Amnesty releases images of refugees trapped between Syria and Jordan News
Amnesty releases images of refugees trapped between Syria and Jordan

Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] released images from the “desert no man’s land” between Jordan and Syria on Thursday showing thousands of refugees trapped in the area. The images show how dire the humanitarian situation has become, displaying makeshift grave sites and an estimated 75,000 refugees trapped in the area known as the Berm. Tirana Hassan, Crisis Response Director at AI, commented [press release] on the images stating

It’s a desperate picture for people trapped at the berm, food is running out and disease is rife. In some cases people are suffering or even dying from preventable illnesses, simply because they are not allowed into Jordan and the authorities have blocked access for aid, medical treatment and a meaningful humanitarian response.

AI has called for meaningful dialogue and international action to address the refugee crisis as world leaders plan to meet in New York next week for the UN and Obama summits.

The rights of migrant populations has emerged as one of the most significant humanitarian issues around the world, as millions seek asylum from conflict nations. Earlier this month Human Rights Watch and AI said [JURIST report] that the draft of the final outcome document for the upcoming UN summit on refugees falls short of dealing with the issue effectively. Also in September UNICEF released a report [JURIST report] that found that nearly 50 million children have been uprooted from their homes across the globe. In April in April UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged [JURIST report] world leaders to accept more refugees and to combat the growing international anti-refugee sentiments.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Bank of England granted political independence

On May 6, 1997, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown announced that the Bank of England would be granted political independence for the first time in the three-hundred year history of the Bank. This policy was statutized in the subsequent Bank of England Act of 1998 gave the Bank independent control of British monetary policy effective June 1, 1998. Read the Bank of England Act of 1998.

Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese laborers from US

On May 6, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese laborers from entering the United States and prohibiting courts from bestowing US citizenship on Chinese. Connecticut Senator Joseph Hawley spoke out against the Act in these words: Let the proposed statue be read 100 years hence, dug out of the dust of ages and forgotten as it will be except for a line of sneer by some historian, and ask the young man not well read in the history of this country what was the reason for excluding these men and he would not be able to find it in the law. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and its successors were abolished in 1943 at the insistence of President Franklin Roosevelt.