Live 8: Life After Moria Refugee Camp

For this live edition of Latitude Adjustment Podcast we host another panel discussion with representatives from Lesvos Solidarity - Pikpa, Refocus Media Labs, and Are You Syrious?

On the evenings of September 8th and 9th Moria Camp on Lesvos, the largest refugee camp in Europe, was gutted by a series of fires and the majority of its 13,000 residents were instantly made homeless. Thankfully there have been no fatalities or serious injuries reported. In the days that followed camp residents attempted to walk the roughly 10 kilometers to the main town of Mytilini, hoping to demonstrate for movement to the Greek mainland and for humane living conditions. But over the next several days the roads were blocked off by police. Peaceful demonstrations were suppressed with teargas during the day while thousands of homeless former Moria residents were forced to sleep on the side of the highway at night.

In the past few days a new makeshift camp has been constructed right next to the sea to house some of those effected, but there are now reports of inhumane conditions, neglect, and heavy handed treatment by the authorities in and around this new camp. What's more, the media and NGOs have been largely barred from entry to the area which has a heavy police presence.

And all of this has taken place under the looming threat of COVID which, despite conditions all but engineered to guarantee an outbreak of multiple public health catastrophes, had been miraculously kept at bay until more than 30 cases were reported just before the fire. On Wednesday the EU released the details of a proposed "pact" between member states aimed at reforming its migration and asylum processes. The pact has already been met with criticism by groups like Save the Children, which suggest that the EU has not learned from its mistakes.

For more details on the pact you can check this post by Are You Syrious: https://bit.ly/2FNb16W

For more info on how you can take action check this link and follow hashtag #EuropeMustAct https://linktr.ee/europemustact

Live 6: Migrant Worker Rights in Lebanon and the Gulf

For more info and to take immediate action check out the resources at the link below:

Latitude Adjustment Podcast’s Helpful Links and Resources: The Kafala System

Latitude Adjustment Podcast co-hosts Laila Mokhiber and Eric Maddox facilitated this panel discussion with guests in Beirut, Kuwait, and India, to discuss the conditions of migrant workers under the infamous Kafala system.

The Kafala or “sponsorship” system is used throughout the Gulf countries (as well as in Jordan and Lebanon) to monitor and to organize migrant laborers, from recruitment abroad to their management upon arrival, and particularly in the construction and domestic work sectors. Under the Kafala system a migrant worker’s presence in a host country is linked entirely to their employer, with the effect that it’s not only difficult or impossible to switch jobs, but all elements of their daily lives from access to their passports, to their freedom of movement, their living conditions, their ability to leave the country, and their basic dignities are all controlled by their employer. And there is often little to no regulation put in place to protect workers against exploitation and abuse. And abuse has been rampant for decades, from the sexual harassment and rape of domestic workers to squalid living conditions and work without pay for construction workers and manual laborers.

This dirty secret is often hidden inside of people’s homes or in isolated camps, and workers are rightly fearful of speaking out, so it is often very difficult to cover and to expose the abuses. For this reason we ask that you not only witness the brave testimony of our guests but that you share this post on your own social media space in order to amplify their voices, especially at a moment when coronavirus and economic crisis have led to a worsening of conditions for workers under this system. Also, be sure to check out Episode 49 where we discussed this topic in detail with Vani Saraswathi.

Live 5: On the Ground in Beirut

The recording of our live discussion is intended to serve to purposes: education and mobilization.

Please view this post as a simple tool that that you can share to educate the public about the current situation in Lebanon and to mobilize supports. See below for a list of links that will help you to direct your efforts to the most critical needs and to organizations working on the ground.

Context: On Tuesday, August 4th, a massive blast rocked Beirut's port when tons of improperly stored ammonium-nitrate was ignited by a fire in the storage facility. Within 24 hours of the explosion the death toll already numbered more than 130 people, approximately 5,000 injured and hundreds of thousands left homeless. This man-made disaster also came at a time of ongoing political and deep financial crisis in the tiny nation that is also home to the world's largest per-capita population of refugees. For more information on the political context for the ongoing protests and escalating crisis be sure to listen to Episode 52 with Jad Sakr in Beirut, from back in November of 2020. There have been new developments since our conversation, but the root causes that we discussed remain largely unaddressed.

This links to the original version of the video on Facebook.

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