southeastern district near the Burmese border. These include about 740,000 who fled a military offensive in their home state of Rakhine in August 2017.

UNHCR is one of the international organizations assisting the refugees.

A July 2000 NBR order states “a diplomatic mission or diplomat or privileged organization or person may sell or transfer such goods without payment of duties and taxes only to another such diplomatic missions or person’s with prior permission from the NBR.” 

“They neither complied with the NBR rules nor informed the customs authority,” Munshi told BenarNews.

M. Masrur Reaz, an economist with the World Bank’s office in Bangladesh, called on both sides to reach an agreement.

“UNHCR should have followed the rules of the NBR. Customs will take action if there is any irregularity,” Reaz told BenarNews, adding such action is normal.

He questioned the BIN lock, calling it a harsh decision.

“There is no point in imposing tax on the vehicles if there is no personal use except for refugees or humanitarian work,” he said.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Reyad Hossain for BenarNews.

That’s one of the important data points contained in Global Trends in Forced Displacement 2022, which shows a record level of displacement, for the second year running, now standing at 108.4 million, UNHCR Director in New York, Ruven Menikdiwela told us.

UN News’s Pauline Batista began by asking her to outline the key findings.

This content originally appeared on UN News - Global perspective Human stories and was authored by Pauline Batista.

That’s according to Faith Kasina, Regional Spokesperson for UNHCR who is based in Nairobi. Ezzat El-Ferri of UN News’s Arabic service began by asking her for the latest on the extent of internal displacement across the country so far.

This content originally appeared on UN News - Global perspective Human stories and was authored by Ezzat El-Ferri.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on Monday urged the Biden administration to consider rescinding its proposed anti-asylum rule, which critics have compared to former President Donald Trump's "transit ban" that denied asylum to anyone who had traveled to the United States through a third country.

The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security last month proposed the new rule, which would subject asylum seekers to prompt deportation if they don't have "documents sufficient for lawful admission."

Migrants who pass through other countries en route to the U.S. without first claiming asylum there will be labeled ineligible to claim asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border—a violation of the internationally recognized right to seek asylum, said the UNHCR, echoing a number of refugee rights groups.

"As proposed, the regulation would restrict the fundamental human right to seek asylum for people who passed through another country and arrived in the United States without authorization," said the agency, which is headed by Filippo Grandi. "UNHCR is particularly concerned that, even with the regulation's grounds for rebuttal, this would lead to cases of refoulement—the forced return of people to situations where their lives and safety would be at risk—which is prohibited under international law."

"Key elements of the proposal are incompatible with principles of international refugee law," said the agency.

The UNHCR submitted comments on the proposed rule as part of the U.S. government's federal rule-making process. The public comment period for the proposal ends Monday.

The new rule, titled Circumvention of Legal Pathways, has been proposed to go into effect for two years after the expiration of Title 42, the pandemic-era policy which gave border agents the authority to expel immigrants at the southern U.S. border. Title 42 is currently scheduled to expire in May.

The UNHCR noted that the United States' mass denial of asylum for people arriving in the country after Title 42 expires would put strain on other countries which are already hosting millions of refugees.

"In line with the goals of the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection and other international commitments, it is essential that countries work together to secure collaborative and coordinated responses to increasing movements of refugees and migrants in the Americas," said the agency, referring to the 2022 agreement between Western Hemisphere countries that aimed to "create the conditions for safe, orderly, humane, and regular migration and to strengthen frameworks for international protection and cooperation."

The agency added that it is committed to supporting "broader reform efforts" regarding the U.S. immigration system aimed at improving "the fairness, quality and efficiency of the asylum system."

The UNHCR included recommendations for the U.S. system in its public comment, including:

• Introducing integrated border processing, reception, and registration to ensure asylum-seekers are identified as soon as possible after entering the U.S. and can be directed to the services they need, as well as helping to reduce overcrowding at ports of entry and minimizing delays and inefficiencies;
• Providing legal information, aid, and representation at the earliest possible stage to contribute to fairness and efficiency;
• Providing "non-adversarial adjudication," in which authorities could work with asylum applicants to "establish necessary facts and analyze them in accordance with international standards";
• Introducing "differentiated case processing modalities," in which straightforward cases with fewer legal or factual questions could be "streamed into accelerated and/or simplified procedures," allowing authorities "to enhance protection and build efficiencies by dedicating greater resources to the adjudication of complex claims."

"UNHCR stands ready to support these efforts throughout the region, including with the United States," said the UNHCR, "with a focus on genuine responsibility sharing, strengthening asylum systems and building safe pathways to protection and solutions."

The UNHCR has denounced the Biden administration's immigration policies in the past, warning in January that the president's expansion of Title 42—in which up to 30,000 people from specific countries would be sent to Mexico each month unless they met certain requirements—was "not in line with refugee law standards."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Julia Conley.

A delegation from Myanmar arrived in the Bangladeshi border town of Teknaf on Wednesday to begin interviewing Rohingya in an effort to clear their return to Rakhine, from where they fled following a brutal 2017 military crackdown.

U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said it was not involved in this so-called pilot project.

“In UNHCR’s assessment, conditions in Rakhine State are currently not conducive to the sustainable return of Rohingya refugees, UNHCR spokeswoman Regina De La Portilla said in an email to BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news service. “The process is being coordinated by authorities of the two countries.”

Rakhine, a state in western Myanmar bordering Bangladesh, was the site of months of intense fighting between Burmese junta forces and Arakan Army rebels. It is also the state where most of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya lived before the 2017 military crackdown.

The Myanmar military and the Arakan Army in November announced a ceasefire, but news reports have said returnees face a high risk of being hurt or killed by landmines and many areas of the state are in a shambles with no access to food and shelter.

UNHCR maintained that every refugee has a right to return to his or her home country “and some may choose to do so even under current conditions.”

Still, it added that any return to Myanmar “should be voluntary, in safety and dignity, and allow for sustainable reintegration in Myanmar.

“No refugee should be forced to return against his or her will,” UNHCR said.

Cox’s Bazar, a southeastern district in Bangladesh, houses about 1 million Rohingya, including about 740,000 who fled since August 2017.

Along with the U.N., activists and refugees themselves have expressed skepticism about the pilot project proposed in 2020, but has seemingly gained momentum in recent months.

On Wednesday, the 17-member Myanmar delegation which arrived in Teknaf, interviewed 90 Rohingya men and women listed for repatriation by Bangladesh. The purpose was to verify their identities and determine whether they lived in Rakhine state before fleeing to Bangladesh. The Myanmar delegation is scheduled to be in Teknaf for seven days.

Rohingya Khaled Hossain said he and his wife, Imtiaz, were questioned for three hours and asked to provide residency records.

“We handed them old records and photos. We want to go back to our country of origin. But we will only return when we will be given our civil rights and recognition as Rohingya community,” Hossain told BenarNews.

“We want the same citizenship status as Mogh [Rakhine Buddhists], Burmese and other communities. Apart from that, they must assure our security through the U.N. After that, we decide whether to return or not,” he said.

Khaled’s wife, Imtiaz, said four family members were interviewed.

“Maybe they’ll bring us back to Myanmar. But we seek peace,” she told BenarNews.

“We’d be willing to return to Myanmar if they provided the opportunity to live like the rest of the population. Otherwise, how do we return?”

‘China-pressure’

No Bangladesh or Myanmar junta official who spoke to BenarNews or Radio Free Asia (RFA), an affiliated news service, mentioned what the returnees’ citizenship status would be.

The Rohingya, whose ethnicity is not recognized by the government, have faced decades of discrimination in Myanmar and are effectively stateless, denied citizenship.

Myanmar authorities previously denied Rohingya freedom of movement, access to jobs, health care and education. Successive administrations have refused to call them “Rohingya” and instead use the term “Bengali.”

The 2017 atrocities against the Rohingya were committed during the tenure of the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who in December 2019 defended the military against allegations of genocide at the International Court of Justice.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner and one-time democracy icon languishes in prison – toppled by the same military in its 2021 coup.

Now, the Myanmar military is responding to China’s diplomatic coercion in promoting the pilot repatriation project, Nay San Lwin, an activist and co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition told RFA.

“The junta is implementing the repatriation program just to look good in the international community, as there was some China-pressure as well,” he said.

The returnees will likely end up staying in the centers for years, he said.

The project envisages bringing returnees through two reentry centers in Ngar Khu Ya and Hla Pho Khaung in Rakhine, according to a report last month in the junta-controlled state newspaper Myanmar Alinn.

Myanmar military officials gave tours of the centers to the heads of embassies from China, Bangladesh, India and eight ASEAN countries on March 8, Hla Thein, the junta’s attorney general and spokesman for Rakhine state, told RFA.

The returnees would receive assistance through education, livelihood and health programs at the two centers, he said, adding they would be accepted based on five points. The points include requiring a returnee to come back of his or her own volition.

China has mediated repatriation discussions between Bangladesh and Myanmar officials.

‘True good will’?

In addition to safety and Rohingya citizenship issues, there are other problems in repatriation, noted Bangladesh Foreign Minister A. K. Abdul Momen.

“The Chinese government had built new houses in some protected areas there for Rohingya. [But] They want to go to their original homes,” Momen told BenarNews.

“[T]he Myanmar authorities say their homesteads have been occupied by the Arakan Army. The places are unsafe. They cannot guarantee their return to their original homesteads,” said the minister, adding Bangladesh would not forcefully send refugees to Rakhine.

Additionally, the junta needs to say how many weeks or months returnees would have to stay in one of the two centers and where they would be sent afterward, said Khin Maung, director of the Rohingya Youth Association who lives in Cox’s Bazar.

“We are not sure if the military junta is implementing the repatriation program out of its true good will. A lot of things depend on that answer,” he told RFA.

Former Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md. Touhid Hossain told BenarNews on Monday that the pilot project wasn’t a workable idea.

“A sustainable repatriation can only be achieved when the 1.1 million refugees would voluntarily return to Myanmar,” he said

“Settling the Rohingya crisis lies in Myanmar. The responsibility to improve the situation in Rakhine also goes on them. If they do so, the Rohingya would voluntarily return to their homeland.”

Abdur Rahman in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and Kamran Reza Chowdhury in Dhaka contributed to this report. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By BenarNews and RFA Burmese.

Extreme hunger fueled by the climate emergency, violence, and disease has nearly 130,000 people in the Horn of Africa—which has entered its sixth straight failed rainy season—facing starvation, while 48 million others suffer from crisis levels of food insecurity, a United Nations expert warned Friday.

Liesbeth Aelbrecht, a consultant on health and food insecurity for the World Health Organization (WHO) sounded the alarm on what she said was the worst situation she's ever seen in over two decades of work in a region that includes the nations of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.

"These 48 million people do include as many as 129,000 who are facing catastrophe," Aelbrecht told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland. "That means they are facing starvation and literally looking death in the eyes."

None

— (@)

According to a report published earlier this year by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):

The Horn of Africa region continues to experience the longest and most severe drought on record, threatening lives and livelihoods, including millions of refugees and internally displaced people. Relentless drought and high food prices have weakened many people's ability to grow crops, raise livestock, and buy food... Harvests have yielded little and water sources have dried up. Conflict and insecurity continue to intersect with the drought emergency. As conditions continue to worsen, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee in search of safety and assistance.

UNHCR—which is appealing for $137 million "to respond to the immediate needs of affected populations" in the drought-stricken region—says 1,750,000 people have been internally displaced in Ethiopia and Somalia alone, while more than 180,000 refugees have crossed from Somalia and South Sudan into regions of Kenya and Ethiopia that are also suffering from drought.

None

— (@)

The region is also experiencing soaring disease rates.

"All seven countries are battling measles, a deadly disease, Aelbrecht said. "Four of the countries are fighting cholera, South Sudan being one of them; they just declared an outbreak," she added. "Malaria, which we know is endemic in this region and remains the biggest cause reason for [medical] consultation, is really on the rise."

Cases of hepatitis, meningitis, and dengue are also increasing, with Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, reporting its first-ever dengue outbreak this year.

"The frequency of these disease outbreaks is directly linked to these extreme weather events and to climate change," Aelbrecht said. "I've been working on and off in this region for almost 25 years now—and in terms of accumulated emergencies, this is bad as I've ever seen it."

"We need to do anything possible to control these disease outbreaks," she added. "We know how to control cholera, what we need is really the resources to scale this up."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Brett Wilkins.

To help 3.3 million people who’ve been displaced in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, issued an urgent appeal this week for $137 million.

And although famine was narrowly prevented last year, the humanitarian outlook for 2023 is extremely uncertain, as the agency’s Olga Sarrado tells UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

This content originally appeared on UN News - Global perspective Human stories and was authored by Daniel Johnson.

A second group of refugees detained in offshore Australian detention camps have arrived in New Zealand.

Four people touched down on a flight yesterday.

“I’m happy for them that they can get their freedom,” a friend of the recent arrivals who is still detained on Nauru, Hamid, said.

• READ MORE: Other Nauru refugee reports

Their arrival is part of an offer made by the New Zealand government to resettle up to 150 people who are or have been detained on Nauru each year for three years starting from 2022.

The Australian federal government accepted the offer in March last year and the first six refugees arrived in November.

The total arrivals of 10 is out of 100 refugees who have had their cases for resettlement submitted to Immigration New Zealand (INZ).

‘Kia ora’ Aotearoa, I’m Hamid’
Hamid is from Iran and has been detained for almost a decade.

“The situation here on this island is really hard — not just for me, but for everyone.

“I cannot stand any more time on this island.

“Please help! please help! please help! I need my freedom, I need my life, I need my family!” Hamid said.

He arrived on Christmas Island in 26 July 2013 with his eldest daughter and son. He left his wife and youngest daughter, who was only nine at the time, in Iran.

“In Iran, a lot of people already die, she [my wife] is tired. My daughter, I always worried about her. I give them hope,” he said.

Hamid dreams of being reunited with his family in New Zealand. He dreams of living in Queenstown and having a big Iranian barbecue.

A second group of refugees detained in offshore Australian detention camps have arrived in New Zealand.

Four people touched down on a flight yesterday.https://t.co/arpinIyy3U

— RNZ Pacific (@RNZPacific) January 20, 2023

Scattered family
He said his case had just been sent to INZ by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

While he waits for New Zealand to decide on his future, his wife and youngest child remain in Iran, his son is in Australia and his eldest daughter is in the US.

A family that has gone through so much is now scattered around the world.

“My family, I love them and the time and the day they join me, I cannot wait to be with them, to hug them and give them my love.

“I love them, they are my only love, my one and only, my wife, she is my one and only,” he said.

It takes around six to nine months to assess and process each case, a wait he said is going to be gruelling.

“All cases under the Australia arrangement are subject to having refugee status recognised by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and being submitted to New Zealand for resettlement. The UNHCR refer these cases to INZ who conduct an interview process with the individuals,” an INZ spokesperson said.

While Hamid was not on yesterday’s flight, INZ said it, “will be in contact with [him] about his situation once his arrangements are finalised”.

Until then, Hamid said he was scrubbing up on his te reo Māori while dreaming of his new life in New Zealand.

He cannot wait to greet people with “Kia ora”.

“I know New Zealand, I love the people,” Hamid said.

‘Bereft of hope’
While Hamid did have hope, Amnesty International said others did not.

It is calling on the New Zealand government to speed up the resettlement process.

“The Australian government’s offshore detention regime in Nauru and PNG has destroyed so many lives,” Australia refugee rights campaigner Zaki Haidari said.

“Many people are now so broken they can’t make a decision for themselves and are bereft of hope.”

An Immigration New Zealand spokesperson said it currently had 90 applications to process.

Interviews are underway for the remaining cases.

But the process was simply too slow, Haidari said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The rescue of hundreds of Rohingya refugees by fishers and local authorities in Indonesia's Aceh province was praised Tuesday as "an act of humanity" by United Nations officials, while relatives of around 180 Rohingya on another vessel that's been missing for weeks feared that all aboard had perished.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that "Indonesia has helped to save 472 people in the past six weeks from four boats, showing its commitment and respect of basic humanitarian principles for people who face persecution and conflict."

"We feel like we got a new world today... We could see their faces again. It's really a moment of joy for all of us."

"UNHCR urges other states to follow this example. Many others did not act despite numerous pleas and appeals for help," the Geneva-based agency added. "States in the region must fulfill their legal obligations by saving people on boats in distress to avoid further misery and deaths."

Ann Maymann, the UNHCR representative in Indonesia, said in a statement that "we welcome this act of humanity by local communities and authorities in Indonesia."

"These actions help to save human lives from certain death, ending torturous ordeals for many desperate people," she added.

The Syndey Morning Heraldreports residents of Ladong, a fishing village in Aceh, rushed to help 58 Malaysia-bound Rohingya men who arrived Sunday in a rickety wooden boat, many of them severely dehydrated and starving.

The following day, 174 more starving Rohingya men, women, and children, were helped ashore by local authorities and fishers after more than a month at sea.

Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, whose 27-year-old sister Hatamonesa was aboard the boat with her 5-year-old daughter, told Pakistan's Arab News that "we feel like we got a new world today."

“We could see their faces again. It's really a moment of joy for all of us," he said of his family. Speaking of his sister, he added that "she thought that she would die in the voyage at sea."

Babar Baloch, the UNHCR regional spokesperson in Bangkok, stated that 26 people had died aboard the rescued vessel, which left Bangladesh a month ago.

"We were raising alarm about this boat in early December because we had information that it was in the regional waters at least at the end of November," he said. "So when we first got reports that it was somewhere near the coast of Thailand, we approached authorities asking them to help, then when it was moving towards Indonesia and Malaysia we did the same."

"After its engine failure and it was drifting in the sea, there were reports of this boat being spotted close to Indian waters and we approached and asked them as well and we were also in touch with authorities in Sri Lanka," Baloch continued.

"Currently as we speak, the only countries in the region that have acted are Indonesia, in big numbers, and Sri Lanka as well."

According to the BBC, the Indian navy appears to have towed the boat into Indonesian waters after giving its desperate passengers some food and water. The boat drifted for another six days before it was allowed to land.

"Currently as we speak, the only countries in the region that have acted are Indonesia, in big numbers, and Sri Lanka as well," Baloch said. "It is an act in support of humanity, there's no other way to describe it."

Relatives of around 180 other Rohingya who left Bangladesh on December 2 said Tuesday that they fear the overcrowded vessel has sunk in the Andaman Sea. Mohammad Noman, a resident of a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, toldThe Guardian that his sister was aboard the boat with her two daughters, who are 5 and 3 years old.

"Every day we called up the boat two or three times on the boatman's satellite phone to find out if my sister and her two daughters were all right. Since December 8, I have failed to get access to that phone," he said. "I know some other people in Cox's Bazar who made phone calls to the boat every day and stayed in contact with their relatives there. None of them has succeeded to reach the phone after December 8."

The captain of another vessel transporting Rohingya refugees said he saw the distressed boat swept up in stormy seas sometime during the second week of December.

"It was around 2:00 am when a strong wind began blowing and big waves surfaced on the sea. [Their] boat began swaying wildly, we could gauge from a flashlight they were pointing at us," he told The Guardian. "After some time, we could not see the flashlight anymore. We believe the boat drowned then."

More than a million Rohingya Muslims are crowded into squalid refugee camps in southern Bangladesh after having fled ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and other violence and repression in Rakhine state, Myanmar, which is ruled by a military dictatorship. Since 2020, thousands of Rohingya have fled the camps by sea.

Hundreds have died during the perilous journey. If the sinking of the boat with 180 aboard is confirmed, it would make 2022 the deadliest year for Rohingya at sea, according to UNHCR.

UNHCR's Baloch stressed that "countries and states in the region have international obligations to help desperate people."

"We have been calling on states to go after people smugglers and human traffickers as they are responsible for putting people on those death-trap boats, but victims have to be saved and saving human life is the most important act," he told the Morning Herald.

"The refugee issue and saving lives cannot just be left to one country, it has to be done collectively, together in the region," he added.

Tun Khin, a Rohingya activist and refugee who now heads the Burmese Rohingya Organization U.K., took aim at regional power Australia, which has been criticized for decades over its abuse of desperate seaborne asylum-seekers, nearly all of whom are sent to dirty, crowded offshore processing centers on Manus Island and Nauru to await their fate.

"Australia has too often set a shameful example for the region through its treatment of refugees," he told the Morning Herald.

"These people are facing genocide in Burma," Khin added, using the former official name of Myanmar. "It is a hopeless situation for them in Bangladesh, there is no dignity of life there."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Brett Wilkins.

A United Nations refugee advocate on Friday joined human rights defenders in imploring South and Southeast Asian nations to rescue nearly 200 Rohingya refugees "on the verge of perishing" after drifting on the Andaman Sea for weeks—an ordeal that's already reportedly claimed around 20 lives aboard the vessel.

The refugees—who are fleeing ethnic cleansing and other severe state repression in their native Myanmar—have been packed aboard the unseaworthy boat for as long as a month without adequate food or water, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.

"While many in the world are preparing to enjoy a holiday season and ring in a new year, boats bearing desperate Rohingya men, women, and young children, are setting off on perilous journeys in unseaworthy vessels."

"It is devastating to learn that many people have already lost their lives, including children," Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCR's Asia and Pacific director, said on Friday, lamenting that the refugees' plight has been "continuously ignored" by countries in the region.

"This shocking ordeal and tragedy must not continue," Ratwatte continued. "These are human beings—men, women, and children. We need to see the states in the region help save lives and not let people die."

Using his phone, the captain of the stranded boat told Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, whose sister and 5-year-old niece are on the vessel, that "we're dying here."

Khan toldThe Washington Post on Friday that he has lost contact with his relatives aboard the vessel and that he is "very concerned" for their well-being.

"I ask the international community to not let them die," Khan added. "Rohingya are human beings. Our lives matter."

According to UNHCR:

Since the first reports of the boat being sighted in Thai waters, UNHCR has received unverified information of the vessel being spotted near Indonesia and then subsequently off the coast of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India.
Its current location is reportedly once more back eastwards, in the Andaman sea north of Aceh.
UNHCR has repeatedly asked all countries in the region to make saving lives a priority and requested the Indian marine rescue center earlier this week to allow for disembarkations.

While the Sri Lankan navy and local fishers acted rapidly to rescue over 100 Rohingya from a boat in distress in the Indian Ocean last weekend, no such assistance has been rendered to the vessel drifting in the Andaman Sea.

"International humanitarian law requires the rescue of people at sea when they are in distress, and their delivery to a place of safety," Amnesty International stressed in a tweet Thursday. "Further delays to alleviate this suffering or any attempts to send Rohingya back to Myanmar where they face apartheid are unconscionable."

Two weeks ago, a Vietnamese commercial ship en route to Myanmar rescued 154 Rohingya refugees from a sinking boat before turning them over to Burmese authorities, who reportedly arrested the migrants.

On Thursday, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Tom Andrews said that nations in the region "should prevent any loss of life and urgently rescue and provide immediate relocation" to the stranded Rohingya.

"Too many Rohingya lives have already been lost in maritime crossings."

"Too many Rohingya lives have already been lost in maritime crossings," asserted Andrews, a former Democratic U.S. congressman from Maine. "Increasing numbers of Rohingya have been using dangerous sea and land routes in recent weeks, which highlights the sense of desperation and hopelessness experienced by Rohingya in Myanmar and in the region."

UNHCR has reported a 600% increase of mostly Rohingya people endeavoring perilous sea journeys from Myanmar and Bangladesh in 2022. The agency says at least 119 people have died or gone missing this year.

"While many in the world are preparing to enjoy a holiday season and ring in a new year, boats bearing desperate Rohingya men, women, and young children, are setting off on perilous journeys in unseaworthy vessels," Andrews said.

"The international community must step forward," he added, "and assist regional actors to provide durable solutions for the Rohingya."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Brett Wilkins.

The conflict stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its humanitarian fallout is straining resources everywhere, including in supporting the sprawling refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh along the frontier with Myanmar, said Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

“I am here to remind the international community that there is not just Ukraine. Bangladesh has been bearing the responsibilities for five years and this support cannot decline,” he told a press conference in Dhaka.

“I will not accept it. I will put maximum pressure on all donor partners.”

“It is very important that the world knows this should not be forgotten …. The risk is there of marginalization of some of the crises because so many resources are absorbed, especially by the Ukraine emergency,” he added.

The camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district house about 1 million Rohingya refugees, including 740,000 who fled atrocities during a military offensive in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017.

But only 13 percent of the U.S. $881 million needed by humanitarian agencies this year to support the Rohingya refugees in the South Asian nation has been funded as of May.

“I am a bit worried... first of all, there are a bit more needs because there is also Bhashan Char, and now in Ukraine, in Afghanistan and a lot of other competing crises, we struggle a bit, but I am here also for that reason,” Grandi said.

Bhashan Char is a remote island in the Bay of Bengal where the Bangladesh government has relocated some 26,000 Rohingya refugees since December 2020, ostensibly to ease the burden on the crowded mainland camps in Cox’s Bazar.

During his stay in Bangladesh, Grandi visited refugee camps in both Cox’s Bazar and on Bhashan Char.

Grandi said the war in Ukraine had added an additional financial burden on the United Nations, which was affecting the Rohingya camps as well.

“The Ukraine emergency is posing a problem here as well. We buy liquid gas for … [these] camps. That price has gone up a lot and this is a direct impact of the crisis,” he said.

When asked, Grandi acknowledged that funding for the Rohingya refugees would be more difficult than before.

“I think the government knows that, we know that, and the donors know that.”

The solution to the Rohingya crisis lies in Myanmar, the UNHCR chief said.

“The Rohingya refugees I met reiterated their desire to return home when conditions allow. The world must work to address the root causes of their flight and to translate those dreams into reality,” Grandi said.

“We hope, following the visit of UNHCR boss, the process of repatriation will get more focus,” he told BenarNews.

“We want to return to our homeland with dignity.”

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

Taliban forces in Kabul arrested North, a former BBC journalist on assignment for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and another journalist whose name was not released, and transferred them to an undisclosed location, according to a statement on Twitter by the UNHCR; Twitter posts by former Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh and BBC Executive Editor for World News Content Paul Danahar; and the Afghanistan International TV Station, an independent London-based outlet.

A UN official in Kabul, who communicated with CPJ on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the issue, said that North was detained on Tuesday, February 8. None of those statements or reports identify the second journalist, or the exact circumstances of their detention.

According to the UNHCR’s statement, “two journalists on assignment with UNHCR and Afghan nationals working with them” were detained. The UNHCR also said, “We are doing our utmost to resolve the situation, in coordination with others,” adding that it would make no further comment.

“The Taliban’s detention of two journalists on assignment with the UN refugee agency is a sad reflection of the overall decline of press freedom and increasing attacks on journalists under Taliban rule,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Andrew North and the other, unidentified journalist should be freed immediately and allowed to continue their work, and the Taliban must halt its repeated attacks on and harassment of journalists.”

The Washington Post quoted an unnamed Taliban official as saying that several foreigners were arrested in Kabul on charges of working for Western intelligence agencies.

North is a former BBC reporter who now independently reports on Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Asia, according to his personal website. His Twitter account shows posts from the southern Kandahar and Helmand provinces in late January; he last tweeted on February 3.

Ahmadullah Wasiq, a Taliban deputy spokesperson in Afghanistan, did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

Also in this feature:

• Recommendations

When journalists are forced to flee their countries, factors such as criminal charges and lack of access to visas often force them to undertake perilous journeys that land them in unprotected environments. And once they have fled, journalists face a new set of challenges. CPJ has worked on hundreds such cases since the Journalist Assistance program was launched 20 years ago, and found that exile has become its own form of censorship. Some face direct intimidation, such as physical attacks in their new homes or threats to the family members they left behind, while many more are pushed out of the profession because of difficulties finding employment and language barriers in their new environments.

A November 2020 report by a panel of legal experts found most journalists at risk are “unable to move to safety in time because the pathways open to them are too few in number and those that do exist are too slow, burdensome and difficult to navigate to be capable of providing practical and effective recourse.” The panel called on states to “introduce a new emergency visa for journalists at risk,” which would allow journalists to quickly flee danger in their home countries and gain temporary refuge. CPJ endorsed this recommendation, having found over 20 years of helping hundreds of journalists flee that when they are able to travel quickly to safe, supportive environments, they are far more likely to continue in the profession and eventually return home.

In early 2021, four of the 69 Syrian journalists–who had settled in Spain–launched the country’s first refugee-run online magazine, Baynana, dedicated to serving Spain’s growing Arabic-speaking community. But this success came at a high price. To mark World Refugee Day, CPJ is calling on governments around the world to establish emergency visas for journalists that would allow them to quickly flee danger in their home countries, seek temporary refuge, and continue to work. Here are five reasons why, illustrated with case studies drawn from CPJ’s Journalist Assistance work, recent interviews, and past reporting:

1. Visa hurdles force journalists into dangerous situations

Whether escaping harsh government crackdowns or waves of anti-press violence, the ability to flee quickly is crucial to survival. This leaves little time for a protracted visa process. But time is not the only issue. The same circumstances that put journalists at risk also count against them when it comes to meeting the stringent requirements–such as proof of return–that most countries demand.

Journalists in danger instead often resort to traveling across porous borders to neighboring countries, where they remain stuck for long periods waiting out the long, uncertain resettlement process of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees or facing a legal maze in the new country. In addition to living under harsh conditions, journalists have told CPJ they feel vulnerable to attack, deportation, or forced return.

Case studies:

• Zerihun Tesfaye, an Ethiopian political reporter for the now-defunct critical outlet Addis Neger, fled in 2009 after learning the government planned to arrest much of the staff. He escaped to neighboring Kenya, the only option available to him without a visa. Tesfaye spent four years living in hardship and constant fear that Ethiopian authorities would locate him in Nairobi. He eventually resettled in the United States. Since leaving Ethiopia, though he has contributed unpaid reporting and translation for some journalism-related projects, Tesfaye told CPJ that has not been able to resume a career as a journalist and works a variety of different jobs to make a living. 
• In May 2021, Thai authorities arrested three Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) journalists for alleged illegal entry. The journalists fled from Myanmar, where dozens of journalists have been arrested by the military junta since the February coup, including several affiliated with DVB. The journalists received a suspended sentence of seven months and were relocated to a safe third country, DVB announced on June 7.

2. The asylum process poses professional challenges

Even when they overcome visa hurdles, journalists still face immense challenges in their host countries. One difficulty can be gaining permission to stay long enough until it is safe to return. Visa extensions or status changes are hard to obtain, often leaving journalists with the choice of applying for asylum or returning at great peril, as seen with the 2007 murder of Iraqi reporter Sahar Hussein Ali al-Haydari.

While asylum can bring long-term safety, for most journalists it is an option of last resort. The asylum process—which differs from country to country—can take years with no guarantee of success at the end. Once the process is started, travel is generally prohibited until asylum is granted; if the journalist is overseas without his or her family, going the asylum route means a lengthy separation. It also means a long wait for work authorization and this, combined with the difficulty in penetrating the media job market in a new country, means journalists in exile must look outside the profession to make ends meet.

Case studies:

• Pakistani journalist Kiyya Baloch went to Norway to study journalism in 2017 and get a temporary respite from threats he’d been receiving. While away, conditions for journalists in Pakistan deteriorated and in 2020, an alleged leaked government memo accused him of anti-state activities. Faced with new threats, Baloch has struggled to extend his stay. His last request for a student visa was rejected but he told CPJ he fears that applying for asylum would cement his status as a state enemy, making his eventual return more dangerous.
• After six years of imprisonment and three years of living under heavy surveillance, Tibetan documentary filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen decided in 2017 it was time to flee China. With no passport and his communications closely monitored, he was reliant on smugglers who took him through Vietnam and Thailand. From there he went to Switzerland and eventually to the U.S., where it took him another year to get asylum. Despite winning international recognition for his work—including CPJ’s 2012 International Press Freedom Award—Wangchen told CPJ that he has struggled to afford medical treatment and to find work in the U.S.

3. Threats, physical attacks follow journalists in exile

Journalists often continue to face threats and harassment after fleeing to countries they had presumed to be safe. Just how far authoritarian governments will go to hunt down their critics was made clear in May 2021 when Belarusian authorities diverted a commercial passenger flight to Minsk in order to arrest exiled journalist Raman Pratasevich. CPJ has documented many other attacks on journalists in exile, including death threats, abductions, assaults, and even murders. State campaigns to discredit journalists after they flee to safety and threats and legal action against family members who remain also serve as chilling reminders to journalists that their reporting can bring reprisals wherever they are.

Meanwhile, journalists who resettle in countries where they are part of a larger diaspora are vulnerable to attacks by members of their new communities. And research by CPJ and other organizations has found that authoritarian governments use surveillance technology to spy on journalists living overseas.

These risks make patent the need for host countries to take measures to protect journalists residing within their borders against security threats and extradition attempts as well as to offer havens for immediate family members. Where this is not possible, journalists should be able to seek relocation to another country. 

Case studies:

• After the Islamic State group captured his town in 2013, Syrian broadcast journalist Zaher al-Shurqat relocated to nearby Gaziantep, Turkey. In April 2016, however, a masked gunman fatally shot al-Shurqat on the street. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the killing, one of four assassinations of a Syrian journalist living in Turkey it claimed between 2015 and 2016.
• Can Dündar, editor of Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper and a 2016 IPFA honoree, went to Berlin in 2016 to escape anti-state charges amid President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s crackdown on the media. In Germany, home to a large Turkish community, Dündar is regularly subject to threats from Erdoğan supporters and has required police protection at times. Dündar’s flight has not stopped charges from mounting against him. In December 2020, he was convicted in absentia and sentenced to at least 27.5 years in prison.

4. Criminalization of journalism makes finding refuge more difficult

Journalists around the world are routinely jailed on anti-state or criminal defamation charges, trumped-up charges such as drug possession, or even without charge because of their work. CPJ has found that those who are facing charges or who have a criminal history are likely to be stopped at borders and can have a harder time getting approved for visas or asylum. These journalists are also vulnerable to extradition. Criminalizing journalism also gives repressive governments a pretext to revoke passports or even citizenship altogether, further complicating the ability of journalists in exile to secure status in their new countries, or to work or travel.

Case study:

• Azerbaijani journalist and press freedom activist Emin Huseynov went into hiding in 2014 to escape criminal accusations of tax evasion and engaging in “illegal business over unregistered grant contracts.”  Knowing he was banned from traveling, Huseynov took refuge in the Swiss embassy, where he stayed for over a year until safe passage out of the country could be arranged. Azerbaijan retaliated by stripping Huseynov of his citizenship. Huseynov, who has refugee status in Switzerland, has filed a case against Azerbaijan through the European Court of Human Rights accusing the country of using deprivation of nationality to silence dissenting and critical voices.

5. Better solutions mean better chances of continuing in journalism

In its years of working with journalists in exile, CPJ has found that when those at risk have expedient routes to temporary safe havens and access to professional support networks, they are in better positions to continue and even strengthen their work. CPJ has partnered with regional groups, academic institutions, and other programs to set journalists up in well-supported environments. A review of CPJ’s cases found that in these instances, journalists are far more likely to stay in the profession and eventually return home compared with those who had no option but to flee into volatile situations, engage in the grueling resettlement process, or claim asylum.

In the last decade, in cases where CPJ was able to place journalists with host groups and institutions, over 90 percent returned to their countries within a few years.

Case studies:

• In 2017, Proceso reporter Patricia Mayorga’s close colleague, Miroslava Breach Velducea, was murdered in Mexico. With good reason to think she would be next, Mayorga, who covered crime and corruption, relocated with her daughter to Peru through a safe-house program hosted by regional group Instituto Prensa y Sociedad and with support from CPJ. While in exile, Mayorga—a 2017 IPFA honoree—was able to continue reporting and work with other journalists from the region. She returned to Mexico in 2020, and now trains independent journalists. 
• Ahmad Noorani, a co-founder and reporter at the independent investigative news website FactFocus, endured a brutal assault, threats, and de facto blacklisting before deciding it was time to leave Pakistan. In 2020, he took an academic placement in the United States through the Alfred Friendly Press Partners, with support from Scholars at Risk, Protect Defenders EU, and CPJ. Although COVID-19 curtailed his activities, the support structure helped Noorani use his time to pursue an investigative piece exposing alleged controversial financial dealings of a former high-ranking military official.

Recommendations

Since the creation of CPJ’s Journalist Assistance program in 2001, the single most common request for support the team has received has been for emergency relocation. Journalists working in dangerous places often face no choice but to move themselves and their families in order to escape threats. Usually they rely on civil society organizations to help them process their cases and assist in engaging with governments. 

Governments play a critical role in ensuring the safe and successful relocation of journalists at risk. This includes financial support for emergency programs and coordination with civil society and other governments on relocation options. But it is also imperative that governments have in place policies that allow for swift relocation to their own countries. 

The Committee to Protect Journalists therefore offers the following recommendations:

To national governments

• Create special emergency visas for journalists that would allow quick evacuation and relocation to safety. The visas should be granted to individuals who are at risk in direct relation to their work reporting and/or disseminating the news. This is in line with the recommendations of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom.
  
• Communicate the nature and requirements for these visas to civil society and media organizations and create a process through which these groups can submit cases for consideration. 

• In order for visas to offer protection, the process should be expedient (no longer than 15 days) and, when necessary, include family members who are also at risk. In cases judged to be acute, consider immediate relocation with a secondary review of the visa case. 

• Train embassy and consular staff on special emergency visas and provide them with sufficient resources to ensure the proper processing of cases. Where possible, confer direct authority to ambassadors over the visa decision-making process. 

• Create processes by which journalists can appeal denials. 

• Recognize that criminal charges against journalists are a commonly used form of persecution and ensure the visa process allows for full consideration of these cases.

• To promote the ability of journalists forced into exile to carry on their work, temporary emergency visas should include work authorization provisions.

• Offer measures to protect journalists residing within their borders against security threats and attempts to have them extradited on criminal charges levied in connection to the journalist’s work.

• Set up protocols allowing for emergency visas for journalists to be processed in a second country. This would ensure that journalists who remain at high risk in their exile locations maintain access to the emergency visa process, and provide an alternative pathway to journalists who cannot communicate freely with embassies while in their home countries or who must try to cross borders undetected.

To the UN High Commissioner for Refugees

• Grant refugee status to journalists at risk, regardless of the country where they apply.

• Recognize that journalists, due to their public profiles, remain at high risk among some refugee communities and expedite their resettlement applications and/or give them immediate access to available protections.

To media outlets, academic institutions, and foundations

• Media outlets should support journalists in exile by establishing internships, temporary positions, and mentorship programs.

• Media outlets should set up evacuation protocols for freelance or staff hires who come under threat and establish security liaisons to work with civil society organizations and advocate for visas. This should apply not only to reporters, editors, and photographers but also to local translators, drivers, and other support personnel.

• Academic institutions should establish fellowships, research opportunities, and scholarships for journalists at risk.

• Foundations should provide support for fellowships, scholarships, exile media sites, and research projects that enable journalists to remain professionally engaged while in exile.

Additional reporting by CPJ Emergencies Director María Salazar Ferro and CPJ Middle East and North Africa Representative Ignacio Miguel Delgado Culebras.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Elisabeth Witchel.