By Ravindra Singh Prasad

SUVA (IDN) — Every year on May 14 Fiji’s Indian community mark the day when the first shipment of their ancestors came here as indentured labourers to work in British sugarcane plantations established in their Pacific Ocean colony.

Girmitiya is how they came to be known over time—the name derived from the term Girmit, a corruption of the English word, agreement.…

By UN News

NEW YORK (IDN) — Amid record global displacement, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has urged European countries to prioritize the better protection of people fleeing war, conflict, and persecution.

UNHCR made the appeal in recommendations to France, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), and the Czech Republic, which assumes the presidency in July.…

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) — Expressing solidarity with migrants on the move, “has never been more urgent”, said the United Nations Secretary-General in a message just ahead of International Migrants Day, celebrated on December 25. This year, International Migrants Day falls almost exactly 70 years since the historic Brussels conference that led to the establishment of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).…

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) — With many economies reeling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as inequalities continue to widen, world leaders discussed options to unlock concrete investments to support a sustainable and resilient recovery at the Forum on Financing for Development (FfD Forum) from April 12-15.

The four-day Forum, held under the auspices of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), took place as many countries are facing increased financial debt and liquidity pressures because of the pandemic. The FfD Forum was held virtually, with selected in-person sessions.…

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The Mexicans had a joke about ex-President Donald Trump’s planned wall along its border with the US. “It’s not being built to keep Mexicans out of the US; it’s built to keep Trump out of Mexico!” If this be so, then President Joe Biden can relax. No longer is there the need to dismantle the wall built by Trump.

The US media reports say that Mexico has to deal with another migrant “caravan” of fleeing Central Americans pouring into the south of the country, hoping to somehow crash their way into the US.…

By Maxwell Matewere

A Malawian crime prevention expert with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Maxwell Matewere, has been active in the anti-human trafficking field for more than two decades. The following is being republished from UN News,

LILONGWE (IDN) – I was a young, recent law graduate when I first experienced the horrors of human trafficking. It was in 1998. I was working for a human rights NGO and attending a workshop in South Africa. A taxi driver told me about two girls from my home country who worked in a bar in Johannesburg. He was very concerned about them.  …

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Migrants around the world are continuing their desperate flights for survival even though rescue efforts have slowed, and rich countries are building higher walls against the asylum seekers.

The deadliest shipwreck of the year occurred most recently off the coast of Senegal where at least 140 people drowned after a boat carrying around 200 migrants sank, according to the UN migration agency (IOM).…

Viewpoint by Randall Hansen*

TORONTO (IDN) – In November 2019, a federal government official visited the University of Toronto’s Munk School and asked its faculty to delineate coming global threats. We spoke of inequality, hunger, climate change, sanitation, and plastic pollution, among others. No one mentioned a microbe; a discussion of the threat of immunity to antibiotics was as close as we got.

Four months later, everyone in that room was under lockdown. COVID-19 hit the world as a freight train hits a car stalled at a railroad crossing. The virus has shredded the rhythm of our daily lives, and it will reconfigure our economies and politics.…