According to a Toronto Star article, migrant workers say they endured modern-day slavery in Simcoe County. For over a month, Francisco Urbina Contreras lived in an infested house in Barrie with 30 other Mexican men and women "who were drawn to Canada by the promise of jobs." The former small business owner from northern Mexico faced bed bugs underneath his foam mattress, an unheated attic he shared with four others and the long wait for one of two bathrooms at the Dunlop St. home. 

"This is not what we came to this country for, to live and work like animals."

"In 1969 and 2009, respectively 50 and 10 years ago, the African Union (and its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity) adopted two instruments on forced migration in Africa: The OAU Convention on the Specific Problems of Refugees in Africa (African Refugee Convention) and the AU Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (IDP or ‘Kampala’ Convention). While the aim of the African Refugee Convention is to provide guidance to states on the protection of persons who have been displaced from other states, the Kampala Convention provides guidance on the protection of persons displaced within the borders of a particular state. Although both instruments have been recognized as ground-breaking African frameworks, the issue of forced displacement remains a daunting challenge on the continent."

The Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, will be hosting a two-day Conference, on 6 and 7 September 2019 on the theme: “Beyond 50 and 10, beyond the rhetoric: The protection of forced migrants in Africa”.

 Abstracts are due by 30 April 2019.

The North American Refugee Health Conference (NARHC) will be taking place on June 14-16, 2019 at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel in Canada. It is the largest refugee health conference of its kind globally, and offers access to recent research, best practices in refugee health, and a excellent opportunity for networking.

​While mass migration has been present since the beginning of mankind, the world is witnessing unprecedented migration of populations to countries throughout Europe and to the southern borders of Canada and the United States. As the Syrian war rages on for an 8th year and as Rohingya villages are burned to the ground in Burma, we are confronted with stories of horror and hardship shared by those who have lived through these experiences. Those that help refugees and asylum seekers often experience this trauma vicariously and struggle as they attempt to manage the complex range of issues and emotions raised through their work. These realities have informed the themes for this year’s conference which will focus on the Rohingya crisis, Trauma and Resiliency.

We are pleased to announce the launch of ECHOES, a series of original contributions hosted by the Global Migration and Health Initiative (GloMHI). 

GloMHI, as a group of scholars and advocates, is interested in understanding the complexity of the migration phenomenon, its global determinants, and migration as a determinant of health. On a monthly basis, we will host original contributions by migrants, advocates, community workers, students, educators, policy makers, and applied researchers, from all over the world, who want to share ideas that contribute to an in-depth understanding of migration and its articulations with health, from multiple perspectives and disciplines.
 
To submit a contribution, please send a one-paragraph proposal to:
​globalmigrationandhealth (at) gmail.com

The Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture (SSPC) is hosting a webinar on the mental health of refugees and im/migrants, specifically the impact of separation on families and children by  Cécile Rousseau and Suzan J. Song. 
​
Registration for this webinar is free for students, trainees, and residents, as well as SSPC members. The webinar is free for registrations in low- and middle income countries. It is $5 for non-SSPC members. Early-bird regisration ends March 15.

Webinar Details:
Fri Mar 29 2019, 1:00-2:30pm PDT

Professor Alison Mountz, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Migration at the Balsillie School of International Affairs at Laurier University is giving a talk on March 21, 2019 at The Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Registration for the event is now open.

The talk presents research on global migration through contested border-crossings where people navigate policy, jurisdiction, and sovereignty. Mapping geographies of asylum-seeking and border enforcement reveals the creative interplay between geography, law, and public policy. While states of the Global North contain and manage human mobility by intercepting people and ships en route to their shores, people migrating from locations in the Global South must work creatively to gain access to asylum. The borderlands render legible contemporary trends and forces of global migration: the intended and unintended effects of public policy, intensified precarity, innovative technologies of interception and detention, struggles over access, debates about humanitarianism and policy design, and shifting geographies of enforcement. 

According to the Guardian, nearly 8 million indigenous people in India are at danger of being evicted from forests that their ancestors have lived in for many years, under the false guise of conservation. 

Several Indian wildlife and conservation organizations, such as Wildlife First, the Wildlife Trust of India, and the Tiger Research and Conservation Trust have accused the tribal people of ruining the forests’ biodiversity and "have petitioned the court to clear them from the land. Yet the 2006 Forest Rights Act gave Adivasi rights to live on and protect the land that they had been cultivating within forest boundaries." 

Human rights defenders in India and international groups are fighting the order.