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Supreme Court of Canada’s has announced it will review the constitutionality of the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA).

This decision follows a long history of legal challenges to the Agreement, including two recent court rulings. In July 2020, the Federal Court found that the STCA violates the fundamental human rights of refugee claimants and is therefore unconstitutional.

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Supreme Court decision to hear Safe Third Country Agreement appeal is a promising step for refugee rights Amnesty International, The Canadian Council of Churches, and The Canadian Council for Refugees are welcoming the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision to review the constitutionality of the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA).

Lone refugee children go from homelessness in Greece to new lives across Europe

Legislative changes in Greece and a relocation programme have helped hundreds of unaccompanied refugee children get off the streets.

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Lone refugee children go from homelessness in Greece to new lives across Europe Legislative changes in Greece and a relocation programme have helped hundreds of unaccompanied refugee children get off the streets.

The Refugee Brief – By Kristy Siegfried

Displacement from water clashes in northern Cameroon reaches over 100,000. Clashes that erupted in Cameroon’s Far North region two weeks ago over dwindling water resources have now driven at least 100,000 people from their homes, triple the figure reported just a week ago, according to UNHCR. More than 85,000 people have fled into neighbouring Chad while another 15,000 have been displaced inside Cameroon. Deaths from the fighting have also doubled in the last week to 44, while 112 villages have been burned down. The root cause of the violent confrontations between herders and fisherman and farmers, according to UNHCR, is competition over increasingly scarce water resources exacerbated by the climate crisis. Over half the new arrivals to Chad have found refuge in or near the capital, N’Djamena, while others are scattered along the banks of the Logone River which marks the border. The new arrivals, most of them women and children, have put pressure on a country already hosting about one million refugees and internally displaced people. In a statement on Wednesday, Chad’s president, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno referred to a “worrying situation” and called on the international community to “provide urgent assistance to these new refugees”.

Rights groups report new wave of atrocities in Ethiopia’s Tigray. According to a joint report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, security forces from Ethiopia’s Amhara region have stepped up mass detentions, forced expulsions and killings of ethnic Tigrayans in western Tigray. The report, which came out ahead of today’s UN special session on abuses committed during the year-long conflict in northern Ethiopia, is the latest in a series of accounts detailing atrocities against civilians committed by all parties in the conflict. The report alleges that Tigrayans have been expelled from several towns in western Tigray, where some 1.2 million people have been displaced since the conflict began, according to the UN. Others have been detained in what the two rights groups described as “life-threatening conditions”. According to the testimony of 31 people who spoke to Amnesty and HRW by phone, Tigrayans attempting to flee were attacked, and an unknown number killed. Fighting has displaced more than 2 million people across northern Ethiopia and driven hundreds of thousands into famine-like conditions.

Afghans face challenges seeking refuge in neighbouring countries. While Pakistan and Iran have hosted the vast majority of Afghan refugees for decades, The Wall Street Journal reports that many more recent arrivals to Iran have been deported, including those attempting to claim asylum. Afghans without passports or visas usually enter Iran via desert smuggling routes in the province of Nimroz, but between August and December, nearly a half a million Afghans who entered Iran irregularly, later returned, about 360,000 after being deported. The LA Times reports that undocumented Afghans living in Iran for years are fearful of being caught up in a growing crackdown by Iranian authorities. Afghanistan’s borders with Pakistan and Iran are currently open only to those with passports and visas, and a small number of medical cases. The land borders of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are completely closed to Afghans. Earlier this month, UNHCR expressed concern about the escalating risks faced by Afghans seeking to flee into neighbouring countries as the situation within the country continues to deteriorate.

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The Refugee Brief - 17 December 2021 - The Refugee Brief By Kristy Siegfried | 17 December, 2021 Please note that this will be the final issue of The Refugee Brief this year. The first issue of 2022 will land in your in-box on 7 January. THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES Displacement from water clashes in northern Cameroon reaches over 100,000. Clashes that erupt...