Hussam and the Death Way

May 26, 2016 7:49 PM

Refugees are not a swarm, or a flood, but people. Cartoonist Toby Morris reports the story of 16 year old Hussam and his flight from Syria. Previously
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen (12 comments total)

The New Yorker has published 4 parts so far of a 6-part series of videos following a refugee's 2015 trek through Europe.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
posted by wenat at 8:03 PM on May 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm a big fan of the Pencilsword. Good to see some socially conscious strips. I hope he gets a broad readership.
posted by Start with Dessert at 9:41 PM on May 26, 2016

Here is something on the refugee resettlement process which follows on well from a comic on how and why refugees leave: the BBC World Documentaries podcast had a good episode recently on 5 Syrian refugee families trying to settle in Berlin and their struggles adapting to Germany.

And for another socially engaged comic on the subject of refugees, this is a gut-wrencher by Safdar Ahmed on refugees inhumanely detained in Australia's Villawood Detention Centre.
posted by Collaterly Sisters at 10:04 PM on May 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

Thanks for posting that. It was a really great read, opened my eyes!
posted by mokaroux at 12:00 AM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Here are 8 cartoons from an asylum seeker detained on behalf of Australia on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. An "asylum seeker" is what a person seeking protection as a refugee is called before they are officially confirmed as a refugee. A refugee is a person who has fled their country of origin and is unable or unwilling to return because of a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Refugees are entitled to certain protections under (admittedly largely toothless) international law. Asylum seekers are not.

In Australia, people who attempt to arrive by boat without a valid visa are intercepted and either deported immediately (the boats are turned back*) or "processed offshore", i.e. detained indefinitely in Manus, in the Republic of Nauru, or in the Australian territory of Christmas Island while they await evaluation. These measures are meant to deter people from trying for Australia by boat. Although the Christmas Island facility, like Villawood and the other onshore centres, falls directly under Australian law, the other two offshore centres are hosted by nations with resource issues of their own, and run by private contractors. The safety and oversight of these facilities, which house people who have committed no crime, is even more questionable than our onshore facilities.

Children born in offshore detention are, for all intents and purposes, stateless, since they generally are not recognized by their parents' nations of origin, but that isn't enough to get them, much less their families, classified as refugees.

Here's another cartoon about Australia and asylum seekers.

*Returning refugees to the country they're fleeing is a violation of international law (non-refoulement), but of course until the claim is assessed, they're just asylum seekers, and of course they are generally being returned to their last port of call, not the country they are fleeing. Craven hairsplitting, but there you go.
posted by gingerest at 1:02 AM on May 27, 2016 [10 favorites]

Thanks, gingerest! That was useful information, not hairsplitting at all!
posted by Collaterly Sisters at 1:30 AM on May 27, 2016

Australian immigration and asylum policy is the model favoured by UKIP in the UK. They not the only ones in the British political arena who are envious of Australia's ability to deny basic human rights to the disenfranchised.
posted by asok at 2:06 AM on May 27, 2016

not hairsplitting at all!

I suspect gingerest meant that the craven hairsplitters are the politicians who worm their way around international laws by inventing their own labels (cf how the US labelled people "enemy combatants" to avoid having to treat them as prisoners of war, since the latter have certain rights under international conventions).
posted by effbot at 5:16 AM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yes, I meant them, but thank you for the support.
posted by gingerest at 5:26 AM on May 27, 2016

Related: The Grey People interval act from the first Eurovision semi-final this year, which was replaced with someone eating meatballs in the UK.

(as a reminder, Syria is part of the European Broadcasting Area and is an associate member of the European Broadcasting Union.)
posted by effbot at 5:29 AM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

I am not sure but I think this might be the refugee camp in jordan mentioned?

Scot Carrier's Home of the Brave did a few podcasts following refugees, as well
posted by rebent at 5:49 AM on May 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Here's a comic from Kate Evans about her trip to help out at 'The Jungle' refugee camp at Calais.
posted by asok at 2:18 AM on May 30, 2016