His take on the refugee crisis has taken a different spin, however, through a fictional narrative of a couple from Sudan, torn apart by conflict and who reunite in the dream world. It’s an audiobook called “,” which collaborates with producers ToneO and Essence, starring actors Mustafa Khogali and Hind Swareldahab, who were involved with the Sudanese uprising and have some experience of navigating the British asylum system.

What follows is the gripping, outlandish and also very real-to-life tale of Sameh and Ahlam. Facing barriers in the form of the European and UK immigration systems, they defy powers keeping them apart using the practice of lucid dreaming — having dreams where the dreamer is aware they are in a dream and even gaining control over some of the dream’s elements.

A Rich River of Life: The Importance of Free Movement

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Potent explains the concept as part of the book using his signature , the “The Rhyming Guide to Lucid Dreaming,” and in which he offers another perspective on dreams: “They won’t let us dream, / They want us living their illusion. / That’s why dreaming is a radical act. / Dreaming is resistance.”

It’s a fascinating take on the politics of freedom of movement through the metaphysical and genre of romance, set against hip hop and poetry. And the project has led Potent to do workshops on lucid dreaming and the freedom of movement with young marginalized people. Without a doubt, the project is timely. As the peak summer period for migration has seen record numbers of people crossing the English Channel on flimsy boats, hostile anti-asylum rhetoric has stepped up.

In this guest edition of The Interview, Sophia Akram talks to Potent Whisper about the inspiration and the concepts behind “Lucid Lovers.”

Sophia Akram: A lot is going on in the final output: storytelling, poetry, music, politics, metaphysics intertwined with love and human-interest genres. What made you feel this was the best way of telling a story that is fundamentally a lesson on migration?

Potent Whisper: Somebody will tell you they oppose freedom of movement until they fall in love with somebody from another country and become separated by borders.

It seems to me that people only care about stories that reflect or benefit their own lives in some way. By introducing leading themes of love and dreams, I am speaking to experiences that people share all around the world.

Hopefully, by using this common ground, I have, in some way, provided a non-politicized audience with the space to venture beyond their own lived experiences; to recognize their shared humanity with the characters and begin to care about them beyond the book.

Akram: A passion and compassion for the subject of freedom of movement and the plight of asylum seekers come through. What galvanized you on the issue?

Potent Whisper: The idea that immigrants and asylum seekers are problematic is one that has been relentlessly smashed into the consciousness of the general public by politicians and the mainstream media. This is not only a lie that causes the suffering of immigrants and asylum seekers — which is more than enough reason to write this book — but it is also a lie that simultaneously enables the suffering of the average “English” person who was born in this country.

If you were to ask a random Brit why their grandmother couldn’t get the operation she desperately needed, they may well point to immigrants. If you were to ask a young family why they can’t get a council house, they wouldn’t complain about the demolition of or lack of provision for social housing — they would point to immigrants.

The average British person who is struggling to make ends meet does not feel angry with a government that needlessly chose to implement austerity measures. Instead, they would point to the vulnerable and desperate asylum seeker who came to this country in the simple hope of finding safety.

I am not exactly the smartest guy in the world, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that the scapegoating of immigrants (and Muslims) is one of the major enablers of the transferal of public wealth into private hands, via government, in this country and around the world. To quote a passage from “Lucid Lovers,” when Ahlam asks Samer to explain Brexit:

“The British government decided to give bankers hundreds of billions of pounds after the financial crisis in 2008, crippling the British people through austerity measures. They had ten years of misery and the country saw a genocide of the poor but the government managed to redirect their anger away from the powerful people who are consciously killing them and instead towards immigrants and Muslims. This was coupled with the notion that leaving the European Union aka ‘Brexit’ would stop immigrants from entering the country and thus improve living conditions in the UK. The truth, however, is that the effects of Brexit will worsen their real situation. But when the leader of the opposition tried to warn everybody, he was portrayed as a racist and terrorist sympathiser and so the British public voted for an actual racist terrorist and now they’re all screwed.”

Akram: Lucid dreaming sounds wild. Is it real, and how did you come to know about it?

Potent Whisper: Lucid dreaming is 100% real, scientifically proven and well established as a practice. I was introduced to it by my brother after our grandmother passed away last year, and it gave me meaningful hope that we might exist beyond our bodies after we die. After all, if we can exist without our bodies in dreams, perhaps we can exist without our bodies after they decompose.

Akram: I sometimes know when I’m dreaming — is that the same thing? You also touch on dream sharing — is that possible? How would someone find out more about lucid dreaming and what are its benefits?

Potent Whisper: To become lucid means that you are aware that you are in a dream. With some practice, you can then learn to control or direct elements of your dream, which not only allows you to do things that are impossible when awake — like flying — but can enrich your life and improve your wellbeing in the waking world too. For example, lucid dreaming can be used to practice and develop skills whilst we are asleep: If you are learning to play the piano, you can use lucid dreaming to practice playing and, when you wake up, you will have improved accordingly.

Lucid dreaming can also be used to help us process emotional traumas, heal our bodies, consolidate and memorize new information, and so much more. On a more spiritual level, many people have reported that they use lucid dreaming to communicate with ancestors or seek guidance from their spirit guide.

Certainly, I have found that when I face a difficult challenge in life, a solution can often present itself to me whilst contemplating the problem in a lucid dream. The practice also has huge creative potential with many iconic artists and inventors pointing to the dream world as the source of their work. Believe it or not, I actually wrote parts of the audiobook whilst I was in a lucid state. My “The Rhyming Guide to Lucid Dreaming,” which features in the audiobook, explores the benefits of lucid dreaming in more depth.

In terms of dream sharing: It is important for the audience to understand that the character’s ability to share a dream and inhabit the same dream space is very different to lucid dreaming. Unlike lucid dreaming, sharing a dream is not widely reported or scientifically recognized as being possible in real life. Though that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been or can’t be done!

*[The project, funded by Arts Council England, is available to stream and download for free at LucidLovers.co.uk.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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On August 17, escalation in the offensive on Idlib left dead, including six children, as an air raid hit their home in a village in the south of the governorate. The casualties were recorded a day after 13 other people were killed in a displacement camp in the village of al-Haas and following the displacement of hundreds and thousands of civilians as Syrian forces have advanced on the last opposition stronghold in the country.

The UN has said at least 400,000 people have been uprooted, some for the fourth or fifth time, as a military campaign — reportedly assisted by Russian forces — has continued “unabated” since late April, as one spokesperson for the multilateral body put it. Turkish media say the number of internally displaced persons (IDP) could if operations expand.

The current humanitarian decline in the province has occurred despite a ceasefire being declared at the recent Astana peace talks as well as past efforts for Idlib to become a de-escalation zone. The regime blamed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an that controls Idlib, for not fully complying with the ceasefire and for carrying out attacks on civilian objects. Human rights groups say the Syrian regime and its allies have been responsible for killing a least 781 civilians, including 208 children, in raids between April 26 and July 27. By August 5, the ceasefire was declared officially over.

Stark warnings have been ushered by the United Nations, with the situation “total panic.” Mark Lowcock, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, has that it could create the “worst humanitarian disaster” of the century.

Consider that Idlib has, over the last few years, acted as a reception area for civilians fleeing government advances elsewhere, and without other opposition-held territories to flee to, most displacement has been contained within the province, with a proportion fleeing northward to Aleppo.

While horror unfolds under the rain of mortar and fire, already densely-populated areas of Idlib province suffer , impacting the humanitarian situation and precarity among displaced communities. Strained resources also mean more support is needed from aid agencies, although the sector concedes that aid alone is not a sustainable solution. At the same time, child labor among displaced communities is now becoming more prevalent, lending concern that children are being exposed to abuse and exploitation.

On August 22, the Syrian government announced it was opening a “humanitarian corridor” to allow civilians to leave Idlib province and the neighboring Hama. Yet without the current offensive relenting, the humanitarian situation is only expected to worsen, while overall in Syria some remain in acute need. Furthermore, those who have returned from cross-border displacement have been subject to abuse and persecution by the regime, according to the (SNHR). The organization has also documented that at least 426 IDPs returning to regime-controlled areas have been detained, including 13 children — 284 of whom were forcibly disappeared.

With Idlib in crisis, the international response has been wanting. In July, UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet aired frustration at the lack of acknowledgment from the international community, : “Airstrikes kill and maim significant numbers of civilians several times a week, and the response seems to be a collective shrug.” Othman Mokbel, chief executive of Syria Relief, recently for The Independent that the country no longer forms part of the national conversation anymore and much of the British public are not even aware there is still a conflict there.

A Safe Zone in Syria

Meanwhile, the US and Turkey agreed on August 7 to put in place a 32-kilometer-deep safe zone in northern Syria, something that has been in Turkish sights for a while now. This is in addition to a “peace corridor” running between the Euphrates River to the Iraqi border in order to help the safe passage of Syrian refugees in Turkey back into Syria as well as facilitating securitization needs.

However, with the US using the People’s Protection Units (YPG) — which Turkey sees as a terrorist group — as a proxy to fight Islamic State militants in the region, there in the deal. In particular, Ankara wants to clear the area of forces from the YPG and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and remove administrative autonomy in any of the Kurdish-run towns. With reference to a previously stalled deal over the northern city of Manbij, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has Turkey was not prepared to wait this time.

There is also the fact that, several years ago, there were serious over the establishment of a safe zone and how secure it might be for civilians.  

Syria is now enduring its ninth year of war, marred throughout by some of the most egregious harms — barrel bombs, disappearances, chemical weapons and conscription — while proxies, non-state actors and parties to the conflict compete for their own interests, convoluting the theater of war. Now, the worst could be yet to come while the world fails to register the devastation.   

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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At the center of any WikiLeaks discussion lies Julian Assange, the platform’s founder who has been embroiled in scandals and accusations of misogyny, amongst all else. Lesser known is the story of the women involved in the WikiLeaks phenomenon, as whistleblowing is an area of activity that, as Renata Avila, Sarah Harrison and Angela Richter write in , is “widely perceived as heavily male dominated.”

This is because the mainstream media heavily focuses on key male players — not just Assange, but also journalist Glen Greenwald, whose work on the NSA surveillance disclosures by whistleblower Edward Snowden has brought them both into the international spotlight. Even Chelsea Manning, despite being a transgender woman, is often referred to as a “he.”

This is one of the notions brought up in the foreword of a book based on a conversation sparked between the women involved with WikiLeaks. Harrison, an acclaimed journalist; Richter, a Croatian-German theater director; and Avila, a celebrated Guatemalan human rights lawyer, are all women who have had prominent roles working within WikiLeaks. For instance, Harrison was at the heart of the Snowden revelations and accompanied him in his escape from Hong Kong to Moscow. Yet, as Richter points out in the foreword, instead of describing Harrison as a “brave, independent journalist,” she was often referred to in the media as “an ‘assistant’ or ‘friend’ of Assange.”

Whatever your thoughts on WikiLeaks, it’s undeniable that it is perhaps one of the most game-changing institutions of this century. Women, Whistleblowing, WikiLeaks, published by OR Books, at least attempts to throw some of the spotlight back onto the women who have had an active and prominent role in the unfolding of events that have changed national security discourse today.

A Conversation

So, what does a conversation look like between Harrison, Richter and Avila? While all three touch on the absence of women from coverage of WikiLeaks and the discourse surrounding it, this is not what dominates their conversation. They consider the broad foundational and structural problems facing society that has necessitated an organization like WikiLeaks, the challenges of achieving progress as well as having more nuanced discussions about privacy and surveillance.

First, talking about what got them involved in the organization, there appeared to be common ground that all three couldn’t see any effective way to implement change using the same tried and tested methods. While all three women came from different disciplines and backgrounds, the ineffectuality of traditional forms of protest hit a chord for all of them. As Richter explains: “I had become aware that the classical forms of activism just didn’t work anymore. It seemed to me that the Western governments will quite happily let the protesters demonstrate, knowing that such demonstrations will not be able to affect meaningful change.”

All three saw WikiLeaks as something new to shake up the old system. For Richter, the idea seemed simple and also powerful, to have an “anonymous portal” where people can safely post information.

For Avila, her experience growing up during the war in Guatemalan meant she had already seen one resistance movement buck the status quo. In the 1990s, the , after a successful uprising, regained control of land in Chiapas, Mexico. At that time, the Zapatistas were protesting against the North American Free Trade Agreement, which cancelled an article in Mexico’s constitution that protected native communal land holdings.

Alvera says that they galvanized international solidarity by using the internet to show evidence of what was happening in Chiapas, which she believed worked because it caught the world by surprise. She also believed that this was then achieved by WikiLeaks when it released the “” video which depicts two US Apache helicopter crews indiscriminately shooting down several Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters journalists, in Baghdad in 2007.

For Harrison, the organization worked in the way she related to: using raw data, facts and documents and allowing these to empower people. WikiLeaks for all three women thus presented a new and possible way to affect change.

What Gets Out?

Another point not readily addressed in the mainstream media emerged during the discussion of the Snowden leaks. It showed that there is a divergence in opinion when it comes to the question of what to leak and who gets to decide that.

The authors believe that the fact that journalists disclosing the leaks have held back material and heavily redacted what is published flies in the face of what Wikileaks is about. Referencing published articles that included some of the leaks, there was discontent that much of the information remains redacted and undisclosed. Harrison noted: “These journalists are assuming that the public needs a journalistic filter on information to which we are all entitled to have access. They even seem to be celebrating the fact that they redact the material they receive.”

Instead, Harrison, Avila and others believe that information, as powerful as it is, belongs to everyone and can help in individual self-determination. It’s the basis on what WikiLeaks is about and a point that has separated the organization from pursuing further media collaborations. But the point becomes pertinent when the authors talk of the cross-cutting issue of the “global south’s” role and the impact it’s felt from both disclosure and non-disclosure. In many ways, US journalists were concerned with the local struggle — the impact on Americans and looking at the leaks through the prism of US law.

Avila says that “with millions of documents pending publication, it is reasonable that journalists will wonder and seek access to those documents because, for Latin America, there is the possibility that there is significant material on the War on Drugs in the NSA documents. If the documents had been published in their entirety we could easily find out, but, instead, we are still awaiting publication.”

Latin Americans may not have shocked by the NSA revelations because, as Avila says, their rights have been eroded by the US Drug Enforcement Agency in the war on drugs. Also noting that there may not be anything in the documents concerning the war on drugs, Avila’s point is that they don’t know because the documents are not out there in their entirety. By choosing what is only of importance to the US, journalists appear to be ignoring what is of importance to everyone else — and they’re doing so through the prism of US laws and standards, in direct conjunction with their government.

Harrison says that “There’s real prejudice against non-Western countries … dissidents outside of the West are seen as unimportant ‘brown people.’” That the NSA leaks got so much traction could therefore also be down to the impact white males in the developing world felt on themselves. Rather than being responsible, selectivity of publication is actually discriminatory.

Is It Just Middle-Class White Men Who Suffer?

Unlike Assange, however, it appears at least that the women from WikiLeaks have avoided the pursuit of law enforcement. The reasons for this could be that they’re just too “cunning,” as Avila jokes in the book. But straight on from the joke, they talk about other marginalized communities, and that even though they are not talked about in the media, their struggle can be even greater and the consequences high too.

For instance, Avila draws a comparison between the two activists, Aaron Swartz — a middle-class white man from the US,��and Bassel Khartabil — a Palestinian from Syria. The two men engaged with the same issues, working on open source information, and knew people in the same circles. However, when Swartz committed suicide, it became mainstream news, while Khartabil —��the recipient of Index of Censorship’s Digital Freedom Award executed by the Syrian government in 2015 — garnered little media interest during his incarceration.

When it comes to women, the discussants agree that their contributions are often dismissed. This ironically plays into their favor, because it gives them greater room to act. Conversely it also means their sacrifices are not acknowledged.

Avila says that “in my country, the fight against the mining industry is led by women community leaders, and there are now attempts to charge them with sabotage and terrorism just for defending their territories … The story is not covered by the media because reporting on women fighting against mining corporations conflicts with the corporate capture of the media.”

From Facebook to Google and the dangerous power now held in Silicon Valley, the conversation between the three women, facilitated by Joseph Farrell, is one of speaking truth to power. It uncovers layers to the WikiLeaks debate, showing that activists still have their work cut out for them, and they’re continuously having to innovate and come up with creative and surprising ways to shock people into paying attention.

The premise of the conversation also highlights a key point: The fact that women are excluded from media conversations about WikiLeaks is another symptom of the endemic problem of social and economic inequality that sidelines women along with many other traditionally marginalized groups – minorities, those in the developing world, the poor. Ideas that appear to be solving problems, like WikiLeaks, need to be proactively inclusive, otherwise they could end up harboring those same inequalities.

The conversation isn’t a long one, but it may just draw you in and help you voice your own opinion.

*[ is available from OR Books.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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On May 14, newspapers around the world contrasted the seeming calm of self-asserting peace as the US opened its new embassy along the that divides East and West Jerusalem with the news of deadly protests in Gaza as Israeli soldiers fired on unarmed Palestinians. The dramatic irony makes headlines. But make no mistake — this image is perhaps the most chilling in our world’s current history. It is as if the leader of the so-called free world raised the gate and unleashed Israel’s force on its occupied victims.

So far, some reports say as many as have been killed and up to in what appears to be one of the most bloody days since the 2014 Israeli Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. Despite clever political and media language suggesting “” are to blame and that Hamas had sent the Palestinian protesters to their death, the action is the most audacious that Israel has attempted in a long time. And the United States is protecting its ally: It has calls for a UN investigation, and its UN ambassador, Nikki Haley,�� out of a UN Security Council meeting just as the Palestinian envoy was beginning to speak. Israel’s bullish bodyguard is trying to shut it all down.

What’s more, all of Israel’s major allies are standing by idly. Of course floods of condemnation came in from around the world, but the words are cheap and lacking conviction. UK Prime Minister Theresa May might have called for a UN investigation, which has already proved itself an easily dismissed notion. The UK Minister of State for the Middle East says nothing that will have any sway over the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has come out in staunch of the action. He said:

“It is deplorable that extremist elements may have been seeking to exploit these protests for their own violent purposes. We will not waver from our support for Israel’s right to defend its borders. But the large volume of live fire is extremely concerning. We continue to implore Israel to show greater restraint.

The UK remains committed to a two-state solution with Jerusalem as a shared capital. All sides now need to show real leadership and courage, promote calm, refrain from inflaming tensions further, and show with renewed urgency that the path to a two-state solution is through negotiation and peace.”

Gaza’s governing party, Hamas, and its involvement in the protests have been a leading line in the news coverage. But to suggest that it is Hamas alone that is forcing men, women and minors to turn up in resistance shows no real understanding of either the and Gazans live with under Israel’s decade-long blockade or the sustained attacks on their livelihoods.

Burt has repeated the UK’s standard position that supports a two-state solution “through negotiation and peace.” In the face of this horrific violence, such blind statements simply make Britain complicit in it all. The path to peace through such tired rhetoric has long eroded. It’s time for action and for states like the UK to show Israel that there is a red line it cannot cross. Several countries, including��, , and , have either recalled or summoned their Israeli ambassadors. Perhaps the UK could be “implored” to do the same.

The UK should also suspend export licenses to Israel, as components could very well be those used in the weapons that are killing Palestinians.

The events of 14 May represent the most violent act in a stream of violent acts across Gaza over the past month, linked to the that has seen consistent protests met with disproportionate use of force. Such violence puts even more pressure on Gaza’s already crippled . This brings home the third key effort the UK could put in place that may just prevent further violence: pressure Israel to end the siege of Gaza — a situation that more likely triggered Palestinians to turn up in mass protest than did Hamas’ instigation.

The bloody events that took place in collision with the US embassy move overshadowed the Palestinians’ own annual commemoration of the Nakba — Arabic for “catastrophe” — after hundreds of thousands were expelled from Palestine in 1948. Now, 70 years later, peace is ever further away, and states like the US and the UK could ask themselves why. The truth is, they must already know the answer. Israel’s allies are tolerating and propping up a brutal occupier, which has left the blood of 61 people drying on their hands.

*[Updated: May 17, 2018, at 15:40 GMT.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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Italy’s migration policies have been formidable. headed to its shores, NGOs to cease sea rescue missions and Libya to stop migrants leaving have all helped to curb migration. But it does so by trading off people’s dignity. With Italy’s March elections having on anti-immigrant sentiment, the situation is not likely to improve.

Most of us are aware of the perils that face migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Between January 2012 and December 2017, UNHCR recorded from sea crossings between Libya and Italy. In addition, the International Committee of the Red Cross��said that deaths occurring en route from countries of origin are “.” Of those who survive the journey, many will have memories of sexual assault at the hands of armed gangs or of being flung into situations of slave labor or torture by soldiers.

Others are like chattel or detained in where they are vulnerable to further mistreatment — malnutrition, rape, forced labor, and even death. The whole thing is a depressing catalogue of abuse and perfect guide to dehumanization. What’s more, Libya is in the throws of armed conflict. The resulting lack of rule of law makes tackling the criminal networks responsible for smuggling and trafficking even more difficult.

Part of the reason migrants and refugees traveling through Libya receive such a menacing reception is that Libya is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 protocol. It therefore does not recognize the right to asylum, allow UNHCR to operate in the country and its detention facilities do not comply with international standards. It should therefore not be considered a safe country to return people to.

Europe’s policy has so far been focused on keeping migrants out of Europe. Boats are returned, and now the UN as well as the EU and the African Union are helping to return and repatriate migrants. This has been criticized for, firstly, the above-mentioned reason that Libya is not a safe country to return to. Secondly, some have stated that there has not been for people’s individual circumstances. Irregular migration through Libya happens for a variety of reasons: war, persecution, crippling poverty, as well as other causes. For many, returning home may not be safe and they must be resettled as quickly as possible.

Thousands have been repatriated since November 2017 and the International Organization for Migration says that those the numbers has decreased fivefold. If the numbers are accurate, this is in part a positive sign. However, estimates for the numbers of migrants in Libya are up to , meaning that much more work needs to be done.

On the whole, Europe’s approach to Libya’s crisis has been short-term and anti-immigrant. Return operations run the risk of trying to achieve targets without due consideration for what’s best to the person being returned.

Instead of centering policies on keeping migrants out of Europe, European policy should focus on how to curb irregular and unsafe migration. Addressing root causes, using diplomatic ties to help broker peace, designing smart, sustainable programming in countries of origin that provide people with access to livelihoods are all available options. Instead of short-term policies that entrap people in horrific conditions, Italy and its European neighbors should compel Libya to sign and ratify the International Refugee Convention.

International partners do already achieving some of these interventions but their results have not been as visible as those achieved by Italy’s Interior Marco Minniti under whom arrivals from Libya may have been by up to 87%. This may have proven popular among Italian voters for whom immigration is a hot potato issue. But tough immigration policies should not trade off human rights obligations either domestically or internationally.

The results of have revealed no clear majority, but the fear is that control will go to the far right. If Italy’s migration policies are falling short of the mark now, they are only likely to get worse.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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Post-2015, officials of the United Nations (UN) and other stakeholders started to think carefully about what development meant in this new era. Breaking down perceptions beyond extreme poverty or maternal is still crucially important, but as a global development community, we acknowledged that development is achieved by thinking big. Peace, governance and reducing inequality, for instance, all affect levels of poverty, so it is important to work toward these goals.

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Migration is not excluded��within this. It is recognized as both an important contributor to development and also a hindrance, if non-regular migrants are not adequately empowered. What was not banked on was the new wave of migration that is currently being experienced—the “crisis” within a sizeable bloc of the developed Western world.

An Unforeseen Problem

The waves of migrants fleeing war zones in search of new areas where they can attain basic needs like good health care and wellbeing rise as the number and activity of conflicts goes up year upon year.

The total number of those displaced by , up by 8.3 million from the previous year. With conflicts raging in the Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen, this has severely affected the influx toward the beginning of the decade and has forced thinking around an unforeseen problem.

Those assessing progress on goals such as health may have started feeling smug as they programmatically attach indicators within neat borders in order to methodically measure impacts and targets. However, this new and faster movement of people has added a dynamic that complicates this exercise.

Thousands, perhaps millions will be set in limbo as they reside within camps, wanted by no one, aided by charitable organizations that are facing resource and funding shortages, struggling to serve basic needs and faced with threatening endemics.

One criticism of the UN����(MDG) was the lack of��—that improvements were not felt by populations as a whole, but rather interventions aimed at specific diseases or sub-populations such as pregnant women.

This time, we are perhaps at risk of missing out a sub-population. Even if more investment was seen in a country’s health systems, how would this benefit the nation’s displaced populations sitting on an island off Greece or at the edge of France in Calais?

Migrants are particularly vulnerable as they have less access to health and social services, but face greater risks due to exploitation and abominable living conditions.

The state-challenged person’s struggle does not end at the camp. Even within urban settings, refugees living among local communities cannot always access the same services as others. This sometimes results in the����or those who are left completely vulnerable and ultimately fall through the cracks.

A Full Definition of Health

There is also a need to include mental health within definitions of health, and it is now encompassed within the new����(SDG), which have sought to build on the MDGs post-2015 to reflect more accurate indicators of development.����of the SDGs states: “By 2030, reduce by one-third premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being.”

Fundamentally, this aspect of health care compulsively remains unevaluated despite its����in particular. Amid the struggle to prioritize the basic fight for survival, experts have often commented on the effect of forced migration on the human psyche and the added toll felt by the migration process. This makes it difficult for an individual to heal when the requisite psycho-social support is not afforded to him or her.��

There is also the dark figure of health statistics that we never find out about as the risks associated with human smuggling and trafficking pose more hazards than before. The����(WHO), in a report on��,��states that there had been over 2,700 migrant deaths recorded in early 2015, mostly in the Mediterranean.

Migrants are particularly vulnerable as they have less access to health and social services, but face greater risks due to exploitation and abominable living conditions.

Solutions

The�� crises and forced displacement of people in the 2030 goals and through the empowerment of vulnerable groups such as refugees and internally displaced persons.

Goal 10 aims to reduce inequality within and among countries. Specifically relevant is����of the SDGs: “Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies.”

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The indicators on this will be telling, as there are essentially two issues affecting successful achievement of the goals, the measurement of this target and avoiding omission of data, and political will to accept the reality of growing forced migration.

Firstly, to whom does the onus of collecting data fall: camp personnel or states that are hosting refugees both officially and unofficially?

Understanding how this data is affected by migration could perhaps be achieved by disaggregating data further. Data disaggregation is already encouraged by gender, age and rural/urban divide, so perhaps an added category relating to migration should be included.

Funding is a huge issue affecting those having to deliver health care to forced migrants. In light of extrapolating numbers, pressure is increasing on humanitarian aid responders. Perhaps an added dynamic to the targets under Goal 3 should relate to how much is put into emergency and humanitarian health care as well as camp-based settings.

When it comes to having migration-friendly policies, the����(IOM), along with the��,��is working on a new index to measure this metric, called the Migration Governance Index (MDI). The aim of this index is to measure the degree to which “national policies facilitate and promote responsible, safe and regular migration of people.” In addition, the IOM is designing an “inclusive SDG measurement system for migration data that ensures that “no-one is left behind.”

The Bigger Picture��

How these initiatives play out will be seen in time. However, despite measurement efforts, the bottom line is that we need to humanize the current migration crisis so that those affected by conflict stop suffering infringements to basic rights such as good health (a fundamental human right as well as an SDG), and that the buck stops with governments and their willingness to instill fair and open policies to help realize these rights.

The current numbers, if they falter by 2030, could make all this an academic exercise. By record, however, we are not on track for any settling of dust. Conflict and violence are becoming more brutal, and our appetite for intervention is increasing, along with defense spending. All this creates a nice neat circle that brings us back to receiving more and more displaced persons in emergency situations.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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On April 26, over 30,000 runners will participate in the annual London Marathon. On the same day, the Madrid, Hamburg and Siracusa marathons will also take place.

Popular long distance races occur all year long throughout the world, and they provide countrymen with a focused challenge, uniting runners across the full spectrum of athletic ability and contributing greatly to their national sports culture. These events also bring in tourism — a decent deposit to the economy, with each race allowing a proportion of overseas runners to enter.

As such, London, New York, Madrid and Paris — to name a few — have become goals and ambitions of many runners from amateur ranks to the professionals.

In 2011, placed Jerusalem on the list of international city destinations for sports tourism, and two years later, Bethlehem in the West Bank joined the assemblage.

On March 27, 2015, over 3,000 participants joined the — the latest addition to international athletic events — a number that grew from 650 in 2013 to approximately 2,500 in 2014.

However, the Palestine Marathon is not just vying for a space among the other global players. This race has a very special message: Athletes run to tell a different story and highlight the lack of movement West Bank residents have on their own land, which is greatly impacted by the security barrier that was imposed throughout the Palestinian Territory in 2002. This is why the event has been titled the “Right to Movement, Palestine Marathon.”

The marathon is jointly organized by the Right to Movement and the Palestinian Olympic Committee. It all started with two friends from Denmark, Signe Fischer Smidt and Laerke Hein. A keen runner, Smidt found running in the Occupied Palestinian Territories to be a challenge, while she worked in East Jerusalem. Running was never a culture in , and if you tried there was bound to be an obstacle due to the various checkpoints throughout the territories — if you ran, you would be stopped at some point. There was no movement there because it was not easy for Palestinians.

Article 13 of the Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State,” and “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” But that is not the case in Palestine, which is how Smidt and Hein founded the idea of the Right to Movement, Palestine Marathon, which was created in April 2013.

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However, they did not arrive at the idea without facing challenges. Many people did not know what a marathon was; one volunteer commented that people thought running a marathon was like running for parliamentary office. Now they actually know, which is a big achievement. Moreover, participants arrived from 51 different countries, and 39% of them were women.

Palestinian Sport

Palestine’s history in sports has triggered much provocation from Israeli authorities, who have systematically persecuted Palestinian athletes and created obstacles to international competition for them, as by the Palestinian Olympic Committee.

For the previous two years, no visas were issued to Gaza residents to enter the West Bank for the marathon, however, this year, 48 runners were granted exit visas from Gaza, including Palestine’s fastest man and Olympic long-distance runner, Nader al-Masri, who subsequently won the latest race. While he has participated in marathon races all over the world, this was the first time he could do so in his own country.

The race itself was a highly challenging and technical affair. To find 10 kilometers alone in Bethlehem requires every turn and corner to be explored, so runners took in incredible views and experienced the key manifestations of occupation, which the race was designed to highlight.

Leading from the Church of Nativity, the route stretched past “the wall,” the security barrier designed to separate the West Bank from Israel; through the Aida and ad-Duheish refugee camps; and the former village of al-Khader, which is now a suburb of Bethlehem. This area has seen the separation of several thousand square meters of farmland since the construction of the wall, with its inhabitants only being able to gain access to it with a permit.

The Right to Movement message does not end each year with the marathon. The organization has expanded and developed running communities that bring together athletes in their localities to run together to continually promote this message of a fundamental and pertinent human right. There are now nine Right to Movement communities globally, three of which are in Palestine.

For Palestinians, this is a new culture, and their involvement in the marathon is growing each year. The dream is that with their growing involvement, the Palestinians will take over the movement from its Danish originators for it to become their own project. Previous years have relied on international support and donors, however, 2015 was the first year the marathon was a fully Palestinian supported race, which brings this dream speeding into reality.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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Analysts claim human trafficking is rife on every continent on the globe; present in almost every country and, according to the recent annual report of the US State Department on (TIP), the situation in Malaysia paints a grim picture.

Malaysia is mainly a destination country of trafficking for the purposes of prostitution and labor — manual or domestic — from countries in South and Southeast Asia. Victims may be held forcefully by their “employers” or have been compelled to stay in their situations through duress —  such as threats of reporting them to the police, keeping their passports, and holding persons in debt bondage are common.

More Convictions

The US TIP aims to monitor and rank the progress of countries according to efforts they are making to combat the crime. So for the Southeast Asian federal constitutional monarchy, is the situation getting better? Lacking in statistics and efforts to monitor the situation, it is hard to say. A number of improvements have been cited such as implementation of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons (ATIP) statute, regional partnership agreements, and a national action plan to tackle human trafficking.

However, the 2013 report says more needs to be done. What is apparent is that prosecutions have been ramped up against those complicit in trafficking, but this has not translated into more convictions.

While the identification of traffickers and, subsequently, the rescue of victims is a good thing, there is much criticism of the way victims are treated and the care they receive. Apart from the humane aspects of their immediate situation, victims constitute a key part of the prosecutorial process and their cooperation can be harnessed for law enforcement purposes.

Criminals Rather Than Victims

Victims, once identified, are placed in 24-hour custody, and a sessions court judge can provide a 14-day interim protection order; after which they will be placed in a shelter. If needed, a three-month protection order can be requested, during which time the victim will need to remain in a government-run shelter while their evidence is recorded. If the victim agrees to testify, they will participate in the court proceedings — if not, they will be repatriated.

The number of cases have admittedly increased over recent years, but convictions remain low. The legal reasoning behind most of these is a failure to prove a prima facie case. A closer look at cases will uncover discrediting and distress of witnesses, who have endured long trial periods and ill-treatment.

A common complaint among victims is the fact that they are held in the shelters for such long periods of time, with little or no contact to the outside world, restricted movements, and little to do. This frustrates them, leaving them depressed and in some cases, suicidal. By the time the trial comes around, all victims want to do is go home.

In the labor dispute case of Spektra Alucast Sdn Bhd vs Vietnamese Workers, the men were kept in a male shelter for trafficking victims in Malacca, a small state in the south of Malaysia. They were detained for seven months, with no access to the outside world except for meetings with their counsel, NGOs, or to attend court.

Their state during this period had deteriorated to depressed and desperate, and the only thing they wanted was to return to Vietnam. They were treated physically well, but other factors took a bearing on their health: for example, being kept in the dark about court proceedings; being transported to and from the court house in Selangor (a substantial journey of approximately 100 miles); and being handcuffed and kept in lock-up while waiting to attend court, and not provided with food or water during this process. In other words, they were treated like criminals rather than victims.

In another case, victims were actually kept in the same cell as their perpetrators due to no shelter facilities being available at the time. It then could not be of any surprise that none of them wanted to speak against the traffickers. Some cases have been noted as ongoing for over 12 months. Placing a witness to testify after this amount of time has little merit as minimal detail on facts can be remembered after this period.

All victims want is to go home – that is what they associate with being safe. But it is not always the case, as they will go back to no job and are at risk of being re-trafficked.

Victim-Centric Approaches

Little attention is also placed on the needs and experience of the victim. As a victim of human trafficking, they have gone through potentially enormous psychological and physical trauma and abuse. However, there are no rehabilitative or protective measures other than rudimentary medical attention.

Besides going home, particularly in the case of labor trafficking, victims want their unpaid wages but recovery of this is dependent on the goodwill of helpful NGO workers, rather than state support. The state’s priority and intention with victims is solely to garner their cooperation during trials and are, therefore, acting in their own best interests. However, adopting more victim-centric approaches would encourage victims to assist as witnesses; for example, a reflection period, right of residency and the ability to work while they are waiting for proceedings to go through, would all positively enhance this process.

Several positive outcomes have indeed been achieved through the efforts of the (CAMSA) Malaysia – a body mandated by the ATIP statute to implement the National Action Plan. For example, it is now recognized that victims need to be provided with counseling; the Department for Social Welfare, together with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), is embarking on a project with trainee psychologists and counselors – there are currently between 100-120. Training is being rolled out through NGOs, though it is not yet robust enough, or regular.

Also, regarding a recent GSS News Agency case involving a newspaper distribution company that “employed” five Indian nationals to facilitate the distribution and sale of newspapers in various locations of Puchong, workers were not paid for between five and eight months and were maintained in slave-like conditions without sufficient rest or adequate food. The initial trial failed, however, CAMSA lawyers were successful in attaining work permits for the appellants while awaiting the appeal process, which resulted in the witnesses being more cooperative in aiding the justice process.

Adopting the human rights approach to tackling trafficking, and placing the victim’s needs at the forefront of anti-trafficking strategies, therefore, pays off in increasing awareness of human trafficking networks and prosecutions.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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Despite independence in 1948, Burma has been plagued by problems since the military junta took state control in 1962. Power struggles, conflict, occupation, resource extraction and ethnic tensions have all incited Burma’s displacement issue. While exact numbers are unknown, estimates are in the region of 1 million internally displaced and 1 million .

Recently, the media has recognized the crisis that is happening in Rakhine State, Burma, where Buddhist and Muslim tensions have forced many Rohingya to flee, even though their safety options elsewhere are limited. However, Burma is made up of 136 and many that are unrecognized — the dominating group being the Barma (the indigenous majority). Many tribes belong to one overarching regional group; but even within that group, tribal rivalries exist.

Making it in Malaysia

Returning from a recent trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I volunteered at a school set up for Burmese refugee children. The school consisted of children between the ages of five and 12, all from the Matu tribe of the Chin group. The Chin are the largest Burmese ethnic group in Malaysia and have fled Burma due to military occupation and persecution by the Barma.

The school was housed in an unkempt apartment in the backstreets of Bukit Bintang (downtown Kuala Lumpur’s main shopping street), and was given some assistance by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Although true, they relied heavily on volunteers and private generosity for funding. Seventeen-year-old Sara coordinated the school, and she, like many others, was waiting for resettlement and seeking English language skills needed to prepare her for the US.

There are nearly residing in Malaysia. They often live in squalid conditions in overcrowded apartments within the capital, or in makeshift camps on the outskirts of the Klang Valley and the Cameron Highlands. In order to survive, they work in the informal sector on low wages in occupations that make up the three Ds: dirty, dangerous, and difficult. Many employers exploit their vulnerable situation and do not pay them at all. Children do not have access to formal education, but some do attend community-run learning centers like the one Sara ran. Refugees can access healthcare services, but they are not free and are far too costly for most. They have no access to benefits, as Malaysia is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention and the general registration process closed in 2006.

Due to the squalid conditions in which they live, disease is widespread, and they experience pervasive abuse from the authorities who continually threaten them if they are caught extracting bribes or subjecting them to physical abuse. However, the Malaysian government does cooperate with the United Nations, and the UNHCR office still exists. Displaced persons can still register with the office in order to gain resettlement in a third country, as Sara did.

Communal Responses ��

Holding a UNHCR card does not provide irregular migrants with protection or access to benefits and services, so these groups have to rely on forming communities for the provision of informal services and for coordinating help from NGOs. The ethnic tensions that divide Burma were not left at home, but instead exported to Malaysia.

The school that Sara coordinated had a maximum of 15 children of mixed ages. Children were split between kindergarten and “the rest.” This made delivering lessons suitable for everyone challenging, as children as young as seven were included in grammar sessions for teenagers. While Sara’s efforts are highly commendable, the education model is far from ideal and could be improved if two or more schools were to collaborate and combine resources. Michael, one of the main volunteers, commented that there was no chance of another school collaborating with this school, as the children are from the Matu tribe and hated by other tribes. Therefore, collaboration could never happen.

However, there are some organizations that are trying to overcome this problem in order to gain common goals. The Alliance of Chin Refugees, for example, is an informal NGO that tries to unite different Chin groups in order to provide a community center, so issues can be resolved constructively. They have helped the wider Chin community by acting as a correspondent for the UNHCR resources and registration of newly arriving NGOs providing healthcare clinics. They organize schooling and help women to market their handicrafts. Another group, the Chin Emergency Relief Group, was also formed to tackle social issues within the community — homelessness, in particular. The Chin Refugee Committee works closely with the UNHCR to assist and facilitate their operations in Kuala Lumpur, providing a safe house for Chin people in need.

The second largest ethnic group from Burma currently present in Malaysia is the Rohingya, a Muslim minority group from Rakhine state. Rendered stateless by the Burma Citizenship Law of 1982, they have been subjected to persecution, discrimination and intrusive restriction on their rights to marry and have families. Like the Chin in Malaysia, they have no access to benefits or services and no protection even if they are registered with the UNHCR. The separation of the Rohingya by the international community and by Burmese groups has led to an overall lack of support, resulting in extreme illiteracy, substandard health and living conditions with little hope for improvement. Due to their lack of status, children do not have access to the school system, nor may they share services with the Chin.

There has been some civil society response, however, and , the Burmese Rohingya Refugees Community Malaysia (BRRCM) was set up with their headquarters in Penang. They work on key issues affecting the Rohingya — for example, status: the Rohingyas’ situation is further complicated because they are “stateless,” and not recognized by any country. The BRRCM work with the UNHCR to enable registration of refugee status along with their own “registration letter,” claiming they are asylum seekers.

The effect this has in protecting��Rohingya��from RELA (a civilian para-policing group that tackle illegal immigration) and the police is unclear, but they feel this is better than nothing. If members of the Rohingya are detained, they work with organizations such as Suhakam (the Malaysian Human Rights Commission) and UNHCR to mitigate any violence or abuse they may have encountered. They also collect data to inform their work and provide a platform for interested parties such as students or film-makers, to gain knowledge on the plight of the Rohingya and their experience in Malaysia.

In order to join forces when possible, they have formed part of the organization named the All Burmese Muslims Council Malaysia (ABMCM), which they set up in 2009 to enable them to pursue common goals. With regard to basic services such as health, BRRCM links to local organizations to help organize provision of services such as free medical camps for basic health screenings and to tackle emergency health problems. In 2008, there were nearly 350 seriously sick Rohingyas, who were immobile and unable to seek medical treatment. BRRCM informed a local group, who immediately sent a team of doctors and ancillaries to attend to them in Bagan Dalam, Butterworth. The doctors diagnosed their illnesses and provided them with antibiotics, iron tablets, ointment and multi-vitamins.

What’s Next?

Community and civil society-led provisions are only drops in the ocean toward providing migrants from Burma with the dignity of living a free and fair existence – one where they can fully realize their human rights. Ultimately, the solution to this is for the Burmese government to be called to account or take action on the abuse within Burma.

The international community will have to focus its humanitarian and political lens on this area so there is a safe place to return to. Within Malaysia, non-cohesive services between the two groups or any other Burmese ethnic groups, cause disparities in the level of services available to minority ethnic groups.Thus, both groups seem to encounter similar problems around access to formal services. UNHCR provides no guarantee of protection and this needs to change. The national authorities must recognize their status and refrain from detaining individuals. Therefore, the Malaysian government must ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention and establish an official process.

The Rohingya seem to have the added disadvantage of not being recognized as belonging to a state – they belong niether to Burma or Bangladesh. Their particular situation and long-standing persecution should mean that the UNHCR and resettlement countries revise their policies to include the Rohingya more centrally in resettlement programs. This might create incentives for destination countries such as Malaysia to provide more sustainable solutions for populations who cannot return and are forced to remain refugees.

Donors also have a role to play, as they can urge governments to ease restrictions on the Rohingya and support programs that will lead to more self-reliance. Though complex, the issue of tribal rivalry and xenophobia amongst Burmese groups should be tackled, even outside of Burma. Not only would more solidarity enable them to survive and cope better within interim host countries such as Malaysia, these refugees will eventually have to move on to other countries where such attitudes would not be tolerated. Therefore, there is a role for impartial NGOs to mediate between groups and provide education on social and racial cohesion.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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