Building off its recent investigation of the mistreatment and disappearance of asylum-seeking children, the Observer recently published an editorial rightfully slams the U.K. government’s absolving “itself of its ethical and legal responsibilities to these children.”

The U.K.’s Children Act 1989 places a legal duty on local authorities for the safeguarding and protection of all children in need in their local area, regardless of who they are or how they arrived in the U.K., the editorial notes. “This applies to unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK, the vast majority of whom will also meet the threshold for being taken into the care of their local authority.”

Asylum-seeking children “are in a no man’s land: there is no local authority whose care they fall under and so they are, unlawfully, not protected by the 1989 Children Act,” the editorial went on to say.

“There is no one with corporate parental responsibility for them, no one with the formal legal power to advocate on their behalf. They have been left to the residual care of the Home Office, probably the most dysfunctional department in Whitehall,” the editorial said.

More than 100 charities recently called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to stop what they said is the “unlawful” use by the Home Office of hotels from which hundreds of children seeking asylum have gone missing, the Financial Times reported.

U.K. Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick recently said that more than 200 children and teenagers under 18 were missing from government-approved accommodation. He said most were teenage boys from Albania, according to an Associated Press report.

“Children are literally being picked up from outside the building, disappearing and not being found. They’re being taken from the street by traffickers,” a whistleblower who works for Home Office contractor Mitie said.

The Department of State, in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services, on Jan. 19 announced the Welcome Corps, a new private sponsorship program that will enable Americans to sponsor refugees arriving through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and directly support their resettlement.

Through the Welcome Corps, Americans will work in groups of at least five to welcome refugee newcomers by securing and preparing initial housing, greeting refugee newcomers at the airport, enrolling children in school, and helping adults to find employment.

Click here for additional details.

In a Jan. 13 editorial, the Guardian tears into the shambolic and cruel approach that Europe is increasingly taking towards refugees.

“As idealistic young Europeans and former refugees are hauled into the dock for attempting to save lives at sea, Europe’s governments are pondering what more can be done to shore up the defences of a rich continent against the poor and the desperate,” the newspaper said.

“The 21st-century challenges posed by global migration and demographic change will not be met by brutally battening down the hatches,” it said.

Click here for the full editorial.

A Greek court on Friday dismissed charges against 24 human rights workers who joined refugee rescue missions.

Click here for my post from Jan. 12 that provides additional background on the case.

Human rights group Amnesty International recently renewed its calls for Greek authorities to drop all charges against Seán Binder and Sarah Mardini, who helped refugees who arrived in Greece.

Binder and Mardini are standing trial together with 22 others from the search and rescue NGO that they volunteered for. “They are facing unfair, baseless charges simply for helping refugees and migrants at risk of drowning at sea,” Amnesty International said.

Binder and Mardini were arrested in 2018 after they took part in several search and rescue operations around the Lesbos island to assist refugees stranded at sea, CNN noted in a story about the trial.

“Dozens of NGOs have criticized the Lesbos trial, and a group of European Parliament members have signed a letter calling on the government in Athens to drop the case,” the BBC reported.

A movie available on Netflix called The Swimmers charts the journey of Sarah Mardini and her sister Yusra from war-torn Syria as refugees to Yusra’s participation in the Rio Olympics as part of a refugee team.

The Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) in December announced a public-private partnership with the Tent Partnership for Refugees (Tent) to support employment opportunities and economic integration for refugees and other forcibly displaced people around the world.

The Tent Partnership for Refugees, founded by Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya, is a business coalition made up of more than 300 multinational companies committed to supporting refugees through hiring, training, and mentorship.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken signed a memorandum of understanding with Tent Partnership for Refugees. “This partnership seeks to mobilize U.S. and international businesses and corporations to connect refugees to work opportunities – a critical pathway to the long-term economic and social resilience of both refugees themselves and the communities which host them,” a State Department news release said.