International Rescue Committee

IRC monthly update

JULY 2020

Behind the headlines this month

Find out how the Trump Administration is using COVID-19 to turn away families seeking safety.
After the Supreme Court’s historic DACA decision, a recipient spoke to the IRC about the challenges she still faces and the changes she’s helping to make in her community.
8 facts you need to know about Yemen, where COVID-19 is surging in the midst of violence, a cholera outbreak, and food and water shortages.

How the Trump Administration is using COVID-19 to end asylum

A mother and child forced to flee Mexico rest after reaching the IRC’s Welcome Center in Arizona

Imagine you’re a nurse risking your life treating patients for COVID-19. You also happen to be an asylum seeker with your case still pending. Suddenly, immigration agents arrest you and you are deported to the country you had to flee.

The reason: you’ve possibly “come in contact” with the coronavirus in the U.S.

That nightmarish scenario is possible under a new rule that disqualifies asylum seekers if they come from or travel through a country where a coronavirus outbreak is “prevalent or epidemic,” or if they “come in contact” with the virus—even if they are not infected or if they have a legitimate claim to asylum.

The rule is one of many attacks on the right to asylum that the Trump Administration has issued during the coronavirus pandemic.

While the administration blocks asylum seekers under the guise of public health, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to hold tens of thousands in detention centers notoriously overcrowded, with track records of neglect for sanitation, medical care and personal safety.

Despite warnings from public health experts that detention centers are likely to become hotbeds of the virus, ICE has refused requests to release individuals held in these dangerous conditions.

The agency is also facilitating the spread of the coronavirus through deportations: sending people straight from overcrowded detention centers to countries already struggling to control the pandemic due to strained health care infrastructure.

Read more about new U.S. policies that threaten to send asylum seekers to dangerous situations, put front-line responders at risk of deportation, and make our unprecedented health crisis even worse.

			Rescue in action

More than a Dreamer: How one DACA recipient works to secure her future
When the Supreme Court upheld the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, 22-year-old Lupe was relieved. But she also knew that, as a beneficiary of the program since its introduction in 2012, her future remained uncertain. “We get to breathe for a bit,” she says, “pero nuestra lucha sigue [our fight keeps going].” Lupe spoke to the IRC about her work with youth facing injustice, the challenges DACA recipients continue to experience—and why she refuses to call herself a “Dreamer.” You can read her full story here.

5 ways the IRC’s coronavirus response goes beyond health care
Many refugees face a "double emergency" as conflicts and instability add to the health impacts of the pandemic. The IRC is there, supporting families struggling to make ends meet, distributing soap and other basic supplies, protecting victims of violence, ensuring children can continue their education, and providing vital information about COVID-19. Go inside our programs on the ground to see our holistic humanitarian response.

Yemen faces the pandemic in the midst of starvation and war
COVID-19 is surging across Yemen, even as an ongoing cholera outbreak worsens, food and water shortages increase, and civilians continue to be hit by bombs dropped in the conflict between Saudi-led forces, the Houthis and others. Here are 8 things you need to know about the situation on the ground.

A baby named Rescue: The miracle birth in Yemen
IRC teams in Yemen are providing lifesaving emergency aid, medical care, clean water, education, and women’s protection to millions in the country. Read the story of an IRC mobile health team that was there at the right time to help a young mother through a difficult delivery.

			One thing you can do

The Trump Administration’s sweeping new rule blocks asylum seekers from seeking protection in the U.S. under the pretext of the COVID-19 pandemic response. It’s a rejection of scientific evidence and would create a de facto ban on all those seeking asylum in the U.S. Submit your comment by August 10 to urge the administration to withdraw its harmful proposal.

			IRC in the news

The world’s most dangerous route
The Central Mediterranean Route runs from sub-Saharan Africa through the deserts of Niger, to conflict-ridden Libya and across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy. It is dangerous at every step—and COVID-19 has made things even more perilous. The Telegraph featured the IRC and illustrator Paul Blow’s work depicting the stories of those who have taken the journey. You can explore the stories here.


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