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Commentary and Editorials Bhutan's ethnic cleansing By Bill Frelick Published in New Statesman Bill Frelick examines the plight of Bhutan's stateless ethnic Nepalese. February 1, 2008 Printer friendly version The Right Way Forward for Kenya Chris Albin-Lackey and Ben Rawlence Published in The print edition of The Standard Kenya's electoral crisis is spinning out of control, threatening the country's future, and exacting a terrible toll on thousands of ordinary Kenyans. Hundreds have been killed and thousands more chased out of their homes by mobs made up of former neighbours. The need for a political settlement between Kibaki and Odinga grows more urgent by the day as violence spreads and public anger deepens. But any compromise should address the crime that sparked this crisis to begin with— the rigging of Kenya's Presidential poll. January 30, 2008 Printer friendly version Rot Here or Die There By Tom Porteous, London director Published in New Statesman Online Together with the US, the UK government should acknowledge its responsibility toward Iraqi refugees because of its military intervention in Iraq. But until now it has not even taken elementary steps to assist Iraq’s neighbours to deal with the crisis, nor to convince them to keep their doors open to refugees whose lives are in danger in Iraq. December 7, 2007 Printer friendly version Rot or Die: Iraqi refugees in Lebanon By Bill Frelick Published in Al-Akhbar Choosing between one terrible fate and another terrible fate is no choice at all. But it is precisely the choice Lebanon has presented to 580 Iraqi refugees, who have been told to choose between rotting in jail with no end in sight, or return to Iraq and face the possibility of death. December 4, 2007 Also available in 
Printer friendly version Talk to Syria for the Sake of Iraqi Refugees By Bill Frelick Published in The Huffington Post This week, the last door slammed shut on Iraqi refugees desperate to flee for their lives. Syria, which had kept its border open long after Jordan and other neighbors had closed theirs to all but a lucky few, has now also imposed a strict visa regime for Iraqis, and the latest reports from the border indicate that the refugee flow has stopped. October 16, 2007 Printer friendly version Korea needs to open its doors South Korea has shirked one of the vital responsibilities that comes with its new status: admitting refugees and asylum seekers Published in JoongAng Daily While many Koreans do not realize it, South Korea also has become a beacon to many pro-democracy and human rights activists around the world. Within a generation, South Koreans shed a dictatorship for a functioning democracy, an achievement that many others hope to emulate. August 21, 2007 Also available in 
Printer friendly version U.S. Priorities Invite Skepticism By Bill Frelick Published in The Washington Post This letter to the editor was written by Bill Frelick and published in the Washington Post in response to US Assistant Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey's July 5, 2007, letter, "Two Refugee Flows That Aren't Alike," on Iraqi refugees. July 9, 2007 Printer friendly version Bhutanese Refugees: The Right of Return, the Chance for Resettlement By Bill Frelick Published in The Huffington Post Bhutan may profit from evocative tourist images of an isolated cloud kingdom whose people live in serenity and colorful traditional dress, but for many Bhutanese it's far from idyllic. It's a place where citizens can't get a government job, buy or sell land, or open a business without a police-issued card attesting that the bearer is not "anti-national." But it's still home - or at least it should be - for the more than 100,000 Bhutanese citizens expelled in the early 1990s. June 20, 2007 Printer friendly version Iraqi Refugees' Plight Grows as U.S. Dawdles By Bill Frelick Published in The Wall Street Journal U.S. Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky ("Helping Iraq's Refugees," editorial page, May 30) says "foreign policy pundits" unfairly accuse the Bush administration of indifference to the plight of Iraqi refugees. She proclaims that "progress has been made." Tell that to two million Iraqi refugees and another two million displaced inside Iraq. June 13, 2007 Printer friendly version Plight of the Refugees Letter to the Editor Published in The Sunday Times The UK has studiously ignored nearly 2m refugees escaping violence and persecution, perhaps because recognising their existence would be an admission that the adventure in Iraq did not go as planned. March 25, 2007 Printer friendly version North Korea's Cruelty By Kay Seok Published in The Washington Post North Korea is again dominating headlines by signing a deal to close its main nuclear reactor and allow international inspectors to return in exchange for energy and economic assistance. As North Korea watchers cautiously welcome this possible step toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, a deeply disturbing development has garnered almost no attention: Pyongyang's hardening policy toward North Korean border-crossers. March 17, 2007 Also available in
Printer friendly version The Refugees Fleeing Iraq are our Responsibility British policy on Iraqi refugees is not only morally indefensible, but also shortsighted By Tom Porteous, London Director Published in The Independent If the Prime Minister has refused to apologise for invading Iraq, he should at least accept responsibility for its consequences. Two million Iraqis have fled the violence unleashed by the invasion and occupation. And as the violence escalates, so does the exodus. March 6, 2007 Printer friendly version Iraq's Other Surge By Bill Frelick Published in The Wall Street Journal Najah worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military at the Falcon base in Baghdad. One day as he left base, a car sprayed him with bullets, hitting him in both legs and his abdomen. Najah left the hospital after two days, fearing insurgents would find him there and kill him: "After the shooting, everyone knew I was working for the Americans." After recovering sufficiently, he fled to Jordan, where he is stuck without papers, and could be deported at any time. February 15, 2007 Printer friendly version Iraqi refugees — issue needs to be tackled with help from international community By Bill Frelick Published in The Jordan Times One of the most uncomfortable realities both for the US president and his Jordanian hosts is the existence of more than half a million refugees living in Jordan, who have fled persecution and violence as a consequence of Bush’s war in next door Iraq. November 30, 2006 Printer friendly version Scant Refuge in Jordan By Bill Frelick Published in International Herald Tribune President George W. Bush chose Jordan as the venue for this week's meeting with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq at least in part because he saw Jordan as the safest and friendliest spot in the region. More than half a million refugees from Iraq have chosen Jordan as a place of temporary refuge from war and persecution for much the same reason. November 30, 2006 Printer friendly version Getting the neighbours to do the dirty work By Ian Gorvin Published in European Voice Many, if not most, of the European leaders meeting in Lahti tomorrow (20 October) are keen to ‘externalise’ the management of asylum-seekers and migrants. October 19, 2006 Printer friendly version Going to school — a right not to be ignored By Bill Frelick Published in Jordan Times The first day of school is a special day in the lives of children, but yesterday tens of thousands of kids in Jordan spent it at home. They are foreigners — mostly Iraqis — whom the government has not allowed to enrol because they lack residence permits. August 24, 2006 Printer friendly version Empty Words and Unmet Promises Dayton and human rights--ten years later By Bogdan Ivanisevic, Human Rights Watch researcher on the former Yugoslavia Published in El Mundo (in Spanish) If the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the Bosnian war in November 1995, had been fully implemented in the past ten years, Bosnia and Herzegovina would stand out globally for its superb record on human rights. The agreement proclaimed the right of all refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes, and the state obligation to investigate and prosecute war crimes. More than a dozen international human rights agreements were, quite uniquely, to be directly applicable before domestic courts. November 20, 2005 Also available in 
Printer friendly version Interview with Brad Adams, outlining Burmese ethnic minority communities' ongoing horrors Published in http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=5005&z;=6 In June, Human Rights Watch issued a damning and all too resonant report on the plight of an estimated 650,000 internally displaced persons in eastern Burma, most from the large Karen minority. The Karen are part of a very grim overall picture. The human rights situation in Burma is horrible, says Brad Adams, HRW's director for Asia. Gross violations of international humanitarian law are regularly committed by government forces, including the continued recruitment and use of child soldiers, extrajudicial executions, rape of women and girls, torture, and forced relocation. Adams was recently interviewed by Dominic Faulder for The Irrawaddy. September 22, 2005 Printer friendly version Closed-door Immigration Policy Is Shameful Vision By Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, and Julia Hall, counsel and senior researcher in Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia Division. Published in European Voice European immigration policy has to do more than simply try to bar the door to migrants and asylum-seekers. September 16, 2004 Printer friendly version |
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