IOM Archives - PassBlue

Afghan Migrants Flee Iran as US Sanctions Damage Iran’s Economy

February 20, 2019February 18, 2019 by Sonah Lee

After fleeing violence and unemployment in their home country for the relative stability of neighboring Iran, hundreds of thousands of undocumented Afghans are now returning home. The mass reverse migration is taking place just as the United States, eager to withdraw from Afghanistan, holds its most concerted peace talks with the Taliban in years. The … Read more

UN Agencies Back Asylum Rights of Central American Migrants in Exodus to US

November 11, 2018November 6, 2018 by Barbara Crossette

Working closely with Mexico, United Nations agencies are providing food and other necessities to thousands of migrants from Central America who are walking or riding in any vehicle they can find toward the United States. There, they are seeking asylum but face threats from the Trump administration. The president vows that the migrants, still hundreds … Read more

GEOPOLITICS

Trump’s Nominee Lost the UN Migration Agency Vote. Is It a Signal?

July 9, 2018July 2, 2018 by Barbara Crossette

The unexpected, decisive rejection of the Trump administration’s candidate to head the premier United Nations agency for resettling refugees and other migrants appears to be a warning. Which is that other nations are not prepared to indefinitely defer to the power of the United States when human rights and democratic values are assaulted by the … Read more

NIKKI HALEY WATCH

In Year 2 of Trump Presidency, the US Is Still Eroding Both the UN and Women’s Rights

May 29, 2018May 21, 2018 by Barbara Crossette

After a year of bombast and threats by Ambassador Nikki Haley and the ever-evolving Donald Trump administration, the tone appears to be turned down a few notches in the second year of the Trump presidency. But efforts to undermine the United Nations and what it stands for have not stopped, at least for now, even … Read more

Desperate Escape: Why Syrian and Other Refugees Are Rushing to Europe

September 30, 2015September 18, 2015 by Shazia Z. Rafi

As a relentless remake of the Middle East and North Africa has been taking place, mass displacements of populations have also been occurring. And more chaos is ahead, says the United States Defense Intelligence chief, Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, in his assessment that Iraq and Syria may have been permanently torn asunder by war and … Read more

Her Job? To Welcome Boat Migrants Landing at Sicily’s Ports

June 6, 2014May 20, 2014 by Yermi Brenner

SICILY, Italy — Fabiana Giuliani is a legal associate for the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees, but in the last few months she has spent most of her time in ports. Based on the southern island of Sicily, Giuliani, a 31-year-old Italian native who has been working for the UN refugee agency for 18 … Read more

Missing: A UN Agency for the World’s Aging Population

November 16, 2014January 6, 2014 by Barbara Crossette

A few years ago in Ethiopia, a survey conducted for the government in the capital, Addis Ababa, discovered that 88 percent of a growing number of homeless older people as well as two-thirds of those living at home did not have enough to eat. A staggering 93 percent of all city residents over 60 had … Read more