Voluntary and Forced Return Migration Under a Pandemic Crisis

The Covid-19 pandemic has an impact on migrants’ return desires and actual returns across the globe. Border closures in the face of pandemic lead to the panic mobility of those returning home. The ensuing lockdowns and economic difficulties restricted migrant workers’ access to income and protection, pushing them to return. The pandemic brought evident risks for the regular migrants’ access to healthcare, financial security, and social protection, forcing them to consider the return option too. For irregular migrants, the pandemic further increased the risk of forced returns, including detention, deportation, and pushbacks. For all migrants, decisions are marked by a deep dilemma between staying and returning. Meanwhile, receiving, sending, and transit countries, as well as international organisations are involved in return processes by providing logistics, on the one hand, and stigmatising returnees as carriers of virus, on the other. This study is based on desk research and analysis of the scholarly literature, reports, and grey literature from international organizations, civil society reports, scientific blogs, and media reports. An emphasis on returns provides us broader insights to evaluate changing characteristics of migration and mobility in ‘pandemic times’, the governance of returns, its consequences, and the rhetoric about returnees.

Return Migration from the Gulf Region to India Amidst COVID-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has directly affected the millions of migrant workers in Gulf countries, mostly employed as temporary labour in construction and allied sectors. The Gulf region historically has been the most favoured destination for such jobs. However, the pandemic crisis has halted construction projects in these countries as the drastic fall in oil prices has affected Gulf oil and non-oil economies severely. This has had an adverse effect on Indian migrant workers as they face the threat of unemployment, leading to their voluntary or forced return to India. For example, at the end of 2020, half a million Kerala emigrants, most of them in the Gulf, had lost their jobs abroad due to the pandemic, making their return inevitable given their temporary status in these countries. This chapter examines how India is prepared to handle the changing trends in Indo-Gulf migration corridor and the subsequent return emigration from the Gulf. The chapter highlights major sending-state perspectives, such as that of Kerala and others, and their responses towards Gulf returnees. Moreover, it provides insights by revisiting the existing economic and social security measures for returning migrants and their families within the framework of state welfare schemes, thereby examining rehabilitation and re-integration mechanisms for return migrants at the central and state levels in India.

Pula obserwatorów powrotów przymusowych Frontexu: geneza powstania, prawne i organizacyjne ramy funkcjonowania i rozwój działalności

Przyjęty w 2015 r. Europejski Program w Zakresie Migracji ujawnił potrzebę dokonania zmiany podstawy prawnej Frontexu, aby zwiększyć jego rolę w zakresie powrotów migrantów o nieuregulowanym statusie, przy jednoczesnym poszanowaniu ich podstawowych praw. Zgodnie ze znowelizowanymi przepisami wszystkie deportacje koordynowane lub organizowane przez Frontex mają być monitorowane. Jednocześnie utworzona została wewnętrzna pula obserwatorów ds. powrotów przymusowych, która pełnić miała rolę subsydiarną w stosunku do krajowych mechanizmów monitorowania deportacji. Z uwagi jednak na niską efektywność systemów krajowych, liczba przymusowych powrotów obserwowanych przez członków puli Frontexu stale wzrasta. Autor omawia genezę utworzenia puli obserwatorów, prawne i organizacyjne ramy jej funkcjonowania i rozwój działalności na przestrzeni ostatnich lat. Frontex Pool of Forced-Return Monitors: Genesis, Legal and Organisational Framework, Development Proces European Agenda on Migration presented by the Council of Europe in 2015 revealed a necessity for amendment of the Frontex Regulation, in order to enhance its role in supporting Member States with regards to forced-returns. As underlined, all operational activities of the Agency shall be applied in respect of fundamental rights. European Border and Coast Guard Regulation adopted in 2016 provided for an obligation for all of forced-return operations coordinated or organised by Frontex to be me monitored. At the same time Frontex pool of forced-return monitors was set up with this view to support national monitoring systems. Through in-depth legal analysis of binding EU laws on forced-returns the author elaborates on the genesis, legal and organisational framework as well as on the development of Frontex pool of monitors.

Terms of Forced Return and Expulsion of Foreigners and Stateless Persons by Bodies of the Border Guard Service in a Pandemic

The article examines the doctrinal approaches to determining the legal nature of the terms of forced return and expulsion of foreigners and stateless persons by bodies of the border guard service. The analysis of domestic and foreign scientific views on time measurement in administrative proceedings has been carried out. The rules of the American and European system of termination of illegal stay of third-country nationals in connection with immigration detention, which is distinguished by its purpose and duration. The place of administrative deportation in the system of migration measures under Russian law is explained by the fact that it is an administrative punishment of foreign citizens and stateless persons who are subject to detention and are kept in specially designated premises. The peculiarities of temporal regulation and its significance in the application of coercive measures aimed at the return of a migrant in the context of the global spread of coronavirus infection are clarified. The allocation of material and procedural terms within the framework of which the state border guards exercise the powers of forced return and expulsion from the territory of Ukraine is reasoned. The focus on achieving the migration result reflects the material content of the terms allotted for departure and / or ensuring the departure of an illegal migrant from the country. The material expulsion terms are also associated with detention, which is applied according to the rules of administrative proceedings and is characterized by a significant duration, especially in a pandemic. The appointment of procedural terms is justified on the basis of the current norms of administrative-procedural legislation and is associated with the performance of the procedural actions necessary to be applied to the court and the phasing of administrative-jurisdictional proceedings. During the quarantine it is allowed to review the procedural terms in contrast to the material ones. Among the prospects of elaboration of the chosen topic, a comprehensive study of the normative regulation of time characteristics of immigration detention in accordance with the new administrative legislation and the return of foreigners (stateless persons) detected during their crossing the state border and entering the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine is proposed.

Benefaction of Herbals in the Management of Urolithiasis

: Kidney stone formation or Urolithiasis is a common problem over many centuries with no guarantee of effective treatment and, a high recurrence rate. Urolithiasis is precipitation of insoluble and less soluble salt such as Oxalate and Phosphate in the urinary tract causing obstruction in the urethra resulting in renal colic and, hematuria. Approximately, 10-12% of the population in industrialized countries are severely affected by Urinary stones. In, only a few geographical areas is stone disease rare, e.g., in the coastal areas of Japan and Germany. It was believed that, 11% of people in India are suffering from urinary stone problems, and approximately 50% of these cases may lead to severe renal damage. Ultimately it causes severe health issues in terms of urinary tract obstruction, severe pain, and infection that adversely affects the health of individuals. Diuretics and narcotic analgesic like drugs which are used to prevent and cure urolithiasis are not effective in all cases and are costly, give quite common recurrences, risk long term fertility and, other potential side effects are observed. So, humans are forced return to Nature for safe remedies using herbal treatment. A great number of Indian medicinal plants have been investigated in the treatment of urolithiasis, and they have been reported to be safe and effective. In the present review, an effort has been made to highlight such herbal medicines which are potentially effective in the management of urolithiasis.

The Plight of Migrants and Refugees in the Pandemic

Forced migrants and refugees are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in different and often more profound ways than local populations. This article examines the multilayered vulnerabilities these groups face due to forced immobility, precarious legal status, loss of income, and risks of eviction due to lockdown measures, as well as forced return migration. It discusses the public health and socioeconomic implications of each of these contexts, providing examples from different world regions, with a focus on South America. A key conclusion is the importance of providing regularization mechanisms for migrants, as well as including migrant and refugee populations in states’ emergency responses.

A Changing and Multi-scalar EU Borderscape: The Expansion of Asylum and the Normalisation of the Deportation of EU and EFTA Citizens

The sorting of individuals is one critical function performed by migration law. These legal regulations are based on dichotomies, such as separating irregular migrants from regular migrants. However, through the multi-scalar management of human mobility, the conflicting coexistence of national and supranational interests decentres these legal binaries. Therefore, migration law devices sort newcomers in a more complex way, giving shape to multilayered and unstable hierarchies of otherness. Using Spain as a case study on migration control changes, this paper addresses the role that migration law enforcement institutions play in cementing and eroding these legal categories. First, it analyses the consequences of the so-called ‘migration crisis’ in enlarging a European asylum system that, until recently, seemingly rests on few countries. Second, it examines the increasing normalisation of the forced return of European Union (EU) (and European Free Trade Association [EFTA]) nationals, which undermine a critical prerogative of the EU citizenship status.