On the small Greek Island of Lesvos, a new version of the English language can be overheard in the detention centre at Moria. It is here where English is going through an "accelerated development", with its own distinct grammar and idiom emerging.
"One striking change is the systematic simplification of vocabulary.Words are added as well as stripped away. Words tend to be used in their simplest possible form: I am sleep to Moria." The Lesvos English showcases the extraordinary ways that people adjust and communicate as they try to survive a humanitarian emergency.
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A few weeks ago, a 50 year old women died in a Canadian Detention camp. According to a CBC News Article, the woman was detained at the Vanier Centre for Women by Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). The woman was the tenth person to die in Canadian immigration detention in the past five years. The CBSA has the ability to arrest and place in prison foreign nationals under the current immigration law. According to critics, essential policy changes need to occur in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
"People keep dying in immigration holding centres and maximum-security prisons," said Nisha Toomey, spokesperson for End Immigration Detention Network, a human rights organization. The Coalition for Migrant Workers Rights Canada (CMWRC) has submitted an open letter to Canada's parliamentary committee calling for an end to discrimination against disabled people.
The letter reads: "We call on the Federal Government to immediately remove the “excessive demand” clause and other disablist regulations from the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and to ensure the fair treatment of migrant workers and their family members who have been impacted by them. Section 38(1)(c) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act excludes disabled people, including people living with HIV, and some trans people, from Canada. Section 38(1)(c) allows for an applicant to be rejected by providing the basis to reject an applicant if they or their family member “might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health or social services.” The “excessive demand” clause prevents disabled people from immigrating to Canada, and denies citizenship to people who have become disabled while working in Canada as part of federal temporary work schemes." According to an article published by The Guardian, the government of Papua New Guinea has told the 421 refugees and asylum seekers left at the Manus Island detention centre that they must leave today or they will be forcibly removed. The men left in the camp have spent thirteen days without electricity, running water, consistent food supplies and medication. 100 men have already left the centre voluntarily for the new "unfinished and uninhabitable" accommodation. However, the remaining men don't want to move because they don't feel safe in the Lorengau community they are being pressured to shift to.
The UN Refugee Agency has called the situation inside the offshore Australian detention centre a 'humanitarian emergency'. 'The hands that feed us' is a nine-part series of the column Eating Niagara by Tiffany Mayer, published monthly. The articles showcase Caribbean and Mexican seasonal workers labouring the fields of the Niagara region, putting a face to the thousands of hands that plant, care for, and harvest most of the fruit and vegetables Canadians enjoy year round.
To read Mayer's column in the St. Catherines Standard, click HERE To read the article on Tiffany Mayer's website, click HERE The Kino Border Initiative, providing services in the US-Mexico border, shares a story that highlights the problems related to family family separation upon arrival for migrants ad refugees.
Click here to read their post. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Canada announced that Mr. Jean-Nicolas Beuze took up his functions as the UNHCR Representative in Canada, on January 16th.
To read Mr. Beuze's profile, click Here. Dr. Branka Agic, GloMHI Researcher and Manager of Health Equity at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), was interviewed on CBC's Metro Morning as part of their Who's Next series, which profiles people who want to make Toronto better in 2017.
Click here to listen to the interview. In a recent interview for Truth-out, Noam Chomsky discusses climate change, migration and the U.S. election. In his words, "[climate change] effects may soon become even more vividly apparent than they already are. In Bangladesh alone, tens of millions are expected to have to flee from low-lying plains in coming years because of sea level rise and more severe weather, creating a migrant crisis that will make today's pale in significance."
Click HERE to read the full interview. The Guardian has published results from a new Medecins Sans Frontieres report showing that nine out of ten migrants seeking care show symptoms of anxiety and depression. The report links this dramatic increase in mental health problems to the violent attacks suffered by these people in Mexico, as a result of a US-sponsored crack down against migration.
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