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Migration and Border Policy links: Work visas, Manus shooting, the fate of Sumte and more

Duterte's visit to the Gulf, climate change and population movement, Global Compacts and more.

The Khazir refugee camp, Iraq, April 2017 (Photo: Getty Images/Carl Court)
The Khazir refugee camp, Iraq, April 2017 (Photo: Getty Images/Carl Court)
Published 20 Apr 2017   Follow @rebuckland

  • Australia, New Zealand and the US have announced restrictions to skilled work visas.
     
  • During a week-long visit to the Middle East, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte discussed trade and migration with Gulf leaders and announced plans to establish a foreign employment department to oversee the growing Filipino migrant worker population.
     
  • The International Organization for Migration held an international dialogue on cooperation, governance and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. IOM Director-General William Lacy Swing spoke with UN Radio to reflect on what’s driving the Compact.
     
  • Amnesty International called for the closure of Manus Island following the Good Friday shooting.
     
  • The Kaldor Centre has updated its Transfer Tracker to show the latest figures on the ‘voluntary’ repatriation of asylum seekers from Manus Island and Nauru.
     
  • Writing for the New York Times, Jessica Benko discusses the nexus between climate change and human displacement in the Amazon Basin, the Lake Chad region, Syria, China and the Philippines.
     
  • UNFCC has assembled a Task Force on Displacement to respond to population movement caused by climate change. Dr Sarah Nash sets out what is known so far.
     
  • The Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights released a report on sexual exploitation and abuse of migrant and refugee children in Greece.
     
  • Two years on, Ben Mauk reflects on the fate of the small German town of Sumte, which captured attention in 2015 for its refugee to villager ratio of seven-to-one.



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