Geneva, 20 March 2020 (IOM)*– As the world confronts the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Network on Migration salutes the immense efforts to date to combat this crisis and urges that all – including migrants regardless of their migratory status – are included in efforts to mitigate and roll back this illness’s impact.
To that end, migrants must be seen as both potential victims and as an integral part of any effective public health response. It is particularly important that all authorities make every effort to confront xenophobia, including where migrants and others are subject to discrimination or violence linked to the origin and spreading of the pandemic.
COVID-19 does not discriminate, and nor should our response, if it is to succeed.
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 20 2020 (IPS)* – The devastating spread of the deadly coronavirus across every continent– with the exception of Antarctica– has triggered a conspiracy theory on social media: what if the virus was really a biological weapon?
And more specifically, was it an experimental weapon that accidentally escaped from a laboratory in China? Or as others contend, is it a weapon surreptitiously introduced to de-stabilize a country with more than 1.4 billion people and described as the world’s second largest economy, after the United States.
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 2020 (IPS)* – Mina Setra remembers the story clearly. As a Dayak Pompakng indigenous person from Indonesia, when visitors from the city who came into her community; brought bottled water with them because they were worried about the water not being suitable for drinking.
CARACAS, Mar 18 2020 (IPS)* – During his 1992 run, Bill Clinton, then elected US president, made “It’s the economy, stupid!” a household phrase. Coined by campaign advisor James Carville, it pointed out economic and health issues as part of the strategy resulting in the accession of this relatively obscure governor of Arkansas into the White House.
“Censorship never again” . Credit: Gustavo Bezerra/Fotos Públicas
17 March 2020 (UNHCR)* — As countries drastically reduce entry into their territories owing to the COVID-19 global health crisis, and restrictions around international air travel are introduced, travel arrangements for resettling refugees are currently subject to severe disruptions. Some States have also placed a hold on resettlement arrivals given their public health situation, which impacts on their capacity to receive newly resettled refugees. | Español | عربي
Security Forces and Unidentified Men Abuse, Strip and Summarily Deport Thousands
Greece: End Violence Against Asylum Seekers at Border
Athens, 17 March 2020 – Greek security forces and unidentified armed men at the Greece–Turkeyland border have detained, assaulted, sexually assaulted, robbed, and stripped asylum seekers and migrants, then forced them back to Turkey, Human Rights Watch said today [17 March 2020].
“As world leaders brace for the worst within their borders, they must not abandon those living outside them. We must turbocharge our humanity and stand in international solidarity with refugees and displaced people during this time of widespread uncertainty.
A COVID-19 information session taking place for displaced communities in Western Afghanistan
Millions of conflict-affected people are living in cramped refugee and displacement sites with desperately poor hygiene and sanitation facilities. When the virus hits overcrowded settlements in places like Iran, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Greece, the consequences will be devastating. We must act now.
On January 3, 2020, the U.S. military, following President Trump’s orders, killed Major General Qassim Suleimani, respected leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Groups’ Qud Force.
I never understood the morality of foreign policy, but I’m getting the hang of it, thanks to the little-known pocket manual “The U.S. Holy Code Book of Double Standard Morality.”
According to U.S. Code, U.S. troops’ killing of Suleimani is honorable because he’s considered responsible for killing Americans, but if Iranians were to kill his American equivalent, the CIA director, whose role in killing is not subject to evaluation, it would be reprehensible.
According to Perkins, he began writing Confessions of an Economic Hit Man in the 1980s, but “threats or bribes always convinced [him] to stop.”
Perkins’ function was to convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the World Bank and USAID.
Saddled with debts they could not hope to pay, those countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the United States on a variety of issues.
The war in Syria has been taking its toll on children for nine years – their lives forever marked by the conflict. Hundreds of thousands of children are now fighting to reclaim their futures. Over the years, Human Rights Watch has heard just some of their stories:
When 15 boys were detained in Syria for scrawling anti-government graffiti on walls in Deraa, a city in Southwest Syria, news of their arrest sparked protests. The protesters called not only for the release of the boys, but for greater political freedom, and railed against government corruption.
United Nations Network on Migration
I never understood the morality of foreign policy, but I’m getting the hang of it, thanks to the little-known pocket manual “The U.S. Holy Code Book of Double Standard Morality.” 
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 