Below you’ll find breaking news as well as reports, updates on our campaigns, and victories.
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Report
Bangladeshi Parents Fear for Lost Generation of Rohingya Children
Two years after a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign forced around 700,000 Rohingya to flee Myanmar for Bangladesh, refugees are still trapped in unbearable conditions in overcrowded camps, Amnesty International said in a new briefing.
August 29, 2019
Press Release
Trump Administration Uses Disaster Relief to Fund a Disaster of Its Own Making
Responding to reports that DHS intends to reprogram disaster relief funds for ICE detention beds and funds for temporary court structures for hearings associated with the “Remain in Mexico” program, Amnesty International USA advocacy director for the Americas Charanya Krishnaswami said: “This decision is an outrageous misuse of resources. At the start of hurricane season, DHS is robbing hundreds of millions of dollars from disaster relief to fund a disaster of its own making. It is using vital funds to further some of its cruelest policies – putting asylum-seekers in harm’s way and detaining families and children in search of…
August 27, 2019
Press Release
Two Years since Rohingya Exodus, Impunity Reigns Supreme for Military
With the threat of returns to Myanmar once again looming over Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, Amnesty International warned that Rakhine State remains unsafe while those responsible for atrocities continue to evade justice.
August 22, 2019
Press Release
Trump Administration Seeks to Demonize Refugees With New Policy
Responding to reports that the Trump administration is considering a new policy that would allow state and local jurisdictions to deny refugees to be resettled in their community, despite having been approved for resettlement in the United States, Ryan Mace, the grassroots advocacy and refugee specialist for Amnesty International USA, said: “This is yet another disgraceful needless policy proposal that serves only to spread hate and fear, instead of supporting a refugee program that works. Refugees leave their homes because they have no other choice. Those who are resettled to the U.S. are looking to be a part of a…
August 21, 2019
Press Release
New Flores Regulations Brazenly Attack Children’s Rights
According to reports, the Trump administration is issuing a final rule that will effectively terminate the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, which mandates that children cannot be held in immigration detention for more than 20 days. Denise Bell, researcher for refugee and migrant rights issued this statement: “These new regulations are extraordinarily cruel. It is beyond logic and humanity to attempt to keep children locked up for as long as possible, especially when we know that this subjects them to trauma and extreme distress. Children who have already endured violence and persecution would be harmed even further by this policy. The…
August 21, 2019
Press Release
Mass Hunger Strike at al-Aqrab Prison Over Denial of Family Visits and Dire Conditions
The Egyptian authorities must immediately end cruel and inhumane detention conditions and allow regular family visits at al-Aqrab maximum security prison in Tora where approximately 130 detainees have gone on a mass hunger strike for more than six weeks, said Amnesty International today. Many of those on strike were arrested more than two years ago and have not been allowed a single visit from their families or lawyers.
July 31, 2019
Press Release
Amnesty International Israel’s Office Targeted with Death Threat
The Israeli authorities must urgently investigate death threats targeting three civil society organizations, including Amnesty International’s Israeli section in Tel Aviv, the organization’s International Secretariat said today.
July 31, 2019
Press Release
Plans to Close Carrizo Springs Demonstrate Conditions That are Not in Children’s Best Interests
Responding to reports that the Department of Health and Human Services will be shutting down the facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, Denise Bell, the Researcher for Refugee and Migrant Rights at Amnesty International USA said: “The closure of the Carrizo Springs facility makes clear the crisis of the government’s own making: these temporary emergency facilities arose because of the government’s deliberate policy to punish children, resulting in the prolonged and indefinite detention of thousands of children. “Temporary emergency shelters are never a home for children, and Carrizo and other detention facilities like it only demonstrate that these disastrous policies only…
July 23, 2019
Report
No Home for Children: US Government Detention of Children at Homestead Facility Cruel and Unlawful
The Homestead facility housing children who traveled alone to the United States must be shut down as quickly as possible, a new Amnesty International USA report finds, and children should immediately be placed in licensed, small-size shelters and released to appropriate sponsors. The unlawful conditions at this facility are a direct result of US government policies designed to punish rather than protect people trying to rebuild their lives.
July 17, 2019
Press Release
ICE Raids Encourage Hate and Discrimination Toward Immigrants and Communities of Color
Responding to the announcement of thousands of raids planned for Sunday by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Charanya Krishnaswami, the Advocacy Director for the Americas at Amnesty International USA said: "This announcement is an extension of President Trump’s relentless hostility to immigrants. It serves to encourage hate and discrimination toward immigrants and communities of color, creating a climate of fear for many people including those fearing racial profiling. "While it’s also concerning that we don’t know anything about what these plans will look like, it’s not unreasonable to be concerned that people facing deportation will not have adequate time…
July 11, 2019
Press Release
Abhorrent attack on migrant detention center in Libya must be investigated as a war crime
The International Criminal Court must order an urgent investigation into an abhorrent attack on the Tajoura immigration detention center in eastern Tripoli, Libya, in which at least 40 refugees and migrants were killed and more than 80 injured, said Amnesty International. “This deadly attack which struck a detention center where at least 600 refugees and migrants were trapped in detention with no means of escape, and whose location was known to all warring parties, must be independently investigated as a war crime. The International Criminal Court should immediately investigate the possibility that this was a direct attack on civilians,” said…
July 3, 2019
Report
‘Saving lives is not a crime’: Politically motivated legal harassment of migrant human rights defenders by the USA
Since 2018, the US government has conducted an unlawful and discriminatory campaign of intimidation, threats, harassment, and criminal investigations against people who defend the human rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers on the US–Mexico border, Amnesty International said in a new report released today. ‘Saving lives is not a crime’: Politically motivated legal harassment of migrant human rights defenders by the USA reveals how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have increasingly misused the criminal justice system to deter activists, lawyers, journalists, and humanitarian volunteers from challenging – or simply documenting – the systematic human…
July 2, 2019