First Central American Refugees Arrive in Australia Under U.S. Deal
The first refugees from Central America arrived in Australia under a deal with the U.S. reached last year.
The 30 men, women and children had fled gang violence in El Salvador and were sheltering in Costa Rica, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
They received humanitarian visas to Australia as part of an agreement between Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and former U.S. president Barack Obama that Donald Trump criticized but pledged to uphold.
Under the deal, the U.S. agreed to take a number of the 1,250 refugees held in Australia’s offshore detention centers in Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island and the Pacific island of Nauru. To date, 50 refugees have come to the U.S. under the arrangement and another 200 people are set to travel in January.
Australia shut the center on Manus Island in late October, leading to a standoff with asylum seekers who refused to leave due to fears over their safety elsewhere on the island. They were eventually forcibly evacuated to alternative sites, whose conditions had been criticized by the U.N. refugee agency.
Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court recently ruled that the asylum seekers held there have the right to sue the PNG government for compensation. The court ruled the detention facility unconstitutional in 2016, leading to Australia’s attempt to close it.
More Refugees Live in Extreme Poverty in Lebanon
More Syrian refugees in Lebanon are falling into poverty, according to the U.N.’s annual survey of registered refugees in the country.
The survey found 76 percent of refugees were living below the poverty line of $3.84 per person a day, up from 71 percent in 2016 and 49 percent in 2014.
The proportion of refugee households living in extreme poverty (less than $2.87 per person a day) has grown even further since 2016 – an increase of 11 percent to 58 percent, the survey found.
Despite some reforms to work and residency regulations for Syrians on paper since 2016, most refugees do not have official residency in the country and live and work in the shadows, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and forcing them to take desperate measures to survive.
“Syrian refugees in Lebanon are barely keeping afloat,” said UNHCR’s Lebanon representative Mireille Girard said. “Most families are extremely vulnerable and dependent on aid from the international community.”
The survey found that Lebanon’s effort to increase access to education for Syrian children had fared much better – with 70 percent of registered refugee children surveyed in school, compared to 52 percent last year.
Far-Right Joins Austria’s New Government, Pledges Hardline Measures
Austria’s new government pledged to take a hard line on welfare for refugees after the far-right Freedom Party joined a coalition government with future Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s People’s Party.
Both parties campaigned on anti-immigration platforms in Austria’s October election. The People’s Party received 32 percent of the vote, and the Freedom Party came third with 26 percent.
The far-right party will control the foreign, interior and defense ministries, while party leader Heinz-Christian Strache will be the country’s vice-chancellor.
In the coalition agreement, the new government said it would confiscate cash carried by new asylum seekers and reduce welfare payments for refugees, as well as reducing Austria’s minimum wage across the board to discourage people traveling to the country to seek work.
“People who spend all day at home or in the park can not be our path to integration. In addition, the minimum income is a pull factor, which means asylum seekers come specifically to Austria,” Kurz said.
Recommended Reads:
- Washington Post: ‘What Other Choice Do I Have?’ How Debt-Ridden Refugees Are Being Forced to Return to a War Zone
- Al Jazeera: ‘Syrian Refugees Improve Armenia’s Social Fabric’
- Politico: Dimitris Avramopoulos: ‘Europe’s Migrants Are Here to Stay’
- Human Rights Watch: Satellite Imagery Shows New Destruction in Rakhine State