Can Finland and Sweden help decarbonize EU economies?

Demand for key metals is booming. Geopolitical realities and pandemic-related supply chain issues are increasing the pressure on EU countries to proceed with mining activities of their own to decarbonize their economies.

Iron ore mining has a long tradition in both Sweden (pictured) and Finland

The European Union wants to decrease its dependency on Russian fossil fuels while accelerating its decarbonization effort. Metals and critical raw materials will play a pivotal role. Minerals, especially lithium, are most needed for clean-energy technologies. Relevant mining activities are concentrated in Asia, Oceania and South America.

Finland and Sweden, the two European countries currently applying for NATO membership, have a long mining tradition and could help solve the EU's deficit, but question marks remain.

"We are the most important mining countries in the EU. Sweden alone produces over 90% of all the iron ore produced in the EU, Maria Suner, CEO of the Swedish Association of Mines, Mineral and Metal Producers (Svemin), told DW. However, that's just a little over a quarter of what the bloc needs, meaning that the EU still has to import 70% of its iron ore, she added.

Finland and Sweden also share the mineral-rich Fennoscandian bedrock. According to Suner, the solid rock beneath the Scandinavian and Kola peninsulas has the potential to provide everything that's on the EU list of critical raw materials.

The European Commission compiled a list of critical raw materials (CRMs) in 2011. Economic value and supply risk are the two criteria used to determine the importance of the materials. The list is getting longer.

The EU's dependency on Chinese rare earth materials is huge, but there's 

little the bloc can do about it near-term

Russia and supply security

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is the major reason for Finland and Sweden to apply for NATO membership, and arguably, to step up mining in the medium term.

Svemin's CEO says the focus on mining increased due to the COVID pandemic and ensuing supply chain disruptions, but more so after Russia invaded Ukraine. It has added to the increase in demand, pushing raw materials prices to a new high.

China is the top producer of graphite and rare earth materials. According to data from the International Energy Agency, it also refines 87% of the rare earths, 65% of cobalt, 58% of lithium, and 35% of nickel. Russia is the second-most-important country in the world for nickel extraction and the third-most-important for cobalt extraction.

"If there's more support for mining activities in Europe, I don't see that as a result of Russian hostilities. It's more a question of whether Europe has woken up to the fact that it lacks metals," Pekka Suomela, executive director of the Finnish Mining Association (FinnMin), told DW.

Current hindrances

Land competition is always an issue in Nordic regions with a focus on forestry. Increased mining is opposed by many environmentalists citing the need to protect biodiversity.

In March, when the Swedish government allowed the exploitation of the Scandinavian country's largest unexploited iron ore deposit, Swedish climate protection activist Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future movement said Sweden was "waging a war on nature."

Finland, Norway, and Sweden are the least densely populated countries in Europe, which might theoretically be a plus for mining activities. Nonetheless, many scarcely populated areas are protected.

"Almost half of the Swedish territory is reindeer herding area for the Sami people, the only Indigenous people in Europe," said Suner. "But the area needed for mining is very limited and we know how to minimize the impact."

Watch video02:11 Finland: Climate change threatens reindeer

Long timeframes

In the EU, it can take up to 25 years from the exploration phase to the start of commercial mining. Svemin has proposed 27 reforms, including shortening the permission procedures. Worries about the medium-term environmental impact often clash with long-term decarbonization efforts.

While EU member states are responsible for mining legislation, Brussels deals with aspects related to health, water and land usage.

The current geopolitical situation might increase social acceptance, but caution is needed. According to Suomela, the European Union must be careful not to put too much pressure on any single country to avoid local resistance that could easily shift public opinion.

Another possible future obstacle has to do with energy prices. They remain fairly moderate in northern Sweden and Finland, well below the levels reached in central Europe. But an increase in mining activities requires coherent investments in energy assets.

"The mineral and mining sector is planning for a tenfold increase in electricity use by 2050," Suner commented. "Additionally, we have other projects for battery production and fossil-free steelmaking. Such projects are not covered by the electricity production we have in Sweden today."

New mining projects are often opposed by locals and envorinmental activists in Sweden and Finland

Neighboring countries

Estonia, another country bordering Russia, is active in the cleantech supply chain, hosting the only commercial rare earth processing facility in Europe. The facility is owned by Toronto-based rare earth materials technology company Neo Performance Materials. The company launched an initiative in 2020 to expand the supply of rare earth feedstock to their Sillamae processing facility near the Gulf of Finland.

Constantine Karayannopoulos, Neo's president and CEO, told DW that the war in Ukraine caused refining companies to look more closely at their global supply chains. "Neo is no exception," he explained, recalling that its supplier in Kola, the Russian peninsula, had been a reliable supplier for over 40 years.

"Geopolitical considerations are always a factor, but our primary driver remains customer demand," said Karayannopoulos.

Right now, it looks like demand will increase. According to the European Association of Metals (Eurometaux), lithium usage in clean technologies could increase by a staggering 2,109% by 2050. Demand for dysprosium, tellurium and scandium is expected to more than double over the next 30 years.

Edited by: Hardy Graupner

Plugging methane leaks is a powerful climate fix, so why aren't we doing it?

The oil and gas industry is choking the atmosphere with a heat-trapping gas stronger than CO2 — despite cheap, fast and easy fixes.

Oil and gas facilities are pumping out a gas more harmful than CO2 in the short-term.

There was little to mark the pipe as a threat to the planet: A skinny gray chimney the same color as the clouds, looming lankily above a gas storage facility at an industrial site in northern Italy. It did not appear to be in use.

Then James Turitto took out his camera. 

Seen through the lens of the $100,000 (€95,567) infrared device calibrated to pick up planet-heating gases, the pipe was belching a stream of methane into the sky. Turitto, who hunts fugitive emissions for the environmental nonprofit Clean Air Task Force (CATF), has seen hundreds of similar leaks at oil and gas sites across Europe that otherwise go unnoticed. The pipe had already been leaking methane when Turitto visited eight months earlier.

Experts say invisible clouds of methane billowing out of fossil fuel facilities like this one are some of the easiest emissions to avoid. Fixing them is no replacement for cutting carbon dioxide pollution, but it represents one of the cheapest tools humanity has to keep global warming in check over the coming decades.

"We're talking about plumbing, literally," said Turitto.

Russian gas imported into Europe is particularly polluting because of the methane it leaks

Why does methane matter for the climate?

Methane is a gas responsible for about a quarter of global warming since the Industrial Revolution. While it doesn't last as long in the atmosphere as CO2, it is 80 times more powerful over a 20-year period.

In 2015 world leaders pledged to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) — and ideally 1.5 C — by the end of the century in a belated bid to stop weather extremes like storms and heat waves spiraling further out of control.

But that lower temperature threshold looks likely to be crossed within the next couple of decades, according to scenarios assessed by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in August. Even if governments were to bring temperatures back down later in the century, some ecosystems would not survive, the scientists found in a follow-up report in February.

Experts say cutting methane could play an outsize role in preventing humanity from overshooting its temperature targets because the gas is so powerful in the short term. A report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) last year found that nearly halving methane emissions this decade will avoid almost 0.3 C of global warming by the 2040s. "Fast and ambitious methane mitigation is one of the best strategies available today," said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen. 

Rising demand for products like beef, milk and cheese is driving methane 

emissions from farming higher

Where does methane come from?

Global methane pollution soared to record levels in 2021, according to data published in April by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the US government. "If this trend continues it will put serious challenges to our capability to meet climate goals — even if we have very fast, rapid CO2 reduction," said Yuzhong Zhang, an atmospheric scientist at Westlake University in China.

Some of the rise in methane is due to natural releases. But humans have also created three powerful sources of the gas.

About 40% of humanity's methane emissions come from farms, where animals like cattle and sheep belch out huge quantities of the gas as they digest food. Another 20% comes from landfills, where methane is made as bacteria break down organic matter without oxygen. Just over one-third comes from fossil fuel facilities.

Methane is the main component in fossil gas — also known as natural gas — and it pours out when fuels are extracted, processed, moved and stored. Because methane emissions from coal are hard to find and fix, scientists have focused their efforts on oil and gas.

"It's complete low hanging fruit, frankly," said Dagmar Droogsma, from the Environmental Defense Fund, a group that has documented methane emissions across the US. The solutions are so cheap that "even from a commercial point of view it's a no-brainer." 

Methane leaks out of landfills when organic waste breaks down

How does methane leak from oil and gas facilities?

There are three ways methane is released into the atmosphere from oil and gas facilities. There are simple leaks, which could happen because of a loose screw or a rusty piece of equipment. Then there are practices like venting, where methane is intentionally let out into the atmosphere. This is often done to reduce pressure in a pipe — for instance, during maintenance work — but is rarely needed.

The third source is flaring, when companies burn the methane coming out of the vent. Flaring fossil gas turns methane into CO2, which is less harmful in the short-term despite its longer-lasting effect on the planet. But it is often done so poorly that raw methane still escapes into the atmosphere. 

In 2021, the CATF documented methane emissions at 180 of the 250 oil and gas sites it visited across Europe.

During a visit to two gas storage facilities in northern Italy in February, DW accompanied Turitto as he found methane leaking from three sites in a single morning. The leaks came from pieces of equipment that ranged in size from tiny valves to tall vents.

"Some of the sources can certainly be fixed pretty easily," said Turitto. "We were just looking at a valve that looked like it really could just be tightened. [For] other stuff, fixing and repairing them might be a little more complex."

The operator Snam, a privately owned gas company that used to be a subsidiary of Italian energy giant ENI, did not respond to a request for comment.

In the US, unregulated methane emissions have added to the environmental damage

 from practices like fracking shale gas

How can we find leaks?

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates the world's methane emissions from the power sector — coal, oil, gas and biomass — are about 70% higher than countries report in their official data. As well as methane hunters armed with special cameras, scientists with satellites are spotting methane clouds that are well above what companies and governments say they're releasing.

A study published in the journal Science in February analyzed satellite images of hundreds of methane releases between 2019 and 2020. The scientists found about 10% of the industry's methane emissions come from gigantic releases that happen rarely — and are difficult to detect through occasional site visits with infrared cameras — but release enormous quantities of gas into the atmosphere.

"In the field we can see all these leaky defective little materials... but you don't see the key players," said Thomas Lauvaux, a climate scientist at the French National Center for Scientific Research and lead author of the study. A giant burst of methane intentionally released "is worth a thousand tiny leaks." 

To cut methane emissions from fossil fuel facilities, companies must fix leaks

 and ban intentional releases

How can we cut methane emissions?

Fossil fuel companies could slash methane emissions by 75% using technologies that already exist, according to the IEA. That includes regular inspections to find and fix leaks, as well as a ban on practices like routine flaring and venting. Companies could instead capture gas using compressor devices, and flare only the gas that needs to be burned during emergency repair work.

With gas prices inflated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, experts expect most of the cuts to come at zero cost to the companies, who could instead take gas they currently waste and sell it on for use in industry. "When you're venting gas, you're losing a lot of gas," said Turitto. "That's a lot of money."

Some governments are taking steps to regulate the industry. At the COP26 climate summit in November 2021, more than 100 countries pledged to cut emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by 2030. The European Union plans to introduce new requirements for measuring and reporting methane emissions, as well as spotting and plugging leaks. It has also proposed a ban on venting and flaring.  

But the plans have come under criticism for not considering imported fuels. Groups like the CATF are calling for an import standard to ensure oil and gas extracted abroad comes from facilities and pipelines that are plugging their methane leaks.

Philippine Nobel laureate Maria Ressa: Journalism is 'at an existential moment'

Speaking at the Global Media Forum in Bonn, Nobel laureate Maria Ressa noted that lies, laced with anger and hate, spread faster than facts. "Rebuilding trust with truth is vital to combat the rise of fascism," she said.

Watch video 03:04 'There's a reason why we were targeted': A portrait of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa

"If you don't have facts you don't have truth; if you don't have truth, you don't have trust," Nobel laureate Maria Ressa said on Monday, delivering the keynote address at this year's DW Global Media Forum in Bonn.

Media experts from around the world are taking part at the two-day event to discuss the future of journalism in a time of wars, crises and catastrophes.

During her speech, Ressa pointed out how big tech is contributing to the problem of fake news and disinformation, noting that lies — laced with anger and hate — travel faster than facts.

The spread of lies, as well as personalized mass persuasion, hyper-socialization and the tyranny of trends are eroding a sense of shared reality and promoting surveillance capitalism, she argued.

"Don't become a surveillance capitalism loser news organization. We must use tech to control our own destiny," she underlined, adding: "If you don't have rule of law in the virtual world, you won't have rule of law in the natural world."

"If you don't have integrity of facts, how can you have integrity of elections?" she questioned, stressing how the situation poses a threat to democracy.

The renowned journalist called for legislation to regulate tech firms as well as increased financial support for media, urging democratic governments to allocate more than the 0.3% of their overseas development assistance they currently spend on promoting journalism.
Threats to free speech and media

Ressa's comments come at a time when journalists and human rights activists in the Philippines are increasingly concerned about developments in the country, where Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the former Philippine dictator, will become president on June 30 after his recent electoral triump

Watch video 06:24 Ressa: 'Without truth, you can't have trust'

Marcos Jr.'s running mate — Sara Duterte, the daughter of the outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte — was sworn in as vice president on Sunday.

Both of them have so far failed to acknowledge the human rights atrocities that took place under their fathers.

In line with the family's decades-long effort to repair its legacy, Marcos Jr. has in fact called for a revision of textbooks that cover his father's rule, saying they are teaching children lies.

Critics say both the Marcos and Duterte families have excelled at exploiting and manipulating social media to create an alternative information ecosystem with wide reach.

Rappler, the news organization founded by Ressa in 2012, has been at the forefront of the campaign against fake news and disinformation in the country, pooling together resources among a variety of actors — including reporters, lawyers and activists — to fact-check and expose disinformation.
A well-decorated journalist

The site, one of the most popular in the Southeast Asian country, has emerged as a key platform to combat misinformation and document human rights abuses, particularly over the past six years during the rule of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, including relating to his deadly war on drugs.

Rappler's journalists reported on the excesses of the anti-drug campaign, which left thousands of mostly minor suspects shot dead by police or vigilantes.

The drug killings are currently being investigated by the International Criminal Court as a possible crime against humanity.

The outlet's work has led to increased calls to hold Duterte accountable for reported human rights violations.

PHILIPPINES' WAR ON DRUGS — REMEMBERING THE DEAD
Daunting challenge
Mimi Garcia holds the pictures of her son Richard and daughter-in-law Robilyn who were killed by masked vigilantes on motorbikes at their shanty home in Camarin, Caloocan city, on October 7, 2016. She faces the daunting responsibility of taking care of her two grandchildren while being jobless at the same time.
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In addition to Rappler, Ressa also co-founded the Real Facebook Oversight Board, a group of global experts aimed at holding Facebook accountable. It's not linked to the social media giant's own oversight board.

'We're losing the war globally'

At the GMF, Ressa said Facebook "replaced journalists with influencers" and that social media rolled back democracy in a number of countries, also calling for tougher government regulation.

Speaking to DW later in the day, Ressa said: "The algorithms of social media, which by now is the largest distribution platform for news globally, literally pulled us apart, polarized us and radicalized us."

"The consequences are that you have news being distributed that is emotionally manipulative, and the thinking slow part — which is journalism, fact-based, evidence-based reasoning — that's not only gotten weaker, it's allowed the rise of illiberal democracies around the world."

She also stressed that "we're losing the war globally" when it comes to the fight for fact-based journalism.

By relying on social media for content distribution, Ressa said, news organizations "walked into a surveillance capitalism model that is essentially manipulating people online for profit."

That's why, "I think they must separate," she said.

"Our biggest problem right now is how do we reclaim our communities. How do we build better tech so that distribution somehow comes back to us and all of that begins with holding technology accountable for the harms it has caused."
Attempts to shut down Rappler

In October 2021, Ressa — along with the Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov — received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to protect freedom of expression.

In response to Rappler's critical reporting, however, the Philippine government has taken several steps to shut down the site by charging Ressa and the publication with multiple counts of tax evasion as well as cybercrimes.

The outlet's journalists and Ressa, in particular, have been targets of hate campaigns and have faced a deluge of insults and threats online.

In 2020, she was convicted of online libel under the Philippines's anti-cybercrime law, which critics say is used as a means to quash dissent.

Talking on Monday about the attacks and persecution she's suffered, Ressa said that she will not give up, and will continue to fight for her convictions. "I will fight because I have to believe in the rule of law," she said.

Edited by: Shamil Shams

'Journalists should not become activists,' Global Media Forum urges

Should journalists embrace or shun activism? At this year's DW Global Media Forum, media experts warn not to blur the lines between value-driven journalism and activism.

Should journalists side with activists, or keep a professional distance?

Are the lines between journalism and activism becoming increasingly blurred? And if so, should journalists strive to keep a professional distance from advocates? These were some of the main questions at Monday's panel session at the 2022 Global Media Forum.

At the forum, media experts from around the world are taking part in the two-day event to discuss the future of journalism in a time of wars, crises and catastrophes.

If we've entered an era of "anti-nuance," as DW news anchor and panel host Philip Gayle asserted, does this mean subtle details, ambivalences and paradoxes are increasingly lost on audiences? Do audiences instead prefer clear-cut, black-and-white reporting, where the good and bad sides to any story are easily distinguishable, like night and day?

Where does this leave journalists? Should they take sides and tell audiences what to do and think? Should they, in other words, become activists?

They certainly should not, DW Director General Peter Limbourg, one of Monday's panelists, said. Not even, he added, when covering pressing challenges like global warming. Journalists should never abandon their critical mindset and side with activists. Otherwise, he warned, they risk straying from "the path of journalism."

DW's Director General Peter Limbourg at the 2022 Global Media Forum

"Journalism is complicated," Limbourg said. "We have to show the full picture; and that means it is complicated." Oversimplifying should best be left to politicians or populists, according to Limbourg. And to activists championing a cause, one might want to add, as their agenda is to agitate rather than inform.

Indeed, this sentiment was echoed by all panelists, with Patricia Toledo de Campos Mello, an investigative reporter at Brazilian Folha de Sao Paulo daily, similarly warning journalists should avoid cherry-picking sources to corroborate their own narrative.

Value-driven journalism vs. activism

Where, though, does this leave media outlets that explicitly promote a set of values? DW, for instance, professes to champion human rights and democracy in its reporting. Does such value-driven journalism risk morphing into activism?

While Peter Limbourg admitted DW was in fact "advocating" these and other values, he nevertheless cautioned that too much journalistic activism could cause further polarization in the world.

Besides, plainly stating which values a media outlet stands for, or objects to, should be welcomed as a transparent and pragmatic move. After all, the notion of journalistic objectivity — while noble — does not stand up to scrutiny: our gender, socio-economic background, upbringing, society and other factors strongly influence how we view and report on the world. We are all, in other words, value-driven, whether we want to recognize this or not.

Asking whether journalism is edging towards activism may therefore be a misleading question. The two are separate realms that ought to be kept separate — as all panelists agreed. At the same time, we should acknowledge that journalists cannot adopt a "view from nowhere" — all journalists are guided by values, selecting certain stories over others, deeming some more relevant and news-worthy than others.

Distrust of the media has been on the rise in Germany — is one-sided reporting to blame?

Journalistic integrity

And yet, even when journalists direct our attention to one topic rather than the other, they should do their utmost to maintain their professional journalistic integrity.

Kiundu Waweru, a journalist with the Internews Earth Journalism Network, said reporters who specialize on and heavily cover certain topics may be perceived as partisan. He admitted "it's a really thin line between being a journalist and an activist." To stay clear of this pitfall and maintain one's journalistic integrity, he said, reporters should avoid only interviewing and citing sources that confirm their own perspective.

A healthy skepticism, openness towards and interest in the messy ambivalence of life therefore seem characteristic of quality journalism. 

Even though panel host Philip Gayle contends we may have entered an "anti-nuance" era,professional journalists will continue reporting onthe world in all its perplexing and puzzling ambiguity. That, after all, is what sets them apart from activists. 

Edited by: Andreas Illmer

WORLD REFUGEE DAY JUNE 20

 UPDATED

UN: conflicts worldwide force 100 million people to flee their homes

Online News EditorJune 20, 2022

 

Geneva, Jun 20 (EFE).- World leaders are unable or unwilling to resolve conflicts that have forced 100 million people to flee their homes worldwide, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Monday.

“We at UNHCR recently announced the seemingly unimaginable: 100 million people have now been forced to flee their homes,” Grandi said in a message to mark World Refugee Day.

“Yet this year we are again reminded of the work we have ahead of us as world leaders remain unable or unwilling to resolve conflicts,” he added.

Grandi said the war in Ukraine was contributing to the “staggering” figure as well as ongoing conflicts in Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“The solutions deficit continues to grow as more people are forced to flee than are able to return home, resettle to a third country, or integrate fully into the country where they have sought safety,” he said.

“In other words, forced displacement is outpacing solutions for those on the run,” Grandi added.

The UNHCR chief urged leaders to work together to “make peace and resolve the plight” for people who have been forced to flee their homes with “lasting and humane solutions.”

“The world has a choice: either come together to reverse the trend of persecution, violence, and war, or accept that the legacy of the 21st century is one of continued forced displacement. We all know which is the right – and smart – thing to do.” EFE

abc/mp/jt

Right to seek safety

Arif Azad 

Published June 20, 2022 

WORLD Refugee Day is celebrated every year on June 20 to draw attention to the plight of refugees and to honour their struggles and heroism. As well as focusing on the rights, needs, dreams and aspirations of refugees, World Refugee Day also seeks to mobilise both public opinion and political will to assist refugees not just in surviving troubled times but also thriving in their adopted homes. This year’s overarching theme espouses the right to seek safety as a basic human right.

The right to seek safety is predicated on the notion that refugees should be welcome wherever they come from; and wherever they are forced to flee they should be entitled to safety and protection. According to UN estimates, 79.5 million people were forcibly displaced in 2019, 26m of them refugees. However, a large portion of the refugee population is clustered mainly in the developing world: nine out of the top 10 refugee-receiving countries are part of the developing world, with the sole exception of Sweden.

This clearly reflects the uneven distribution of the refugee burden and the hypocrisy of the developed world that are reluctant to help people in need despite their vast resources and their role in creating the circumstances for the displacement of such a large number of families from their homelands. Moreover, in view of the exposed hypocrisy of the West in their contrasting treatment of Ukrainians and Afghans, this year’s theme for World Refugee Day assumes even greater significance.

While Europe has laid out the welcome mat for fleeing Ukrainians, for the Afghans and those from other undesirable countries it has proved to be an impenetrable fortress. Many commentators have noted the stark contrast between the sympathetic media coverage of Ukrainian refugees with the pejorative portrayal of people from other conflict-ridden countries such as Syria and Afghanistan. Political pundits were also quick to detect racial undertones in the ensuing coverage, with Western reporters openly describing Ukrainian refugees as “one of them”.

Refugees should be welcome wherever they come from.

This approach has also reflected in the European countries’ openness and willingness to help displaced Ukrainians. The UK government, for example, is encouraging British families to take in Ukrainian refugees in return for cash, while its home office has introduced a new controversial scheme to repatriate all asylum seekers reaching Britain through the English Channel. Meanwhile, Ukrainian refugees are being welcomed into the EU for three years with no restrictions on work, while the region works to close its borders and tighten its asylum policies reserved for refugees arriving from other regions. Like the UK, some European countries are also actively deporting refugees and asylum seekers, but at the same time welcoming Ukrainian refugees with open arms.

Meanwhile, closer to home, and reflecting the Ukrainian conflict, is our own Afghan refugee crisis. Pakistan has hosted Afghan refugees for over four decades while the Taliban takeover has predictably swelled the number of displaced people arriving at our borders, despite the official policy of fencing the Durand Line and not welcoming new refugees from Afghanistan. However, despite this, open spaces in Islamabad are increasingly being occupied by refugees from Afghanistan. The West, initially interested in taking in a limited number of Afghan refugees, appears to have simply moved on to the Ukrainian refugee crisis where it has diverted the bulk of its funding and resources. While a large portion of the displaced Ukrainians are beginning to return to their country, this option, sadly, is not even available to a huge section of refugees stuck in the developing world.

Needless to say, these two-faced policies run counter to the spirit of this year’s Refugee Day’s key message of non-discriminatory and rights-based equal treatment of all refugees wherever they come from and wherever they flee from persecution or conflict. The right of refugees to access safe and protected spaces where they can thrive and flourish is at the heart of refugees’ rights and this year’s theme of allowing displaced people to seek safe pastures.

The Ukrainian crisis further reinforces the importance of non-discriminatory, fair and balanced asylum and immigration policies that treat all refugees equally irrespective of where they come from, what the pigment of their skin is, or what hierarchy of conflict they are fleeing from. Not just governments, though, the public too needs to rally behind the message of the right of equal access to safety for all to give a chance to people escaping hardship to thrive in their adopted homes.

The writer is the author of Patient Pakistan: Reforming and Fixing Healthcare for All in the 21st Century, and has worked on refugee projects in Lebanon, Syria and Greece.

drarifazad@gmail.com
Twitter @arifazad5
Published in Dawn, 

June 20th, 2022

Besides Britain, which nations send asylum

seekers overseas?

by Nita Bhalla | @nitabhalla | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Monday, 20 June 2022

The UK’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is not the first of its kind. From Israel to Australia, several countries have used offshoring policies for refugees and migrants

Britain is pressing ahead with a policy to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda despite a last-minute intervention by the European Court of Human Rights that stopped the first plane from departing for the East African nation last week.

Home Secretary (interior minister) Priti Patel said preparations for more flights had already began, adding that legal challenges and mounting criticism would not deter the government from pursuing its strategy.

The U.N. refugee chief has called the policy "catastrophic", the leadership of the Church of England denounced it as "immoral", and media reports have said Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, has privately described the plan as "appalling".

Despite outrage over the plan, Britain is not the first country to send asylum seekers overseas. On World Refugee Day, here are some countries that have taken a similar approach:

AUSTRALIA

Introduced in 2001, Australia's offshoring asylum programme specifically targets migrants arriving in Australian waters by boat, and is aimed at discouraging refugees from making dangerous ocean crossings and stopping people smuggling.

Asylum seekers are transferred to offshore detention centres in Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and the South Pacific island nation of Nauru for their claims to be processed.

The policy - known as the "Pacific Solution" - was dismantled in 2008, but it was revived in 2012 and became more restrictive in 2013, when the government announced that people arriving by boat would be denied resettlement, even if recognised as refugees.

Since 2012, more than 4,000 asylum seekers, including children, have been sent to detention centres in Manus and Nauru for processing. Many have waited more than five years for their asylum claims to be processed, according to the Refugee Council of Australia, an NGO.

The offshoring asylum policy has been strongly criticised by the United Nations and aid groups who cite harsh conditions in the centres including abuse by guards and self-harm and depression among detainees.

Fourteen people have died in the island camps, including through suicide and a lack of proper medical care, according to the Human Rights Law Centre. There have also been cases of detainees being killed during protests over camp conditions or in attacks by local people.

Australia closed the facility on Manus Island last year after Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court ruled it was illegal, but about 105 people still remain in Papua New Guinea. A further 112 asylum seekers are currently living within the Nauruan community, according to the refugee council.

ISRAEL

In 2014, Israel introduced a now-defunct policy to send those rejected for asylum and illegal immigrants - mainly from Sudan and Eritrea - to Rwanda and Uganda for third-country resettlement.

They were given the choice of either being deported back to their country of origin or accepting a payment of $3,500 and a plane ticket to either Uganda or Rwanda, with any who stayed in Israel facing jail.

Israel has said about 20,000 people either returned home or went to one of the East African countries under the policy, which human rights groups criticised for sending refugees to countries where there were no guarantees over their safety.

Research conducted by the University of Oxford and the International Refugee Rights Initiative found that many deported to Rwanda and Uganda had their travel documents taken away on arrival and were held in hotels guarded by armed men. Most escaped and paid people smugglers to make the dangerous journey to Europe.

Amid mounting international and domestic criticism, the Israeli programme was scrapped in 2019 following its suspension by the country's Supreme Court.

EUROPEAN UNION

The European Union indirectly supports offshore asylum programmes as part of efforts to stop refugees coming across the Mediterranean.

The bloc has paid Turkey billions of dollars to keep refugees from reaching Greece and has funded the Libyan Coast Guard, which pushes migrant boats bound for Europe back to North Africa. It is also helping to fund U.N.-run centres in Niger and Rwanda to process asylum seekers.

Under a U.N. programme called the Emergency Transit Mechanism, more than 3,000 people from Libyan detention centres who were heading for Europe have been transferred to Niger.

A similar scheme sending asylum seekers from Libya to Rwanda began in 2019. https://news.trust.org/item/20190910094312-4h5pn/

Critics have accused the EU of seeking to curb the number of refugees reaching its shores by outsourcing the crisis to poor African nations.

Despite its criticism of Britain, the United Nations says the arrangement is reasonable because it protects migrants from torture, sexual violence, and indefinite detention in Libya.

Asylum seekers in Rwanda have reported that their lives are better than in Libya's detention centres, but they do not want to stay in Rwanda and ultimately wish to resettle in Europe.

DENMARK

Denmark, which has introduced increasingly harsh immigration policies over the last decade, passed a law in 2021 allowing refugees to be moved to asylum centres in a third country for claims to be processed. It is currently in talks with Rwanda.

Refugee groups said the new law was irresponsible and showed a lack of solidarity with people in need, and the measure was also criticised by the United Nations and the European Commission.

Danish government officials have said a deal with Rwanda would "ensure a more dignified approach than the criminal network of human traffickers that characterises migration across the Mediterranean today".

The EU Commission has said relocating refugees outside Europe is "not possible" under current EU rules, but Denmark is exempt from some EU regulations, including asylum standards, due to an opt-out.

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(Reporting by Nita Bhalla @nitabhalla; Editing by Helen Popper; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

On World Refugee Day, Ukraine 

is but the tip of an iceberg

The United Nations says more than 100 million people are currently displaced as World Refugee Day is observed. The day has seen protests, cultural events and pleas for assistance.

UNICEF says more than 36.5 million children are among those people currently displaced worldwide

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR, more than 100 million men, women and children are currently displaced as countries mark World Refugee Day this June 20. The day is being observed in a variety locations around the globe.

In many places, events include cultural performances and exhibitions, as well as celebrity visits to refugee centers to draw attention to the plight of those forced to flee their homes due to violence and persecution.

Speaking with DW, UNHCR Spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh said, "Our overriding message for this World Refugee Day ... is that everyone has the right to claim asylum no matter where they are, no matter what they do, no matter how they travel or move."

Saltmarsh addressed the current refugee crisis in Ukraine, saying, "There has been a huge outpouring of compassion and support for Ukrainian refugees ... That's been really positive and we welcome that."

Nevertheless, Saltmarsh warned that a concentration of efforts focused on Ukrainian refugees could sap resources needed for refugee crises in other regions around the world, citing Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South America.

Though he noted broad support in Europe for the roughly 8.3 million Ukrainians that have been forced to flee their country since it was invaded by neighboring Russia on February 24, he voiced concern that such support could wane as the conflict drags on.

As dire as the situation for Ukrainian refugees is, they have been more favorably welcomed in Europe than other groups, such as those from Syria, Afghanistan and Africa. Globally, the UNHCR spokesman said, "We've seen examples in the past in Europe, but also in other regions, of refugees not being given that access to asylum." 

Saltmarsh told DW that governments need to do more to ensure that paths to asylum remain open.

Still, as many focused on the current situation in Ukraine, other refugee groups remain in grave danger, trapped in unresolved situations with little hope of being able to return to their homes.

More than 1 million ethnic Rohingya were forced to flee to Bangladesh in 

2017 due to violent persecution in Myanmar

Rohingya protests in Bangladesh

In refugee camps around Bangladesh, thousands of Rohingya Muslim protesters demanded repatriation to their Myanmar homeland with recognition of their ethnicity and full citizenship rights. More than 1 million Rohingya were forced to flee their homes after suffering violent attacks in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Unknown numbers of Rohingya were tortured and killed during the 2017 ethnic violence that left most of their homes in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state destroyed.

Protests were held in 29 of Bangladesh's 34 squalid refugee camps. "As survivors of genocide in Myanmar, we are thankful to Bangladesh for sheltering us. Now, we want to return to our homeland, we don't want to live as refugees," said Rohingya community leader Noor Muhammad as he addressed fellow refugees at the Kutupalong Camp.

Lebanon has struggled to cope with massive numbers of Syrian refugees while 

suffering the burden of economic crisis

Syrian refugees face expulsion from Lebanon

The precarious fate of refugees in Lebanon was also highlighted Monday, as Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his country was prepared to expel Syrian refugees if they were not repatriated.

"Eleven years after the start of the Syrian crisis, Lebanon no longer has the capacity to bear this burden, especially under the current circumstances," Mikati said. "I call on the international community to work with Lebanon to secure the return of Syrian refugees to their country, or else Lebanon will ... work to get Syrians out through legal means and the firm application of Lebanese law."

Lebanon, which is experiencing a devastating and prolonged economic crisis, has the highest proportion of refugees to population in the world, with Syrians currently making up nearly a quarter of the country's 6 million residents.

Rights groups have voiced grave concern over plans to send Syrians back to their home country, which remains locked in an unending civil war, saying refugees face potential arrest, torture and killing should they return.

Beirut on Monday requested $3.2 billion (€3 billion) in UN aid to help it deal with the years-long Syrian refugee crisis.

UK still plans to deport asylum-seekers despite ECHR intervention

The United Kingdom on Monday announced its intention to carry through with a controversial plan to deport asylum-seekers in the country to Rwanda in East Africa.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said that legal challenges, such as a last-minute European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) injunction, would not deter the UK from its intended plan — which the UNHCR has called "catastrophic."

The UK joins countries such as Australia and Denmark in its offshoring of refugees. Israel had a similar scheme in which it expelled some 20,000 mainly Sudanese and Eritrean refugees between 2014 and 2019, when the program was discontinued.

The EU is more discreet in keeping refugees arriving from Africa at bay, preferring to forge contracts with countries such as Turkey and Libya to keep refugees in the Mediterranean from reaching its shores while at the same time helping finance UN refugee centers on the African continent.

World Refugee Day 2022: Solidarity must

mean action

The Elders visit to Nguenyyiel Refugee Camp, Ethiopia in 2019.

BAN KI-MOON

HINA JILANI

ZEID RAAD

 AL HUSSEIN

20 June 2022

This World Refugee Day, The Elders call on governments to uphold the universal right to seek safety and for solidarity with refugees to mean solidarity with every person who has been forcibly displaced by conflict or persecution.

This year, the number of people forced to leave their home reached a record 100 million. Under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and international law, every person has a right to seek safety. Yet, too often, leaders ignore their international responsibilities and people on the move are met with hostility.

The Elders call on global leaders to ensure that every person forced to flee their home receives solidarity, compassion and a dignified reception.

Ban Ki-moon, Deputy Chair of The Elders and former Secretary-General of the UN, says:

"It is sobering that the number of people forcibly displaced by conflict or persecution has reached a record 100 million.

This World Refugee Day, states should reaffirm their commitment to the universal right to seek asylum and should treat all asylum-seekers with compassion and dignity. Governments welcoming Ukrainian refugees while at the same time outsourcing their international asylum obligations sets a shameful precedent."

Zeid Raad al Hussein, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, says:

"The remarkable global support for people fleeing Ukraine shows what is possible when the international community has the political will to act.

The EU has rightly given Ukrainians immediate temporary protection and the right to live, work and travel to any Member State of the EU for up to three years. Rich nations should broaden this integration approach to all refugees, wherever they are from.

Giving refugees the right to work, access education, and freedom of movement allows them to live independently and to contribute to the communities they live in."

Hina Jilani, lawyer and human rights advocate, says:


"This World Refugee Day, we need urgent measures to protect all those refugees who are suffering outside of the media spotlight.

During this time of global support for Ukraine, solidarity with refugees must not end there: governments must prioritise the finance and the mechanisms needed to protect every person who has been forcibly displaced. This includes expanding global resettlement commitments, and urgently fulfilling pledges to resettle Afghans seeking protection from the Taliban."

Share this: Cox's Bazar

Listening to people with lived-experience of forced migration plays an essential role in developing the services and protection needed for refugees, and The Elders believe that the voices of refugees and asylum-seekers must be centered in all discussions about migration.

Anowar, a Rohingya refugee currently living in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, shares his message for World Refugee Day on why inclusion of all refugee voices is important:

"Since 2017, I have lived in Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, but my home is in Rakhine state, Myanmar. I was forced to leave because of the military “Clearance Operations”. They killed our loved ones, burnt down our houses, confiscated our lands and looted our properties. We came here to save our lives.

On World Refugee Day, I want to say that it is important to include refugee communities in discussions about refugee issues: it is the sufferer who understands the suffering well. I must tell you that it is crucial to include the Rohingya in the international justice process to understand what justice means to them. I would like to see more Rohingya involved in international justice. International justice institutions should empower and work with Rohingya.

My message to the world is to please support us until we have our rights, justice, and are able to return to our motherland with our nationality and citizenship. Thank you."

Find out more about The Elders' work on Refugees and Migration.