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Migration and Border Policy Links: Greek school protests, Hungary tightens the rules, FIFA sued and more

Migration and Border Policy Links: Greek school protests, Hungary tightens the rules, FIFA sued and more
Published 13 Oct 2016 

By Rachael Buckland, an intern with the Lowy Institute's Migration and Border Policy project

  • Assistant High Commissioner for Protection UNHCR Geneva, Volker Türk, has defended the New York Declaration adopted by the UN General Assembly last month.
  • FIFA is being sued by a migrant worker from Bangladesh, Nadim Shariful Alam who alleges the international football body exploited workers during the construction of 2022 World Cup facilities in Qatar. The legal action, lodged with the support of Dutch trade union FNV, comes after an Amnesty International report 'The Ugly Side of a Beautiful Game' into exploitative practices on the site.
  • A recent government report found that immigrant workers add substantially to productivity in the Australian Agricultural industry. It is summarised here.
  • The mayor of the Southern French town of Béziers, and one-time head of Reporters Without Borders, Robert Menard, has been accused of inciting hatred after allowing provocative posters depicting a migrant invasion to be plastered across the town. Reporters Without Borders, which promotes media rights, has distanced itself from Menard since he left the organisation nine years ago.
  • A small number of Greek schools in Attica, Thessaloniki and Epirus are welcoming refugee students from nearby camps, a move that provoked a protest by parents at one school.
  • In Hungary, a week after voters supported a referendum to restricted immigration (though in such low numbers the result was void), prime minister Victor Orban has submitted a proposal to parliament that would tighten constitutional rules on immigration.
  • In the context of rising anti-immigration sentiments, free media and human rights advocates have expressed concern after the sudden closure of Hungary's biggest opposition daily newspaper Népszabadság, that had been printed since 1956.
  • Watch Kaldor Centre's Madeline Gleeson and Emeritus Professor Robert Manne discuss 'Australian Asylum' at the 2016 Melbourne Writers Festival.
  • Facebook, in partnership with Johnson & Johnson and Save The Children, has launched a mobile video series 'Searching for Home', an example of the role social media and NFPs play in contextualising refugee flows.


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