The Russian government must immediately stop the deportation of at least 17 Tajikistani nationals detained during a peaceful protest in Moscow on 2 April against the suspected rendition of a fellow countryman, Amnesty International said today. The detained Tajikistani nationals, mostly migrant workers, had taken part in peaceful protests against the forcible return to Tajikistan of Izzat Amon (also known as Izatullo Kholov), a prominent migrants’ rights activist, lawyer and the head of the Moscow-based human rights centre Tojikon. The protest took place in front of the Embassy of Tajikistan. “The Russian authorities must immediately stop helping their counterparts in…
Human rights
Lower house of U.K. parliament to vote on declaring Uyghur oppression a genocide
The House of Commons, the lower house and primary chamber of the U.K.’s parliament, is set to vote next week on a motion to declare the Chinese government’s actions in the Uyghur Region—which include systematic forced labor—a genocide. Collective decisions on genocide are uncommon but not unheard of in the U.K. parliament, which in 2016 declared that the Yazidis, an ethnic group in northern Iraq, had suffered genocide at the hands of the Islamic State. But because next week’s motion involves potentially accusing a fellow member of the U.N. Security Council, rather than a non-state terrorist group, the political and…
Hong Kong: Jailing of opposition figures over protests is violation of international law
Responding to the sentencing of 10 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists to between eight and 18 months in prison for taking part in two “unauthorized” protests in August 2019, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director Yamini Mishra said: “The wrongful prosecution, conviction and sentencing of these 10 activists underlines the Hong Kong government’s intention to eliminate all political opposition in the city. “Having arrested the majority of Hong Kong’s most prominent dissidents using the repressive national security law, the authorities are now mopping up remaining peaceful critics under the pretext of bogus charges related to the 2019 protests. “These convictions are a…
How the pandemic makes it easier for traffickers in Europe
A new report by Council of Europe (CoE) anti-trafficking experts known as GRETA finds that the COVID-19 pandemic has made it easier for human traffickers to exploit people with few options while making it more difficult for trafficking victims and survivors to access justice and support. The Thomson Reuters Foundation reports, GRETA’s annual report noted an increase in sexual exploitation and traffickers going online to target victims – such as using gaming and social media sites to groom children. In Germany, a temporary closure of brothels in 2020 led to a rise in “hidden” prostitution marked by greater abuse, while…
Lebanon’s financial crisis worsens exploitation of domestic workers
Al Jazeera reports that Lebanon’s current financial crisis heightens the insecurity of domestic workers, particularly migrant domestic workers, as they are being paid a fraction of their time’s worth – if at all. All migrant workers are subject to the kafala system which binds employees to their employers and leaves them vulnerable to exploitative situations and modern slavery. Because of the extreme power imbalance in favor of employers, migrant domestic workers are vulnerable to being subjected to physical, emotional and sexual abuse, restrictions placed on their movements and having their wages withheld. In September 2020, the labor ministry established a…
Why Nordic Model policy pushed in the U.K. won’t tackle sex trafficking
This week, Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Diana Johnson sought support from her party for amendments to the U.K.’s controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill that would criminalize sex workers’ clients, otherwise known as the Nordic Model. Some proponents of the Nordic Model, including Diana Johnson who tabled a bill in December calling for the criminalization of sex workers’ clients and third parties, take the position that sex work is inherently violent towards women and girls and equate sex work to trafficking. However, there is little evidence to suggest that criminalizing sex workers’ clients does anything to tackle sex…
Myanmar: Military under ‘major pressure’ as steel giant cuts ties
Responding to reports that South Korean steel giant POSCO will end the steel venture its Myanmar subsidiary shares with military-owned conglomerate MEHL, Amnesty International’s Business and Human Rights Researcher Montse Ferrer said: “POSCO’s decision to cut this tie is the latest blow to Myanmar’s military, which continues to impose its rule through murder and heinous human rights violations. Since staging a coup in February, the military has reportedly killed around 700 people, including dozens of children. “Given the scale of POSCO’s operations in Myanmar, this announcement is a major step forward. It increases the military authorities’ isolation, and adds to…
Zimbabwe: Statelessness crisis traps hundreds of thousands in limbo
Hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the misery of statelessness in Zimbabwe have been forced to the margins of society, and struggle to access education, healthcare and housing, Amnesty International said today in a new report. The organization interviewed descendants of migrant workers who settled in Zimbabwe pre-independence, as well as survivors of the Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980s; two groups locked out of citizenship by a cruel combination of discrimination and bureaucracy. The report, We are like “stray animals”, details how Zimbabwe’s discriminatory and arbitrary nationality laws have left generations of migrant workers and their families marginalized in…
Zimbabwe: We are like "Stray animals"
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that there are many millions of stateless people globally – of which approximately one third are children. In Zimbabwe approximately 300,000 people are currently at risk of statelessness, according to the UNHCR. This report reveals how these population groups have been deprived for decades of their rights as citizens. Denied the documentation enabling them access to education, work, health care and other basic rights, hundreds of thousands of people have been rendered stateless, stripped of any legal status in the country where they have raised families and which they regard as…
The continued horror of “marry-your-rapist” laws around the world
A new report from the United Nations has revealed that laws allowing rapists to evade prosecution by marrying their victims persist around the world. According to the findings from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), so-called “marry-your-rapist” laws still exist in Russia, Thailand, Venezuela and 17 other countries. In these countries, men can legally have rape convictions overturned if they marry their victims, effectively allowing forced marriage and modern slavery. Many of these countries restrict the law to cases involving underage victims, deferring to the victim’s parents or guardians for consent to marry and further undermining her agency. Though Dina Dabbous,…
Saudi Arabia: Dozens of Sri Lankan women wrongfully detained for months due to abusive kafala system
At least 41 Sri Lankan women, the majority of whom are migrant domestic workers, have spent months on end arbitrarily detained at a deportation center in Saudi Arabia, awaiting repatriation to their home country, Amnesty International revealed today. The women have been held at a Deportation Detention (Tarheel) Centre in Riyadh for periods ranging from eight to 18 months. At least three of them have young children detained with them, and one woman is in urgent need of medical care and treatment which she is not receiving. Their plight is a stark illustration of how domestic workers remain caught up…
Ethiopia: Three killed, 19 injured in Tigray as Eritrean troops open fire on civilians
Amnesty International can confirm that Eritrean troops killed three people and injured at least 19 in an unprovoked attack on civilians in the centre of Adwa town on 12 April. Witnesses told Amnesty International that Eritrean troops were passing through the town located in the Tigray region, when they suddenly opened fire at people on the main street close to the bus station. “Three people lost their lives and at least 19 others are in hospital from yet another unlawful attack by Eritrean troops on civilians in Tigray. Deliberate attacks on civilians are prohibited by international humanitarian law and must…