Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Henriette Johansen
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Denmark tightens Aliens Act, returns refugees, but pushes EU to solve largest migration flow since 2016
The European Union (EU) is currently experiencing a migration flux reflecting 2016 levels, recording 330,000 new arrivals last year with no sign of decline. Meanwhile, EU countries have continuously failed to find and implement a common asylum system that can effectively manage this development and, instead, seen increasingly strict conditions…
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Europe’s dirty deal with Turkey is making the vulnerable more vulnerable
The situation in Idomeni in Greece is worsening by the hour as desperation mounts over inhumane European border policies. People are fighting amongst themselves and against the police. Some refugees are defending the police to avoid violent escalations. Stranded for over a month, about 14,000 people are stuck in limbo.…
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Lesvos: where humanity confronts borders
Depending on the situation at the border with Macedonia, there could soon be thousands of people stranded on the Greek island of Lesvos. It was chaos in August and September last year, but now it has become manageable with strong organisation, diligence and volunteers. Over the past six months, volunteers…
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Empty tokenism in Danish politics creates new lows in ‘values’ debate
Danish politics is facing potentially radical changes. Not only has Denmark ruined its humanitarian socialist image of welfare and equality, but it has also seen numerous prominent politicians moving to the left as the Social Democrats perversely voted with the right-wing parties to approve the controversial amendment to the Immigration…
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Europe’s colonial amnesia and its repercussions for the migrant and refugee crisis
The daily updates I receive from volunteers working in Calais and on the Greek islands of Lesvos and Chios are heart-breaking. As I sat to write this, a volunteer nurse from Denmark described her night shift to me, driving up and down the coast of Chios, turning off all lights…
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The British government outsources responsibilities for refugees and migrants to civil society
The condition of migrants and refugees in Britain was debated critically at an evening seminar at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) last week. The British university invited prominent migration and refugee experts to take part, including Migrants’ Rights Network’s Director Don Flynn. He expressed his concerns…
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Denmark adopts laws that, paradoxically, threaten to erode the rule of law
The public debates on Denmark’s newly-approved asylum policies are red hot. One of the new economic moves to curb asylum “pressure” is a controversial plan to strip refugees of their valuables, including jewellery and cash. Justice Minister Søren Pind explained it like this on the Vi ses hos Clement TV…
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Running in the West Bank: A different narrative of resistance
the West bankWorking in Palestine Signe Smidt discovered during her runs, how movement was restricted by the wall and several check-points, a symptom of the country’s political stalemate. This motivated her to arrange Palestine’s first Marathon in Bethlehem. To run is a basic exercise of right to movement and strengthening…
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Ex-detainee Palestinian was given no citizenship or asylum in Britain, which gave his land away
Since 2010, when M landed in England after a long and life-threatening journey from Palestine, he has been passed around in the legal arena. The responsibility for his situation has been passed from one authority to another with no resolution, leaving him in the limbo of statelessness, unable to return…
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Calais ‘Jungle’ bulldozed and tear-gassed by French authorities after solidarity march
At the entrance to the “Jungle” refugee camp in Calais on Monday morning, around 400 people had “over-spilled” the borders of their designated plot of “no man’s land” and saw their tents and belongings brutally razed to the ground. This was done as a “security step” according to last month’s…
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‘In the UK’s detention centres, you don’t count your days down, you count them up’
The UK has more than 30,000 migrants and asylum-seekers who are currently being detained indefinitely whilst their immigration status is resolved. This can take months or even years, leaving people indefinitely in detention – a system that was only established in the mid-90s. Detainees find themselves in detention either due…
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Contextualising the European protests in favour of Syrian refugees
Last Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people all over Europe gathered outside their respective parliaments to demand policies that reflected the people’s solidarity with Syrian refugees. After four years of suffering, Syrian civilians are risking their lives to desperately reach European shores in the hope of humanity. London alone saw…
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‘You stink!’ protesters promise ‘surprise’ if Lebanese government fails to meet demands
Tens of thousands of protesters all over the world were on the streets at the weekend in support of the people of Lebanon and their anti-government demonstrations. From London to Washington DC, the Lebanese and their supporters came together in support of the demand for government resignations and structural change.…
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Lebanese protest about government laxity on waste crisis
Tens of thousands of protesters have joined the “You Stink” campaign to push the Lebanese government to take action to solve a towering waste management problem. The grievances are deep, though, and go way beyond the bin-filled streets of Beirut. Since the closing down of Lebanon’s landfill site in Naameh…
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The synergy of European laissez-faire attitude to migration responsibilities
In times when Europeans are experiencing a political shift to the right, immigrants are haunted by legacies of neo-imperial, economic exploitation as well as the long-term effects of the only-recently defunct colonial machinery. After thousands of refugees fleeing war in their own countries died trying to reach Europe’s borders, the…
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Palestinians need political action not cheques, argues Mads Gilbert
An important event took place at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) on Wednesday. As people sat wiping their tears, Norway’s Dr Mads Gilbert took us through the horrors and bravery of A Night in Gaza during the launch of his eponymous book. He started by stating…
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Danish companies warned about settlement investments
A new report from the investigative journalism team at DanWatch gives more disturbing evidence of Danish businesses helping to keep the wheels of Israel’s military occupation of Palestine turning. Danish investment funds invest 689 million Danish Krone (around £67 million) in companies with activities in illegal Israeli settlements on the…
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Danish business on stolen land
Last Thursday, one of Denmark’s biggest newspapers, Politiken, published an article which described the occupied Palestinian territories as part of Israel. Despite the picturesque nomenclature on the Dead Sea and the surrounding area, the trip which was the focus of the piece was actually to the illegal Israeli settlement of…
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‘There is nothing stronger than the will of the people’
“Beyond Sunnis and Shiites, understanding the violent reconfiguration of citizen, sect, tribe and states in the Arab World”, held on 21 January 2015 at the Mosaic Rooms, London. A lecture by the director of the Issam Fares Institute, Dr Rami Khoury. Such was the conclusion of the passionately-presented public lecture…
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The European asylum system has collapsed
Thousands of Syrian refugees are risking their lives to enterEurope as asylum seekers, but what awaits them are a range ofinformal and inadequate procedures, some of which only have a veneer of humanitarianism. In some cases, refugees are literally”pushed back” over international borders and territorial waters,before the European countries concerned…
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Hopeless state of Syrian refugees
The steps you have to climb to reach the Syrian women’s workshop are narrow and crammed with people politely edging their way around each other. Women and children flock around the first floor’s Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) facilities, desperate to see a doctor or continue upstairs for other NGOs in…
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Maintaining stability amidst chaos in Lebanon
ISIS delivered a video of the captured Lebanese soldiers to Lebanon’s Prime Minister Tammam Salam today, following last week’s bloody clashes in the Lebanese border town Arsal. Militants of the Al-Qaeda branches Al-Nusra and the Islamic State (ISIS) battled with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) for five-days from August 2…
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UNRWA’s Chris Gunness on international indignation and humanity
Christopher Gunness is the public face of UNRWA, the UN agency dedicated to the plight of Palestinian refugees. He talked to MEMO about the innocent thousands who have been killed, and the hundreds of thousands whose rights are being disregarded; he noted the children growing up with nowhere safe to…
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Scandinavian countries condemn Israel’s disproportionate violence, sends millions to aid Palestinians
Denmark, Finland and Norway are backing the Palestinian people in Gaza with substantial medical aid. As the first two countries in the world to have an official diplomatic Palestinian representative, Denmark and Finland followed the EU position of condemning Israeli attacks on innocent Gazans. This week, Denmark is to send…