The Covid-19-induced lockdown has resulted in a loss of jobs at home, but this is also set to reduce the number of Nepalis going abroad for work, which experts say could hit the countrys economy hard, as it will massively curtail remittance inflows.

There has been a huge slump in the number of work permits issued by the government to individuals seeking to go abroad for employment.

During the 2019/20 fiscal year that ended on Wednesday, the number of permits issued saw a drop of 27.5 percent, compared to the previous fiscal (2018/19), according to the statistics maintained by the Department of Foreign Employment.

If we didnt have the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent restrictions, the number wouldnt have dropped so much even as that had been declining, said Swarna Kumar Jha, a labour migration researcher.

A total of 368,433 labour permits were issued to aspiring migrant workers during 2019/2020, compared to 508,828 during the previous fiscal (2018/19), according to the Department of Foreign Employment.

Labour migration observers say that the main reason behind the slump is the government decision to suspend permits issuance.

Following the Covid-19 terror, the government stopped sending migrant workers abroad, said Jha. This resulted in the drop.

Following the spread of the coronavirus in labour destination countries, particularly in the Persian Gulf, Malaysia and South Korea, most of the countries enforced restrictions on international flights. Later, the Nepal government also suspended issuing labour permits to migrant workers, bringing the countrys foreign employment departures to a halt.

Rameshwar Nepal, a labour migration researcher, said the impact of Covid-19 on the countrys foreign employment sector was visible weeks before the government stopped issuing permits.

The drop in labour permits doesnt surprise me. Even before the Nepal government prevented Nepali workers from leaving, there were fears among aspiring workers who were reluctant to leave due to the crisis, said Nepal, who is also the South Asia director at Equidem Research, a UK-based human rights research organisation.

The movement of migrant workers had been declining since February. This was expected in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Covid-19 has prompted a decline in employment opportunities for Nepali migrant workers abroad, experts say.

The number of permits issued has been on the decline for the last three years now as major labour destinations endure financial and political turmoil and some countries try to diversify their pool of workers. Countries such as Saudi Arabia have even adopted a policy of reserving jobs for their own citizens.

With the global economic slowdown impacting the labour migration sector, a drop in the money remitted by Nepalis working abroad is imminent. As per the World Bank estimates, the country is likely to suffer a loss of Rs145 billion in remittance this year.

Although there were fears of a massive downfall in remittances because of the pandemic, it is unlikely to be as worse as per the initial projections. But if there is a decline in the number of Nepalis going abroad to work, there will be a reduction in remittance inflows.

The Nepal Rastra Bank had projected a drop of over 15 percent in remittances in the current fiscal year and the Central Bureau of Statistics also projected a reduction of Rs163 billion or over 18 percent of the total remittance sent by Nepalis working on foreign soil the previous year. Last fiscal year, the country received a total of Rs879 billion sent home by Nepalis working abroad.

According to the central bank, the country received remittances amounting to Rs34.5 billion in Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April), compared to Rs71 billion in the same month in the previous fiscal year. The figure improved to Rs53.9 billion from mid-April to mid-May, and according to preliminary figures from the central bank, remittances from mid-May to mid-June grew to Rs62 billion.

Despite the changing policies of labour destination countries, Nepalis are likely to continue getting work opportunities, but in lesser numbers than in the past, say experts. That too will be contingent on how and when the economies recover from the shocks of Covid-19, according to them.

After every crisis, the economy crashes and then as time goes by, it is revived, said Nepal. When the economies rebound at a certain point, there will be employment opportunities again. But we do not know when it will happen. Some labour destination countries have reopened, but we are still in a wait-and-watch situation.

According to Jha, the reopening of labour markets might take some time as fear of contagion is high and measures such as physical distancing need to be followed everywhere, starting from the airport.

Labour migration experts, however, blame the Nepal government for failing to prepare in advance to cope with extraordinary crises even when the economy relies heavily on remittances sent by migrant workers.

The government has failed to take action over the long-debated issue of diversifying Nepals labour market beyond the Persian Gulf and Malaysia.

Like in the past, Nepalis have continued migrating to the same countries for work. Last fiscal year, the departures numbered 93,424 to the United Arab Emirates, followed by Saudi Arabia (83,163), Qatar (81,567), Malaysia (59,714) and Kuwait (16,862).

Experts have long argued that such a high concentration results in a host of risks for workers as well as the countrys economy.

Our government is not adequately prepared to seek alternative labour markets, said Nepal.

According to Jha, the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and governments inaction have had a multiplied effect on the countrys foreign employment sector, which already dealt with several challenges.

We know that the country receives remittances equivalent to over 25 percent of the countrys gross domestic product, and currently there is no substitute for it, said Jha, who also coordinates the National Network for Safe Migration, an organisation working in the field of labour migration and migrants rights.

The government has been coming up with policies to absorb migrant workers inside the country. However, we know they will not come into force immediately.

As the countrys large chunk of the labour force, which migrates abroad for employment, remains unskilled, mostly working for the construction sector and factories, it also makes it difficult to mobilise them once they return home.

Also, for several years, we sent unskilled workers abroad. Only if we had trained them before sending out, reintegrating them and providing them with jobs would have been much easier, said Jha.

The Nepal government has announced an ambitious plan to create nearly 700,000 jobs, mostly targeting returnee migrant workers.

But that wont be enough, according to researcher Nepal, as every year nearly 500,000 people enter the labour market.

Not having prepared in advance to create jobs for critical times like these impacts the most vulnerable, who are likely to suffer more, said Nepal. These migrant workers and their dependent families will face another pandemic.

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Covid-19 results in massive decline in labour migration numbers, with no immediate hopes of recovery - The Kathmandu Post

Slices of Life by Richa Gupta.

During this challenging year, the COVID-19 pandemic is not only altering the global, national, and individual landscape but also the priorities of our race, hopefully forever.

As the dreaded virus tears across royal families, celebrities, and matinee idols in addition to the hoi polloi, these demi-Gods and pin-up idols are being exposed to have feet of clay.

The new luminaries are rightfully becoming those who render vital services to society: medical personnel who burn the midnight oil to save lives (to the exclusion of those who are motivated by lucre), farmers who fill our granary in return for a pittance, sanitary workers who keep our cities bearably clean and the entire value chain of manufacturers, transporters and vendors, which brings to our homes the necessary wherewithal.

The incessant greed for material trifles is transmuting into a realization that the most precious gift is that of life itself and thereby all that is necessary for its sustenance, chiefly our health system. The lack of focus on the health infrastructure has spelt the doom of premier cities like New York that had previously been the worlds envy.

Nations have allocated immense resources to fund desperate research to discover a viable vaccine and cure to halt the conflagration. Pharmacies are replacing temples as places of pilgrimage, and renowned doctors substituting for priests in providing the prognosis and daily advisory to handle the current crisis.

The allure of tourist spots and manmade marvels in alien locales faded when they became hot spots of the invisible enemy and we have begun to cherish the safety and comfort of our humble abode. Instead of inane visits to malls and crowded parties, we are investing in family time and our intimate life-sustaining relationships. Families are bonding as never before; and digital media has become supreme in educating, informing and entertaining. Social, or rather physical, isolation, masks and sanitizers rule the roost in the absence of a viable solution for the affliction.

Though the pandemic has bred isolation and confinement, it has also engendered a spiritual quest and an inward-looking disposition. Most of us realize the significance of the adage that happiness lies within. As fancy couture remains suspended in cupboards and flashy cars rust in the garage, we are realizing that we need very little to be truly happy and a moment of creativity can spark more happiness than purchasing the latest iPhone. The futility of material possessions and the importance of human relations are highlighted as never before.

Aggressive nations and pompous leaders that promote aggrandizement and false image-building have been exposed and the new catchphrase of good leadership has become rational decision-making in the interest of public welfare. The sensible citizenry is realizing the value of women leaders who are facing the challenge with scientific temperament and sound common sense to steer their nations to comparative safety.

The global scenario is in flux as wealth no longer seems to be the determiner and the U.S. flounders with the largest number of cases and deaths. The nation that had formerly led the world response in handling global crises has been dislodged from this erstwhile position, and the balance of power is shifting to less wealthy but better-steered nations. The lack of effective leadership in the U.S. as it belatedly battles the pandemic amidst contradictory proclamations has exposed the hollowness of this dream destination for youngsters.

I imagine this society learning from the chaotic present and hurtling into a robotic future with an emphasis on eugenics and belated physical isolation, as depicted in my story Future Love Story (from Slices of Life).

The migrant crisis in India due to the COVID-19 lockdown exposed a major vulnerability in our society: the inter-state migrants who were left jobless and homeless at the imposition of a 21-day lockdown.

Their nostalgic desire to return to their home states and the tribulations of a migrant family feature prominently in Dusk (Slices of Life). As visuals of this informal workforce trudging homewards were splashed on TV screens, city-dwellers across India awoke to their plight and some good Samaritans emerged to feed them and prioritize their welfare.

Urban India is awakening to its moral duty towards this hitherto unseen section of society that services our homes and builds the city infrastructure and industrial growth on which we pride ourselves.

One of the biggest transitions has been in the attitude of all right-thinking individuals towards Nature. During the lockdown, after centuries of unmitigated environmental abuse, we saw nature reclaiming its space as the blue skies cleared of fumes and the seas of refuse and animals pranced happily in open spaces without fear of Homo sapiens, the most dangerous species on earth.

COVID-19 has reminded us that we are not the master but a minuscule part of Nature; it has hollowed our pride in our prowess as we fall like ninepins to a microscopic virus that wreaks on us the wrath of a maltreated environment.

Hopefully, in the future as well, humanity will cherish these lessons of humility and co-existence learned during the pandemic, prioritize the general good, invest in meaningful relationships instead of pursuing material wealth and refrain from ravaging Nature.

After an academic and professional career, Richa Gupta has devoted herself to writing and published her second novel Skeins in 2018. A senior teaching professional with over 19 years of academic teaching experience, Richa is also an Instructional Designer for training and e-learning in the corporate sector. She lives in New Delhi.

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How the Coronavirus Pandemic Has Changed the Priorities of the World Today - News18

He was separated from his parents in the escape and has not been able to find them since. He came to Frankfurt, where another brother was already living, and started looking for somewhere he could play cricket.

I feel better when I play cricket, he says. It clears my mind, and I forget about other problems.

The club he joined, MSC Frankfurt, trains at a football ground in the forest on the outskirts of the city. The nets are set up in a corner of the field, behind the goal posts. Its a far cry from Lords but Afghan cricket made it to Test status from humbler beginnings.

The team is a mix of Afghans, Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. They train with an easy camaraderie, the political differences of their countries cast aside. Here there are no politics, only people, Mr Ashraf says.

The others are wearing the blue and yellow strip of MSC Frankfurt, but Mr Ashraf is training in his Germany shirt of black, red and gold.

Mr Ashraf plays for Germany under the same rule that allows Jofra Archer to play for England. In cricket, you can play for a national side if you have lived in the country for three years.

When I told the teachers at school I was going to play for the German cricket team, their first response was: What, Germany has a cricket team? Mr Ashraf laughs.

While cricket is one of Germanys fastest growing sports, the mens game is dominated by the immigrant community.

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British expat leads unexpected rise of cricket in Germany - with the help of Afghan refugees - Telegraph.co.uk

In the wake of Covid-19, two things were imminent right from the start when it came to Nepals flow of remittance: Hundreds of thousands of Nepalis working abroad would be forced to return home, and there would be a sudden decline in outmigration. Latest government data already shows that there is a slump in the issuance of labour permits. A total of 368,433 labour permits were issued to aspiring migrant workers during 2019-20, compared to 508,828 during the previous fiscal (2018-19), according to the Department of Foreign Employment.

The slump is largely due to the lockdown imposed by Nepal as well as destination countries over the last four months or so. Then again, migrant workers who have lost their jobs in destination countries, especially in the Persian Gulf, Malaysia and South Korea, have started to return home, with more likely to fly back as flights resume.

The money sent by Nepali migrant workers has been a mainstay of Nepals economy, with remittance equivalent to around 25 percent of the countrys gross domestic product. At a time when the country is struggling to cope with an economic crisis, losing remittance will be a major setback. As Covid-19 spread across the world, the writing was on the wall. There were clear indications of a global recession and employment conditions, but the Nepal government by and large turned a blind eye. While its response to the pandemic itself is not up to the mark, it has also failed to take cognisance of the inevitable impacts on the economy.

According to the Migration in Nepal report, there are an estimated 500,000 Nepali migrants in Malaysia, the most popular labour destination, followed by Qatar with over 400,000, Saudi Arabia 334,451, the United Arab Emirates 224,905 and Kuwait 70,000. These five countries alone accommodate over 1.5 million Nepalis.

Although unofficial estimates also vary widely, the Nepali population in India is said to number between three to four million. A majority of Nepalis who work abroad are employed in India. But since Nepal and India share an open border, there are no official figures.

With lockdowns in force and businesses shuttered, a significant number of these Nepalis are currently out of a job, and even when the lockdowns are relaxed, they are not likely to be employed, given the beating most economies are currently taking.

A government task force formed to study the impact of Covid-19 on the foreign employment sector and the economy said back in June that the country needed to create 1.5 million jobs, more than double the target set by the government, to avoid an impending unemployment crisis. But the government is yet to come up with a solid plan to support those who have lost their jobs at home due to the pandemic. Now, with the number of migrants set to decline and more Nepalis returning home, the government is scrambling to handle the impact of returnees and declining remittance flows amid a global health emergency.

Amid growing job losses at home, the failure to come up with any plans at all to reintegrate returnees and those whove failed to go abroad is equivalent to staring at a high tide thats fast approaching. The government must pull out all the stops and get all the agencies together to turn the challenges posed by the pandemic into an opportunity. A ritualistic announcement of lower-interest loans for entrepreneurs or the agriculture sector with no clear follow-through will not work anymore.

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Migration woes - The Kathmandu Post

Undocumented clients are especially vulnerable these days because they dont qualify for the unemployment benefits that other out-of-work people are able to receive. They also fear coming into contact with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during distributions or endangering their migration status by applying for SNAP.

It all adds up to a limited ability to access resources among a population that needs them the most. I was surprised at how many more families were in need, said Rosario Valerio, Senior Manager of Nutrition Programs at Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County. I was not aware of how scared they were. That was a shock for me.

Valerio helps oversee the food banks underground food distribution program, run in conjunction with the Center for Farmworker Families, a nonprofit dedicated to advocating for and supporting farmworkers and their families, mostly from Mexico.

The secret food distribution program, which started two years ago and now serves about 160 families, came about when Dr. Ann Lopez, Executive Director of the Center for Farmworker Families, approached the food bank about the migrant farm workers who harvested food for a living, but were not being paid enough to support their families. The workers also felt they could not safely access food assistance.

To remedy this, the two organizations created a clandestine food bank, which meets in less public locations such as alleys and backyards. These locations are rotated to further ensure client safety. Rather than advertise the sites, Lopez makes phone calls directly to families about where they need to go.

All these people are here getting food because they trust Dr. Lopez, Valerio said. They feel comfortable to come and get the food that they need to be able to provide for their families.

Partnering with organizations that are already established in supporting migrant people has proven to be one of the most effective ways for food banks to serve this sometimes hard to reach demographic.

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"Stealth" food banks serve the undocumented - The Counter

EDITORS NOTE: Were making some of our coronavirus pandemic coverage free for nonsubscribers. You can read those articles here and subscribe to our newsletters here.EDITORS NOTE: Were making some of our coronavirus pandemic coverage free for nonsubscribers. You can read those articles here and subscribe to our newsletters here.

It has been clear for a while now that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are not evenly spread across U.S. society. One particularly hard-hit group is foreign-born workers. And now, on top of all the other economic chaos wrought by the disease, the shutdowns are grinding the industries in which many of them work to a halt and draining their pockets of the remittances that usually help sustain their family members in their home countries.

According to data from Migration Data Portal, as of June, there were 653.4 reported COVID-19 cases per every 100,000 migrants in the United States. That may be somewhat lower than the overall case rate in the country, but making things worse for migrant workers is the economic devastation. At the peak in May, there had been 40 million layoffs since the start of the pandemic. According to National Migration Forum, about half of immigrant workers are employed in some of the industries most affected by the pandemic: educational and health care services; professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services; arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation, and food services; and manufacturing.

Missing paychecks are a problem both for the workers themselves and for families abroad. For decades, the United States has been the worlds biggest source of remittances, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the global total in the most recent figures. In 2018, immigrants sent home about $68.5 billion in remittances, an average of nearly $3,000 per worker, which represents between 2 and 38 percent of their U.S. earnings.

A full accounting of this years crash in remittances is not yet available, but the experience during the 2007-2008 financial crisis is instructive. Between 2008 and 2011, outflows fell by roughly 10 percent.

This time around, the World Bank has predicted a global fall in remittances of over 20 percent. The International Monetary Fund likewise forecasts that money sent to sub-Saharan Africa will drop by 20 percent. It is hard to overstate the devastation, in 2019, remittances to the region totaled $47 billion, making up a larger source of foreign income than foreign direct investment and official development aid.

In May, the economist Michael Clemens added detail to the grim overall picture. In the Philippines alone, he noted, a 20 percent drop in remittances would throw about 380,000 people into extreme poverty, according to rigorousestimates by Dean Yang and Claudia Martinez. And in Mexico, for example, a 20 percent cut in remittance income would cause roughly 800 additional deaths of children under age one each year.

There is no question the world will one day recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The flow of remittances may quickly return to (or even exceed) pre-pandemic levels. But for many, it will be too late.

As Orla Doyle of the University College Dublin showed in a study from April, a childs first 2,000 days in the world matter significantly to their lifetime achievements. Good early childhood intervention raises the childs future prospects and the lack of it could result in the opposite. Disadvantaged households that are highly dependent on income from migrant relatives and friends will have less to invest in their childrens health and development during this period.

Such shortfalls cannot be remedied by future economic recoveries. The impact of a shock to remittances on babies being born during the pandemic will last for a lifetime. In fact, as the researcher Douglas Almond found in a 2006 study, the negative effects of the 1918 pandemic were still apparent in census data from 1980; children in utero during the pandemic were worse off in terms of income, educational attainment, and socioeconomic status.

It is impossible to predict exactly when affected economies will stage a comeback. The 2007-2008 financial crisis lasted about 17 months; the COVID-19 crisis may last longer. And manyespecially some immigrant workers in the United States and those who rely on remittances they send homemay never recover.

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The COVID-19 catastrophe is shrinking remittances from the United States and creating a looming humanitarian disaster. - Foreign Policy

Launched in the Interim budget of February 2019, right before the Lok Sabha elections the same year, the Pradhan Mantri Kisaan Sammaan Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is a 100 percent centrally funded scheme that gives minimum income support of 6,000 rupees a year to marginal and small farmer families having combined land holdings/ownership of up to 2 hectares.

The 6,000 rupees is disbursed in three equal installments and is to be directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

Similarly, with the elections in mind, the Trinamool Congress government launched the Krishak Bandhu scheme on 31 December 2018, as a New Year gift to all farmers. The state-funded, approximately 3,000 crore rupees scheme, gives annual financial assistance of 5,000 rupees per acre to farmer families, disbursed in two installments- during the rabi and kharif seasons.

However, the Krishak Bandhu scheme also had a second part in the form of an assurance model. Under this, if a farmer, aged between 18 and 60, died (due to natural or unnatural causes), then their family was entitled to a one-time grant of two-lakh rupees.

Both aspects of the scheme, the state government said, would be rolled out to 72 lakh farmer families in West Bengal.

With PM KISAN, the states and Union territories, had to assess the farmer families eligible and provide data to the centre. Soon after, the scheme was announced, the West Bengal government refused to roll it out.

In February 2020, however, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, while appealing to the West Bengal government to join the scheme said that almost 10 lakh of the 70 lakh farmers in the state had registered for the PM-KISAN scheme. Since then various BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have harped on how they cannot help the farmers in the state, because Mamata Banerjee would not verify their data.

West Bengal is losing approximately Rs 42,000 crore in central funding by opting out of PM-KISAN.

The rest is here:

Is BJPs Criticism Of TMC Opting Out Of Central Schemes Justified? - The Quint

In early July, Neelam Devi (name changed) has made at least three trips to the panchayat office, a few kilometres from her house in Bihars Motihari district, for information about the status of her ration card. Her last visit turned out to be fruitful as Devi got an assurance from the officer that her monthly ration will continue for a few more months; the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) has been extended till November. For the past three months, the benefits of the scheme has turned out to be a lifeline of her family.

Under the scheme, ration cardholders are entitled to five kg of rice or wheat per beneficiary and one kg of pulse per family/per month free of cost, which is over and above the subsidised grains. The scheme is a part of the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package to help those affected due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown. It was earlier valid from April to June.

While the scheme targets 80 crore beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), Neelam Devi doesnt belong to the club. For the past few months, her family has not been able to avail ration through the Public Distribution System (PDS) as her ration card is not linked to her Aadhaar number. Devis husband, who used to work as a driver in Mumbai, has returned home and is out of work now.

It was with the help of local activists that the four-member family managed to get ration on a temporary basis after the lockdown was announced in March. Devi is clueless about what the future holds after November. While many like Neelam Devi are left in the lurch, what is baffling is the dismal record of Bihar in distributing the food grains to the needy. According to government data, Bihar distributed only around 37 per cent of its monthly quota of food grain to beneficiaries at the peak of the migrant crisis in June. Till June 30, the state has distributed 72 per cent of the total food grain lifted from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for April, May, and June.

Opposition parties were quick to interpret the extension of the free food grain scheme as a political move in view of the impending Bihar elections. However, the distribution chart of other states such as West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh also paints a dismal picture. The alleged callousness of the states has prompted Union minister for food and consumer affairs Ram Vilas Paswan to ask states to be sensitive and speed up the distribution of food grains.

Former planning member board member N.C. Saxena believes that the central government needs to monitor the states which failed in implementing the schemes and timely distribution of food grain. Saxena points out that the data posted on the websites of many states show that the total distribution of food grains in April 2020 is slightly less than that of April 2019.

Ideally, the states should have distributed double amount of food grains this year during such a crisis. This shows that the states are not implementing the schemes properly. The central government has to find out why they are lagging behind, says Saxena, a former rural development secretary.

Jharkhand, one of the worst-hit states by the pandemic and migrant influx was at the forefront in demanding an extension of the free grain scheme. The state food and consumer affairs minister Rameshwar Oraon welcomes the move with caveats.

The extension of PMGKAY will benefit the cardholders. But there are lakhs of people who dont possess cards under BPL. How to feed them is the problem, he says. Oraon stresses that the scope of the scheme needs to be expanded in view of the humanitarian crisis caused by the pandemic. The minister also said that the state has special schemes for migrants and the ones who are out of the ambit of PDS.

Approximately 9.5 lakh people have applied for ration cards in the last six months. We are providing 10 kgs rice to the non-card holders also. We will be enforcing universalisation of PDS soon, says Oraon, adding that the delays in distributing the food grains will be sorted out by mid-July.

Rameshwar oraon, Food minister, Jharkhand

With the countrys granaries overflowing with 100 million tonnes of food grain, the extension of the free ration scheme is an expected move, opine experts. However, activists say that the absence of an efficient delivery mechanism proved to be a major hurdle in reaching the beneficiaries.

Dipa Sinha, a right to food activist, points out the flaws in the Atmanirbhar package rolled out by the central government in May especially for returning migrant workers. She says that the government came up with the package realising that a large group of people has been left out in the crisis. While the government announced a 5-kg food grain scheme for 8 crore migrant workers for May and June, government data showed that it reached only 13 per cent of the beneficiaries.

A possible reason for the gap could be the central governments failure to give proper guidelines to the states to identify the migrants. Implementation wasnt happening properly. How will you identify the 8 crore people? What are the criteria? The central government left it to the states. It will take a lot of time for any state government to identify new beneficiaries, says Sinha, who teaches at Ambedkar University, Delhi.

She says that more people should be added to the system to extend the benefits of PDS. Since NFSA was implemented in 2013, its calculations were done on the basis of Census 2011. With the increase in population over the years, its possible that at least 10 crore people are excluded from the list.

Siraj Hussain, a former agriculture secretary says that 10 crore more people need to be included in the coverage of the NFSA. Currently there are 80 crores ration cardholders. To bring in 10 crores more people, Niti Ayog has to give the number of people in each state, who are eligible for fresh ration cards, says Hussain.

Many activists also argue that implementing universalisation of PDS is an emergency response to the current crisis. Sejal Dand, a Gujarat-based right to food, campaign activist cannot agree more. For the past three months, Dand has been struggling to address the problems of tribals in the state, who are excluded from PDS for various reasons. She says that with reduced income sources and mounting food insecurity, the situation is grim. For the excluded people, the administration has given ration for April and May. There is huge confusion, says Dand adding that universalising PDS is the only solution in a disaster situation.

However, Saxena disagrees with the idea of universalising PDS. Why should everyone get subsidised food grains? Those who can afford should buy from the market, he says. He believes that the onus is on the state governments to update the list of beneficiaries and implement the schemes in an effective way.

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Granaries Overflowing With Food, Why States Are Unable To Provide The Needy? - Outlook India

Coronavirus is not the first shock that has hit Nigers migration routes in recent years. In 2015, when Europes migration-crisis hit its peak, Niger became the unofficial southern border of the European Union.

Over the last five years, Brussels has poured hundreds of millions of euros into the impoverished country in a desperate attempt to stop the flow of migrants. Under EU pressure, the Nigerien government adopted a harsh law banning people smuggling and cracked down on age-old desert trade routes.

The crackdown had the effect EU officials wanted. Migration through Niger on to Libya fell from more than 300,000 in 2016 to about 10,000 in 2018, according to the European Parliament.

However, the crackdown has wrought havoc on many peoples livelihoods. It is estimated that about half of Agadezs 120,000 residents profit in some way from the migration routes through the desert.

Overnight the 2015 anti-smuggling legislation turned what was effectively a thriving retail economy in northern Niger into a criminal one. Humanitarians say the crackdown pushed smuggling operations underground and forced many migrants to take increasingly dangerous routes through the Sahara.

To make matters worse, Algeria started to expel African migrants and refugees en masse in 2017. A reported 25,000 people were deported from Algeria back to Niger in 2018 alone.

Over the last three years, the Algerian security forces have left thousands of people, including pregnant women and children in the middle of the desert, to walk back to civilisation or die in temperatures well above 40c.

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'They cannot go up and they cannot go back': Pandemic leaves migrants stranded in the Sahara - Telegraph.co.uk

The World Bank estimates that the magnitude of internal migration is about twoandahalf times that of international migration. Within India, an estimated 40 million internal migrant workers, largely in the informal economy, were severely impacted by the governments COVID-19 lockdown.

With transportation systems initially shut down, many had no recourse to travel options back to homes and villages, resulting in harrowing journeys home. Those who were able to make it home found, in some instances, villages refusing entry because of fears of transmission.

The shocking images of migrants forced to walk in desperation showed the enormity of the crisis as well as some of the challenges posed by an extended lockdown in India where so many people live hand to mouth and cannot afford not to work.

The complete failure of the government to anticipate the needs of this group, and the subsequent distress caused, has made visible a large workforce who experience precarity of work and often live hand to mouth.

One key challenge is the lack of robust data on the scale of internal migration. While estimates abound, there is no proper data collection system in place to accurately record temporary, seasonal and circular migration patterns. However, it is estimated that more than 90% of working people in India are engaged in the informal economy, with states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar accounting for more than 80% of workers in this sector.

A recent government labour force survey estimated that more than 71% of people with a regular salary working in non-agricultural industries had no written job contract. Nearly half of workers are not eligible for social security benefits.

Daily-wage workers are particularly vulnerable, with limited or no access to social security and most living in poverty. Living hand to mouth, their loss of livelihoods has led to a lack of money to pay rents or pay for food. Women are impacted whether because of their gender, responsibilities as caregivers, or as members of disadvantaged castes and communities.

COVID-19 has massively impacted this group of workers. Stranded Workers Action Network found that 50% of workers had rations left for less than oneday; 74% had less than half their daily wages remaining to survive for the rest of the lockdown period; and 89% had not been paid by their employers at all during the lockdown.

According to Supreme Court proceedings, relief camps are housing some 660,000 workers; some 2.2 million people also rely on emergency food supplies. Job losses, and home and food insecurity have left this group highly vulnerable.

In March 2020, in response to COVID-19, the Indian government instituted the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKB), a $22.6 billion relief package. The World Bank announced $1 billion funding to accelerate social protection support, in part through the PMGKB.

This support would work alongside pre-existing initiatives such as the Public Distribution System (PDS), which covers 800 million people, and Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT). This cash injection could help address one of the key challenges facing Indias piecemeal and uneven social protection programmes inadequate funding. Indias spending on public social protection excluding health is just 1.3% of the GDP.

However, there are still other challenges to overcome. One is how to ensure coordination and coverage within, and across, differing states. The second is how to transition multiple schemes into one integrated system that can be accessed anywhere within the country, particularly important when many workers are on the move. There is an urgent need for a comprehensive system, which is adaptive and flexible to needs and provides adequate social and income support.

Another coverage issue relates to the use of direct cash transfers (DCTs) to support people impacted by the loss of livelihoods, where funds are deposited within bank accounts. Such measures fail to consider the significant numbers of people who do not have access to banks and will not be able to access this support.

There is a risk, with extended lockdown and risks of further waves of infection, that labour shortages could negatively impact the economy. There is a wider need to support re-entry back into the workforce and support livelihoods. National Survey Sample data shows that between 2007 and 2008, internal remittances amounted to US$10 billion. These domestic transfers financed over 30% of all household consumption in remittance-receiving households.

But future migration for work is likely to be severely impacted. As restrictions begin to ease, employers and businesses cannot necessarily rely on cheap available labour. Having faced destitution and hardship, many may wish to stay closer to families and local support networks.

As Irudaya Rajan notes in The New Humanitarian, it is likely there will be a reduction in long-distance migration in India after this, as many migrants will be wary of being stranded again. This would be hugely detrimental to stimulating the economy as reverse migration could push down wages and subsequently demand.

Another issue may be returning migrant workers, who have been working overseas, over half of whom work in the Gulf. It is unclear if, or when, migrants will be able to return to work, with the World Bank estimating that remittances from this group could fall by about 23%.

However, what is striking has been Indias support for this group - the Vande Bharat Mission has deployed flights and naval ships to help return migrant workers, especially vulnerable groups -in marked contrast to the lack of preparation and care for internal migrants.

One factor for this may be the volume of remittances these migrant workers bring to the Indian economy, but it overlooks the contribution of internal remittances, on which there is far less robust data.

But the current challenges can also be an opportunity. The scale of the migrant crisis has made visible an often-overlooked population of workers. With political will, and investment at federal and state levels, this could be an opportunity to transform livelihoods.

As thoughts will turn to how to stimulate economies and get people back to work, it is imperative that those in authority turn their minds to how to create a more just society, that invests in healthcare, and has a social protection system that supports the most vulnerable in society.

Migrants are not just objects of charity that need support. Internal migrants are key income generators that play a vital role in Indian society and should never be overlooked again.

This article was originally published in Routed Magazine.

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COVID-19: The Hidden Majority in India's Migration Crisis - Chatham House

By Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts

As the Coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe, closing cities and shutting borders, migrants fleeing violence, persecution, and seeking a new life are stuck in the midst of a health and economic crisis. In this article, Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts investigates how current conditions could affect the future of migrants impacted by the pandemic and what NGOs and governments can do to help. She is a Global Studies undergraduate student at the University of Virginia.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, USA (IDN) - As Europe closed borders and suspended flights in early March to combat the spread of COVID-19, undocumented migrants and migrant workers remained stuck in Spain for two months. Many were without living spaces or sources of income after the shutdown, leaving some to take shelter in gyms or out on the streets, some even attempting to swim into Morocco from Ceuta as a last resort.

With most countries closing borders and issuing some form of stay-at-home orders, safety and services dedicated to asylum seekers and refugees has dramatically decreased. The result is many migrants in Morocco and around the world facing dangerous health situations and increased economic insecurity.

Migrants in Morocco, even those with proper documentation, cannot reap the benefits of accessible state aid. For many, income and livelihood depend on mobility. The majority of migrants work in informal jobs (street vendors and uncontracted work such as cleaners), which contribute to 20 per cent of Moroccos economy. With closures, many have no source of income and cannot qualify for any financial support by the government.

Without a source of income, some do not eat every day, and others skip meals. In the current situation, asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants are more vulnerable to permanent job loss and deportation as movement is restricted.

What does this mean for the future?

Stigmatization, misinformation, and discrimination have led to further restrictions for migrants. False claims and reports spread rumours that migrants carry the virus and spread it throughout communities. In Lebanon, Syrian refugees are targeted with curfews that do not apply to other foreigners or citizens despite the low number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 among Syrian refugees (only 1.3 per cent).

New restrictions on migration suggest longer-term impacts on mobility and an increase in social exclusion, leading to issues like discrimination and even global divides as production shifts locally and economic isolation grows.

Limited mobility increases dangerous and illegal migration, forcing more to turn to smugglers, increasing vulnerability to human trafficking and abuses in the exploitation of peoples desperation. This includes further potential restrictions to migrant workers and migrants seeking refuge in third countries, like Spain or Italy.

Migration in a Moroccan Context

Traditionally an emigration country, Morocco has quickly become the safer migration route into Europe, with land access to the border in the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta. Although the number of illegal border crossings into Spain has halved since 2018, the majority (28 per cent) of migrants entering into mainland Spain last year came from Morocco.

Morocco has begun to reduce the number of illegal border crossings into Europe, but once caught, migrants can end up in a deportation loop. Arriving at the Spanish border, they are arrested and bussed back to Southern Moroccan cities far from smugglers who could offer them passage. As authorities continue to restrict movement, migrants and smugglers are pushed to seek out new routes, such as by sea, which is often more dangerous.

Since 2014 the Moroccan government has run two major regularization campaigns, giving residency permits to 50,000 migrants within the country. However, the UNHCR reports that gaps in accessing documentation and employment persist.

With tighter migration restrictions on popular destination points, such as Spain, France, and Italy, Morocco could see larger populations of migrant workers stuck indefinitely in migration centres such as Rabat.

What will come next?

Organizations like the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) offer some solutions. Beginning in 2020, law school students at the University Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah in partnership with HAF will provide pro-bono legal aid to migrants in the Fez region, in particular victims of trafficking, young people, and women.

Fez is estimated to house tens of thousands of migrants, many of which come from Sub-Saharan regions of Africa and live within the new districts of the city. These districts are often modest or poor, and with limited legal access, migrants have trouble finding work. In a study of migrants in Fes, only 53 per cent of respondents reported that they are or had been engaged in paid employment since their arrival.

Providing legal aid to migrants reduces the potential of trafficking networks and smugglers from taking advantage, while also offering law students the chance to gain valuable experience in the field and connecting migrants and women to CSOs to develop skills and build their cooperatives or businesses, which can reduce youth unemployment. With a stronger legal and economic support system, migrants are more likely to establish roots rather than risk irregular migration to Europe.

Developmental and human rights organizations are increasingly offering support to migrants around the country, yet it is important that organizations take further steps at the local level. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has repeatedly warned that specific quarantine measures and restrictions on free movement must meet international human rights standards. Rather than delaying asylum claims, they can be processed remotely, where restrictions prevent face-to-face interviews. Extending residency permits to those in-need can increase health access to migrants in areas affected by the pandemic.

In May, in partnership with the Moroccan government, the UNHCR and the National Council of the Medical Association teamed up to provide increased health care access and medicines for asylum seekers and refugees in Morocco.

Moroccan migration policies support a humanitarian approach and prohibit manifestations of racism. However, the limited accessibility of resources for migrants and legal obstacles persist.

Further steps can include greater health and legal accessibility for vulnerable migrant groups, including access to psychosocial support, emergency accommodation, pre-school education, childcare, mediation, and occasional emergency aid (such as in the case of a lockdown). October has historically been the most active month for migrants crossing from Morocco to Spain, so it is important to adopt these steps to prevent a surge in dangerous, irregular border crossings. [IDN-InDepthNews 14 July 2020]

Photo: Law students of USMBA, the university named after Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, a 18th century Sultan of Morocco, participate in skills-building workshops in preparation for opening a law clinic. February 2020, High Atlas Foundation.

IDN is flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate

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The Forgotten Victims of COVID-19 Amid Migration Crisis - IDN InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

Pacific states have been urged to ensure migrants can access basic healthcare and essential income support amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) say the situation of temporary seasonal workers is concerning.

In a statement, the UN agency said migrant workers risked slipping into situations of irregularity if they could not or did not wish to return to their home countries.

It said border closures, restrictions on departure and re-entry, expired working visas and loss of employment for many temporary visa holders across the Pacific had left many of them with limited access to alternative livelihood options, adequate food and shelter.

It said these also had implications on the workers' physical and mental health.

The World Bank has called for more jobs to be made available for women in New Zealand and Australia under their respective Pacific labour mobility schemes. Photo: RNZ Pacific/ Koroi Hawkins

The OHCHR said an estimated 330,000 Pacific-born people resided overseas with 2.7 million more temporary visa holders living in Australia and New Zealand.

Thomas Hunecke, the head of OHCHR in the Pacific, said his office continued to track human rights issues across the region.

Mr Hunecke said human rights-based responses to the health crisis were vital in ensuring all "migrants, regardless of their status, have access to basic social security such as healthcare and essential income support".

He said these should be an integral element of the pandemic response in the Pacific.

"In particular, we are concerned that the lack of inclusive income security measures means that many migrants and their families with little reserves would be hardest hit by unemployment and rising prices.

RSE workers from Samoa working in Bostock orchard, Hastings. Photo: RNZ / Anusha Bradley

Meawhile, the IOM Pacific Coordinator Pr Liljert said migrants had played a vital role in supporting countries during the Covid-19 crisis and that safe migration should be part of the recovery process.

Mr Liljert said this could be a potential solution for Pacific countries that received significant GDP contributions from remittances, but equally for countries of destination by filling critical labour market gaps including in essential services like food production.

"At the heart of addressing Covid-19 and building back better are policies and programmes that guarantee the health and safety of migrants, with inclusive public health responses and socioeconomic recovery packages."

Mr Hunecke said as the long process of protecting and rebuilding economies adversely affected by the pandemic got underway, there was a need for Pacific states to ensure their response effectively addressed the disproportionate impact the crisis had on people and communities who were already marginalized and vulnerable.

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UN agencies call for the protection of Pacific migrant workers - RNZ

On June 20, we celebrated World Refugee Day. This was an opportune time for us all to pay attention to the challenge of forced displacement today. Strikingly, the world is facing the largest forced displacement crisis since World War II, with nearly 80 million people having fled their countries because of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events that have seriously disturbed public order. All continents now face forced displacement crises, and migratory problems cross state and community boundaries.

Forced displacement has hit Latin American and Caribbean countries particularly hard, highlighting existing vulnerabilities such as increased levels of violence and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Latin America is now home to one of the largest forced displacement crises in the world. As of March 2020, more than 5 million Venezuelans were reportedly living outside of their country, with 4 million of them in other Latin American countries: Colombia (1.8 million), Peru (1 million), and Ecuador and Chile (for a total of 1 million).

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Since the beginning of the Venezuelan crisis, most Latin American nations have tried to accommodate these recent arrivals, providing migrants with basic education, emergency health care services and legal status. These neighboring countries have provided a global public good by hosting millions at the risk of overwhelming their services and systems. But how will these nations be able to withstand the pressure?

Hosting countries face the new challenge of integrating larger numbers of migrants and refugees while dealing with the effects of the coronavirus outbreak. When taking into account that more than 60% of Venezuelan migration in Latin American countries is irregular and targets the most vulnerable populations, this crisis is now becoming a question of public health and safety and, ultimately, of regional security. It is time for the international community to provide a collective response that matches the magnitude of the crisis.

A first step was taken on May 26, with the virtual livestreamed on YouTube pledging conference for Venezuelan refugees and migrants that helped raise $2.79 billion in total commitments. This included $653 million of grant funding for the Refugee and Migrant Response Plan, which is a United Nations appeal to largely address the emergency needs of the migrant population.

The situation in Latin America calls for enhanced international support across the humanitarian-development nexus. In other words, the response should address pressing immediate needs such as temporary shelter and emergency medical services as well as the medium and long-term imperative of economic and social development through institutions, resilient local systems and service delivery. This is precisely what Colombian President Ivan Duque called for when advocating the shift from emergency response to medium and long-term development and integration.

To help countries mitigate the impact of the crisis and charter a pathway to growth and stability, there are five development priorities to focus on.

First, new ways should be explored to provide regular status to refugees and migrants, including through targeted regularization or employment-based programs. There have been several efforts to provide regular status to recent refugees and migrants arriving from Venezuela.

Colombia, Peru and now Ecuador stand out for their ambitious regularization programs for hundreds of thousands of irregular refugees and migrants. Amid rising public anxieties over migration in some countries, it may become harder to implement such mass regularization programs or offer regular status to most who seek to enter. The approach followed by Colombia in providing regular status to those who have employment in specific sectors may provide another alternative. Similarly, Peru has been trying to regularize students in the countrys educational system another strategy that Colombia and Ecuador seem likely to adopt in the future and one that may prove more politically viable in some countries.

Yet these approaches risk leaving out the vast majority of recent refugees and migrants who do not attend school or work in the formal economy, or the families of those who do benefit from such measures. Policymakers should, therefore, be thinking about the medium and long-term effects where providing legal status to refugees and migrants would produce optimal labor market outcomes for themselves and the country overall. The details of implementation in each case will matter enormously, but there is room for reiterative efforts that focus on specific different groups over time.

Second, health care barriers should be tackled through clear policies on access and financing. Almost all countries in the region, at least in theory, offer emergency health care to immigrants regardless of regular status. Still, specific policies are often unclear, and measures are not always implemented effectively at the local level, which means that migrants often have difficulties accessing health care in practice. In countries where local and regional governments pay part of health-care costs, financial burden sharing is also often unclear, leading local hospitals to cover costs that may never get reimbursed.

Creating clear policies and procedures defining both the services offered and what amount of costs will be covered and by whom are critical. In some countries, such as Colombia, Peru and Costa Rica, where residents need to enroll in the health care system to be eligible for benefits, it is vital to find agile ways of ensuring that new immigrants can register and sometimes to find ways of covering the costs of their care.

Third, access to education should be improved through flexible enrollment practices and ongoing support. One of the most critical decisions of countries has been to offer primary and secondary education to all students regardless of their status. In some countries, this was already embedded in the constitution, but others have more recently adopted these measures.

This helps avoid a generation of young people growing up without education and supports receiving countries to take advantage of the potential human capital of immigrant children who will likely grow up in their territory. In many places, however, strict registration requirements involving documents that are difficult for migrants and refugees to obtain can prevent some from enrolling their children in school.

There is also an urgent need to work with schools on policies, procedures and curricula to facilitate the integration of Venezuelan children, who may face challenges adapting to their new schools and need additional support to develop critical skills (e.g., history, culture and other country-specific knowledge). In several countries, access to college, graduate education and trade schools is also restricted for those who do not have adequate documentation, which risks wasting the human capital of immigrant youth who aspire to enter professional and technical careers, including in fields that are in demand in their new countries.

Fourth, migrants skills should be unlocked to boost labor market integration and local economies. The majority of Venezuelan adults suitable for paid work in countries across the region were already working before COVID-19. In fact, more than 90% of Venezuelan migrants in Peru and 8 in 10 Venezuelan migrants in Colombia were employed before the pandemic. While recognizing that the labor markets of many countries in the region are characterized by a high degree of informality, care should be taken to ensure that immigrants do have pathways to better-paid and more stable employment in the formal economy and to avoid creating conditions where employers can pay immigrants less than the prevailing wage, to the detriment of both newcomer and native-born workers.

There is no more important determinant for long-term positive labor market outcomes than ensuring regular status, which helps immigrant workers improve their wages over time and also helps avoid unfair wage competition between native-born and Venezuelan workers. Refugees and migrants tend to be relatively well-educated, which means that there is a wealth of highly skilled human capital that could benefit receiving countries.

To effectively leverage this potential, countries will need to create agile ways for immigrants to get professional and technical degrees earned in their home countries validated and recognized by employers. Argentina has done this through provincial universities, which has allowed the country to encourage professionals to leave the capital and settle in other provinces where their skills are in demand. Creating expedited credential recognition pathways for applicants willing to settle in an area of the country where their skills are most needed could also help fill labor market gaps.

Fifth, constructive narratives about immigration should be developed to highlight opportunities while not ignoring its challenges. There is no question that the sudden outflow of 5 million Venezuelans constitutes a migration crisis, and one that host countries are keenly aware of. But this migration is also an opportunity for host countries, as illustrated by increased predictions by the World Bank of regional future economic growth as Venezuelan immigration drives labor market expansion.

Immigrants, when they have access to legal status, education, health care, financial services and pathways to validate their studies, tend to become net contributors to innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth over time. Several governments in the region have gone out of their way to maintain their focus on these long-term opportunities, even while dealing with the challenges that the sudden arrival of so many people creates for already overburdened public services. Policymakers require assistance to orient the public debate on migration by keeping an eye on the medium and long-term benefits (and designing policies to help attain them). Still, they must also acknowledge the real strains involved in dealing with sudden, large-scale inflows.

Multilateral support will be critical in helping countries in the region meet these policy challenges. While migration from Venezuela holds the potential to enhance economic growth in the long term, it is also creating real and tangible short-term costs for already overburdened schools, hospitals and infrastructure. Multilateral support can help countries of the region overcome these challenges and reap immigrations benefits.

This requires moving from emergency responses to long-term development and integration. While there is still a critical need for emergency services for recently-arrived migrants from Venezuela, as crises in these countries stretch on, it is also important to plan for the medium and the long term. The most important question in the future will be how to support inclusive development that can help host communities and immigrants build connections and improve their livelihoods together. Enhancing access to and quality of schools, health care facilities, housing and urban infrastructure in areas where migrants settle is vital. This is the key to successful integration and also an opportunity to turn a migration crisis into a net benefit for host societies.

While there is some need for temporary shelter and emergency medical services that international actors could help meet, the greatest needs for support have to do with building local capacity for integration and service provision both to new arrivals and long-time residents. For this, multilateral organizations like the World Bank should continue to be actively engaged in helping better manage the forced displacement crisis, in support of its mission to reduce poverty and contribute to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

*[The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work.]

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observers editorial policy.

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Hosting Refugees and Migrants Is a Global Public Good - Fair Observer

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates The controversy surrounding cheap migrant labor in the oil-rich Gulf states has intensified during the coronavirus pandemic, amid reports of workers going without food and water and being deprived of pay.

"A massive issue not being discussed is that some of the (workers) are going home without their paid wages," Rothna Begum, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch told CNBC on Thursday. "This is thousands of dollars of wages that are not being paid because unscrupulous employers and agents realize this is an opportunity to allow workers to go home (to their home countries) without having to pay them."

Migrant workers are also being fired in their thousands. In the UAE alone, for example, more than 50,000 Pakistani workers have been laid off and repatriated, according to Pakistan's ambassador there. Workers from Pakistan make up 20% of the UAE's population.

Nationals from India, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Nigeria, among others, also make up the roughly 35 million-strong migrant workforce that's been crucial to every sector of the GCC economy.

Rights advocacy group Amnesty International said that the coronavirus pandemic had worsened conditions for many of these workers. The group cites salary delays and layoffs as a major risk plaguing the community right now, in addition to overcrowded living conditions, a lack of support, detentions and deportations, and problems with healthcare and sick pay.

Residents hang their laundry off the railing on their balconies at their apartment building, to disinfect them under sunlight, in the city of Dubai on May 17, 2020, during the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Karim Sahib | AFP | Getty Images

Some workers still in the UAE also say they have not been paid. More than a dozen foreign taxi drivers in Dubai, for instance, who spoke to CNBC over the course of 12 weeks,have told CNBC they were not paid during the emirate's coronavirus lockdown, and had to rely on friends and relatives for food and money.

If they tried to protest, the drivers said, their employers threatened to revoke their visas. "They are paying us zero money," one taxi driver, speaking anonymously out of fear of reprisal, said of his employer in late April. "But what will we do? If we say anything they will cancel our visa, send us back to Pakistan."

The UAE's Ministry of Human Resources did not reply to a request for comment.There is no region-wide body that oversees migrant labor.

Governments need to create mechanisms to ensure that workers are paid before they return to their home countries, Human Rights Watch's Begum said. So far, none of the GCC states have implemented this.

"Right now we're not seeing governments come through with that mechanism, so now we're seeing many of the (workers) going home destitute, potentially going back to debt, or even worse off than when they left the country," she said.

There also remains the problem of workers trapped in their host countries and unable to return home, with some having become undocumented before the pandemic who now fear arrest if they tried to leave, rights advocates said.

"They're still finding themselves destitute, they still need access to food, housing and health in particular, a lot of them are not coming forward because they're scared of authorities catching them as undocumented workers," Begum added.

She noted some good practices in place, however, including recent decisions by the UAE and Bahraini governments, among others, to extend visas to ensure workers are not becoming undocumented during the pandemic.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have also said that undocumented workers can still receive healthcare. But the problem remains that many workers are simply too afraid to get care, believing they will be arrested, revealing a "trust deficit" between workers and their host governments, Begum said.

As economies in the Gulf slowly reopen, some workers have hopes that things will get better. One Dubai taxi driver from Egypt, who had not returned home to see his family in more than two years, said that while he misses home, he knows his job prospects aren't good there. When asked how he managed without pay during Dubai's several weeks of strict lockdown, he replied: "It's only thanks to God."

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The Gulf's migrant workers are being exploited amid the coronavirus crisis, rights groups say - CNBC

As Europe closed borders and suspended flights in early March to combat the spread of COVID-19, undocumented migrants and migrant workers remained for two months, many without living spaces or sources of income after the shutdown, leaving some to take shelter in gyms or out on the streets, some even attempting to as a last resort.

With most countries closing borders and issuing some form of stay-at-home orders, safety and services dedicated to asylum seekers and refugees has dramatically decreased. The result is a large number of migrants in Morocco and around the world facing dangerous health situations and increased economic insecurity.

Migrants in Morocco, even those with proper documentation, cannot reap the benefits of accessible state aid. For many, income and livelihood depend on mobility. The majority of migrants work in informal jobs (street vendors and uncontracted work such as cleaners), which . With closures many have no source of income and cannot qualify for any financial support by the government.

Without a source of income, some , and others skip meals. In the current situation, asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants are more vulnerable to permanent job loss and deportation as movement is restricted.

What does this mean for the future?

Stigmatization, misinformation, and discrimination have led to further restrictions for migrants. False claims and reports that migrants carry the virus and spread it throughout communities. In Lebanon, Syrian refugees are targeted with curfews that do not apply to other foreigners or citizens despite the low number of of COVID-19 among Syrian refugees (only 1.3 percent).

New restrictions on migration suggest longer-term impacts on mobility and an increase in social exclusion, leading to issues like discrimination and even global divides as production shifts locally and economic isolation grows.

Limited mobility increases dangerous and illegal migration, forcing more to turn to smugglers, increasing vulnerability to human trafficking and abuses in the exploitation of peoples desperation. This includes further potential restrictions to migrant workers and migrants seeking refuge in third countries, like Spain or Italy.

Migration in a Moroccan Context

Traditionally an emigration country, Morocco has quickly become the safer migration route into Europe, with land access to the border in the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta. Although the number of illegal border crossings into Spain has halved since 2018, the entering into mainland Spain last year came from Morocco.

Morocco has begun to dramatically reduce the number of illegal border crossings into Europe, but once caught, migrants can end up in a deportation loop. Arriving at the Spanish border, they are arrested and bused back to Southern Moroccan cities far from smugglers who could offer them passage. As authorities continue to restrict movement, migrants and smugglers are pushed to seek out new routes, such as by sea, which is often more dangerous.

Since 2014 the Moroccan government has run , giving residency permits to 50,000 migrants within the country. However, the UNHCR reports that gaps in accessing documentation and employment persist.

With tighter migration restrictions on popular destination points, such as Spain, France, and Italy, Morocco could see larger populations of migrant workers stuck indefinitely in migration centers such as Rabat.

What will come next?

Organizations like the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) offer some solutions. Beginning in 2020, law school students at the University Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah in partnership with HAF will provide to migrants in the Fez region, in particular victims of trafficking, young people, and women.

Fez is estimated to house of migrants, many of which come from Sub-Saharan regions of Africa and live within the new districts of the city. These districts are often modest or poor, and with limited legal access, migrants have trouble finding work. In a study of migrants in Fes, only of respondents reported that they are or had been engaged in paid work since their arrival.

Providing legal aid to migrants of trafficking networks and smugglers from taking advantage, while also offering law students the chance to gain valuable experience in the field, and connecting migrants and women to CSOs to develop skills and build their own cooperatives or businesses, which can reduce youth unemployment. With a stronger legal and economic support system, migrants are more likely to establish roots rather than risk irregular migration to Europe.

Developmental and human rights organizations are increasingly offering support to migrants around the country, yet it is important that organizations take further steps at the local level. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees () has repeatedly warned that certain quarantine measures and restrictions on free movement must meet international human rights standards. Rather than delaying asylum claims, they can be processed remotely, where restrictions prevent face-to-face interviews. Extending residency permits to those in-need can increase health access to migrants in areas affected by the pandemic.

In May, in partnership with the Moroccan government, the UNHCR and the National Council of the Medical Association to provide increased health care access and medicines for asylum seekers and refugees in Morocco.

Moroccan migration policies support a humanitarian approach and prohibit manifestations of racism. However, limited accessibility of resources for migrants and legal obstacles

Further steps can include greater health and legal accessibility for vulnerable migrant groups, including access to psychosocial support, emergency accommodation, pre-school education, childcare, mediation, and occasional emergency aid (such as in the case of a lockdown). October has historically been the month for migrants crossing from Morocco to Spain, so it is important to adopt these steps to prevent a surge in dangerous, irregular border crossings.

Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts is a Global Studies undergraduate student at the University of Virginia. USMBA Law students participate in skills-building workshops in preparation for opening a law clinic. February 2020, High Atlas Foundation.

By Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts

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The Forgotten Victims Of The Pandemic: An Ongoing Migration Crisis - The New Dawn Liberia

6 mins read

MP with a vision and a progressive outlook towards issues Supriya Sule is a veteran at her job. The two-time top performing member of the parliament, Sule may belong to a family crowded with political leaders but she is far from being understated. She has created a distinct name for herself through her push towards the betterment of her constituency from which she has been an MP since 2009.

In this interview, Sule opens up about her views on womens safety, migrant crisis, queer community being vulnerable, her work as an MP and how she has tremendously managed COVID-19 in her constituency, even though Maharashta is struggling as a state..

You have been the MP of Baramati for the last three terms, how do you distinguish this term going different from the others?

Supriya Sule: Clearly COVID-19 is a challenge in itself but it has nothing to do with my term. It is a global issue and it doesnt matter which profession one is in.

How is Baramati tackling COVID-19?

Supriya Sule: Baramati Lok Sabha Constituency is handling the situation very well. People along with the administration are helping each other amidst the coronavirus crisis. We implemented stringent lockdown even after the national lockdown was reopened. The local administration did effective crowd prevention and management and contact tracing efforts, earning the district the tag of corona-virus free.

(Since the interview, few positive cases have come up in the district. In the last 15 days, Baramati record six cases of coronavirus and one death.)

In this interview, Supriya Sule opens up about her views on womens safety, migrant crisis, queer community being vulnerable, her work as an MP and how she has tremendously managed COVID-19 in her constituency, even though Maharashta is struggling as a state.

As a parliamentarian, how challenging is it to contain it in your constituency when entire Maharashtra is struggling?

Supriya Sule: I dont think Maharashtra is struggling in isolation, the world is struggling. It isnt about being a member of parliament, it is about being a human. Human misery is far more painful. Your profession doesnt matter when the whole world is going through such a miserable time. I cant be so selfish and insensitive to just view Maharashtra as battling the infection.

You have been the best performer in the parliament consecutively, this time for tackling the pandemic effectively. What are your thoughts on it and how have you made it possible?

Supriya Sule: It is a job that I love to do and I try to the best of my abilities. It is not about where I stand in politics but about how I work with the other MPs as a good team player and thats all that matters to me.

What are some of the other challenges that Baramati is facing?

Supriya Sule: The biggest challenge is to tackle the economic depression that will arise due to the coronavirus crisis. But everybody has challenges in the world and the beauty of it is that you have to rise above them. Thats why, as representatives, we have to find solutions to them and make peoples lives better with the legislation we make in parliament.

The biggest challenge is to tackle the economic depression that will arise due to the coronavirus crisis. But everybody has challenges in the world and the beauty of it is that you have to rise above them. Thats why, as representatives, we have to find solutions to them and make peoples lives better with the legislation we make in parliament.

But what are some challenges specific to your constituency that you want to do better in?

Supriya Sule: I want to completely eliminate malnutrition in the top-performing constituency that Baramati is. Secondly, I also want to tackle anaemia in my constituency and I want all these illnesses like TB, malaria, dengue, COVID-19 free constituency.

There has been a rise in domestic violence against women across the world, have you seen a spurt of such cases in your constituency and how are you dealing with the rise?

Supriya Sule: We have taken this proactive step to prevent similar cases from occurring in the Pune rural region. Vigilance committees consisting of women from three agencies the Women and Child Department, Anganwadi workers from Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and panchayat samitis are visiting houses in each ward of a gram panchayat. The tormentors would be transferred to an institutional quarantine facility, which could mean a town hall or a village lodge or any other public facility in villages.

How do you think this pandemic is impacting the queer community as you have always shown your support to them and have always pushed for gender-neutral laws in the Lok Sabha?

Supriya Sule: One doesnt have to wait for a pandemic to realize that the LGBTQ+ community is vulnerable; they have always been marginalized. We have to take care of our queer community round the year whether there is a pandemic or not.

With the current situation and the migrant crisis, how is your leadership ensuring to deal with it?

Supriya Sule: We have done a lot of work in sending people from our constituency to other parts of the country by ensuring them train tickets, water, food and other such relief material. In our district, it happened flawlessly and I am very grateful to the local administration who made sure that relief work happens smoothly.

We have set up camps across the Pune District on highways for people traveling to their homes to provide them with a safe place to rest and stay, with nutritious food, necessary medical care, toilet and registration for transport being arranged. Moreover, till May 21st, 50 shramik special trains have departed from Pune district. Around 62,000 people have traveled in these trains.

2,689 buses have departed to various places outside Maharashtra. Around 41,000 people have left for their homes in these buses. 3,238 buses and minibuses have left for different districts of Maharashtra with students and labor heading to their homes. We are helping migrant workers by providing them kits with essential commodities and hot meals.

(We conducted this interview on 28 May so the number may vary now.)

We have set up camps across the Pune District on highways for people traveling to their homes to provide them with a safe place to rest and stay, with nutritious food, necessary medical care, toilet and registration for transport being arranged. Moreover, till May 21st 50 shramik special trains have departed from Pune district. Around 62,000 people have traveled in these trains.

Also read: Political Apathy During The Pandemic Traumatized Me: Karur MP Jothimani

Do you think this pandemic has shown a very classist side of the society with the migrant workers being pushed to walk their way home?

Supriya Sule: It has always existed but the brutal truth is that we all have to face classism again and again because of some decisions that we have radically taken in the past. I dont want to blame anyone in these challenging times as it would be unfortunate.

How does a typical day look like in the times of coronavirus in the life of an MP?

Supriya Sule: We get up and we are on the phone the whole time to cater to distress calls. To help people deal with the crisis, we have to be connected with the administration at the state level and local level. It begins with having a review of the issues not only in the constituency but across the state. Some of the tasks include coordinating with the administration, conducting meetings on digital platforms with policy makers, legislatures and representatives from each sector. Apart from this, we have to take feedback from the constituents and streamline things accordingly and we believe in interacting with people across the state on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram too. My Team and I are available 24*7 to help people who need help.

Like everybodys mental health is impacted by the intense fear around coronavirus similarly, MPs must be affected too mentally. How is it like in your case?

Supriya Sule: Giving up is so easy and this is not the first challenge all of us are going through. We have seen so many challenges, but we learn from each other and evolve accordingly.

Do you think the ongoing political discourse of communalism is having an impact in your constituency? Tell us more about it.

Supriya Sule: We are all working extremely hard in helping every individual who needs help to be distracted by these things.

Also read: Amravatis Independent MP, Navneet Rana On Politics, Misogyny And COVID-19

Finally, how has the experience of being a female MP been for you? Were asking this in the context of women being a minority in the parliament and politics being a highly misogynistic workplace.

Supriya Sule: I come from a very liberal Maharashtrian society which is not gender-biased at all. Maharashtra is very gender-equal. I dont see gender in parliament. An MP is an MP no matter what gender they belong to.

All pictures have been taken from Supriya Sules Facebook profile.

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I love my job Supriya Sule On Being A Top Performer In The Parliament - Feminism in India

The alert from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) follows reports that an airstrike on Sunday in Washhah District, in north-west Hajjah Governorate, killed seven children and two women.

Another two children and two women were reportedly injured and taken to Abs Hospital for treatment Hajjah Governorate in north-west Yemen.

Condemning the development, theUNs Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen,Lise Grande, said in astatementthat it was incomprehensible that in the middle of the COVID pandemic, when options for a ceasefire are on the table, civilians continue being killed in Yemen.

The country has long been a steppingstone for migrants seeking work in the oil-rich Arabian States to the north of Yemen.

But landing points across from the Horn of Africa have become increasingly dangerous since conflict escalated in March 2015, between the forces of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi - supported by a Saudi-led international coalition and mainly Houthi militia, for control of the Arab nation.

Today, widely described as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, fears that COVID-19 has already gained a strong foothold in Yemen have been compounded by a potential famine alert last week from the World Food Programme (WFP), as some 10 million people face acute food shortages.

For nearly six years, Yemen has been an extremely unsafe place to be a migrant, said IOM spokesperson Paul Dillon. COVID-19 has made this situation worse; migrants are scapegoated as carriers of the virus and as a result, suffer exclusion and violence. In addition to the forced removals, fears about COVID-19 have led to migrants in Yemen experiencing verbal and physical harassment, increased detention and movement restrictions.

COVID-19 restrictions have reduced the number of migrant arrivals in Yemen by 90 per cent in recent months, while also leaving tens of thousands of Ethiopians in limbo, according to IOM.

Transportation through the country has been blocked and at least 14,500 migrants have been forcibly transferred between governorates, it said in a statement, with at least 4,000 people stranded in Aden, 2,500 in Marib, 1,000 in Lahj and 7,000 in Saada governorates.

In 2019, an average of 11,500 per month arrived in Yemen from the East African ports, according to IOMs Displacement Tracking Matrix, in search of work in Saudi Arabia.

In May 2019, 18,904 people made the crossing, while this year, only 1,725 arrivals were recorded.

Although more than 1,460 cases of new coronavirus infection and 418 deaths have been reported in Yemen, the IOM official noted that the agency and the broader humanitarian community in Yemen, are working under the assumption that the virus is widespread.

With most migrants sleeping outdoors or in unsafe abandoned buildings, they are at greater risk of exposure to COVID-19, Mr. Dillon continued.

They have little access to basic services like food, clean water or health care, a worrying situation given how pervasive the virus is believed to be in Yemen.

After being stranded in Yemen, a group of Ethiopian migrants return to Addis Ababa with the support of the International Organization for Migration. (July 2019), by IOM Bole Addis Ababa International Airport

In an appeal for continued access for humanitarians throughout the country, the IOM official highlighted grave concerns about virus transmission in places where migrants are being held.

Prior to the emergence of COVID-19 in Yemen and elsewhere, we know that many of these - many of these detention centres - are not particularly sanitary, Mr. Dillon said. Theres no access to some of the basics that one would need to address public health concerns such as COVID-19.

Last year, IOM reached nearly 60,000 migrants in Yemen with shelter support, health care, voluntary return assistance and psychosocial support.

According to Ms. Grandes Office, nearly 1,000 civilian conflict-related casualties have been reported in Yemen in the first six months of 2020.

Yemen cant take much more, she said. There isnt enough funding, health and water programmes are shutting, famine is stalking the country again, and people all across the country are being hit hard by COVID.

At a pledging event in Riyadh on 2 June, donors pledged only $1.35 billion of the $2.41 billion requested to cover essential humanitarian activities until the year end, leaving a gap of more than $1 billion.

Since mid-April, 31 of 41 of critical UN programmes have been reducing or closing down for lack of funding, Ms. Grandes Office said.

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In Yemen, thousands of Ethiopian migrants stranded, COVID-19 likely widespread - UN News

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan publicly acknowledged on Friday that community transmission of coronavirus has begun in certain coastal regions of the state. In essence, Pinarayi declassified what must be a top secret at the all-India level. The chief minister has chosen to be upfront on a sensitive issue, when his peer group is playing safe and is in denial mode.

But how can a pandemic be fought when the rulers are in denial mode? The fact of the matter is that community transmission began quite some time ago in our country and has begun appearing lately in Kerala, too. Pinarayi has been personally conducting the daily briefings on the march of the pandemic in his parish to educate the public opinion.

Indeed, how do you fight a pandemic unless the public is aware of the gravity of the crisis? In Kerala, community transmission is limited at present to the fishing villages where social distancing norms are difficult to enforce, as fishermen also happen to be migrant workers who go wherever there is good catch available. So, triple lockdown has become necessary in select coastal areas to prevent the fishermen from travelling to neighbouring states where the pandemic is raging.

Hasnt the time come for PM Modi to announce that community transmission has begun? Of course, it is unpleasant news. But the number of infected people crossed the 1 million mark in India on Thursday.

At this rate, how can one take lightly the prognosis by the hugely prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore that the number of infected cases will exceed 3.5 million by 1st September and could rise as high as 12 million (over 3 million active cases and half a million fatalities) by 1st November?

The IISc study by a group of noted scientists says that by the New Year on 1st January 2021, India would have possibly reached close to 30 million infected cases (over 6 million active cases and 1 million fatalities). The pandemic is not expected to peak before March next year.

This is an apocalyptic scenario. The international community anticipates a massive crisis spiralling out of control and is closely watching India, which accounts for one-sixth of humanity. The Newshour programme yesterday on BBC Radio World Service gave top billing to the pandemic ravaging India. The highlights of the discussion were as follows :

-The rate at which the infection is going up in India is worrisome.

-There are many more infections that are to be counted beyond the official figures.

-Vast cities like Mumbai and Delhi are the worst hit but the pandemic is spreading to other cities and towns too and lockdown is being reimposed in some areas.

-The situation is absolutely bad in Delhi where alongside the pandemic-related issues, there is also the collateral effect on peoples lives. The migrant labourers who are trying to get back to their homes are hard up, as once again the government has stopped the transportation, the trains as well as the bus services.

-The number of migrant workers has only increased in Delhi. Most of them want to go back to their homes. The unemployment rate has drastically increased and many industries are refusing to take back their employees.

-The grim reality in Delhi is that massive unemployment is leading to hunger, and this is posing a graver challenge than the Covid-19 situation. The government has announced huge schemes and everything, but on the ground those schemes are yet to reach. If the help doesnt reach the people within the month, it will become very difficult to handle the situation.

-Overall, there is a sharp increase of cases all over the country and the epidemiologists and scientists are of the opinion that the government needs to take a strong stand and admit there is community transmission so that steps are taken to see that the epidemic can be brought under control.

-Given the number of cases, community transmission is surely happening. The active states are concentrated in a few states and although there is a steady increase of cases all over the country, the alarming increase is happening at present in a few states and there too, confined to a few districts. Perhaps, the government does not want to scare the public by admitting there is community transmission and this could be one of the reasons behind this denial mode.

-The fatality rate has not been high compared to other countries. But this is changing, as more tests are being conducted and more cases come to light and there is also an incidence of acute cases. Plus, the hospitals are getting flooded and are increasingly unable to handle the severe cases. Therefore, the fatality rates are going up.

-Proportionately, the number of infected cases is relatively low as of now, as compared to the United States and Brazil. But the reality is that India is facing a very precarious situation. Since the infection cases are going up at a very alarming rate, the situation can go out of control at any point from now onward.

-One problem is that people are not taking social distancing seriously in the far-flung regions of India. Therefore, it is small comfort that India is doing relatively better than the US or Brazil as of now. The truth is that India is in a very precarious position and needs to be very, very careful to make sure that the situation does not explode. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get any better in India.

If this account is anywhere near the truth, our leadership is behaving like an oligarchy twiddling their thumbs, revelling in videoconferences and Twitter exchanges and politicking at a time like this. Who are they kidding? The world community must be aware that the Indian people are grappling with an existential crisis and for a foreseeable future, Indian economy will be in doldrums, and its capacity to perform on the global commons is severely restricted.

To my mind, the leadership needs to put all other government business aside and begin to work on controlling the pandemic and saving human lives. All the resources available with the Central Government must be deployed to this end.

Indias credibility as a democratic country is at stake here. The IISc study becomes a benchmark to judge the performance of the government. Searchlights are going to be held by the world community in the weeks and months ahead as the fatality rate starts shooting up and people die like flies.

Cover Photograph Reuters

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Exponential Covid Rise In India - To Deal With the Crisis, First Recognise It - The Citizen

DUBAI: When Egyptian, Ethiopian and Sudanese officials meet to resolve their differences on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that Addis Ababa is building on the Blue Nile, they instantly run into many thorny issues.

These disputes run deeper than technical matters and the sharing of water, experts and analysts say. Because they are also legal, historical and trust-related, a tripartite agreement has proved elusive. An eventual deal could take longer because major differences persist, mainly between Ethiopia and Egypt.

Officials from the three countries concluded two weeks of talks on July 13, supervised by the African Union (AU) and observed by US and European officials, but came no closer to an agreement. Officials were quoted as saying that the three countries would submit their final reports to the AU and that a mini-African summit would be held on Tuesday.

The talks were the latest in a decade-long effort by the three African countries to resolve differences over the GERD. Ethiopia hopes the 6,000-megawatt dam will turn it into Africas top hydropower supplier. Egypt and Sudan fear the dam being constructed less than 20 km from Ethiopias eastern border with Sudan will substantially reduce their water share and affect development prospects.

While Addis Ababa insists the dam will benefit all Nile river basin states, the three countries are stymied by technical issues on how and when to fill the reservoir and how much water it should release, along with procedures for drought mitigation.

Experts and analysts from Africa and outside say the differences are fundamental and require sincerity. Vital national interests are at stake, particularly on the Egyptian and Ethiopian sides, said William Davison, a senior analyst on Ethiopian affairs with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

Ethiopia considers the project important for development and thus named it the renaissance dam, he said, adding: It is also seen as vital to overcoming injustices from past treaties that excluded the country and denied it water allocations.

Egypt, which relies heavily on the Nile for agriculture, industry and drinking water, worries that such a large dam will reduce water supplies in a problematic way in the future, Davison told Arab News from Addis Ababa.

Satellite images released recently showed water pouring into the reservoir, prompting Seleshi Bekele, the Ethiopian water minister, to assuage Egyptian anxieties by insisting that the process was the product of natural seasonal flooding and not direct action by the government.

Egyptian analysts say Ethiopia is ignoring its neighbors interests. The talks have failed because of continuous Ethiopian obstinacy, said Hani Raslan, an expert on African affairs at the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies. Ethiopia has been buying time to impose a new reality on the ground . . . they dont intend to reach an agreement.

INNUMBERS

$4.8 billion Estimated cost of GERD.

15% Cost as share of Ethiopias 2012 GDP.

20,000 People in need of resettlement.

Source: International Rivers Organization

Other experts say that a positive attitude by the parties would help. There is a tendency on each side to see the other in a more threatening manner, which I think is the key issue here, said Mulugetta Ketema, managing director of the US-based Cogent International Solutions, a research and analysis center.

Instead of starting negotiations based on who can dominate over which country or region, I think you should start by saying How can we work together to utilize his river.

Ketema, who is Ethiopian-American, added: I am sure everybody is doing their best, but there is a historical issue also at play here. For centuries Egypt and Sudan didnt have anybody saying they could do this or that . . . they have been using the river for their own advantage.

However, now the basin countries . . . are also growing and saying Hey, we have to use or share something with our brothers and sisters up north and harvest the river. Apparently, this is where the problem starts.

The Nile basin includes Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan, Congo, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Sudan. Most were not part of the agreements signed during the British colonial years that gave Egypt and Sudan a big share of the Nile waters, Ketema said. Except for Ethiopia, those countries were under British control.

Apart from the legal differences over the term of references consultants use in their reports, drought mitigation remains a major obstacle. Egypt and Sudan seek Ethiopias commitment to a safe minimum release of water in dry seasons.Addis Ababa has been unwilling to do so, according to Davison.

More recently, in the negotiations, there has been a series of legal disputes or disagreements. Sudan and Egypt would like a process of binding third-party arbitration as a last resort to resolve any future dispute (but) the Ethiopians . . . are not willing to sign up to that, he told Arab News.

Ethiopia insists that Africa needs to solve African affairs. Historically, Africans have been solving their own problems and did a better job than outside interference, Ketema said. Europeans and the UN tried to mediate in some issues, but it really never worked. Should the AU fail to reach a solution on the GERD, other developing nations could extend their hands, he said.

To many Egyptian analysts, Ethiopias insistence on African solutions aims to keep the negotiations going in a vicious circle until the dam is completely full and then there will be no meaning for negotiations, Al-Ahram Centers Raslan told Arab News.

A practical solution is available already, he said, referring to a US-drafted agreement that emerged from talks in Washington DC earlier this year. Egypt initialled the document, while Ethiopia declined.

The ministers agreed on a schedule for a staggered filling of the dam and mitigation mechanism, according to the document, but still needed to finalize details on safety and ways of handling future disputes. Praising Egypts readiness to sign the agreement, the US noted that Ethiopia sought internal consultations.

Davison said that the parties need to focus on specific disagreements on hydrological and legal issues without being sidetracked by the current controversy over the act of filling (water) and . . . by the historical and geopolitical disagreements.

If the lawyers and engineers are allowed the space to reach a compromise on these technical issues, that will not solve everything, he said.

But that will allow some sort of agreement (so that) the parties can move on and build trust. Eventually, they will be able to address some of the large issues over water sharing and ultimately this historical rivalry over the river.

__________

Twitter: @jumanaaltamimi

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Captain to face trial in first Italy 'migrant pushback' case - Arab News

Despite legal interventions over the years, India has the largest number of child brides in the world, according to a 2019 report published by UNICEF; one-third of the global total.

Across 10 villages in Rajasthans Udaipur district, for two hours every day, open fields are converted into makeshift classrooms. Rows of young boys and girls, children of returnee migrant labourers, are seated two feet apart. Chart papers have been taped on the side walls to serve as a blackboard for the class. It has been nearly four months since government-run schools shut down and turned into quarantine centres. Ever since the lockdown was announced, the children, particularly the girls, have been largely home-bound,said Yogesh Vaishnav from Vikalp Sansthan, an NGO that has been running these open-air learning centres in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With schools shut down and very poor access to technology [to avail of online classes], we fear that most of these girls will permanently drop out of the education system. Coupled with the economic downturn, loss of livelihoods and reduced access to childcare protection and social support, the district has also been recording a steep increase in cases of violence against girls and women, as well as early and child marriages.

Vaishnav is among the 41 signatories of a pan-India memorandum submitted last week to the task force constituted by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development to examine and provide recommendations on issues including age of motherhood, maternal health and child mortality in India. The formation of the task force is in line with the statement made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the Budget Speech in February, where she recalled that womens age of marriage was increased from 15 to 18 years in 1978 by amending the Sharda Act of 1929. Thus, as a potential solution to tackling poor maternal health outcomes and child mortality, the 10-member task force is examining whether to raise the legal age of marriage for females from 18 to 21 years. The report is expected to be submitted at the end of this month.

While the government's age-centred move is publicly being lauded as empowering and progressive, frontline workers, child rights activists and advocates (signatories of the memorandum) have advised strict caution against this move, particularly at a time when various state officials and activists have been reporting a spike in child marriages amid the lockdown. How can this be a moment to add further to the burdens of families struggling for their very survival? questions the memorandum. Poverty, not early marriage, is the main cause for the ill-health of mothers and their children. On 9 July, an additional submission was also put forward by members of the National Coalition Advocating for Adolescent Concerns (NCAAC), a group of civil society organisations, academics and activists in the country. In response, on Friday, the task force participated in an online exchange titled Youth Voices with 20 adolescent girls and young women leaders from various states to listen to their first-hand experiences.

Despite legal interventions over the years, India has the largest number of child brides in the world, according to a 2019 report published by the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF); one-third of the global total. While the National Family Health Survey 4 data indicates a 20 percent decline in the prevalence of the practice in the past decade, the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse the gains made over the years. And the revision of age at marriage, activists believe, could sound the death knell for the girls and young wives.

All images via REUTERS

The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (PCMA), which mandates the minimum age at marriage, for instance, was framed to replace the Child Marriage Restraint Act to forbid child or underage marriages, appoint Child Marriage Protection Officers to implement the law and penalise those that participate in the act including the adult party to such marriages. Yet, several field-based studies have pointed out the ways in which the Act is used punitively against girls who marry against parental wishes, rather than protecting girls from forced marriage. While it is true that the law must be aspirational, it wont mean too much on the ground considering very few child marriage cases actually get reported. Even when they do, most of the success that we have achieved is when we stop the wedding before it actually takes place, said Nicole Rangel Menezes, co-founder of Leher, a child protection organisation working closely with women and girls in Bihars Madhubani district. Those who marry off their children underage, traffic child brides are well under the radar of the law enforcement.

In fact, the use of PCMA by parents often leads to the girl being put in shelter homes, and the boy being imprisoned or sent to juvenile homes. The strict lockdown measures, closure of schools and the inability to access mobile phones, have made it additionally difficult for girls trying to prevent or escape a forced marriage. The girls are unable to seek even informal support from their friends, neighbours and school teachers. The accused [a family member], then, is often the girls only access to justice, said Sherin Bosco, co-founder of NGO Nakshatra that provides counselling and legal support to victims of sexual violence and trafficking across Tamil Nadu. At such a time, any legal amendment has to be coupled with adequate psycho-social support and enabling measures to empower the children. In fact, Bosco and her team have been receiving most of their tip-offs over the past few months over missed calls. It is quite challenging for the children to call and lodge complaints, there is also an increased fear of getting caught, said Bosco, adding that based on the missed call, the local team of counsellors find ways to provide support.

Advocate Varsha Deshpande from the Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal (DMVM) said the pandemic has mainly exposed the existing institutional and policy gaps in state responses. In Maharashtras drought affected Marathwada region, where DMVM works with migrant sugarcane cutters and brick kiln workers, child marriage has, for years, been a common practice. When families migrate to the neighbouring states for work, they usually take their sons along for the farm work. The minor girls, who are left behind in the village with the older family members, are at such times, at a very high risk of sexual violence, said Deshpande, adding,Parents also get their daughters married in the fear that she will fall in love with someone of her own choice in their absence. Given the lack of government-run hostels, safe access to schools and adequate child protection schemes, marriage then becomes the only way out to ensure their safety and security.

The memorandum cites field-based evidence to suggest that child marriage is the consequence, and not the cause of girls dropping out of schools. Rather than to raise the legal age of marriage, we must ensure that the right to free and compulsory education is extended beyond 14 years, said Nishit Kumar from the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change Communication. Even national data shows that the reasons for high drop-out rates amongst girls are a combination of demand and supply side factors, primarily the availability, affordability and quality of schooling. While the Right to Education Act 2009 has led to a significant improvement in the enrolment of girls at primary and elementary levels, the drop-rate at the higher secondary levels remains alarming from a net enrolment ratio of 91.58 (elementary) to 31.42 (higher secondary). This figure, reported by the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration, falls by a further 15 percent for girls from Scheduled Tribe, Scheduled Caste and Muslim communities. Amid the current crisis, Kumar added, To delay girls age of marriage, it will be far more important to improve overall access to education and also invest in better infrastructure. A legal revision alone cannot solve the problem.

Reetika Revathy Subramanian is a journalist and a PhD scholar at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies, UK. She writes on gender, informality and labour migration.

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COVID-19 crisis risks reversing gains made against c..arriage in India; legal revisions alone arent solution - Firstpost