Messaging Apps an untapped humanitarian resource

New research, led by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), suggests messaging apps could play a vital role in humanitarian work in the future.

It’s estimated that more than 2.5 billion people around the world use messaging apps. That figure is expected to rise to 3.6 billion – half the world’s population – by 2018. In emergencies, such as natural disasters or armed conflicts, people are increasingly relying on these platforms to keep in touch with their loved ones or to remain informed about the situation.

“Messaging apps help humanitarian organizations gather information to better understand needs from hard-to-reach areas where it is often difficult to conduct face-to-face meetings,” said the ICRC’s director of communication and information management Charlotte Lindsey-Curtet.

“Humanitarian organizations are currently experimenting with messaging apps for two main purposes: to communicate with people affected by crisis or conflict, and to coordinate tasks and actions internally.”

 [The News (Pakistan)]

Chaos and dismay for refugees and immigrants

Reports abound of refugees being barred from boarding U.S.-bound flights, and immigrants being detained at U.S. airports.

Reuters reported that a senior Homeland Security official said 109 travellers in transit to the United States were denied entry into the country, and another 173 people were stopped by airlines from boarding an aircraft to the United States.

Earlier in the day, several Iraqi refugees in Cairo, who had been cleared for resettlement in the U.S., were blocked from boarding their flight to New York City. And in Iraq, NPR’s Jane Arraf reported that “members of Yazidi minority, one of the biggest victims of ISIS, were prevented from boarding despite having visas.”

Green card holders — legal permanent residents of the U.S. — are also included in the ban, according to a senior Trump administration official. The official says they will need a case-by-case waiver in order to return to the U.S. if they are currently outside the country.

Colleges and universities around the U.S. have been advising students from the seven listed countries — including lawful permanent residents — not to leave the U.S. until there is further clarity on the new rules.

Protests are rising up at JFK and Los Angeles airports. Thousands of leading academics have signed a petition denouncing Trump’s actions. And top technology companies whose staff have been affected, are criticizing the move by President Trump.

[NPR]

Trump’s freeze on immigrants and refugees

Excerpts of LA Times editorial:

President Trump … temporarily freezing immigration from seven Muslim nations and halting refugee resettlements from everywhere [provides] just the kind of symbolic act that gives weight to radical Islamists when they argue that the U.S. is an enemy of their faith.

Such efforts to restrict access to the U.S. by people fleeing war-torn parts of the world [is] misguided and inhumane. The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, reported in 2015 that in the 14 years after the 9/11 terror attacks, 784,000 refugees resettled in the U.S. Yet during that time only three resettled refugees were convicted on terror-related charges — two of them for plotting against an overseas target and the third for hatching “plans that were barely credible,” according to the report.

What’s more, a study by the New America Foundation shows that 80% of the terrorist attacks in this country since 9/11 have been carried out by American citizens (although some of those perpetrators were naturalized citizens).

The U.S. became a wealthy world power in large part through immigration. And its openness has provided a lifeline to the oppressed of the world. … Trump’s actions are not only inhumane, they are a betrayal of what the United States stands for.

Trump’s immigration ban causes shockwaves

The International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid and refugee assistance group, called Trump’s decision to suspend refugee admissions “harmful and hasty” and noted that the US refugee program “makes it harder to get to the United States as a refugee than any other route.” Refugees must undergo an extensive vetting process — it typically takes more than two years to be admitted to the US as a refugee.

“In truth, refugees are fleeing terror — they are not terrorists,” David Miliband, the group’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “And at a time when there are more refugees than ever, America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope.”

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, expressed concern about the provision in Trump’s executive order that would prioritize Christians fleeing persecution and conflict in Muslim-majority countries over Muslims fleeing those same countries. “We strongly believe that refugees should receive equal treatment for protection and assistance, and opportunities for resettlement, regardless of their religion, nationality or race,” UNHCR and IOM said in a joint statement Saturday.

Abed Ayoub, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee‘s legal and policy director, said Trump’s executive order has sown “complete chaos.” He said his group has already fielded calls from people around the world impacted by Trump’s executive order, including from students and legal US residents who are citizens of the seven countries banned by Trump and are now stuck overseas.

Democrats also slammed Trump’s executive order, arguing his action establishing a religious test for entry is unconstitutional and un-American.

Jewish groups took particular exception to the day on which Trump signed the executive order: Holocaust Remembrance Day.

[CNN]

Ikea refugee shelter named 2016 Design of the Year

A flat-pack refugee shelter developed by Ikea and the United Nations has been named the best design of 2016.

The modular Better Shelter is made from recyclable plastic, comprises only 68 components, and can be assembled in as few as four hours.

Each structure is large enough to house a family of five, and includes a solar panel to power lights and charge devices. Since production started in 2015, 16,000 units have been delivered to countries around the world including Iraq, Djibouti, Greece and Niger, to be used as homes, temporary clinics and offices.

“Better Shelter tackles one of the defining issues of the moment: providing shelter in an exceptional situation whether caused by violence or disaster,” said juror Jana Scholze, an associate professor of curating contemporary design at Kingston University, in a statement.

“Providing not only a design, but secure manufacture as well as distribution makes this project relevant and even optimistic. It shows the power of design to respond to the conditions we are in and transform them.”

[CNN]

Mexican workers sent home nearly $25 Billion in 2015

Mexicans working abroad, mainly in the US, sent nearly $25 billion in 2015 to their relatives and loved ones back home, Mexico’s Central Bank reports. This is the first time remittances were the most important source of revenue for Mexico since officials started tracking the figure in 1995.

That money is a lifeline for many poor Mexicans, especially when the economy is struggling.

The Trump administration could make it much harder for Mexicans or Americans in the US to send cash to the country by blocking remittances — an idea Trump floated on the campaign trail in a letter to The Washington Post.

In the same letter, the Trump campaign also threatened to cancel visas and raise visa fees as means to either fund the wall or get Mexico to pay for it.

[CNN]