Most international assistance was cut off after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August last year. Hospitals and schools cannot afford to pay their staff, and many people cannot afford to buy food, adding to an already dire hunger crisis. Can the humanitarian situation cause yet another flow of people desperately looking for asylum in the neighboring countries and in Europe? What does Afghanistan look like 6 months after the Taliban took power? As a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine slid from possible to probable, national leaders in the neighboring Eastern European countries began issuing statements and activating action plans to receive cross-border arrivals from Ukraine. How many Ukrainian asylum seekers is Europe willing to welcome and how different would the Western reaction be towards Ukrainians in comparison to the one towards asylum seekers from the South? Learn more on @refocusmedialabs and mixedmigration.substack.com

S01E01: Afghanistan and Ukraine

As the violence and heavy bombardment by Russian military forces entered its seventh day, the queues of people seeking refuge have been growing longer at the borders of Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia. The refugees are arriving by crammed-full trains, by car, and even on foot. All neighboring countries have declared to keep their borders open for refugees fleeing Ukraine. Most have fled to Poland. According to the Polish border guards, more than half a million have crossed since February 24th. 

In this special episode of Fractured we are speaking to those who have fled Ukraine in the first phase of the conflict: Ksenia and Evans.

More on: 
https://mixedmigration.substack.com/
https://refocusmedialabs.org/

S01E02 Special: Leaving Ukraine

This week, we take a deep dive into the issue of pushbacks—a massively important issue that was already starting to fall under the radar before the invasion of Ukraine, and that we absolutely must not lose track of (you an get a sense of why from listening in!).

The articles and investigations cited in the pod (in order of mention):

On pushbacks in the Aegean:
- Tents at Sea: How Greek Officials Use Rescue Equipment for Illegal Deportations, by Niamh Keady-Tabbal and Itamar Mann in Just Security, May 22, 2020;
- Aegean Pushbacks Lead to Drowning, by multiple authors via Lighthouse Reports, February 17, 2022;
- Turkey: 12 migrants freeze to death after alleged pushback, by Susan Fraser in the Associated Press, February 2, 2022;
- Turkey says more migrants have frozen to death close to the Greek border, via Agence France-Presse,
February 3, 2022
- Pushbacks Across the Evros/Meriç: The Case of Parvin, via Forensic Architecture, ECCHR, and Human Rights 360, February 3, 2022;
- From Turkish jail, French woman accuses Greece of ‘pushback’, by Renata Brito via the Associated Press, February 18, 2022;
- Mystery over reported migrant numbers in Greece, by Emma Wallis via InfoMigrants, January 17, 2022

On Greece’s awkward position between Turkey in the EU:
- IMF Admits Major Errors In Greek Austerity Push, by Alan Pyke via ThinkProgress, June 6, 2013;
- EU governments ignore Greek request to help 4,000 child refugees, by Sarantis Michalopoulos via Euractiv, November 6, 2019;
- Turkey accused of sending scores of refugees back to Syria, by Harun al-Aswad via Middle East Eye, February 2, 2022;
- Turkey Continues to Forcibly Return Refugees, Ignoring International Warnings that Syria is Still Unsafe, via Syrians for Truth & Justice, February 14, 2002;
- Turkey Forcibly Returns Refugees to Syria Daily, via Syrians for Truth & Justice, February 16, 2022;
- Turkey opposition will send all refugees home if they come into power, leader says, via Middle East M
Monitor, September 3, 2021;
- 'It took on a life of its own': how one rogue tweet led Syrians to Germany, by Philip Oltermann and Patrick Kingsley via the Guardian, August 25, 2016;
- Europe’s Migration Crisis: From ‘Wir Schaffen Das’ to Greece Is Our ‘Aspida’, by Joel Hernandez via Accidental European, July 5, 2020;
- Greece arbitrarily deems Turkey a “safe third country” in flagrant violation of rights, via Refugee Support Aegean, March 1, 2022;
- Frontex: border agency with ballooning budget in transparency tug of war, via Statewatch, March 4, 2022.

For more go to: 
https://mixedmigration.substack.com/
https://refocusmedialabs.org/

ReFOCUS Media Labs