European Union Takes Action Following Mediterranean Migrant Disasters

By Kyle Herda

Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Following the disasters in the Mediterranean Sea over the past week that saw over 1,000 migrants killed when two separate ships capsized, the European Union has come together to work on a solution.

Overcrowded and weak migrant vessels, such as this one, have led to thousands of migrants drowning in an attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. (Photo courtesy of RTE News)

After European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker brought together EU leaders to discuss the disaster, four “priority areas for action” were agreed upon: “to strengthen the EU’s presence at sea, to fight the traffickers, to prevent illegal migration flows and to reinforce internal solidarity and responsibility.” The idea behind these focal points is to not only address the situations as they arise, but also to try and combat the problem at the source. The European Commission aims to release its European Agenda on Migration on May 13th.

One issue that must be resolved is where the migrants will go once they are saved, and the Commission has stated that it seeks to work on quota issues throughout the EU. Ireland has already stepped up and agreed to take 220 Syrians after they have been recognized as refugees by the United Nations refugee agency, in addition to the 114 refugees Ireland has already agreed to take in under the Syria Humanitarian Assistance Programme.

With over 10,000 migrants saved from the Mediterranean between Italy and Libya just over the past week, this is a pressing issue that must be solved now. According to the International Organization for Migration, 1,727 have died already this year trying to cross the Mediterranean, as opposed to 56 last year by this time. The EU members have already agreed to triple funding for border operations from 2.9 million euros a month to nearly 10 million. In addition to this increased support for saving migrants in the Mediterranean, there is also a movement for “declaring war on smugglers,” according to the EU Commissioner for Migration. Military action against the traffickers may take a few months to work out, but the EU has assigned EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to fine possible military actions the EU may take.

For more information, please see:

RTE News – EU to triple funding for migrant search and rescue missions – 24 April 2015

European Commission – EU leaders agree actions to tackle Mediterranean tragedy – 24 April 2015

Fox News – EU leaders commit ships, aid for action on migrants – 23 April 2015

USA Today – EU agrees to send more ships to stem migrant crisis – 23 April 2015

The Wall Street Journal – EU to Triple Funding for Sea Patrols in Migration Crisis – 23 April 2015

VDC: The Weekly Statistical Report

 

 

 

Thousands Evacuated as Chile Volcano Erupts

By Delisa Morris

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SANTIAGO, Chile– Just in time for Earth Day Volcano Calbuco erupted last night in Chile for the first time in more than four decades.  The sudden eruption sent a thick plume of ash and smoke several kilometers into the sky.

By night, almost 4,000 people had been moved from the area, an evacuation radius of 20 kilometers was established and schools in the area and the classes were cancelled in surrounding towns, authorities noted.

Chile’s Onemi emergency office declared a red alert following the sudden eruption at around 6 p.m. local time.  Calibuco lies about 1,000 km south of the capital, Santiago, near the tourist town of Puerto Varas.

President Michelle Bachelet is scheduled to travel to the affected area on Thursday.

According to Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo there were no reports of deaths, missing persons or injuries.  Penailillo urged residents to evacuate the area and warned of possible lahars, a mix of water and rock fragments that flow down a volcano’s slopes and river valleys.

The column of ash and smoke is being pushed northeast towards Argentina, by winds.

“In this situation, with the eruption column so high, the main risk is that it collapses, falls due to gravity because of its own weight and causes a pyroclastic flow,” Gabriel Orozco, a vulcanologist with Chile’s geological and mining service, said on local TV.

Video courtesy of Informaciones Chile

A pyroclastic flow is a superheated current of gas and rock that can destroy nearly everything in its path and travel at speeds upwards of 200 to 300 kilometres per hour.

The volcanic ash has caused flights to be cancelled in Argentina and Chile due to the ash making it dangerous to fly.  The ash can cause damage to an airplane.

Canadian-born Trevor Moffat, who lives in Ensenada, some 10 kilometres from the volcano, said the eruption happened without warning. Volcano Calbuco’s last known eruption was in 1972 and the most recent major eruption happened in 1961.

“It sounded like a big tractor trailer passing by the road, rattling and shaking, guttural rumbling … we left everything there, grabbed my kid, my dog, got in the car with my wife,” said Moffat, who was driving to nearby Puerto Varas at the time.

“All the neighbours were outside, a lot of young people crying. Armageddon-type reaction.”

For more information, please see:

CBC News – Calibuco Volcano Eruption in Chile Forces Evacuation of 4,000 People from the Region – 23 Apr. 2015

LA Times – Hiker Found as Ash from Calibuco Volcano Closes Borders in Chile – 23 Apr. 2015

Aljazeera – Thousands Evacuated as Chile Volcano Erupts – 23 Apr. 2015

Reuters – Flights Canceled as Ash Cloud Pours from Chile Volcano – 23 Apr. 2015

Earth Day: Action Needed to Clear Deadly Toxins in the World’s Most Polluted City

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

New Delhi, India –According to a study of air quality conducted by the World Health Organization in 2014, New Delhi, The capital of the world’s second most populous country, was found to be the most polluted city on earth. According to the study, New Delhi was found to have the highest levels of particulate matter or PM 2.5, which refers to small solid or liquid particles floating in the ambient air that are known to be harmful to human health. New Delhi’s average PM2.5 level was 153, compared to 14 in New York City and 56 in Beijing, the city that has become famous around the globe for high pollution levels. The WHO’s safety threshold for humans is 10. High levels of particulate pollution are extremely hazardous to human health. The pollution problem in India is not limited to the nation’s capital. India is home to 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world and air-pollution related deaths have become the fifth largest killer in the country.

India’s Capital experienced just one week of health air quality over the past two years. (Photo courtesy of Hindustan Times)

Delhi’s air is consistently more toxic than that in Beijing, rigorous statistical comparison of two years’ worth of data from both cities has demonstrated. According to US air quality standards, the air quality in the Indian capital was considered healthy for only 7 out of 730 days. Professor Douw Steyn of the University of British Columbia, an air pollution expert who performed the analysis of New Delhi air said the city’s air was considered health less than 1% of the time.

The data shows that in New Delhi, PM 2.5 levels are above the “hazardous” level 17% of the time, or nearly one out of every five. At these levels, according to the US definition, “everyone may experience serious health effects”. Steyn argued “the cost of pollution reduction is far smaller than the costs of pollution damage and simple technological solutions are easily available. What is needed is political will, which can only come from an informed and engaged population.”

Kamal Meattle, a Delhi-based air pollution activist says the government must do more to respond to the pollution crisis in India’s cities and beyond. “I think the first people to be convinced are the politicians, the bureaucrats and the judges … people who really matter in the sense that they understand the problem is going to create a major health issue and major costs,” he said. India’s newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently launched a national Air Quality Index (AQI) to monitor pollution levels in major urban cities on a real-time basis. AQI data is currently available in 10 cities across the country including New Delhi. Air pollution in India is a reminder of the high costs of economic development and globalization, especially when industry is left unregulated. Urbanization is also a massive problem in India and a challenge to environmental regulators as the country’s poor continue to move into large, overcrowded urban areas in search of work.

For more information please see:

Hindustan Times – Beijing better than Delhi: Only 7 days of good air in national capital in 2 years – 22 April 2015

BBC News – Breathing poison in the world’s most polluted city – 18 April 2015

The Weather Network – New Delhi has the world’s worst air pollution – 14 April 2015

CNN Money – This Indian city has the world’s worst air – 13 April 2015

Amnesty International Claims Obama Administration’s Failure To Address CIA Torture Report Furthers Impunity

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States of America – Recently, Amnesty International accused U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration of granting “de facto amnesty” to members of the CIA involved in the detention and torture of militants captured after the September 11, 2001 attacks. A recent Senate Intelligence Committee report found that the CIA had a program in place from 2002 to 2006, which involved torturing captives in secret facilities.

It has been four months since the declassification of the report summary, and the United States has yet to take active steps toward ending the impunity associated with the CIA’s detention program.

The human rights group accused the administration of failing to take active measures in addressing the issues contained in the “advanced interrogation techniques.” Amnesty researcher Naureen Shah has claimed the administration’s failure to address these problems is essentially granting immunity to all those involved from prosecution. Amnesty is urging the Justice Department to “reopen and expand its investigation” into the CIA’s secret detention and interrogation program. In addition, the group demanded that the White House disclose the names, locations and dates of operations of all secret prisons involved in the CIA’s program.

However, in a report to Reuters, Shah said that the Justice Department told the media that it has reviewed the Senate committee report and has found no new evidence of any U.S. criminal laws that were violated. Seven w. Hawkins, executive director of Amnesty International USA responded to the Justice Department’s claims, stating, “Unless the U.S. government makes a concerted effort to end the impunity associated with this secret detention program, the United States’ human rights record will remain tarnished.”

The international community has shared Amnesty International’s concerns over the failure of the United States to address the torture report. The United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emerson, has stated that the US government officials involved in the program should be prosecuted. He further stated, “The fact that the policies revealed in this report were authorized at a high level within the U.S. Government, provides no excuse whatsoever.”

 

For more information, please see the following:

AMNESTY USA – U.S. Inaction Following CIA Torture Report is De Facto Amnesty for Perpetrators – 21 April 2015.
THE GUARDIAN – CIA Report: ‘Torture is a Crime and Those Responsible Must be Brought to Justice‘ – 10 December 2014
REUTERS – Amnesty International Condemns U.S. Failure to Act on Torture Report – 21 April 2015.