April 14, 2011
Maureen Lynch
Humanitarian Response, Statelessness
“You’re in Sweden now,” the asylum seeker was told as he was dropped in a Latvian forest. The news marked yet another phase in one refugee’s search for safety. Latvia has been historically resistant to inbound migration. Although the country began receiving small numbers of asylum seekers in the late 1990s one human rights worker reminded me, “As a country we’re fairly new to this. Our asylum law meets minimum standards of the EU. The problem is how it is implemented.”
March 11, 2011
Maureen Lynch
Kuwait, Middle East, Statelessness
Crying "Peaceful, peaceful, peaceful," Kuwaiti bidoon fathers and their children along with a small number of women stood up for their right to a nationality and concomitant rights in the cities of Jahra, Sulabiya, and Al-Ahmedi today. However, instead of responding with real concrete solutions or trustworthy promises, their request was met with a burst of armored vehicles, shots of tear gas, brutal beatings, and a large number of arbitrary arrests.
January 10, 2011
Maureen Lynch
South Sudan, Sudan, Statelessness
Voting began yesterday on the referendum for independence in south Sudan. This is a historic moment, but many issues in Sudan remain unresolved. RI colleague Limnyuy Konglim identified the following concerns in her latest field mission report:
August 19, 2010
Maureen Lynch
At the end of June, Refugees International’s Senior Advisor Dawn Calabia and I headed to the Fergana Valley, to southern Kyrgyzstan where from June 10 to 14, attacks by unknown assailants triggered violence between majority Kyrgyz and minority Uzbek communities, particularly in the urban centers of Osh, Jalal-Abad and Bazarkorgon. More than 300 people died, scores of others were injured, several thousand homes and businesses were burnt to the ground, and an estimated 400,000 people were displaced, about a quarter of who crossed into Uzbekistan as refugees but later returned. A crisis.
August 06, 2010
Maureen Lynch
Kyrgyzstan
Like many businessmen in Jalal-Abad, Ilias* had invested his savings in his home. He had an indoor jacuzzi, a full modern-style kitchen and a personal library of over 2000 volumes, largely religious books. Today the only evidence of where the library once stood is a charred space that has more ash then other parts of Ilias’ burned out house.
Blog Posts by Maureen Lynch
