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.

Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott recently donated $15 million to Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, the nation’s largest faith-based nonprofit dedicated exclusively to serving and advocating for refugees, asylum seekers.

The donation is the single largest contribution Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service has received from an individual donor in its 83-year history of welcoming and empowering children and families from all around the world. It comes on the heels of the historic Afghan refugee resettlement mission, Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and record arrivals of asylum-seeking children and families at the U.S. southern border.

“This unprecedented and timely gift will make a monumental difference in the lives of the most vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers as they strive to achieve their own American Dream,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, in a statement. “We are extremely grateful to MacKenzie Scott for this recognition of our decades-long legacy of service. Her support represents a transformational opportunity to expand innovative programming and reimagine how the U.S. welcomes new Americans.”

LIRS will use the funds to accelerate projects intended to transform immigration services, including trauma-informed mental health care and the expansion of its holistic Welcome Centers for asylum-seeking families.

The gift will also support the group’s New American Cities workforce development program, and reinforce Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service’s unique capabilities to care for unaccompanied children through foster care programming and other community-based services, the group said.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “has expressed optimism about working with France to tackle illegal migration and his spokesman says the two countries are close to a new deal to curb the number of migrants crossing the English Channel,” reports the Australian Associated Press.

The Prime Minister and French President recently at the Cop-27 climate summit in Egypt, with the issue of small boat crossings high on their agenda, the UK’s Daily Mail reported.

Canada on Nov. 1 unveiled a new policy that aims to attract a total of 1.45 million immigrants between 2023 and 2025.

“The attitude of Canada’s government toward immigration is a stark departure from those of governments in Western countries such as Sweden and Italy, where newly elected parties are seeking to curtail immigration and are blaming immigrants for crime and disorder,” wrote Vjosa Isai in a New York Times article.

Canada “is struggling with an acute shortage of workers, particularly in skilled trades and industries like healthcare. The most recent job vacancy data showed there were 958,500 open roles in Canada in August and 1.0 million unemployed people,” Reuters reported.

The plan was unveiled by Canada’s Immigration Minister Sean Fraser.

Additional details on the plan are available here.

Please consider donating to Better Time Stories, which allows parents and other family members to record their voices while they read a children’s book.

Fathers and many other relatives are staying behind in Ukraine with the possibility that they will never see or hear from their children again.

Check out the recent Reuters article about the app.

For additional information, click here.

I am deeply disturbed by recent attacks on refugee centers in Germany and England. Vitriol aimed at refugees and immigrants has consequences and it needs to stop.

In October, a hotel in Germany housing refugees from Ukraine was set on fire in what police believe is a a case of politically motivated.

“As things stand, arson is suspected and a political motivation is assumed,” the police said in a statement, Reuters reported.

“Those behind a suspected arson attack on a German hotel intended to house refugee families will be tracked down and held to account, a top security official in eastern Germany,” ABC News reported.

In the middle of 2021, Germany reported almost 1.24 million refugees and 233 000 asylum seekers, making it the biggest host country for refugees in Europe. Half of the refugees are from Syria, according to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

More than 1 million refugees from Ukraine traveled to Germany seeking protection since Russia invaded Ukraine.

On Oct. 30, a man attacked a center that processes migrants in the port of Dover in England and then killed himself.

Police said up to three incendiary devices were thrown at the Western Jet Foil facility in Dover, where asylum seekers are processed after being rescued in the English Channel, the Independent reported.

The United Kingdom’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman recently detailed plans “for new powers which would ban refugees who cross the English Channel from claiming asylum and said it was her ‘dream’ to see a government flight deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda,” the Independent reported.

Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) is leading 15 of his colleagues in urging the Biden administration to immediately extend and redesignate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti, which would authorize Haitian nationals in the United States to remain in the country until conditions improve in Haiti.

The lawmakers on Oct. 26 sent a letter to Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Markey’s office notes that the island nation continues to face compounding crises that have forced thousands of Haitians to leave their home in growing numbers. The current TPS designation for Haiti is set to expire in February 2023.

“In light of the worsening conditions in Haiti, including prolific gang violence, widespread civil and political unrest since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, and the inability of average Haitians to obtain gasoline, food, water, health care, and other basic necessities, extending and redesignating Haiti’s TPS status is urgently warranted,” the lawmakers wrote.

The International Organization for Migration´s (IOM) Missing Migrants Project has documented at least 5,684 deaths on migration routes to and within Europe since the beginning of 2021, with increasing numbers of deaths seen on routes across the Mediterranean, on land borders to Europe and within the continent.

At least 2,836 deaths and disappearances were documented on the Central Mediterranean route since 2021 (as of 24 October 2022), an increase compared to the 2,262 deaths recorded between 2019-2020, IOM reported on October 25.

On the West Africa-Atlantic route to the Spanish Canary Islands, 1,532 deaths were documented in the reporting period, a figure already higher than any two-year period since IOM began documenting deaths in 2014.   

“On both of these long, hazardous overseas routes, data for the current year is highly likely to be incomplete given the labor-intensive process of verifying all-too-frequent ‘invisible shipwrecks’ – cases in which entire boats are lost at sea without any search and rescue being conducted,” IOM said.

Click here for the IOM report.