The US Board of Immigration Appeals ruled on Jan 9 that the persecution standard for asylum was not met for a newscaster who had received two written death threats, one with 3 bullets. Going forward, it appears only death threats that are actually carried out will be sufficient evidence for asylum.

My initial thoughts on the possible refugee fallout of US intervention in Venezuela, although this could go any number of ways. In short, no one should be forcibly returned, even if some voluntarily go home. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

On Sunday, @60minutes.bsky.social pulled a segment on torture against US deportees in CECOT, El Salvador's mega prison. Curious what the story said? Read HRW and @cristosal.bsky.social's report: www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...

“Allowing masked, unidentified agents to roam communities & apprehend people w/out identifying themselves erodes trust in the rule of law & creates a dangerous vacuum where abuses can flourish, exacerbating the brutality of the arrests.” @belkiswille.bsky.social @hrw.org www.hrw.org/news/2025/12...

The groundless case against humanitarian workers facing 20 years in prison in Greece. Commentary from my @hrw.org colleagues @evacosse.bsky.social and @billvanesveld.bsky.social www.hrw.org/news/2025/12...

Nothing meaningfully links the 19 nationalities for whom entry & immigration processing have been stopped except the administration’s opportunistic stigmatization and exclusion of people based on where they were born. -- Tanya Greene, US Program director @hrw.org. www.hrw.org/news/2025/12...

“The Thai government has blatantly violated the country’s anti-torture law & its international legal obligations by returning Y Quynh Bdap to Vietnam, where he faces...the risk of torture.” @elainepearson.bsky.social, Asia director at Human Rights Watch @hrw.org. www.hrw.org/news/2025/12...

"If the Trump administration is serious about combatting crime, it will expand and improve visa programs that allow victims to come forward without fear of deportation.” Sara Darehshori, consultant to Human Rights Watch @HRW.org www.hrw.org/news/2025/12...

"Homeland Security’s misstatements in revoking TPS for people from Myanmar are so egregious that it is hard to imagine who would believe them. Perhaps no one was expected to." My @hrw.org colleague John Sifton on the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Myanmar. www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...

The Cambodian government is failing to provide support to hundreds of thousands of migrant workers with microfinance debts who returned from Thailand because of hostilities in mid-2025. www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...

Five employees of the Tunisian Council for Refugees will go on trial today amid a broader crackdown on civil society groups in Tunisia. They face up to 23 years in prison if convicted of the unfounded charges. www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...

NEW: The Israeli government’s forced displacement of the populations of three West Bank refugee camps in January and February 2025 amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Read more: www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...

🚨New @hrw.org report finds #Israel committed war crimes, crimes against humanity + ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. Israel forcibly displaced 32,000 #Palestinian refugees from 3 refugee camps, prevented return + systematically destroyed parts of the camps.👇 hrw.org/node/392462

A resurgence of cholera in Haiti’s West department underscores the urgent need for coordinated, long-term action to restore basic water and sanitation systems. www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...

1/ 🚨 New @hrw.org report: Federal agents used excessive force against protesters in Illinois. Here’s what we found. 🧵https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/10/23/united-states-federal-agents-use-excessive-force-in-illinois

🚨 NEW: @homelandgov.bsky.social federal agents used excessive force against protesters, medics, legal observers & journalists at numerous protests outside ICE facility in Illinois. This isn’t crowd control—it’s intimidation. Congress must act. 📢 Read the @hrw.org report: www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

"The Trump administration will prioritize the immigration of people who oppose the immigration of other people"!! @billfrelick.bsky.social @hrw.org www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

Malaysian authorities should press Myanmar’s junta to free Thuzar Maung and her family. They should investigate the abduction of Thuzar Maung and her family from their home in Kuala Lumpur, which may amount to transnational repression. @hrw.org @elainepearson.bsky.social www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

"Trump refugee plan seeks 7,000 Afrikaners — and virtually no one else" -- See my commentary on this: hrw.org/news/2025/10... wapo.st/47BTzMA

The #Trump administration signals deep cuts in refugee admissions and prioritizing remaining places for white South Africans & Europeans who oppose immigration. @hrw.org's @billfrelick.bsky.social says this 180° resettlement turn "adds deep insult to even deeper injury."

China is legally bound not to send anyone to places where they face a threat of persecution or torture. North Korea makes defection a crime punishable by death. Beijing should stop forced returns of North Koreans, provide them asylum, or permit them to seek resettlement. www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

Alarming: "Along Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic, communities are facing additional strain as more than 207,000 deported Haitians have returned since January 2025, to a country where gang violence has escalated." www.iom.int/news/displac...

Italy should revoke its damaging migrant cooperation agreement with Libya, @hrw.org said today. The Italy-Libya Memorandum of Understanding on migration cooperation will renew automatically for three years on November 2, 2025, if neither party revokes it or makes any revisions by that date.

"Education should never be used as a political pawn & parents should not have to worry from one year to the next if their children will be able to go to school." @michellerandhawa.bsky.social @hrw.org in "How Syrian children are being shut out of Lebanon's classrooms" www.newarab.com/analysis/how...

Lebanon's new government has emphasized the importance of quality education. But in a disappointing move, the government recently restricted access to education for many refugees. All children, regardless of immigration status, have a right to education.

The domino effect of the US door slam on refugee resettlement: Pakistan sends Afghans awaiting U.S. resettlement back to Taliban persecution. wapo.st/4mOAxH2

“The military’s atrocities are well known, but the ArakanArmy now appears 2B imposing its own system of oppression in...Rakhine... No govt shld B pushing 4 premature or coercive returns, which would only set the stage 4 the next devastating exodus.” Shayna Bauchner @hrw.org tob.news/arakan-armys...

“The situation for Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine State remains dire. UN members should make clear at the conference that forcing Rohingya to return to Myanmar under these conditions would place their lives at risk and violate their rights.” @loucharb.bsky.social @hrw.org www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

“Each state will try to divert responsibilities onto the next” until “there’ll be no space for protection for people whose… govts are persecuting them” - @hrw.org @billfrelick.bsky.social on Trump admin’s calls to decimate asylum system @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

“Time is running out to stop Haiti from falling entirely into the hands of abusive criminal groups,” said Nathalye Cotrino, senior Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch. @hrw.org www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

"States gathering for the General Assembly opening should reject the US invitation to trash the post-World War II global refugee system." My thoughts on a US invitation to a high-level meeting to "fix" the global refugee and asylum system: www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

"The European Commission has noted the narrowing space in Greece for groups working with migrants and asylum seekers. It should now take a stronger stance over the issue and press Greece to stop harassing civil society groups and activists." @evacosse.bsky.social @hrw.org www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

Pakistan’s govt should provide assistance to at least 4 million people displaced by recent flooding, but also take action to prevent foreseeable harms, including from climate change and extreme weather events. @hrw.org @saroopijaz.bsky.social www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

Wage theft against migrant workers remains one of the most widespread abuses in Saudi Arabia. Victims are rarely compensated for their legally owed wages and, even when they are, it can take years to receive them. www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

The Japanese govt should establish support mechanisms so Cambodian exiles being harassed by the Cambodian govt have a place to turn for help and swiftly establish a national system to investigate cases of transnational repression. @teppeikasai.bsky.social @hrw.org www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

I ask: "Will the Red Cross...have to check documents be4 providing food & shelter 2 disaster-displaced people? Out of fear they will lose their jobs & their orgs their funding, will humanitarian workers avoid a darker-skinned person who asks 4 help in a foreign language?" www.hrw.org/news/2025/08...

“The Cambodian government is disregarding its international human rights commitments by wielding the threat of citizenship loss as a political weapon,” said Bryony Lau of @HRW.org. “Concerned governments should publicly weigh in w/ the Cambodian government to reverse this latest assault on dissent.”

A Venezuelan man went 2 a scheduled appointment at an ICE facility in El Paso to apply 4 asylum. However, he was shackled & put on a plane. “After the plane landed, I saw lots of barbed wire & fences. An immigration official said, ‘Welcome to Guantánamo.’ I was in shock.” www.hrw.org/news/2025/08...

“I was so desperate that I tried to cut my wrists with the edges of plastic water bottles...,” one Guantánamo detainee told @hrw.org. Others said US officials never informed them they would be taken to GTMO and that they were held incommunicado in unsanitary conditions. www.hrw.org/news/2025/08...

New rules barring disaster assistance to undocumented immigrants raise a core values question: Is there any universal humanitarian principle that takes precedence over the raw animus toward undocumented people that now seems to be a bedrock principle of US govt policy? www.hrw.org/news/2025/08...

India: Scores of Rohingya Refugees Expelled: “The actions taken against these refugees, who have fled atrocities and persecution in Myanmar, reflects the ruling BJP’s policy to demonize Muslims as ‘illegal’ migrants.” @elainepearson.bsky.social, Asia director @hrw.org. www.hrw.org/news/2025/08...

Some good news: Thailand Allows Myanmar Refugees in Camps to Work Legally www.hrw.org/news/2025/08...

"Mauritania's security forces have been systematically abusing migrants..., a Human Rights Watch @hrw.org report says. The violations have been exacerbated by a deal w/ the EU & Spain, which aims 2 curb dangerous sea crossings 2 the Canary Islands, the rights group alleges." bbc.com/news/article...

"This is one of the most alarming demonstrations that the Libyan Coast Guard is not a reliable or professional search-and-rescue corps but rather an abusive and unaccountable organization. The EU and Italy should stop financing & legitimizing the Libyan Coast Guard."

The human toll of European externalization efforts to contain migrant and refugee movements in Africa. A new @hrw.org report on migration control abuses in Mauritania.

An enjoyable read: "They’ve come from all over the globe, escaping war & turmoil..., & one of the first stops is Emma’s Torch, a nonprofit named for Emma Lazarus,...who wrote the poem...on the Statue of Liberty...In the kitchen around Chef Bri..., they are literally a huddled mass. wapo.st/45EBywc

Persecution of women in Afghanistan shows that gender should be a ground for refugee protection. Why doesn’t the US Board of Immigration Appeals see that? My thoughts in this op-ed in @thehill.com @billfrelick.bsky.social @hrw.org thehill.com/opinion/immi...

My thoughts: the US Congress shld question why women shld have to shoehorn their claims into a narrow understanding of membership of a particular social group & thereby have less consistent or predictable protection than racial, religious, nationality & political groups. www.hrw.org/news/2025/08...

What is the logic in denying asylum because the persecuted group a person is part of is "too large"? US should fix the gender gap in refugee protection, argues HRW's Bill Frelick @billfrelick.bsky.social in The Hill @thehill.com. @hrw.org thehill.com/opinion/immi...

More than 100,000 Myanmar refugees in Thailand have lost access to essential food and medical aid due to US funding cuts, putting them at serious risk, @HRW said. The Thai government should immediately permit refugees to lawfully work and travel outside its refugee camps. www.hrw.org/news/2025/08...