Tag Archives: refuge

Mexico says it won’t deport refugees as it seeks details on U.S. plan

FILE PHOTO: A group of Central Americans who are hoping to apply for asylum, wait at the border on an international bridge between Mexico and the U.S. in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico October 31, 2018. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s government said on Friday it wanted more details from the United States on its plan to send migrants to Mexico while their asylum claims are processed, and vowed not to deport people seeking refuge.

On Thursday, Mexico said it had agreed on humanitarian grounds to accept some non-Mexican migrants sent by the United States to wait in Mexico while their U.S. asylum requests were processed.

However, many questions remain about how the country would house what could be thousands of people from Central America.

The accord was widely viewed as a concession by Mexico’s new president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump, who has threatened to shut down the Mexico-U.S. border if the flow of migrants is not contained.

Questioned at a regular news conference about why Mexico appeared to be giving Trump what he wanted, foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico would set out its position more clearly on Monday once it had more information.

“Today, I’m going to ask the U.S. authorities to give us many details,” Ebrard said, noting that the fate of migrants already inside the United States would depend on U.S. law.

To send people to Mexico, the Trump administration is invoking a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows the government to return migrants to a foreign country bordering the United States pending their immigration process.

But some legal experts argue that rule also exempts anyone found inadmissible at the border due to a lack of documents. That could apply to many asylum-seekers.

Ebrard sought to defend the leftist Lopez Obrador administration’s stance as a humanitarian gesture rather than a political one.

“Mexico will not deport people looking for asylum,” he said. “That would go against Mexico’s tradition in favor of the right to asylum, it would go against migrants’ human rights.”

It is unclear how many migrants the new policy could end up returning to Mexico, and Ebrard said he did not believe the measure could be applied retroactively.

Speaking at the same conference, deputy interior minister Alejandro Encinas said the government anticipated that migrant flows to Mexico would increase “significantly” next year, though not necessarily due to more people seeking asylum.

Mexico has pledged to provide work visas to migrants and Encinas said that the government’s public works plans in the south of the country could attract laborers.

Ebrard reiterated that Mexico was not making a deal to become a “safe third country,” which would oblige those seeking asylum who arrive first in Mexico to apply for asylum there.

“We haven’t signed a deal, we’re not going to, nor is the whole asylum procedure going to happen inside Mexico,” he said.

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Dave Graham; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Rosalba O’Brien)

At least 43,000 Cameroonian refugees flee to Nigeria: local aid officials

A still image taken from a video shot on December 9, 2017 shows Cameroonian refugees standing outside a center in Agbokim Waterfalls village, which borders on Cameroon, Nigeria.

By Anamesere Igboeroteonwu

ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) – More than 43,000 Cameroonians have fled as refugees to Nigeria to escape a crackdown by the government on Anglophone separatists, local aid officials said on Thursday.

The figure is almost three times as high as that given by the United Nations and Nigerian officials two weeks ago.

Cameroon is a majority French-speaking country but two southwestern regions bordering Nigeria are Anglophone. Last October, separatists declared independence for a state they want to create called Ambazonia, sparking a military crackdown by the government of President Paul Biya.

In Nigeria’s Cross River state, which borders southwest Cameroon, more than 33,000 Cameroonians have taken refuge from violence, John Inaku, director general of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), told Reuters by phone.

In neighboring Benue state, there are 10,216 refugees, said Emmanuel Shior, director general of the regional SEMA.

Earlier this month, the UN refugee agency had said more than 8,000 refugees were in Cross River state.

Explaining the disparity, Inaku told Reuters the UN agency was only registering people in Cross River coming in through conventional routes.

“This is a war situation and refugees are trooping in by the minute through the bush paths, rivers and every other unconventional routes open to them,” he said.

“During our advocacy to our border communities we told them to allow the refugees in and not be hostile to them so our communities have been receiving them warmly and accommodating them. These are very remote areas, hard to reach without good roads,” Inaku said.

Inaku said community facilities were becoming overstretched and so people were getting hostile toward the refugees, who were in “deplorable condition”, hungry and in need of medicine.

The Benue SEMA director general said the agency had also had difficulty counting refugees because they were in remote areas.

Early on Thursday, gunmen crossed from Nigeria to attack a border post in Cameroon’s southwest, security force witnesses said, with the incident likely to further damage relations between the neighbors.

The separatists pose the biggest challenge yet to the 35-year rule of Biya, who will seek re-election this year. The conflict is also fuelling tensions between Nigeria and Cameroon.

Cameroonian military officials and pro-government media accuse Nigeria of sheltering the insurgents, who since last year have waged a guerrilla campaign to establish an independent homeland for Cameroon’s English-speaking minority.

(Reporting by Anamesere Igboeroteonwu; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

Dozens of fleeing civilians killed, wounded by Islamic State mortar fire in Mosul

A displaced Iraqi woman who fled her home, carries a mattress in al-Zanjili neighbourhood, north of Old City district of Mosul, Iraq.

By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – At least seven civilians were killed and 23 wounded by Islamic State mortar shells as they tried to flee Mosul’s militant-controlled Zanjili district on Thursday, Iraqi police said.

Zanjili is part of the enclave that remains in the hands of Islamic State in the northern Iraqi city, alongside the Old City centre and the Medical City hospitals complex.

U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces retook eastern Mosul in January and began a new push on Saturday to capture the enclave where about 200,000 people are trapped, regularly dropping leaflets telling families to flee.

The wounded from Zanjili were taken to a field clinic, a police officer told Reuters, adding that more people could have been killed while trying to flee. They were part of the first group of civilians who have managed to escape.

Several dozen other civilians managed to reach government-held lines unhurt, using the same exit route, the officer said.

The population in the Islamic State-held enclave live in harrowing conditions, running low on food, water and medicine, and with limited access to hospitals, the United Nations said on Sunday.

MILITANTS MOVE PRISONERS

The militants began moving their prisoners out of the Medical City district as Iraqi forces advanced on them, two residents speaking by phone said, asking not to be identified.

Islamic State used basements in the Medical City as jails for former army and police officers and also people violating a code of conduct which forbids such activities as selling cigarettes and smoking.

The militants ordered dozens of families living in Zanjili district to move into the Old City to prevent them escaping toward the Iraqi forces, a resident told Reuters on Wednesday.

The Mosul offensive, now in its eighth month, has taken much longer than expected, with Iraqi government advances slowed by the need to avoid civilian casualties.

An Iraqi Federal Police member fires an RPG towards Islamic State militants during a battle in western Mosul.

An Iraqi Federal Police member fires an RPG towards Islamic State militants during a battle in western Mosul. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

The fall of the city would, in effect, mark the end of the Iraqi half of the ”caliphate” declared in 2014 over parts of Iraq and Syria by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in speech from a historic mosque in Mosul’s old city.

In Syria, Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-air strikes are besieging Islamic State forces in the city of Raqqa, the militants’ de facto capital in that country.

The militants have been countering the offensive with suicide car and motorbike bombs, snipers, booby-traps and mortar fire.

About 700,000 people, about a third of the pre-war city’s population, have already fled, seeking refuge either with friends and relatives or in camps.

Displaced Iraqi people carry their belongings as they flee from western Mosul, Iraq May 31, 2017.

Displaced Iraqi people carry their belongings as they flee from western Mosul, Iraq May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

North Korean seeks refuge in South Korean consulate

A security officer blocks the entrance to the South Korean consulate inside an office building in Hong Kong

By Donny Kwok and Sharon Shi

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Security was tightened at the South Korean consulate in Hong Kong on Thursday after media reports that a North Korean, possibly a student, had sought refuge there.

The North Korean is understood to be a member of a delegation that attended an ­academic competition at a Hong Kong university two weeks ago, the South China Morning Post said, citing government sources in the Chinese-ruled city.

A student who assisted at a math olympiad held at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) told Reuters the organizing committee of the competition asked for help on July 16 to track down an 18-year-old North Korean who had gone missing after the contest.

The student declined to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the issue. The organizing committee declined comment. The university could not be reached for comment.

North and South Korea remain technically at war, and the reports of a possible defection are bound to exacerbate tensions.

Uniformed and plainclothes police were patrolling around the office building near the heart of Hong Kong’s financial center where the South Korean consulate is located. Scores of reporters thronged the building.

Local government and consulate officials declined comment.

“We are aware of the report,” a spokeswoman from the Hong Kong police told Reuters, declining to comment further.

The 57th International Mathematical Olympiad was held at the HKUST on July 11-12. An all-male team of six took part from North Korea, according to the contest website. The team finished in 6th place.

South Korea’s foreign ministry declined comment on the media reports in Hong Kong. A ministry official said the South Korean government’s position was not to make any comments related to North Korean defectors, keeping in mind their safety and diplomatic relations with relevant countries.

China’s Foreign Ministry in Beijing also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tensions between North and South Korea have been particularly high since the North’s fourth nuclear test in January. After an announcement by the South in April that 13 workers at a restaurant in China run by the North had sought asylum, Pyongyang said they were abducted by agents from the South.

Hong Kong is ruled by China under a “one country, two systems” formula that accords the former British colony a degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China.

In the early 2000s, there was a rash of cases of North Koreans seeking asylum at foreign missions in China, mostly in Beijing, where in some cases they scaled embassy walls and forced their way in.

North Korean defectors mostly come from the poorest parts of the destitute state and usually flee over the traditionally quite porous border with China.

They then seek passage to the South via a third country, or previously via embassies and consulates in China, because Beijing sees them as economic refugees and forcibly repatriates them to North Korea.

(Additional reporting by Lindsy Long in Hong Kong, Ben Blanchard in Beijing, Ju-min Park, Jack Kim and James Pearson in Seoul; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

The Comeback Center

My friend and colleague, Dan Betzer, lovingly calls me the “Comeback Kid.” He does this because virtually everyone in the Christian community, save a precious few, had counted me out when I went to prison back in 1989. But God didn’t count me out – He counted me in! And Dan was one of the few friends who didn’t count me out either – he stood closer than a brother.

So, the comeback that I have had in ministry for the Lord is so that others can be encouraged when they have had a setback. I tell people every day “if I can make it, anybody can make it.” And, as another close friend, Bishop Ronnie Webb says, “if you’ve had a setback, get ready for a comeback!” Jesus will use the weak and the downtrodden! (Hebrews 12:1) Bishop Webb also likes to say “don’t quit right before your breakthrough. Right before your breakthrough, there’s a breakdown.” No truer words were ever said!

We need encouragers in the Body of Christ. The power of life and death are in the tongue. (Proverbs 18:21) People have the power to speak life to you, or death… but God is all about life. The prophetic word of encouragement is always about life; life to your vision, life to your spiritual gifts, and life to your ministry and mission.

We are just getting started here at Morningside as a “Comeback Center” for people who have been beaten and bruised. You don’t get disqualified in God’s race! You can come back! That’s why Jesus died for us!

I remember calling out to God in prison and saying “never in my life have I ever had a desire to hurt anybody! How could I be here (in prison) for building something to bless people?” The answer was quick: Jesus said, “they killed me!”

Until we are willing to know Jesus, not just in His resurrection, but in the fellowship of His suffering, we can never minister the resurrection! (Philippians 3:10)

Lori tells of a time when she felt forgotten by God. God sent a prophet to prophesy to her that “God has not forgotten you!” Do you think He cares about us? Do you think He knows what we’re feeling? Many of you know my signoff phrase “God loves you, He really does!” But not many know that this phrase came from a time of ministry to a woman who was told she had sinned so bad that she couldn’t be saved. The prophetic word that God loved her broke the back of that lie and she was delivered!

YOU have not sinned so badly that God can’t forgive you! I didn’t – Lori didn’t – this precious lady didn’t – and YOU didn’t either!

God is close to the brokenhearted. You can come back! Come back today – He is calling you and He will not turn you away. He is waiting with open arms for you to come back to Him – and you will not be disqualified by anything in your past.

And when you come back, remember that there’s a “Comeback Center” in Blue Eye, Missouri called Morningside that will welcome you home!

Love,

Jim

Betrayal – a Sign of the Last Days

One of the words the Lord gave me for 2011 is that there will be “great betrayal – churches and relationships” this year.  I take no pleasure at all in delivering this word, yet it is an important one.  While some of us have had more experience with betrayal, personal and corporate, others have never had to live through these kinds of assaults on our hearts.

Maybe that’s why the Lord wants me to warn you all about it.  I could be the poster child!  When you have come through something like betrayal, God authorizes and expects you to help others come through it.  Like Rick Joyner told Lori:  you will take the stick the devil beat you with and beat him back!

Your victory is never for you alone.  The Church and the Kingdom of God is a building made of living stones – each one supplying something the other one needs.

In Luke 21, Jesus is telling His disciples what the signs of the end times will be and it is here that He says “Even those closest to you—your parents, brothers, relatives, and friends—will betray you.”

That time is here, folks.

It’s impossible for me to think of any situation that would arise where one family member might betray another, but it will happen – the Bible tells us so.  But even in the Church there is going to be great treachery against one another.  This is exactly the opposite of what the Lord prayed for us before He left this earth.  Jesus prayed in John 17:21 “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one…”

Bob Hartley is a prophet of HOPE.  When he was here recently, he told us that Hope defends you, fights for you and helps you heal.  He said we would be Hope Craftsmen (and women) here at Morningside.  This is my heart’s desire.  He said people would come in and be healed and then be launched out to help others.

Bob said:  “I saw this Hope in God for Community come forth like in Nehemiah’s day.   Jesus brought me back to my catholic neighborhood where I grew up and showed me how I had 100 families that fought for me on every level:  for my physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, and for my calling.  He shared that this is the type of community that He (Jesus) would restore again, like the early Church in Acts 2:42-47.  This warmed my heart with hope as I reflected on how much the community of my childhood had meant to me and how I had prayed for this same type of community for my children.”

Bob said that we, like Nehemiah, will become “Hope Craftsmen” and direct the people to build right where they live, where their hearts flourish, and people will be strategically placed here.  My vision for Morningside has always been that we would become a “Refuge” and a place of restoration.  Freely I have received, and my desire is to freely give HOPE to others.

Each of us ought to have genuine compassion for others who have spiritual or physical hurts.  We have to move out of the swamps of backbiting and tearing down.

In the Refuge, we will love each other, we will have each other’s backs, and we will care for one another!  God is raising up many places of Refuge for the Times of Trouble ahead.  Betrayal may drive you to one of these Refuges, but HOPE will sustain you through it!

We must purpose in our hearts to become “Hope Craftsmen”!