Regardless of the precise strategy of the Palestinian group Hamas, or any other Palestinian movement for that matter, the daring Palestinian military campaign, deep inside Israel, on Saturday, October 7, was only possible because Palestinians are simply fed up.
Uncertainty is rising for Syrian refugees everywhere. Borders are tightening in Europe, deportations from Lebanon and Turkey are increasing, and Syria remains inhospitable for returning refugees. Jordan is considered to be a Syrian refugee “success story” due to its record of hospitality. However, Syrians who reside in the country are increasingly concerned about changes in the government’s posture toward them. They fear that their host government may be running out of patience and they may soon be pressured to leave.
Over the past decade, Greece has experienced a major wave of outward migration, with more than half a million people leaving the country out of a population of around 11 million. This exodus was driven by Greece’s prolonged economic crisis, which erupted in 2009 in the context of the eurozone debt crisis and technically ended in the late 2010s, but whose impact is still being heavily felt in Greece’s society and economy today.
The effects of the migration surge to the European Union are being keenly felt at the union’s internal borders, which are normally fully open and imperceptible, like those between U.S. states. But for months now, “temporary” border checks have been imposed for people going from south to north, from Italy to France and Slovenia to Austria. The same is true from Austria to Germany, from Germany to Denmark and from Denmark to Sweden.
On March 21, nine Algerian migrants died when the boat taking them to Italy capsized in the Mediterranean Sea. The tragic story, along with countless others like it, highlights the cost of migration, which is not limited to the loss of lives. In fact, the highly publicized reports of migrant deaths have increasingly shaped a vision of irregular migration as a symptom of a broader social tragedy, one that drives thousands of skilled young people from Africa to set off down unknown, dangerous paths in search of a better future for themselves.
The pictures from Afghanistan in August 2021 are indelible: As the Taliban swept through the countryside and stormed Kabul, reclaiming the country from Western-funded elites, the U.S. presence in the country evaporated overnight, and thousands of Afghans tried in desperation to escape the country on the last few U.S. aircraft to leave. Approximately 76,000 escaped in the cargo holds of American planes, the largest humanitarian airlift in recent history.
The situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate as the health sector collapses and bodies begin piling up in front of hospitals.
Three days into the Israeli siege and bombardment, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is quickly worsening, with the death toll now over 1,400 and the number of displaced surpassing 300,000.
“Flood Of Vengeance – From Syria To Palestine (Source: Al-Watan, Syria, October 8, 2023.
Arab online news outlets, among them those affiliated with the Syrian opposition, are reporting on intensified preparations by Hizbullah and Iranian militias in Syria, in advance of the possibility that the current war between Israel and Hamas will expand to the Syrian front.
Azerbaijan’s late September military operation to retake the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, the self-styled “Republic of Artsakh,” caused most of the residents to flee to Armenia and the government of breakaway region to announce it will dissolve by 1 January 2024.
On October 4, Pakistan’s caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti ordered “illegal immigrants” to vacate the country by the end of that month. The move has invoked widespread fear among the approximately 1.7 million Afghans living in the country.