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The writing is on the wall, xenophobia against Venezuelan immigrants is reaching dangerous levels as public officials use immigrants as scapegoats for growing insecurity. COVID-19 has affected Colombias public budgets as well as the generosity of foreign authorities to care for the millions of Venezuelans who continue to cross the border seeking a better life. Risks for violence against migrants are growing and should concern us all.

Venezuela and Colombia have a long-shared history of migration. Trends in binational migration have reversed from Venezuela receiving millions of Colombians who were fleeing economic hardship and conflict in the 1990s, to Colombia becoming the principal passage point and destination for the 4.8 million Venezuelans, who according to UN data, have fled their country since 2015. As Colombians, we are still grateful to Venezuela for receiving so many people back in the day. But alarmingly, the hospitality with which Venezuelans have been welcomed in Colombia is showing signs of strain .

Venezuelan migratory waves to Colombia can be traced back to 2002 when massive layoffs at PDVSA, the government s oil company, signaled an influx of Venezuelan businesspeople, engineers, and oil executives who contributed technical knowledge and expertise to Colombias extractive sector. That can be considered to be the first wave of immigrants. As the government of Hugo Chvez became increasingly antagonistic towards the United States and started flirting with 21st century socialism, a second wave of Venezuelan migrants materialized. Although Colombia was not the first-choice for many of these wealthy migrants who also settled in the U.S., Europe, and Mexicowhile on occasion travelling to Venezuela, where they still had significant business interestsColombia was still a center of political coordination for the Venezuelan diaspora. For example, the country granted asylum to Pedro Carmona who successfully (albeit briefly) deposed Chavez through a coup attempt. Many of the Venezuelans who migrated to Colombia during the first and second waves were skilled and rich, which made it easier for them to draw sympathy from their Colombian hosts compared to the third wave.

The thirdand currentwave of Venezuelan migration to Colombia is related to the deterioration of economic conditions in Venezuela since 2014. This includes chronic unemployment, growing poverty, and shortages of food and medicine, provoked by the countrys staggering official corruption, economic mismanagement, and internal political conflict. Nicols Maduros economic ineptitude proved to be disastrous for the country following the global drop in oil prices. Contrary to the first two waves, the Venezuelans coming to Colombia were now increasingly poor and middle-class people who crossed the border by car, bus, and foot.

At the end of 2019, Venezuelan migrants comprised the largest economic migration in the world (4.4 million), surpassed only by Syria. Colombia welcomed 1.8 million Venezuelan immigrantsmore than any other country. The Venezuelan exodus, the greatest human mobilization in Latin Americas recent history, has generated important sociodemographic, security, political, economic, and a cultural repercussions in its main host country. Although Venezuelans speak the same language as Colombians and have very similar religious and cultural traits, the differences are starting to shine through.

Signs of unease became commonplace in border zones such as Norte de Santander and La Guajira, where fulfilling the needs of the burgeoning population has posed budgetary and social challenges to local governments in terms of guaranteeing health, education, and well-being for the migrant population. This has put strain on local populations whose demand for city services had to accommodate unprecedented levels of immigrants.

A recent Gallup poll shows that 69 percent of Colombians have an unfavorable perception of Venezuelans living in the country. Likewise, the study showed that 80 percent of those surveyed said they disagreed with the governments management of the immigration crisis, which as a result of COVID-19, has meant complete closure of formal border crossings. This makes it more difficult and dangerous for Venezuelansparticularly womento cross over to Colombia. As reported by several outlets, close to 100,000 Venezuelans returned to their country when Colombias COVID-19 lockdowns hurt the informal economy, which is the principal source of employment for many Venezuelans. It is expected that many will try to return as the country looks to reopen its economy. However, returning migrants may find that they are returning to a more hostile environment.

There are growing perceptions among Colombians that Venezuelans are to blame for the increase in crime. Giving greater headwinds to this unfair perception, Claudia Lopez, the mayor of Bogot, said on Friday I do not want to stigmatize the Venezuelans, but there are some immigrants involved in criminality who are making our lives difficult. We welcome whoever comes to earn a decent living, but, whoever comes to commit a crime should be deported without contemplation. This comment is an untimely gesture towards Venezuelans, whose permanence in Bogot does not suggest a spike in crime. Quite the opposite, research suggests that Venezuelan immigrants are more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators.

Although the situation is urgent, it does not seem that the international community is contributing generously enough to address the crisis. According to a report in the New Humanitarian, international funding for the crisis is scantjust over half of the USD $738 million requested by the UN in 2019 materialized. The UN has called for USD $750 million to help half of the seven million people it estimates need assistance inside Venezuela in 2020, and a further USD $1.35 billion to help four million Venezuelans across 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

According to the Brookings Institution, the Venezuelan crisis has been significantly underfunded compared to others similar in size and scope, such as Syria and Sudan. While donors have contributed an average of USD $1,500 in assistance per Syrian refugee, the amount earmarked for each Venezuelan refugee is a meager USD $125. And these were pre-COVID-19 calculations. The pandemic has not only strained Colombias public finances by reducing the subsidies it can provide to immigrants, but donor governments are also likely to cut back on foreign aid at a time when it is needed the most. Colombia committed almost half a percentage point of GDP to finance the Venezuelan migration crisis during 2020, 2021, and 2022, but the pandemic is likely to affect this commitment as well.

This lack of funding, coupled with a certain increase in Venezuelan migrants as well as a tight economic situation at home, is a recipe for disaster. This spells a bad omen for Venezuelans as it is likely that populist politicians will continue to use immigrants as scapegoats and easy targets during the next elections. So far there are no Colombian equivalents of nationalist and anti-immigrant parties that are shaping populist policies in the U.S. and Europe,and elections will not take place until a few years from now . Perhaps in the run-up to the 2022 elections we will get a better sense of how attitudes towards Venezuelan immigrants will shape the political rhetoric used by candidates looking to score cheap points. This issue was exploited by certain political groups contending the 2019 local elections in crucial areas like Ccuta and Bucaramanga, but it did not become a national phenomenon.

This does not mean that we should let our guard down or look the other way when Venezuelans are discriminated against by politicians or pundits. However, the lack of attention and funding seems to suggest that xenophobia may be on the rise, and violence against Venezuelan migrants is expected to increase. What will it take for governments to stop this ticking time bomb?

Sergio Guzmn is the Director of Colombia Risk Analysis, a political risk consulting firm based in Bogot. Follow him on Twitter @SergioGuzmanE and @ColombiaRisk

Juan Camilo Ponce is a Communications Intern at Colombia Risk Analysis and he is currently an undergraduate student at Universidad Javeriana. Follow him on Twitter @juanponceg

All opinions and content are solely the opinion of the authors and do not represent the viewpoints of Global Americans.

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Hate against Venezuelans in Colombia is a ticking time bomb - Global Americans

Members of a caravan of migrants from Honduras to the United States were arrested in Guatemala and deported before they could reach Mexico. Although their journey was shortened, the formation of a new caravan shows that as in 2018 and 2019 Central Americans are still fleeing violence, hunger and climate change en masse.

The crisis on the border between the USA and Mexico is also continuing. As a scholar of Mexican migration, I have witnessed how the pandemic has brought new hardships for immigrants, while at the same time leaving the Trump administration room for further restrictions on the rights of migrants and asylum seekers.

The result is a continuation of the dehumanizing and dangerous conditions at the border, with less public control than ever before.

Crisis at the border

During my research for a 2019 documentary film, Waylaid in Tijuana, I observed first-hand the difficult conditions faced by thousands of migrants and asylum seekers who were stranded on the US-Mexico border long before the pandemic.

Under international and domestic law, the United States must offer asylum to people who have a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of their political beliefs, racial or ethnic background, religion, or other particular characteristics that make them targets of violence.

But in April 2018, the Trump administration began measuring asylum seekers by requiring them to be placed on a waiting list for their first appointment with U.S. officials. By August 2019, 25,000 people were on the list, most of them in Tijuana. In February 2020, just before the global pandemic was declared, 15,000 people were still waiting.

Nine months after the measurement began, the Trump administration introduced Migration Protection Protocols that require asylum-seekers who have passed their first hearing to return to Mexico to await any further court hearings. By March 2020, over 65,000 asylum-seekers had been returned to Mexico, mostly through ports of entry in Texas.

Under pressure from the Trump administration, the Mexican government endorsed this policy and gave asylum seekers the right to wait for their hearing in Mexico. Migrants in the caravans arriving in late 2018 and early 2019 also received special work permits.

Since then, however, the Mexican government has drastically reduced these permits, and todays migrants receive almost no government assistance. The lucky ones find room and board in a church-run migrant shelter, an informal job as a waiter or in construction, and access to health care and legal advice from local or U.S. nonprofit organizations.

Most migrants are not so lucky. Housing cannot keep up with demand, leaving thousands on the streets or in tent camps without sanitation or electricity, especially along the Texas border. Asylum-seekers outside the shelters rarely have access to social welfare or legal counsel.

Asylum seekers are also targeted by criminals and local police for extortion, robbery, kidnapping and assault adding another layer of trauma to the violence they suffer at home and on their journey. During the interviews with asylum seekers conducted for Waylaid in Tijuana, my colleagues and I were able to recognize the fear and anxiety in their body language.

Prevented by the pandemic

These two policies-the measurement system and migration protection protocols-had already significantly reduced the chances of Central American migrants receiving asylum in the United States before the pandemic. In August 2020, only 570 of the 44,000 asylum-seekers returned to Mexico whose cases had been decided were given refuge in the United States. This represents an approval rate of 1.3 percent, compared to 21 percent in 2018 for asylum seekers from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

The pandemic has now enabled the Trump administration to effectively end asylum as a way for Central Americans to legally enter the United States.

In March 2020, the Department of Homeland Security closed the waiting lists for asylum hearings and suspended asylum hearings. The Trump administration also invoked Title 42, a little-used rule of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that aims to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, in order to immediately deport all migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border without the hearing to which many of them would normally be entitled.

Under this rule, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol

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Migrant caravans are starting again as the pandemic exacerbates the crisis on the border between the United States and Mexico. - The Washington...

Our editors weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.

Ethiopias Tigray conflict is little more than a week old, but the number of people killed and displaced is rising fast. On 12 November, Amnesty International said scores and likely hundreds of day labourers were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra, a town in Tigray. TNH could not independently verify the killings, but witnesses who spoke to the rights group blamed militia aligned to the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, an ethnic Tigrayan party fighting against the government. One witness who inspected ID cards of victims said the dead were mostly ethnic Amharas, from a region that is supporting Addis Ababas offensive. Hundreds of combatants from both sides are also thought to have died in air raids and clashes in the region, while banking, transport, trade, and telecommunications services remain cut off. Some 11,000 people half of them children have fled to neighbouring Sudan, where local authorities told TNH they are struggling to cope. The capability of Sudan is very limited and the number of refugees is very big, said one Sudanese official. Read our latest on the conflict for more.

They faced the worlds second deadliest COVID-19 outbreak per capita and one of the tightest lockdowns, leaving 40 percent of the population jobless and many scrambling to return to their home communities from coastal cities. On 9 November, Peruvians added politics to their list of woes. After impeaching President Martn Vizcarra whose approval ratings were amongst the highest in the region Congress, opposed to Vizcarras anti-corruption reforms, quickly swore in the head of the chamber, Manuel Merino, as the new president. The controversial removal of Vizcarra on moral incapacity and graft charges which he denies and the quick power switch set off street protests throughout the country. The UNs human rights office says it has received worrying reports of arbitrary detentions and the excess use of force by state forces during the protests, and called on the police to respect international norms. Few countries have recognised the transition.

Drug-maker Pfizer this week announced its candidate for a COVID-19 vaccine may be 90 percent effective a welcome boost during a chaotic year. The early results may be promising, but they also raise other questions: Will vaccines reach vulnerable communities? Is there infrastructure in place think cold freezers, transport networks to handle shipments? And what about conflict zones especially areas controlled by armed groups? An analysis by the International Committee of the Red Cross tries to tackle the issue of vaccine access in conflict. It emphasises that states (and armed groups) are obliged to ensure vaccines are distributed without discrimination under international humanitarian law. In practice, of course, that doesnt always happen. Civilians in conflict zones, or areas controlled by armed groups, have struggled to access treatment or healthcare throughout the pandemic. In Taliban-controlled parts of Afghanistan, for example, aid access comes down to ground-level negotiations (and access denials frequently derail polio vaccinations). In Myanmar, some armed groups have had to source their own protective gear and COVID-19 tests. The World Health Organization (WHO) and others are trying to ensure equal access to whatever vaccine emerges. But in crisis hotspots, global agreements may still find roadblocks at the last mile. We have seen greedy scrambles for access to therapies before, from HIV to H5NI influenza, bumping the most vulnerable countries those in the grips of armed conflict to the back of the queue, the ICRC notes.

Russia pledged $1 billion in reconstruction and humanitarian funds at a widely boycotted online conference about the return of Syrian refugees. In a speech, Syrian President al-Assad said the refugees fled not because of the actions of his government, but due to the largest barbaric Western aggression which the world has ever known in modern history. Only about 27 countries took part, emphasising international divisions: Turkey was not invited and Jordan did not take part. Together, they host three quarters of the 5.6 million Syrian refugees in the region. The UN says the situation is not good enough for it to recommend returns, but about 115,000 refugees chose to go home to Syria in 2019 and 2020 anyway. The UNs refugee agency, the United States, and the EU all skipped the conference, but the UN sent an observer. Few Syria conferences get all the players: In June, the EU hosted a fourth event about aid to Syria without the Syrian government.

New estimates from World Bank economists say at least 125 million people worldwide will fall this year below the extreme poverty line ($1.90 per day), and as many as 257 million will fall into poverty, with the line set higher, at $3.20. Calling them the COVID-19-induced new poor, a recent blog warns that in a truly uncertain environment one critical factor can push even more into poverty. If the pandemic widens inequality within countries, for example between those who can work remotely and those who cant, tens of millions more would become the new poor. Despite these threats posed to low-income and emerging economies, there is no big new aid funding on the horizon. A high-level 9-10 November meeting of donor countries declared financing for sustainable development risks collapsing, but came up with no specific promises of new cash. Oxfam said they had missed a wake-up call.

In January, 90,000 people were displaced by conflict in Mozambiques northernmost Cabo Delgado region. As the year draws to a close, that number has passed more than 400,000. Attacks by Islamist miliants are behind the surge: This week, local media reported the beheading of 50 men and boys by jihadists on a soccer pitch in the town of Muatide. UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres called the killings wanton brutality. From a small group of disaffected youth, the militants now number several thousand, have seized various towns including the key port of Mocmboa da Praia and are launching attacks on Tanzania, which borders gas-rich Cabo Delgado. With Mozambiques army struggling to contain the violence, local communities are forming self-defence militias. But the groups are reportedly committing their own abuses, the jihadists are only growing stronger, and the number of displaced people keeps on rising. Read our reporting for more.

AFGHANISTAN: More than 13 million people a third of Afghanistans population may face crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity through March 2021, according to the latest projections. Conflict, COVID-19 economic impacts, soaring food prices, and climate disasters are pushing more people toward hunger, analysts say.

THE CANARY ISLANDS: Asylum seekers and migrants arriving in the Canary Islands are being held on a pier in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions by Spanish authorities, according to Human Rights Watch. A record 2,200 people arrived in the islands by boat between 7 and 9 November. Located off the coast of West Africa, the Spanish archipelago recorded around 2,500 arrivals all of last year compared to more than 14,500 already this year.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Ex-president Franois Boziz submitted papers on 9 November to stand in presidential elections slated for December. Boziz was deposed in a coup in 2013 and spent years in exile before returning to CAR last year. He is currently under UN sanctions for his role in the 2013-2014 crisis.

THE CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN: More than 110 asylum seekers and migrants died in shipwrecks off the coast of Libya between 10 and 12 November, including one that claimed the lives of at least 70 people. At least 522 people are known to have died in the Central Mediterranean in 2020, while European countries have obstructed the work of search and rescue NGOs and ignored or responded slowly to reports of boats in distress.

CTE DIVOIRE: More than 8,000 Ivoiriens have fled to neighbouring countries, according to the UNs refugee agency, UNHCR, as fresh clashes broke out this week following disputed elections that saw Alassane Ouattara win a controversial third term in a landslide. UNHCR said the refugees requested to remain close to the Cte DIvoire border so they can return home should the situation stabilise.

ITALY-TUNISIA: Italy is considering deploying ships and planes to monitor Tunisian territorial waters in an effort to reduce the number of migrant boats leaving the north African country. More than 12,300 Tunisians have arrived by boat in Italy so far this year, compared to just over 2,600 in all of 2019.

MEASLES: Cases of vaccine-preventable measles soared in 2019 to the highest global level in 23 years, research by the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Experts fear disruptions to vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic could make matters worse.

SOUTHEAST ASIA STORMS: Typhoon Vamco brought extreme rains and roof-high floods to parts of the Philippine main island of Luzon the countrys fifth big storm since October. Vamco continues westward and is projected to threaten central Vietnam around 14 November. Vamco is the latest in a barrage of storms that have churned across Southeast Asia, worsening seasonal floods. The UN says at least 2.7 million people need urgent aid in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

Indigenous leadership and experience during disasters is often overlooked or misunderstood. And yet, as the coronavirus pandemic has overwhelmed healthcare systems and crippled economies worldwide, Indigenous communities have often had to fend for themselves, turning to traditional medicine in some cases, and peaceful protests in others. Indigenous communities in rural areas of Guatemala have now been dealt yet another challenge: Hurricane Eta. After making landfall on Nicaraguas Caribbean coast on 3 November, Eta caused widespread destruction across Central America. In Honduras, nearly 1.8 million people have been directly affected, while more than 200 people have been killed mostly by flooding and landslides across the region. For Indigenous communities in Guatemala, the slow official response to Eta is seen as just another example of long-standing neglect by the central government. Find out how theyre organising their own responses, and about the combined threat ahead of COVID-19, drought, and hunger.

The United States may face an electoral mess on home soil, but you wouldnt be able to tell from reading State Department press releases. The US continues to weigh in on other countries votes, offering stern scoldings, or avuncular kudos, with no apparent appreciation for irony. The latest missive this week professes concern for the mass disenfranchisement of the Rohingya population and voting cancellations in Myanmars elections which granted de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi another term yet likely added to grievances among ethnic minority communities. Others question Tanzanias commitment to democratic values, or pledge to keep a watchful eye on upcoming elections in Africa (yes, all of it). A tweet from the US embassy in Abidjan urges commitment to the democratic process in Cte dIvoire. Its not all dour warnings, however. An October statement greeted elections in the Seychelles with a hearty congratulations, and hopes for a peaceful transfer of power.

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Ethiopia's worsening conflict, Peru's political crisis, and ironic US election advice: The Cheat Sheet - The New Humanitarian

New Delhi: After coming up with a surprising performance by bagging 16 out of the 30 seats contested in the recent Bihar Assembly elections, the Left parties, which fought in alliance with the RJD, have gone back to re-strategising for themselves ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections in Bengal which was once a CPM stronghold.

Sources in the Bengal unit of the CPM said that the Bihar results have come as a surprise to them as well, since they were not expecting such an outstanding performance by the party and this has in itself helped energise the cadre in Bengal which is going to take on the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress and the BJP just six months from now.

We are trying to figure out the factors that worked in favour of us. We will replicate the same methods that worked for us in Bihar. As per our preliminary understanding, migrant issues, the issue of Covid-19 pandemic which we strongly raised, where millions of people were left to fend for themselves, have caught the attention of the marginalised sections of the society. It seems that they have once again reposed their faith in the Left ideology that constantly works for the upliftment of the downtrodden, a Left leader from Bengal told this correspondent.

For the first time in Bihar, the Left partiescomprising the CPI(M). CPI and the CPI(M-L)fought under an alliance and this, the Left leaders believe, worked in their favour. Some Left leaders that this correspondent spoke to said that earlier, the Left votes, which used to be fragmented, have been consolidated this time since they decided to fight as one. Left leaders also credit RJD chief and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is currently in jail, for bringing all the Left parties together this time around and solidifying the Mahagathbandhan alliance.

In the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections, the Left parties together were able to garner just three seats. While the CPI and the CPIM scored zero that year, it was only the CPI(ML) which managed to get three seats. Left leaders from Bengal also say that, as part of their re-drawn strategy for Bengal, all the Left parties this time are likely to fight the 2021 Assembly elections together, unlike in the previous years when the CPI(ML) and the SUCI would contest on their own. Apart from this, the CPM, which is already in an alliance with the Congress in Bengal, would continue with the alliance and go into the 2021 Assembly Sabha polls with the Congress.

Taking a cue from Bihar, the Left is also pushing towards garnering the young voters in the state for which the party has already started reaching out to the youths in Bengal. According to CPM leaders from Bengal, the party has garnered a lot of votes from the youths this time around in Bihar and keeping that in mind, the Left parties, which have already been promoting youth leaders since the last few years, will work towards pushing more young faces forward.

Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Dr Fuad Halim, senior leader of the CPM from Bengal, claimed, It has been decided that we have to strengthen the Left parties and include the broader Left intelligentsia and then construct a Left and secular democratic alliance and this is what the Mahagathbandhan is all about. We will do the same thing in Bengal, as we appeal to all the secular democratic forces to come forward and form a formidable force to take on the BJP and the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government. As in Bihar, people have found that the only reliable and concrete alternative to the BJP is the Left organisation; this will also be seen in Bengal. We have also got six times more number of seats in Bihar compared to last time and this shows that the consolidation of the Left has benefited and this is what will be done for Bengal as well.

The Left also believes that the distribution of tickets, which were mostly given to people belonging from the intellectual community, has helped them in Bihar and the party is likely to repeat the same in Bengal. Left party sources from Bengal hinted that they already have a sizable number of intelligentsia with them, they would consider giving tickets to them since they appeal to the youth voters. Apart from this, the Left parties are also going to reach out to the most marginalised sections of society in Bengal who have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Amphan super cyclone in Bengal that devasted parts of the state earlier this year. Since then, they say that a huge number of young cadres of the CPM has been working on the ground with them and they believe that the party has been able to win their trust as the alternative party in the interiors of Bengal. There has been a resurgence in the support base of the CPM and Left parties in various districts in Bengal and this has been primarily because of the migrants who have come back with a great degree of discontent with regards to the handling of the migrant crisis by the state as well as the Centre and the CPM has been with them ever since the pandemic has hit. Our cadres have been on the ground with them, taking care of their needs; so definitely, they are going to repose their faith in the Left parties. Dr Fuad Halim claimed.

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Left to replicate 'Bihar model' in Bengal - The Sunday Guardian

There has never been a whole lot of overlap between the social realism of Ken Loach and the twisted horror of A Nightmare on Elm Street. But thats about to change with the release of His House, a strikingly original debut from the gifted British film-maker Remi Weekes, which was snapped up by Netflix at Sundance earlier this year for an eight-figure sum.

His House follows a South Sudanese couple Wunmi Mosaku as Rial, Sope Dirisu as her husband Bol who are dumped on a bleak Essex housing estate while their appeal for asylum is considered. Their temporary home is blighted by peeling walls, dodgy wiring and hostile neighbours. Worse than that, its haunted. If they flee, Rial and Bol risk deportation for violating bail. Stay, however, and they will need to do battle with the wall-dwelling creatures, which appear to have followed them from Africa.

This isnt the first film to use the conventions of horror to address this modern crisis: Mati Diops Atlantics imagined the women of Dakar being possessed by the ghosts of migrants who had perished at sea. But it is undoubtedly the scariest. His House thrives on two types of threat, the social and the supernatural, each intensifying the other. Horror audiences will be accustomed to figures lurking in the back of the frame its just that, in this case, theres no knowing whether it will be a scuttling monster, a meddling immigration official, or a lout.

When the idea of a horror story involving asylum-seekers was first proposed to Weekes by producers, he was unsure if he had any personal connection to the material. Although his grandparents are from St Lucia and Sierra Leone, he was raised in London. But once I thought about it, I was reminded of how I felt growing up in this country, says the 33-year-old, sitting in his home with a bicycle leaning against the wall behind him.

Youre torn. Theres one side that wants to assimilate and be accepted by a culture that is ambivalent toward you. Then another side wants to reject that, to be proud of where youre from, to rebel against the norms. Thats always been in the background of conversations with my family and friends: which parts of us are English and which are from other places?

The theme of tribalism underpins His House. Back in South Sudan, Rial scarred herself with the markings of two warring factions to improve her chances of survival. Now in Britain, she finds it harder to move between tribes. In the films most provocative scene, she approaches a group of black British teenagers for help, only to receive a chastening reminder that skin colour is no guarantee of solidarity.

Weekes consulted with Waging Peace, an organisation that opposes genocide and human rights violations in Sudan, and Right to Remain, which helps people navigate the UK asylum system. This was to ensure a realistic grounding for a story that takes flight into the nightmarish. It was important to know how asylum seekers are treated, he says. The draconian rules, the uncaring bureaucracy, it all shows this lack of empathy.

Physical displacement and disorientation become, in the film, a breeding ground for internal horrors. Being effectively under house arrest, you can really take a battering psychologically. All the spooky stuff that happens in the house I wanted to treat as tangible. Whether its real or not doesnt matter it feels real to the characters.

Weekes first made his name as one half of the partnership Tell No One, turning out playful, effects-driven video shorts with his childhood friend Luke White. The duos name suggests the sinister or the secretive, though nothing could be further from the truth. We just wanted to put stuff online without telling anyone, says Weekes. It was more a reference to our psychology, to not letting ego get in the way. Were very understated people. Get us in a meeting and we go quiet.

Posting their shorts on YouTube and Vimeo, the pair attracted commissions from fashion and advertising. Those films have an enchanting simplicity: in one, coloured umbrellas pop open like vibrant floral blooms, while another shows arms layered digitally on screen to create a tree of limbs.

I thought the laughter caused by tickling could make a horror film

His House also features a multiple-arm scene, as does Weekess Channel 4 horror short Tickle Monster. Does he have a fear of limbs? I dont think so, he says with a sheepish giggle. Tickle Monster came from a conversation I had with a friend. He was dating someone who kept tickling him. Even though he hated it and it made him feel awful, his laughter seemed to the other person like some weird form of consent. I thought, That could be a horror film.

He has also encountered another kind of monster: Harvey Weinstein, who was desperate to get his paws on His House, back when it was a hot script doing the rounds. When I turned the Weinstein Company down, they got upset and tried to sue me. Theyre very aggressive about getting the rights to films. If it wasnt for the #MeToo movement that blew up the company, they probably would have had their way. Now thats a scary story.

His House is in selected cinemas now, and on Netflix from 30 October.

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Nightmare on asylum street: His House, the horror film about the migrant crisis - The Guardian