Category: International
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Separated Families Suffer Abuse in the United States
After three hours of paperwork, Katy Rodriguez from El Salvador, who was deported from the United States, finally exited the government’s immigration facilities together with her young son and embraced family members who were waiting outside. Rodríguez and her three-year-old son were reunited again on Jun. 28, just before she was sent back to her…
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The heartbreaking, life-affirming story of the Street Kids’ World Cup
For three of the nine teenagers in the team from Kenya, playing football in the Street Child World Cup has been liberating in a literal sense; to take part in the event in Moscow the trio were released from a juvenile detention centre in Mombasa, where they are being held after being rounded up on…
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‘Fighting for Space’ author talks injection sites, harm reduction in Boston
A Canadian journalist’s book on harm reduction in Vancouver is coming to the United States, and the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program hosted the author for a discussion and book launch. In “Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City’s Struggle with Addiction,” Travis Lupick provides a detailed look…
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Killed, Abducted, Imprisoned: The Journalists Who Challenge Criminals and Corrupt Governments Around the Globe
Despite a surprising down turn in the number of journalists killed, press freedom across the world continues to be under threat. Scarp de’ tenis looked at recent findings from Reporters Without Borders and talks about two recent cases in which journalists were killed simply for doing their jobs. Being a journalist can be quite dangerous,…
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Mexico’s Solidarity Towards Haitians Only Goes So Far
On the Mexican-American border, a region known as Mexicali, people of Haitian descent are finding life much more of a struggle. With tightening restrictions on entry to the US, and no legal permit from the Mexican government to find work, Haitian people have become stranded in a no man’s land between being undocumented and citizenship.…
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Algorithms: The number crunchers that control your life
When you switch on your tablet, computer or smart phone and have a browse for a new home, a car, or even a handbag or simple pair of jeans, an algorithm decides the outcome. What is an algorithm? According to the book Algorithms for Dummies, by Mueller and Massaron: “Algorithms are mathematical equations that determine…
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Salvadoran Deportations: U.S. Rejects Refugees From Country it Helped Destabilize
Carrying a red plastic bag containing an old pair of shoes and a few other belongings, David Antonio Pérez arrives in El Salvador, deported from the United States. David Antonio, 42, is a divorced father of two who has lived in the U.S. for a total of 12 years. He has spent five years in…
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Understanding Why Societies Emphasise the Difference Between ‘Migrants’ and ‘Refugees’
Two years have passed since the outbreak of the ‘refugee crisis’. ‘The migrant crisis’ is an expression that European and domestic officials use to describe tens of thousands of suffering people who are surviving in inhumane conditions in refugee camps, attempting to shown them as a group of enthusiastic travellers, in search of a better…
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Housing is a Human Right: Homelessness in the Shadow of Wealth
Leilani Farha doesn’t want to live in a world where people have to negotiate to use the bathroom. She doesn’t want to live in a world where residents in the United States, the richest country on the planet, live in encampments infested with rats. Farha doesn’t want to live in a world where people are…
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From Bulgaria to Switzerland: A Street Odyssey with a Dog and a Cat
“I know about life on the street. I would paint there every day and was in contact with lots of people for whom the street was their home.” Sitting on the cozy and somewhat worn sofa in his small apartment in Zollikofen, no-one would guess that Slavcho Slavov, whom everyone calls Slavo, has lived through…