Conflict

Refugees from Anti-LGBTQI Violence in Chechnya Warily Come Out of Hiding

April 5, 2019
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  BY RAISA OSTAPENKO – K is one of a handful of refugees from Chechnya’s persecuted LGBTQI+ community who has been bold enough to talk publicly after fleeing the wave of persecution directed against the marginalized group. Some survivors detail abuses endured at the hands of authorities in the Caucasian republic, while others relate the struggles and joys of integrating into the new societies that have granted them asylum. K…

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Once Jailed in China, Human Rights Lawyer Still Fighting For Justice in NJ

March 31, 2019
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BY RONNIE LI – Biao Teng, a Chinese human rights lawyer, was walking on a street near his home one day eight years ago when someone came up behind him suddenly, took off his shirt and covered his eyes with it, and then forced him into a car before he could make a sound. Teng was taken into custody and held for about 10 weeks in solitary confinement in retaliation…

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After 27 Years, Attempt at ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ Still Haunts Bosnians

March 28, 2019
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People gather at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in 2012 / Photo by Mikel Oibar is licensed by CC BY-NC-ND 2.0BY JOY Y. T. CHANG – Muamer Lihic was once close enough to hear the sound of an incoming grenade just as it was about to explode; it was the sound of death. “When a grenade is shot – you can hear it when they shoot it – the sound is faster…

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Syrian Refugees with Disabilities and the Scramble to Accommodate Them

May 4, 2017
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BY KYLEE TSURU — “When people are on the move, or really fleeing, they enter a new environment that is busy and different. It is especially hard for that individual and family to cope if a disability is involved,” said Mica Bevington of Handicap International, an organization that provides aid to people with disabilities and other vulnerable populations living in conflict and disaster zones.

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Not Welcomed Home: Pakistan’s Ahmadi Community

May 2, 2017
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BY HANIYA JAVED — There are as many 5000 Ahmadi Muslims living in the tristate area of New York. Seventy percent of them are Pakistanis, according to Ahmadiyya Muslim Communtiy, USA. The highest numbers of asylum seekers are from Pakistan because of the anti Ahmadi laws and constitutional amendments introduced in 1974 that declared the community non Muslims and made it a criminal offence for them to pose as Muslims.

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African Refugees Fleeing Persecution, and Arriving at Yemen’s War

April 26, 2017
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BY DAVID JEANS — Since 2013, smugglers and human traffickers have lured almost 300,000 Ethiopian and Somali refugees to cross the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with promises of security and economic opportunities. More than 400 people have died during the journey since 2013, according to the United Nations. But the inflow of refugees poses a complicated exigency for humanitarian efforts working to stabilize the country — as Yemeni’s flee their own country in the opposite direction toward the Horn of Africa.

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From Damascus to Germany: A Long Journey To Work

BY MARIA MARTINEZ — Samer woke early each morning to go to work, like most people. But each day, Samer feared that he might be killed on his way to his job at the Arab bank in the rebel-held section of Damascus. Each day, Samer was stopped at six government checkpoints. At each stop, the fear of death hung low over his head. It was a long journey to work.

April 26, 2017
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Yazidi Woman Tells of Being an ISIS Sex Slave

April 29, 2016
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BY AZADEH VALANEJAD Seven thousand Yazidi women and girls from the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar were abducted on March 15, 2014 by the Islamic State and forced into sex slavery. Five thousand of their husbands, fathers, and brothers murdered in front of their eyes. Three thousand of those women and girls are still in ISIS’ captivity, according to the UN. Nadia Murad Basee Taha, 21, was one of those…

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