Gathering Migrants at Turkey-Greece Border Indicative of Larger International Problems

While the COVID-19 continues to disrupt the world in the form of travel bans, quarantined cities, and plummeting stock markets, another less recognized crisis is underway in Europe. On February 27th, thirty-three Turkish soldiers were killed in an airstrike in Idlib in north-western Syria.[1] The Russian backed Assad regime justified their attack by stating that … Read more

Human Rights Violations in the Syria Detention Camp: A look at the al-Hol Camp Annex

The detention camp of al-Hol annex in Northeastern Syria is in a state of dire human rights violations. The conditions show violations of provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).[1] Reports have come out … Read more

Duty to Repatriate: The Case of Foreign Combatants in Kurdish Prisons

I. Introduction The Kurdish militias in Northern Syria have taken hundreds of foreign detainees over the course of their recent offensive against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).[1] The Kurdish position is that their home countries should repatriate them, but few countries have consented to do so.[2] The situation of the detainees … Read more

EU-Turkey Agreement: What’s the Deal?

On March 8, 2016, the European Union (EU) and Turkey reached an agreement aimed at resolving the migrant crisis, which has grown exponentially over the past several years. Since the beginning of the conflict, a total of 9 million migrants, have fled war-torn areas such as Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. In search of safety, most … Read more

Responsibility to Protect in the Wake of the Paris Attacks

On Friday November 13, 2015, France experienced a sequence of horrific terrorist attacks, for which the Islamic State claimed responsibility; nonetheless, the attacks have also been linked to Syria. In our reaction to the events on Friday, it is important to remember all of the positive efforts that France has engaged in to aid the … Read more

The Migrant Crisis: A Test of European Coherence?

By Alexandra Esmel Europe is facing one of its largest refugee crisis since the end of the Second Word War. Violent conflicts in the Middle East (mostly from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan) and in Sub-Saharan Africa (mostly from Eritrea, Somalia) have generated the flight of thousands of men, women and children from war zones, persecutions and/or extreme … Read more

Grading the United Nations at 70 years old

(Denver Post) By Ved Nanda The euphoria that accompanied the creation of the United Nations in 1945 has long since given way to frustration and disappointment. Established in the aftermath of the death and destruction of World War II to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” it has succeeded in preventing another global war, … Read more

Mistaken as Terrorists: How innocent Syrian refugees are prevented from resettling in the US

The Syrian refugee crisis is one of the most horrific this generation has ever seen. The United States, which has a long history of welcoming refugees into its borders and giving protection to those fleeing from persecution, has yet to put a significant resettlement initiative for Syrian refugees into motion. The United States has resettled … Read more

Lawsuit challenges Japan’s high standard for refugees

In early March, four Syrian men filed a lawsuit against Japan’s Ministry of Justice, challenging the rejection of their refugee applications.  The group arrived in Japan in 2012 and applied for refugee status, citing the potential for persecution for their participation in pro-democracy protests against the Syrian government.  The Ministry rejected their refugee status in … Read more

Critical Analysis: Protecting refugees in the midst of war

In the early days of April, the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) pushed closer to the center of Damascus, the Syrian capital, than they had been able to before.  They did this by seizing the majority of the Al-Yarmouk camp, a large refugee district in the southern part of the city.  The camp had once … Read more