fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
The art of drinking tea
By: Jimena Lopez
Tags: Health, Tea, Soul, Relax, Coffee

Did you ever hear the phrase “Enjoy the journey, not just the destination”? Well, with tea kind of happens the same…

Tea is much more than just a hot drink. The ceremonial of choosing and preparing tea is part of a much-detailed process. Picking the correct type of tea for the precise moment, setting the proper temperature of the water, choosing the right cup, and letting the leaves settle for the exact time are some of the steps of this relaxing journey.

This process helps us connect with what we are doing in that exact moment, making everything else around us slow down for a couple of minutes, allowing us to connect with our hands, our scents, and our soul.

Drinking tea let’s all of us savor life, relax and reflect… and luckily, we can do this either in a tea shop or at the comfiness of our own home.

Nowadays, tea shops around the world are growing exponentially, allowing us to find beautifully designed stores, tea boutiques, or tasting rooms everywhere. This rising popularity let us discover and enjoy the rituals of tea from the hand of a tea master and make it a luxury date as a change for a traditional lunch or dinner reservation.

Alongside the rise of the new tea shops, teaware is also growing, meaning that we can now have our own professional tea set at home. Teapots, infusers, accessories, and a whole wide range of tools (that I’m sure you will love and want to collect!) can be found at specialized tea shops to create our own little brewer and enjoy this ritual at the pace of our home either for ourselves or for our guests.

Despite the place, if you are a tea lover, you will discover that a proper tea tasting may open your known tea-spectrum, letting you experience flavors you never knew could exist while navigating in a world of scents that will instantly take you to another moment or place. You will soon find out that a cup of tea can bring out fond memories or make you smile.

Apart from the hygge philosophy, tea has an amazing range of options that provide many health benefits for your body:

A cup of tea can contain a high level of antioxidants

Improves your immune system

Reduces stress and improves sleep and relaxation

Lowers down inflammation and improves digestion

It is a good alternative for coffee as it has less caffeine

Can also give an energy boost!

Here I mention some of the most highlighted benefits but, the list would be much longer if we focus on every advantage that each kind of tea can give us. (Another) good thing about tea is that we can obtain really different benefits (such as boosting your energy or calming it down) depending on our needs at the time, and all from a single cup.

Let’s not forget that apart from all the well-known benefits, tea has an amazingly wide range of varieties that can be consumed depending on your taste or needs and no matter the season, can be a nice beverage that can be served both hot and cold.

For me, tea is meditation in a cup, in a world that never stops.
Heal Trauma by Hearing Your Soul. Transforming Tragedy into Gift
By: Anya Light
Tags: Gratitude, Trauma, Healing, Soul, Spirituality

Hearing Your Soul Song

Have you ever been in a scary situation — and then, all of a sudden, out of the blue, you knew exactly what to do? Maybe you were able to see your escape route clearly in your mind. Or maybe you knew the perfect words to say to calm someone’s violence. Or, perhaps, during a moment of panic you suddenly felt a wave of peace.

This, my friends, is the soul.

Your soul knows. It’s wise.

Your soul can never be hurt. It’s invincible, indestructible.

Even if we cannot feel our soul today, even if we doubt that it’s there — it still exists, waiting patiently for us to discover it.

If a blind person cannot see the sun, does that mean that the sun does not exist?

There are many things in this world that some people can sense more clearly than others. Some have the gift of sight: they can perceive events of the future. Some have the gift of touch: through a simple hug, they can transform a thousand hurts.

The journey of being a human being is learning how to open ourselves up to different modes of sensing. We can choose to move beyond the shallower levels that we have all been taught by our normative society and dive into the spiritual dimensions.

By listening to a new song, a new frequency — the song of your immortal soul — you enter the path of unlimited healing and potential.

When you tune into soul, you realize that no matter how much illness, abuse, or pain that your body has endured during this lifetime, the soul arises victorious. Through opening your ears to the song of your soul, you perceive that trauma has been a way for you to wake yourself up! It’s been a gift, a vehicle to go deeper than most people are willing to dare.

Trauma is an entry point onto the mystical journey.

As you develop a relationship with your soul, you are able to forgive the people who have harmed you. You are able to release the past. And, what’s more, you are able to envision a beautiful future, one marked by the freedom to explore what truly brings you joy.

Dear friend, may your journey be blessed with the courage to listen to your soul and the willingness to receive the gifts of trauma. May you know your own infinite, indestructible power, and may you use it to uplift and bless other beings.

May it be so!

Amen!
nod off, let it go
Tags: Soul, Soul Searching, Values, Growth

if you aren’t alone with yourself very often

you might be a victim of

not only yourself but

anyone dressed as a victim

acting vulnerable

who knows who is?

i want to touch

and communicate

not be that victim

and reciprocate

live a feeling fulfilling life

worth living

alone, together

no matter

what or where

if you aren’t with yourself very often

how close are you

to thriving,

living; surrender, dying;

anything worth staying conscious for

or

growth

regarding any attitude,

longitude,

to any act of self-recognizing,

esteem rising,

and just the naked form of your naked soul?

so sit alone with yourself and find out

what you can and can’t live without

and just uncover

truth

to a brilliant extent

so by naked soul

i’m told

in a current stream of steamy thoughts

nod off

and let it go, let it go
Paradox Of The Good And The Bad
By: Rumana Zs
Tags: Life, Soul, Introspection, Self-awareness, Courage

The paradox of good and nice. You are only good until you are nice. As soon as you are not nice you are not good.

You are only bad until you are not complying with what the other wants or expects from their transaction with you. The moment you challenge someone on their ideas, beliefs, habits, behavior, position, ideologies, their life, you are automatically not good aka bad for them.

When I wear a headscarf I am good for the fellow Muslims. When I wear shorts I am bad for the fellow Muslims.

The idea that ‘I’, you or me or him or her, anyone ‘I’ depends on this basic validation and justification from anyone, the ultimate battle to ‘fit in’ while you struggle to outdo your old self, this struggle to be a rat in a rat race, trying to constantly appease and massage one’s ego that they are good because they behave, pretend, execute in a certain way is the biggest fallacy of this conscious and hence inadvertently subconscious world we build.

Good and bad, right and wrong, true and false, all two sides of the same coin. Perspective, perspective everywhere, nowhere to go and hide. All the wide world is under the same open sky and all of us pretend to be able to hide the very same being that exists inside us.

According to the Bhagdwadgita, there is a super soul and a soul, the super soul is the fuel of all the souls, the God particle that physics talks about, the one soul from which all the souls have originated.

So many different names we give to that SUPER/ SUPERIOR being of all beings. But how many of us truly, genuinely deeply connect with the super soul within us?

How many truly empathize and get down to the basics that all that exists inside the other is what exists inside me, and all that exists inside me is what exists inside the other.

Our outer world and all that we have created and labeled as our “life” is merely the illusion of the materialistic possessions of our life. And these are not any part of your being. They are merely just what you use, needs and greed.

Your right and wrong, judgment and pretense, is nothing but your inability to sit with yourself, the whole self, the super soul, and the individual soul and see all as one!

It’s about time we take a deeper look into our own, for the lack of better choice of words, ‘bullshit’ and find in ourselves the courage, to be honest beyond our books and our prayers and our beads and our verses and hymns and look within to find in ourselves the truths of our mortal life, of our eternal souls and our paradox of ‘life’ while we are only merely passing it by!
AYS Daily Digest 22/12/20 Over 10,000 people arrived to Canary Islands since Nov. 1st
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Refugees, Digest, Spain, Greece, Covid 19

Mental health crisis on Greek islands in numbers // update on police conduct on French-Italian border // update on Italian new decrees and pushbacks // and more…

Arrivals in November. Photo by QUIQUE CURBELO/EPA

FEATURE: Over 10,000 people have arrived on the Canary Islands in November and December so far

From January — October this year, 11,400 people arrived on the Canary Islands, adding up to a total of 21,452 people so far in 2020. This is an 889.5% increase from the previous fiscal year of 2019. According to Spanish media ECA:
AYS Daily Digest 22/12/20 Over 10,000 people arrived to Canary Islands since Nov. 1st
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Refugees, UK, Spain, Greece, Covid 19

Mental health crisis on Greek islands in numbers // update on police conduct on French-Italian border // update on Italian new decrees and pushbacks // and more…

Arrivals in November. Photo by QUIQUE CURBELO/EPA

FEATURE: Over 10,000 people have arrived on the Canary Islands in November and December so far

From January — October this year, 11,400 people arrived on the Canary Islands, adding up to a total of 21,452 people so far in 2020. This is an 889.5% increase from the previous fiscal year of 2019. According to Spanish media ECA:
AYS Daily Digest 21/12/2020—Greece Deports EU National for His Political Beliefs Amid Countrywide Crackdown
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Refugees, Digest, Greece, Protest, Migrants

AYS Daily Digest 21/12/2020—Greece Deports EU National for His Political Beliefs Amid Countrywide Crackdown

The photo exhibition “Humans of Moria,” now open in Copenhagen. Photo credit: Nanna Vedel-Hertz, one of the photographers whose work is featured.

FEATURE

Greece deports EU national because of his political beliefs amid countrywide crackdown on protests

A French citizen who lived in Greece for eight years was arrested while walking in Exarchia for allegedly “spreading the virus.” After several days in detention, he was deported because his political beliefs and anarchist activism make him a “threat to national and political security.” The man, identified as Erol, was kept in solitary confinement, denied communication and denied his legal rights before his deportation.

Erol was arrested on December 6th, the anniversary of Alexandros Grigoropoulos’s murder, amid a widespread police crackdown on people trying to commemorate the teenager’s death. For months, activists and journalists in Greece have been warning about the government’s use of coronavirus measures as an excuse to ban protest. In July, the government passed a law that allowed it to restrict protests if they are a threat to public safety and hold protest organizers liable for any damages. Since then, these special powers have been deployed to crack down on people commemorating the victims of the 1973 anti-junta revolt, women marking the Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women and more. Enforcement is applied arbitrarily and targets left-wing activists.

Erol’s arrest and deportation are troubling by themselves, but set a dangerous precedent when combined with the recent crackdown on NGOs helping people on the move. Even though the allegations of trafficking against NGOs are blatantly false, the government still has rules in place that allows it to dismiss nonprofit workers and volunteers “based on their ‘character.’ “ They could just as easily deport nonprofit workers for threatening public health and security, or some other trumped-up charge. Additionally, how will the Greek government treat its critics that do not have the benefit of an EU passport, now that the precedent for using deportation to get rid of thorny political opponents has been established even further?
AYS Daily Digest 21/12/2020 — Greece Deports EU National for His Political Beliefs Amid Countrywide Crackdown
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Refugees, Digest, Greece, Protest, Migrants

Ocean Viking finally released//Evidence of torture in pushback from Kalymnos revealed//Updates from Šid

Are You Syrious?

Dec 22 · 7 min read

FEATURE

Greece deports EU national because of his political beliefs amid countrywide crackdown on protests

A French citizen who lived in Greece for eight years was arrested while walking in Exarchia for allegedly “spreading the virus.” After several days in detention, he was deported because his political beliefs and anarchist activism make him a “threat to national and political security.” The man, identified as Erol, was kept in solitary confinement, denied communication and denied his legal rights before his deportation.

Erol was arrested on December 6th, the anniversary of Alexandros Grigoropoulos’s murder, amid a widespread police crackdown on people trying to commemorate the teenager’s death. For months, activists and journalists in Greece have been warning about the government’s use of coronavirus measures as an excuse to ban protest. In July, the government passed a law that allowed it to restrict protests if they are a threat to public safety and hold protest organizers liable for any damages. Since then, these special powers have been deployed to crack down on people commemorating the victims of the 1973 anti-junta revolt, women marking the Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women and more. Enforcement is applied arbitrarily and targets left-wing activists.

Erol’s arrest and deportation are troubling by themselves, but set a dangerous precedent when combined with the recent crackdown on NGOs helping people on the move. Even though the allegations of trafficking against NGOs are blatantly false, the government still has rules in place that allows it to dismiss nonprofit workers and volunteers “based on their ‘character.’ “ They could just as easily deport nonprofit workers for threatening public health and security, or some other trumped-up charge. Additionally, how will the Greek government treat its critics that do not have the benefit of an EU passport, now that the precedent for using deportation to get rid of thorny political opponents has been established even further?
Community leaders selected more women to engage with the community because the information can travel much faster.
Tags: Humanitarian, Covid 19, Community, Refugees

REFUNITE and RELAY Community Network leaders have come to learn through interviews that the majority of their constituents haven’t understood yet about the concept and the importance of social distancing for preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Based on this finding, our team has developed a series of informative materials and shared them with the leaders. One of the Congolese leaders, Marcellin Biriko, decided to travel to 3 remote villages of the North Kivu province. His objective was to inform the population about the pandemic and how to prevent contamination.

He organized sessions in Matanda, Karuba, and Bweremana districts located in the Masisi territory. These informative meetings gathered 45 women and 21 men, all spread out to both ensure participant safety, as well as using the meeting as an opportunity to demonstrate in practice what we teach. The participants were chiefs of a tribe, heads of a village, territory administrators, and counselors.

“It’s important to focus our teachings to women because, according to our culture, when a woman is informed, all community is informed as well since she shares the information with her family, neighbors, etc.”, says Biriko about his strategy about selecting more women for the community engagement.

Marcellin Biriko has also asked each participant to fix the RELAY Community Network posters at the public places in their respective villages.
Weekend Digest 19–20/12/20: The situation in Moria #2 — Mitarakis and the reality paradox
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Moria, Refugees, Digest, Missing Migrants, Mitarakis

FEATURE: The situation in Moria #2 — Mitarakis and the reality paradox

Once again we see an astounding gap in reality as portrayed by asylum and migration minister Notis Mitarakis in the Greek media and reality as actually documented on the ground, commonly just known as REALITY.

He states that the problems faced in the camp are usual in the first few weeks of opening — it has been open for 3 months.

He states that the flooding is a result of overspill from nearby flooded fields and that flood defences have been put in place — yet this picture is from 8 days ago.

And here is a picture of the Moria White Helmets digging the ditches.

He says that through a new contract with DEI there will be electricity throughout the camp — yet when the police recently wanted electricity in their porta cabin they asked the Moria White Helmets to connect it.

He wanted to be congratulated on having 36 hot showers installed — there are over 7000 people living there, roughly one shower for every 200 people.

He states that there are 9 canteens, 15 more have been given permission and safe cooking areas have been created, all of which suggests people have enough food — yet here is a picture of food distribution carried out by the Moria White Helmets and Stand By Me Lesvos this month.

He stated that heaters will be installed soon — it is less than a week from Christmas when most trade workers will be on holiday until the new year, and it is already winter…

He states that there is a very good security situation — on December 14 a three year old was found in a very serious condition having potentially survived a sexual assault.

These lies are dangerous, they put people’s lives at risk, they must stop.
Community leaders created a radio program to focus on answering questions to debunk myths related to COVID-19 and translated the content into their local languages
Tags: United Nations, Refugees, Communication, Covid 19, Community

Kananga is the capital city of the Kasai-Central Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a town of 1,272 million people. Due to its terrain and geographic location compared to the rest of the country, almost half of the inhabitants of Kananga don’t have access to electricity which slows down access to information.

5 of the RELAY Community Network’s members in DRC — Etienne Tshisekedi Kabalwapa, Bernadette Mbombo, José Kalala, Sylvain Kabuanga, and Marcel Mulambwa — have decided they should do something to alert their off-the-grid communities about COVID-19, and more importantly, to alert about fake news. To accomplish that, they asked radio stations to give them space to do so.

After receiving reliable information generated by the World Health Organization (WHO), shared with them by RELAY Community Network, the leaders translated the content into Tshiluba, the local language, to be as much clear as possible.

Every week, the 5 leaders participate in these radio programs and answer questions to debunk myths related to the novel Coronavirus, like local plants considered as miracle medicine which oftentimes have led to poisoning and death. To date, they’ve been present on the following local stations: Réveil FM, Kananga 24, Radio Ndudi, Radio Pilote, and Radio Télé Chrétienne.

When asked how they’ve managed to gain the trust of these local radio stations, Etienne Tshisekedi Kabalwapa said:
No quiero likes, ni reacciones, quiero verdades.
By: Humana Creativa
Tags: Acnur, Impact Hub, Refugees, Impact, Social Impact

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
The one about two
By: Steven Ngo
Tags: Refugees, 2020, War, Vietnam, Memories

I too felt a bit lost at sea this year.

But I thought of my dad’s story and imagined how much stress he must have endured during that time — the sudden loss of your lifestyle, a life and death journey on a boat trying to find a way to keep your siblings alive.

Look, don’t get me wrong — COVID has been a nightmare and continues to be a nightmare for those who have lost a loved one.

But there is strength in stories — stories that we tell ourselves, stories that we hear about our parents, stories that get passed down from generation to generation.

When chaos breaks out, do you freeze up and give up? Or do you double-down on your strengths, figure out what is controllable and take action?

I prefer to go with the latter option.

We have two weeks to go until the end of 2020. How do you want to end this year?
From the sound of war to harmony of music
By: The Workers Rights
Tags: Refugees, Music, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Nikola Macura

Serbian artist Nikola Macura decided to give new life to the military equipment used during the wars in Yugoslavia, transforming them into musical instruments. So, a Kalashnikov became a guitar. A helmet and a grenade sound like a saxophone, a cello was made from a mortar part. The artist managed to transform weapons into peace instruments. He reinvented what until a few years ago was used to create chaos and death in music. “I wanted to give these objects a new perspective,” says Nikola Macura, professor of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Novi Sad, Serbia. For months in his studio, he transformed old war remnants of the Yugoslav wars into musical instruments. He designs, disassembles and reassembles, paints, attaches ropes and pegs. All these objects now become an installation, from noise to sound. From the sound of weapons to the harmony of music.

Macura has been able to cope with aggression and destruction in our societies. Unfortunately, this topic still very current in the Balkans where he lives. He has created works that tell his environment, the he experienced of him. By redesigning this military equipment, he changed his perspective. He gave the remnants of war a new life, from the crackle they made during the war to another kind of sound, that of music. Even today, the Balkans are surrounded by war remnants. It was not difficult for the artist to recover the necessary materials. He went around the country to collect them. Serbia is full of this military “waste.” Europol estimates that there are between 3 and 6 million firearms in circulation in the region. They are the remnants of the wars of the 1990s in the area. Some neighbors and friends have brought him. Some others he bought them. Many visibly are worn, which means they were employed in the wars in former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001.

As a child, the professor lived in a small village on the border with Croatia. From that period, he remembers only a large number of refugees, a frightening economic crisis, and many weapons. At that time, it was easy to get one. Even children could do it. The artist’s grandmother used the large antiaircraft shells as vases to plant flowers on the balcony. Later, in ’99, when he was studying Sculpture in Novi Sad, he experienced the war much more directly with the bombing by NATO on all of Serbia, which lasted for months. Novi Sad will be the European capital of culture next year. Nikola Makura has created violins, cellos, trumpets, guitars. Now he would like to form a traveling orchestra. He would like to buy a tank and turn it into a musical vessel. Then he can travel Europe, offering these instruments to real musicians to make good music and talk about the war to the world differently.

https://www.theworkersrights.com/from-the-sound-of-war-to-harmony-of-music/
Book Review: Tani’s New Hone
By: Michelle Renee Kidwell
Tags: Book Review, Biography, Childrens Books, Refugees

Tani’s New Home

A Refugee Finds Hope and Kindness in America

by Tanitoluwa Adewumi

Thomas Nelson: CHILDREN’S

Thomas Nelson

Children’s Nonfiction | Christian

Pub Date 24 Nov 2020

Tani was only six when he and his family became refugees in New York City, fleeing persecution in Nigeria. He was overwhelmed by all the new things in America. But there was one new experience turned out to be the most wonderful discovery, chess! Tani studies, and practices chess for hours with joy and determination. He practices on the floor of his room at the Homeless Shelter, less than a year later he won the New York State Chess Championship, and through one act of kindness after another, found a new home.

Tani’s New Home is a picture biography best geared toward those five to ten years old. It is the real life story of a Chess Champion. This book celebrates the power of hope and hard work reminding it’s readers that we can all make the world a more welcoming and encouraging place through empathy and compassion.

Tani’s New Home is beautifully written and includes beautiful digital illustrations by Courtney Dawsonis perfect for children reading alone; story time for families, classrooms, and libraries; and celebrations of World Refugee Day.

This powerful book about chess, family, and community reminds us all that home is a place where you can follow your dreams.

I give Tani’s New Home five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!
AYS Daily Digest 15/12/20 ‘Winter is coming’ the re-run no one wants
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Refugees, UK, Bosnia, Greece, Winter

181 people rescued // sexual assault of minor in Moria // Italy accused of helping pushbacks in Balkans // plans for new Moria camp by next summer // and more…

Winter has officially arrived in Velika Kladusa, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Photo by Alba Duez

FEATURE: Winter has officially arrived in Velika Kladusa

Today we bring you an update posted by No Name Kitchen, written by Alba Duez on the current conditions in Velika Kladusa. As 2020 ends and 2021 begins, and with freezing temperatures for people on the move across Europe, the continuation of COVID-19 will bring even harder conditions for refugees this winter. Duez provides insight and important reminders for the season:

“ →Winter has officially arrived in Velika Kladusa with the first snowfall this past week, making the situation even more difficult for people on the move.

→Many boys are trying to do the ‘game’, crossing the border from Bosnia to Croatia through the forest, for the last time. The temperatures are too low and the rain and snow will make it impossible for them to continue their journey to the European Union until winter is over. Because of this, most of the migrants who were in Velika Kladuša are now moving to Sarajevo or Serbia, in search of a place inside the refugee camps.

→We must remember that the refugee camps for single men in the northern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, paid for with European Union funds, are below capacity but do not allow access to more people for political reasons. However, other people have decided to stay in Velika Kladuša, living in what they call ‘the jungle’ here, cold forests where they take refuge under plastic or in tents, which will be their home for the next three or four months.

→Some days ago the families living in Bojna, a small village near Velika Kladusa, about 300 meters from the border with Croatia, were once again deprived of the choice of deciding how they continued their journey. About 250 people, comprising more than 50 families, were forcibly transferred to the refugee camps for families in the Una-Sana Canton. The vast majority are now in the camp called ‘Hotel Sedra’. Some people have written to us telling us that the camp lacks hot water and that they have to share a room with twelve other people.

→Despite the harshness of the winter, many of these people who were living in abandoned houses in Bojna wanted to stay there, since they still had not lost hope of reaching the European Union this winter. The proximity to the Croatian border makes the town of Bojna a good place to try the ‘game’. Some of these families have tried to cross the border without success more than a dozen times, even trying once or twice a week in just the two months they lived there. When in Croatia they asked asylum but were illegally returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina by police authorities. His hopes and encouragement are now devastated, as are his future plans.

Duez adds that a 16 year old sent this text to No Name Kitchen:
AYS Daily Digest 15/12/20 ‘Winter is coming’ the re-run no one wants
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Refugees, Digest, Bosnia, Greece, Winter

181 people rescued // sexual assault of minor in Moria // Italy accused of helping pushbacks in Balkans // plans for new Moria camp by next summer // and more…

Winter has officially arrived in Velika Kladusa, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Photo by Alba Duez

FEATURE: Winter has officially arrived in Velika Kladusa

Today we bring you an update posted by No Name Kitchen, written by Alba Duez on the current conditions in Velika Kladusa. As 2020 ends and 2021 begins, and with freezing temperatures for people on the move across Europe, the continuation of COVID-19 will bring even harder conditions for refugees this winter. Duez provides insight and important reminders for the season:

“ →Winter has officially arrived in Velika Kladusa with the first snowfall this past week, making the situation even more difficult for people on the move.

→Many boys are trying to do the ‘game’, crossing the border from Bosnia to Croatia through the forest, for the last time. The temperatures are too low and the rain and snow will make it impossible for them to continue their journey to the European Union until winter is over. Because of this, most of the migrants who were in Velika Kladuša are now moving to Sarajevo or Serbia, in search of a place inside the refugee camps.

→We must remember that the refugee camps for single men in the northern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, paid for with European Union funds, are below capacity but do not allow access to more people for political reasons. However, other people have decided to stay in Velika Kladuša, living in what they call ‘the jungle’ here, cold forests where they take refuge under plastic or in tents, which will be their home for the next three or four months.

→Some days ago the families living in Bojna, a small village near Velika Kladusa, about 300 meters from the border with Croatia, were once again deprived of the choice of deciding how they continued their journey. About 250 people, comprising more than 50 families, were forcibly transferred to the refugee camps for families in the Una-Sana Canton. The vast majority are now in the camp called ‘Hotel Sedra’. Some people have written to us telling us that the camp lacks hot water and that they have to share a room with twelve other people.

→Despite the harshness of the winter, many of these people who were living in abandoned houses in Bojna wanted to stay there, since they still had not lost hope of reaching the European Union this winter. The proximity to the Croatian border makes the town of Bojna a good place to try the ‘game’. Some of these families have tried to cross the border without success more than a dozen times, even trying once or twice a week in just the two months they lived there. When in Croatia they asked asylum but were illegally returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina by police authorities. His hopes and encouragement are now devastated, as are his future plans.

Duez adds that a 16 year old sent this text to No Name Kitchen:
There Is Hope for Ending Cruelty Towards Immigrants
Tags: Diversity, Refugees, United States, Law, Immigration

IMMIGRATION | DIVERSITY

There Is Hope for Ending Cruelty Towards Immigrants

“Beloved” by Denise Daffara, used with permission of artist

What do Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and Dr. Jill Biden have in common? Not only are they soon to be the Vice President and the First Lady. Not only are they smart women whose voices and actions will help shape new directions in the US for the coming four years. And not only are they mothers. Significantly, they each have witnessed personally the suffering of immigrants.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has met with mothers at the Otay Mesa Immigration and Detention Facility in San Diego, California, who were despairing from being separated from their children. “Heart-broken”, she called what she saw and heard “crimes against humanity”.¹

Dr. Jill Biden has walked through muddy fields to visit the Matamoros refugee camp. Located across the border from Brownsville, Texas in the dangerous state of Tamaulipas, two thousand people live there midst hundreds of tents and tarps. She appeared shocked; at the end of her visit she said, “It’s not who we are as Americans. We are a welcoming nation, but that’s not the message that we’re sending at the border.”²

What they each witnessed first-hand was the current US treatment of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. It is considered torture by the United Nations Conventions Against Torture. Articles of the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees are dedicated to ensuring unity of the refugee family. The US Detainee Treatment Act (DTA) prohibits “the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of persons under custody or control of the United States”³.

The following articles reveal realities that shocked me when I learned about them. The writing began after I headed a project to write cards to children in detention centers in El Paso, and traveled to El Paso for a visit. In the process, I made contacts with dedicated advocacy organizations which are linked in lists of organizations and government offices within many of the articles.

The stories are journeys in words that can hopefully lead you, the reader, on a path to join your hope, voice or prayer to support the incoming administration’s goal to stop the torture of immigrants as soon as possible.

Thousands of bones: danger lies ahead in the Sonoran desert.

Betsy asked, “Why don’t we make tiny cards to give to the little children through the wire cages?”

I adapted this poem to express love to separated children, so that they could imagine it was from their mother or father. It is in English, and translated into Spanish.

Activists from all over the US joined a “Jericho Walk” circling the holding center in El Paso.

Reporting led to deporting. Women allege systematic harrassment and sexual assault in detention.

The Holy Family and saints can use some help on the ground to find hundreds of missing children, youth, and parents.

A short, heart-to-heart appeal to end the inhumane treatment of asylum seekers, migrants and refugees

Thanks so much for stopping by, reading and reflecting.
News Brief — USCIS Updates Discretionary Criteria for Case-by-Case Interview Determinations of Adjustment of Status Applications Based on Refugee or Asylee Status
By: Jiayun, Nicola
Tags: Uscis, Refugees, Asylum, Asylum Seekers, Immigration

On December 15, 2020, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced updated guidance expanding the discretionary criteria USCIS officers use to determine whether to interview applicants filing Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, based on refugee or asylee status.

The updated criteria are well within the parameters of USCIS’ regulatory authority to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether an interview is necessary to determine the admissibility of an alien applying for lawful permanent resident status under INA § 209. The updates do not change the eligibility requirements to adjust status.

The list of interview criteria can be found in the Policy Manual, Volume 7, Part L, Chapter 5, Part B (https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-7-part-l-chapter-5). The updated list provides greater parity with the criteria USCIS applies in determining whether to interview other adjustment of status applicants. Each determination by USCIS to waive or require an interview will continue to be made at the discretion of the USCIS officer on a case-by-case basis. While the updated criteria may result in more applicants requested to appear for an interview, the changes are necessary to help ensure program integrity and support USCIS’ efforts to detect and prevent fraud and risks of harm to the United States.

Please feel free to reach me at: nicolazjy@gmail.com if you have any questions regarding this article. Thank you ^^
Dreams of Detainees
By: Greg Beatty
Tags: Women, Prison, Refugees, Poetry, Justice

Photo by Carles Rabada on Unsplash

The woman in Egypt dreams

of Antarctic ice.

Only the frozen south is free

The other six — Africa,

Asia, North, South,

Europe, Oz — hold brown

women in iron cages.

Some are held for crime.

Some are held for long.

Some are held for faith.

Some are held for family.

Some are held freedom to thwart.

Some are held forever. Forever.

Forever. The iron holds them all.

And detainees dream of ice.

THE END
Num ano marcado por uma pandemia, agravaram-se as violações dos direitos humanos por todo o mundo.
By: Meeru, Abrir Caminho
Tags: Migration, Venezuela, Refugees

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
Decades of displacement: 45 years in the Sahrawi refugee camps
By: Oxfam America
Tags: Refugee Camps, Human Rights Day, Refugee Crisis, Refugees

In 2015, Oxfam published the “40 faces 40 years” photo exhibition, profiling 40 Sahrawi refugees four decades after the Western Sahara conflict erupted in 1975 forcing tens of thousands to flee to neighboring Algeria, where they remain to this day. This exhibition provided an opportunity to shed a light on the lives of generations of individuals born and raised in displacement.

Five years later, little has changed — the Sahrawi refugee population is marking their 45th year in camps situated in the middle of the Algerian Sahara, where life remains incredibly difficult. Temperatures reach up to 50 degrees Celsius in summer and dip below zero degrees in winter, and most refugees remain dependent on humanitarian aid to meet their most basic needs, including access to food, water, and shelter. Throughout 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has only further exacerbated chronic hunger and poverty in the camps.

“40 faces 40 years”, five years later

The path to a peaceful resolution of the conflict has also grown significantly more precarious in recent weeks. The collapse of the 29-year long ceasefire on 13 November and the eruption of military clashes between the Frente Polisario and Morocco presents a threat regional stability, renews fears for the security and future of Sahrawi refugees, and has greatly set back diplomatic efforts made in recent years to achieve a political solution.

As Sahrawi refugees embark upon their 46th year of displacement, Oxfam caught up with several of the individuals profiled in our “40 faces” exhibit to find out how their lives have — or have not — changed over the past five years.
Three Organizations Fighting the Poverty Crisis in Lebanon
By: Zachary Sherry
Tags: Refugees, Lebanon, Middle East, Crisis, Poverty

As the crises in Lebanon continue to mount, organizations are stepping in to mitigate the chaos.

According to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), extreme poverty shot up 15 percent from 2019 with now 55 percent of the population struggling to pay for basic life essentials.

Recent financial mishandlings, wealth disparity, a refugee crisis in Syria, a COVID shutdown, and a massive explosion in Beirut piled up on Lebanon’s people in quick succession. International non-profits from around the world are now responding to help alleviate the crisis.

World Food Programme –

The World Food Programme (WFP), a branch of the United Nations dedicated to combating world hunger, has established a presence in Lebanon since 2012. Working in partnership with government authorities and the private sector, they gave food packages to more than 13,000 students’ families as a response to the COVID lockdown.

After many were left without homes in the aftermath of the Beirut explosions, WFP provided food assistance to 5,000 families that were in vulnerable conditions. In addition, meals were distributed to both victims of the explosion and to volunteers that responded to the blasts.

United Mission for Relief and Development –

United Mission for Relief and Development (UMF) also works to serve the nearly one third of Lebanese citizens living in poverty. Since coming in to assist Lebanon’s economic turmoil since October 2019, UMF has replaced home infrastructure and distributed food rations to those in need.

UMF is addressing the inflation and scarcity of basic goods in part due to the Beirut explosion. Hospitals and medical clinics need supplies and oftentimes cannot supply those resources on their own. The organization works to provide emergency medical kits for those affected by the recent tragedy.

American Near East Refugee Aid –

American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) turns its full attention towards serving the 1.7 million refugees from Syria and Palestinian territories living in the country. According to the UNHCR, Lebanon has more Syrian refugees per capita than anywhere else in the world.

These refugees must live in decades-old tent settlements and abandoned buildings due to their legal and social status. They also face pay discrimination and educational barriers, and Anera works to alleviate all these issues. Among other initiatives, the non-profit uses its donor base to improve waste management facilities and educate thousands of refugees with valuable skills to enter the job market.

Many other organizations are taking steps to improve conditions for the millions of impoverished people barely surviving in Lebanon. The most efficient way for people to help Lebanon is to donate to groups actively in the field amidst all the emergencies plaguing the nation.
Letter to Editor: Rohingya refugees relocated to ‘de facto prison island’
By: Shamir Tanna
Tags: Rohingya, Rohingya Genocide, Refugees

In August, a tragic milestone — 3 years after the start of world’s latest genocide — and there has been little improvement for Rohingya survivors. And this week, another crisis — Bangladesh has started relocating refugees to a controversial island, Bhasan Char, which Human Rights Watch called a ‘de facto prison island’. Bangladesh has repeatedly tried to move refugees to the island in the past and has stopped after outcry from rights groups, aid organizations including UN and Rohingya themselves. There has been no transparency with this recent action and Bangladesh has not addressed any of the issues with inhabiting the island: vulnerability to cyclones, lack of access to health care, isolation from activity and opportunity, etc. Additionally, it puts refugees farther away from repatriating back to their homes in Myanmar.

We must object harder and louder to this inhumane act.
お元気ですか？皆様。音楽家です。建築は全て順調に進んでおり、ドーム外壁も滞り無く敷設されている。プロトタイプ車両を使用した超伝導交通システムの実地検証は、進捗に僅かな遅れが見られるものの、挙動や懸念点の洗い出しは、概ね良好。数カ月前のあのトラブルがまるで嘘だったかの様だ。…
By: Moon Gaza
Tags: Refugees, SF, Gaza, Moon, Novel

fly ME to the MOON from GAZA | Save the Gaza project | written by Masakado Murasaki a.k.a. mivjm | moongaza.com
AYS Daily Digest 7/12/2020: Iraqi Asylum Seekers in Denmark fear deportation
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Refugees, Europe, UK, Digest, Greece

FEAUTRE: Mass arrests of Iraqi asylum seekers in Denmark

According to refugee rights activist Lene Kjær, a large number of Iraqi citizens who have had their application for asylum in Denmark rejected, have been arrested by the police on Monday and have been transferred to the Ellebæk ‘exit centre’ for the purpose of deportation. This is what Danish authorities call “motivational imprisonment”: detaining people in order to pressure them to sign voluntary return papers. Denmark recently signed an agreement on deportation of people on the move who committed crimes in Denmark, and proceeded with the first deportation. Authorities, despite pressure on Iraqi officials, cannot deport rejected asylum seekers to the country. “Denmark has flown Iraqi people to Baghdad several times; every time they had to fly them back to Denmark because Iraqi authorities refused to receive people who are deported by force!” However, over the last week, Denmark have opened an embassy in Baghdad, which could pave the way to new negotiations. Activists engaged in refugee rights told AYS that they requested information about this from the Iraqi embassy in Denmark, which replied that no new agreement has been signed.

The police action has initiated a wave of anxiety among other refugees and asylum seekers in Denmark. People at risk of arrest or return should immediately contact a lawyer in the area of immigration law to ensure that legal procedures are followed and respected.

Denmark has a return agreement with Afghanistan. People from Afghanistan are at risk of being detained in Ellebaek as soon as they receive a rejection of asylum, and to be detained until their deportation.

There is no return agreement with Iran. People from Iran cannot be deported by force. Despite this, it has happened that people have been taken to Ellebaek. As with people from Iraq, this is a method authorities use to pressure them to sign voluntary return papers.

There is no agreement with Syria on forced returns. “Syrian people are NOT at risk of experiencing this.”