Hungary Sentences Syrian Man to 10 Years on Terror Charge
A Syrian man has been sentenced to 10 years in a Hungarian prison on terror charges. He was convicted of taking part in a riot at Hungary’s border with Syria.
Ahmed Hamed, 40, argued that he had been helping his elderly parents reach safety and had tried to calm rioters.
Amnesty International said the verdict and sentence was a “draconian ruling” that reflected the “appalling treatment of refugees and migrants” in Hungary.
Hamed, who lived for a decade in Cyprus prior to the incident, was also convicted of entering Hungary illegally. The disturbance at the border in September 2015 followed the erection of a fence that blocked hundreds of migrants and refugees trying to reach the E.U.
“A father who was trying to help his elderly Syrian parents reach safety now faces 10 years in prison,” said Gauri van Gulik from Amnesty. “Throwing stones and entering a country irregularly does not constitute terrorism and cannot justify this draconian ruling.”
Hungary has cut entitlements for people granted asylum, built border fences and criminalized actions connected to crossing its border. Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, led efforts to scupper a quota system to redistribute refugees from front-line states to other E.U. members.
Women and Girl Migrants Take Contraceptives Anticipating Rape
Women and girls risking dangerous migration routes are taking contraceptives in anticipation of being raped. Some are having contraceptive injections, a researcher from Human Rights Watch told a London conference.
“For someone to know that they are at such risk of sexual violence, and yet they are determined to continue on that journey,” Hillary Margolis told Trust Women, an annual women’s rights and trafficking conference.
Several participants at the conference highlighted the high risk of rape in Libya, where women and girls are vulnerable as they wait to make the sea crossing to Europe.
“The idea that a woman who is traveling with men is automatically safe is a fallacy,” Margolis said. “There are women who are coerced into traveling with men, who are trafficked, exploited, who may be experiencing domestic abuse.”
Climate Change to Drive Refugee Crisis on ‘Unimaginable Scale’
Senior military officials are warning of a refugee crisis on an “unimaginable scale” due to climate change. Extreme weather, droughts and food scarcity will make mass migration more common.
“Climate change could lead to a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions,” said Brigadier General Stephen Cheney, chief executive of the American Security Project and member of the U.S. Department of State’s foreign policy affairs board.
“We’re already seeing migration of large numbers of people around the world because of food scarcity, water insecurity and extreme weather, and this is set to become the new normal.”
His comments were echoed by other military speakers at an event at London’s Chatham House.
Major General Munir Muniruzzaman, former military adviser to the president of Bangladesh and chairman of the Global Military Advisory Council on Climate Change, said South Asia could become a theater for a climate war.
“We’re going to see refugee problems on an unimaginable scale, potentially above 30 million people,” he said, adding that this could potentially destabilize not only Bangladesh but the whole region.
Recommended Reads:
- IRIN: The Crisis of Multilateralism and the Future of Humanitarian Action
- The Independent: Women Who Are Captured by Isis and Kept as Slaves Endure More Than Just Sexual Violence
- NPR: 2 New Works Confront the Refugee Crisis With Empathy and Humanity
- BBC: Theresa May Had Plan to ‘Deprioritize’ Illegal Migrant Pupils