Dozens of Rohingya Refugees Arrive in Malaysia by Boat
A boat carrying 56 refugees was intercepted by Malaysian authorities after it set sail from Myanmar’s Rakhine state last week.
Malaysian authorities said the 19 women, 17 men, 12 boys and eight girls on board were admitted to Malaysia on humanitarian grounds. They appeared weak and hungry after their week-long journey, which included a brief stop in Thailand during a storm.
In 2015, thousands of Rohingya refugees fled Myanmar by boat and were repeatedly turned away by countries in the region.
Violence in Rakhine has escalated since last summer, and an estimated 700,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh. Humanitarian agencies have been concerned about a reprise of the Andaman Sea journeys amid the exodus from Myanmar, although the soon-approaching monsoon season may make boat departures harder.
Migrants Protest Violence in ‘Caravan’; Seized Upon by Trump
Despite President Trump’s warnings about caravans of migrants en route to the U.S., the annual pilgrimage through Mexico organized by immigration activists appeared unlikely to proceed north.
Pueblo Sin Fronteras organizes the “Stations of the Cross” march around Easter to protest and protect against violence directed at migrants. The caravan started about 10 years ago.
The group of around 1,100 people, many from Honduras, camped out at a sports field in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, waiting to hear if they could get humanitarian or transit visas. Mexican authorities returned around 400 others to their countries, while 400 planned to stay with relatives in Mexico.
A few days before the president’s warning on Twitter of “Caravans Coming,” more than 100 Central Americans, nearly half of them children, were discovered crammed inside a sweltering truck abandoned by the road in Mexico.
U.S. Immigration Agency Overturns Policy on Release of Pregnant Migrants
The U.S. overturned a policy under which most pregnant woman detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would be freed from custody.
Since 2016, ICE has presumptively released pregnant women not under mandatory detention. The agency said 35 pregnant women are currently held by ICE, all under mandatory detention.
Going forward, their release will be examined on a case-by-case basis and only women in their third trimester of pregnancy will be presumptively released, in line with Trump’s executive order to tighten ICE enforcement, the agency said.
Recommended Reads
- ProPublica: A Betrayal
- Niskanen Center: The Trump Administration Is Sabotaging the Refugee Program
- Politico: Erdogan’s ‘Enemies’ Find Sanctuary Close to Home
- The Associated Press: Medical Ethics: U.K. Uses Data From Doctors to Find Migrants