• A 14-year-old unaccompanied migrant boy from Afghanistan stands outside the abandoned house in which he lives with 25 other Afghan migrants in Patras, Greece. Like many other migrants, he is trying to stow away on ships to Italy to claim asylum. © 2012 Human Rights Watch
    © 2012 Human Rights Watch
    Italy: Summary Returns to Greece Violate Rights
    Italy is summarily returning unaccompanied migrant children and adult asylum seekers to Greece, where they face a dysfunctional asylum system and abusive detention conditions, Human Rights Watch said in a report published today. Stowaways on ferries from Greece, including children as young as 13, are sent back by Italian authorities within hours without adequate consideration of their particular needs as children or their desire to apply for asylum.
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Migration

  • Yemen: Migrants Held at ‘Torture Camps’
    May 25, 2014
    Traffickers in Yemen hold African migrants in detention camps, torturing them to extort payment from their families, with the complicity of local officials, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Sometimes the torture ends in death. The Yemeni government should vigorously investigate and prosecute human traffickers and members of the security forces involved in the abuses.
  • Witness: The “Innocent” Human Trafficker
    May 25, 2014

    Most Yemenis were at home taking their afternoon siesta when Belkis Wille, the Human Rights Watch Yemen researcher, walked into the shop in Haradh for the meeting she had arranged with Nadim. The shop owner, a friend of Nadim’s, took her to the back office to wait. The heat in the dusty desert town was stifling, and the shop was hardly better – Haradh had almost no electricity, and air conditioning wasn’t an option. Shortly after Belkis arrived, a round man in his 40s walked through the door. He stood with his back to her, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He seemed nervous, glancing frequently around the room.

    Nadim (not his real name) had reason for both the jangled nerves and the caution. His line of business – human trafficking – meant that meeting with Belkis put him in peril.

  • Response Letter from Yemen's Ministry of Defense to Human Rights Watch
    May 20, 2014
    In reference to the above subject, and in response to your memo 1/1/130/574, dated 20/4/2014, we hereby enclose the answers and clarifications requested in HRW's memo of 10/4/2014 on the abuse of African migrants' rights by traffickers in the north of the country, as follows
  • When Spain Does Business Abroad
    May 2, 2014
    King Juan Carlos is visiting Kuwait and Bahrain this week, after Abu Dhabi and Qatar two weeks ago in a series of visits to the gulf region that will also take him to Oman and Saudi Arabia over the next two months. He is traveling with a high-level delegation that includes the ministers of foreign affairs, transport, defense and energy, as well as the heads of some of Spain’s biggest companies.
  • EU: Show Leadership to End Forced Labour
    May 1, 2014
  • Europe: Update Treaty on Forced Labor
    Apr 29, 2014
    European governments should mark Labor Day on May 1, 2014, with a commitment to create legally binding standards to prevent forced labor and to protect and compensate victims, Human Rights Watch said today. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 20.9 million women, men, and children are trapped in forced labor worldwide.
  • Global: Update Treaty on Forced Labor
    Apr 29, 2014
    Governments should mark Labor Day on May 1, 2014 with a commitment to create legally binding standards to prevent forced labor, and to protect and compensate victims, Human Rights Watch said today. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 20.9 million women, men, and children worldwide are trapped in forced labor.
  • Joint Open Letter on the occasion of the EU-Africa Summit
    Apr 2, 2014
    Ahead of the 4th European Union (EU)-Africa Summit on April 2-3, 2014 in Brussels, African and European civil society call on you to ensure that human rights are put at the centre of discussions aimed at “Investing in People, Prosperity and Peace”. Seven years after the adoption of an ambitious Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES), the Summit provides an opportunity for both continents' leaders to show that real ambition means aiming at tangible human rights improvements and taking measurable steps to fulfill them.
  • Dispatches: After Syria’s Horrors, A Desperate Act
    Apr 1, 2014
  • Memorandum on Human Rights Priorities for the European Union-Africa Summit
    Mar 31, 2014
    The European Union (EU)-Africa summit provides an important opportunity to highlight crucial human rights developments in both Africa and Europe. Progress is being made on many human rights issues in an array of countries, but daunting challenges remain. The summit agenda includes both democracy and governance and peace and security, two broad topics that include a range of human rights concerns.
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