The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is partnering with the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance to engage the hospitality sector in helping people affected by humanitarian crises and disasters, the Alliance reported on May 2.

“With almost 100 million people who are currently forcibly displaced worldwide, the partnership will see both organizations act in close collaboration to make the world’s hospitality industry aware of how they can work with and support refugee communities,” the Alliance said. “From facilitating skills training and offering employment, to providing temporary accommodation to refugees as they resettle to the new communities they will call home, there are multiple ways in which organizations can make a difference.”

The IRC will be able to engage with the Alliance’s global network, representing over 50,000 properties and 7 million rooms globally.  The Alliance’s members include world-leading companies who will be encouraged to participate in the IRC’s programs and activities.  In locations affected by humanitarian catastrophes, the local hospitality sector will be encouraged by the Alliance to identify ways in which they can support and help raise awareness of the IRC’s emergency response and recovery work with displaced communities.

The IRC will have access to specific and beneficial Alliance tools and resources, such as its online portal for refugees.  The platform, Hospitality Unite, is backed by the Alliance and was launched last year to support Ukrainian refugees looking for hospitality work throughout Europe.

“Hundreds of vulnerable migrants were abandoned to their fates after the UK coastguard ‘effectively ignored reports of small boats in distress during the days leading up to the worst Channel disaster in 30 years when at least 27 people died,” the U.K. Observer reported.

Approximately 440 people “appear to have been left adrift after the coastguard sent no rescue vessels to 19 reported boats carrying migrants in UK waters,” according to an analysis of internal records and marine data seen by the Observer and Liberty Investigates. Experts said the failure to act appears to breach international law.

The incidents occurred across four dates in early November 2021, weeks ahead of the mass drowning when a dinghy carrying migrants capsized, the newspaper reporterd.

Italy’s Senate on April 20 approved the first comprehensive immigration package “by the hard-right government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which would curb integration efforts, create new government-controlled migrant centers to house those waiting on asylum applications and more detention facilities, as well as establish harsher punishment for people smugglers,” reports Gaia Pianigiani for The New York Times. 

Under the new policies, migrants will have to stay in the centers until their asylum applications are processed, which can take up to two years in Italy, the article notes. “While they wait, they will not be able to seek independent lodging and will have a hard time beginning any organic form of integration into communities. Italy is also planning information campaigns in the migrants’ countries of origin to dissuade them from leaving, in exchange for extra visa quotas.”

Almost two dozen refugees recently graduated from a training program on April 7 by the Community Resource Project in Sacramento, California, to work in the electric vehicle industry, California’s KCRA reported.

The program is funded by a grant from the California Energy Commission.

Click here for the story.

The effects of climate change violence, political instability and economic in Latin American and the Caribbean are forcing millions of people to migrate, reports Marina Franco in a new Axios article.

Ecuador has for at least two decades drawn migrants from nearby countries, Franco notes. “Now people are leaving Ecuador as a rise in gang violence has made living in major cities like Guayaquil untenable for many.” Natural disasters “have also forced more Guatemalans, Panamanians, Dominicans and Hondurans to leave home.”

The story is part of a series in Axios Latino focused on immigration to the United States.

In a March 30 article in the Washington Monthly, Bill Scher details the Biden Administration’s new Welcome Corps program.

“Under this State Department program launched in January, groups of five or more Americans can sponsor refugees vetted by the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and help them permanently resettle in their communities,” writes Scher.

“To what extent Welcome Corps can fix our backlogged immigration system and depolarize the immigration debate may not be known at this point. But let’s make sure as many Americans as possible know about Welcome Corps and let’s see how far it can go,” writes Scher.

Click here for additional details about Welcome Corps.

The bodies of eight people were found on Thursday in the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, “a deadly ending to what the authorities called an illegal migrant crossing from Canada to the United States,” reports Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times.

The territory is known for being a transit point for the trafficking of humans and contraband because of its location, the Associated Press noted.

Justin Trudeau’s government recently announced “a major shift in how Canada and the US handle asylum claims, a move that effectively closes a controversial border crossing,” after meetings in Ottawa in March with President Bide. In particular, Canada will take steps to curb the use of Roxham Road as a pathway into the country from the U.S. by migrants seeking asylum.

Justin Trudeau’s government “has announced a major shift in how Canada and the US handle asylum claims, a move that effectively closes a controversial border crossing,” after meetings in Ottawa on Friday with President Biden, the Guardian reported. In particular, Canada will take steps to curb the use of Roxham Road as a pathway into the country from the U.S. by migrants seeking asylum.

The new agreement will allow Canada to send migrants who cross at unofficial ports of entry at America’s northern border back to the U.S., a change to the Safe Third Country Agreement long-sought by Canada, ABC News reported.

“The U.S. will also be able to turn back asylum seekers who travel across the border from Canada. In return, Canada has agreed to allow 15,000 more people from the Western Hemisphere to migrate to Canada legally,” ABC reported.

Migrant Rights Network, Canada’s largest cross-county coalition of migrant-led organizations, on March 23 condemned “the unprincipled and dangerous decision to close Roxham Road,” which migrants travel to enter Canada from the U.S.

Details of the agreement were expected to be unveiled on March 24 during President Biden’s visit to Canada.

Closing Roxham Road “will only force migrants to take even more dangerous routes because the Safe Third Country Agreement and other immigration laws do not allow migrants more dignified or safer ways of crossing to travel or seek asylum in either country, a right that is protected under international law,” the coalition said in a news release. “We call on Prime Minister Trudeau to end the Safe Third Country Agreement, to ensure migrants can safely cross the US-Canada border, and to ensure equal rights through permanent resident status for all migrants.” 

 The United States and Canada “have reached an agreement that will allow both countries to divert asylum seekers from their borders at a time when migration has surged across the hemisphere, a U.S. official familiar with the agreement said Thursday.” the New York Times reported on March 23. The deal will allow Canada to turn back immigrants at Roxham Road, the newspaper reported.

“In exchange, Canada has agreed to provide a new, legal refugee program for 15,000 migrants who are fleeing violence, persecution and economic devastation in South and Central America, the official said, lessening the pressure of illegal crossings into the United States from Mexico,” wrote New York Times reporters Michael Shear and Ian Austen.

A program launched in 2022 is helping refugees resettle in Tulsa, Oklahoma, aiding in both the immigration process and job search, reports Kristi Eaton in Fast Company.

The program, inTulsa Visa Network, , has four areas of support: legal, relocation, resettlement, and job placement.

The initiative is one of several from the George Kaiser Family Foundation, which is based in Tulsa, to bring more tech-led economic development opportunities to the community, reports Eaton in the article.

To date, 13 people from Ukraine and India have been accepted through the inTulsa Visa initiative, some with their families.