Published daily by the Lowy Institute

Migration and border policy links: Safe zones, the Black Sea route, investor visas and more

Rachael Buckland

What Trump's border wall won't accomplish, Qatar's migrant construction workers, the US-Australia refugee swap and more.

A refugee camp in Bangladesh, September 2017 (Photo: Getty Images/K M Asad)
A refugee camp in Bangladesh, September 2017 (Photo: Getty Images/K M Asad)
Published 28 Sep 2017     Follow @rebuckland
  • With reports of hostilities in southern Bangladesh, Richard Weir outlines the dangers of establishing Rohingya 'safe zones' in Myanmar. Meanwhile, in a blog post for the Council of Foreign Relations, Mayesha Alam details the severe consequences faced by displaced Rohingya women.
     
  • The first group of refugees given a place under the US-Australia 'refugee swap' have departed for the US. ABC's Fran Kelly interviews Mark Hetfield, CEO of HIAS, an organisation assisting in the resettlement process.
     
  • US President Donald Trump has cut the US resettlement intake to 45,000 refugees, the lowest number since the modern program was established in 1980.
     
  • UNHCR has called for a continuation of the European Union asylum-seeker relocation scheme.
     
  • In response to efforts to stem flows of asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean, many are instead turning to the Black Sea as an alternate pathway. This week, 21 asylum seekers died after a Romania-bound boat sunk off the coast of Turkey.
     
  • The Finnish Immigration Service is using blockchain technology to aid unbanked asylum seekers in the country.
     
  • Brookings's Vanda Felbab-Brown lists three things that Trump's proposed border wall would not accomplish.
     
  • The Migration Policy Institute's Tian Fangmeng considers the impact of 'investor visas' and uptake patterns in China.
     
  • Human Rights Watch has urged the Qatari government to take further steps to protect construction workers (mostly migrant workers from South Asia) from potentially fatal heat-related illnesses.

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