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At 7 am every day, Vala Ram Gameti, 32, sets off from his home at Koviya village in southern Rajasthan to the nearest market, about three-km away. He takes an hour for the days prep chopping onions, carrots, cabbage, and stewing sauces. By 9 am, he pulls up the shutters of Bankyarani Chinese Corner, the first-ever Chinese food stall in the area as he proclaims it to be. He set it up after losing his job as a cook in a fast-food restaurant in Gujarat and returning home in March, when a national lockdown was announced.

Gameti is one of estimated 10.5 million migrant workers who returned to villages after the national lockdown, according to data submitted by the government in parliament. More than half a year after the reverse migration from cities during the lockdown, how are migrant workers coping?

In a three-part series on how the Covid-19 crisis has impacted livelihoods, we examine how workers are adapting to the changing circumstances. In this first part of the series, we look at workers who have stayed back in villages, focusing on southern Rajasthan. The state has reportedly witnessed the return of 1.3 million migrant workers, engaged mainly in construction, manufacturing, daily wage and hospitality sectors. In the next, we will report from Odisha on workers who have returned to cities. In the final part, we will explore how the lives of women have changed due to the pandemic in Uttar Pradesh.

Of those workers who have stayed back in villages, most are waiting to go back to cities but have not found employment there yet. They are expecting the situation to change after Diwali, IndiaSpend found in the course of numerous interviews. Some said they are still fearful of the novel coronavirus, so they do not want to go back but to earn their livelihood at home instead. Although it is too early to analyse how this will change the nature of work in the long term, two trends are clear: workers are being forced to change their trade out of desperation and some were learning new skills. Returnee migrants are setting up small enterprises in rural areas to provide services thus far only available in cities.

A yet-to-be-published study by Aajeevika Bureau, which visited five districts in southern Rajasthan in April and May to survey 426 migrant workers who had returned home from different parts of the country, found the workers facing multiple vulnerabilities. Many had large families to support, but only one working member was in paid employment per family. The lockdown had left the workers jobless and cashless, and many had not been paid their last wages, the survey found.

By the end of April, 57% of workers said, they had no money left at all. In all, 22% said they were down to their last Rs 100 to Rs 500, forcing them to take out loans even to meet their basic needs. About 38% reported they had received no help from the government such as food and ration during the lockdown. With no regular work currently and little government support, 69% of workers said they wanted to get back to the cities to work, the survey found.

The unavailability of work for a long time will reduce the workers available resources which might ultimately affect their bargaining power and mobility, the study predicted.In the absence of resources, the workers might not be able to return to the city or take a credit on high-interest rates and get trapped in the debt trap. This also will highly impact the bargaining power of the workers who will be accepting the wage lesser than they deserve.

Gameti had worked in a restaurant in Vapi for more than a decade. When the lockdown was announced, the restaurant shut down and he was not paid for the month. He made his way back to his village along with two of his brothers who worked with him. They took a bus to the Rajasthan border and then walked for two days to their village of Koviya. After the lockdown was eased in June, his brothers returned to Vapi but he decided he had had enough of city life.

The city was very difficult, said Gameti, now home with his wife, three daughters and his parents. My employer refused to increase my wages. I would worry about my family. I feel safer here and there is less chance of falling ill. In August, he opened the food stall with aid from Aajeevika Bureau, a Rajasthan-based non-governmental organisation that supports migrant workers. He used to earn Rs 13,000 a month in Vapi while the Chinese stall makes close to Rs 1,000 a day and on some days a little more which he finds quite satisfactory. Besides, he likes working for himself. Main high level ka Chinese banata hun [I make top quality Chinese food], he said.

Men from Gametis village, which falls in a tribal zone, have traditionally engaged in rasoi work across India, mostly in Gujarat. The southern Rajasthan-Gujarat migration corridor provides workers for three sectors: construction, textiles, and small hotels and restaurants. A research paper from 2018 found that the adivasi community of southern Rajasthan was subject to super-exploitation in Gujarat where employers take advantage of their historically low socio-economic conditions, which perpetuates the communitys disadvantaged position across generations, even when they have jobs.

Between early April and the end of May, over 1.3 million workers returned to the districts of Udaipur, Dungarpur, Sirohi, Jalore, Nagaur, Barmer and Bikaner, according to the Rajasthan governments Labour Employment Exchange portal.

After the lockdown, workers from this region were either out of work or forced to take up any work that came their way. Many had found the cities more hostile than before.

Parta Ram, 33, from Ajaypura, not far from Gametis Koviya village, has worked in hotels and restaurants for nearly 25 years. When the lockdown was announced, Ram, along with 35 men from his village, was employed as a cook at a school in Chotta Udaipur in eastern Gujarat. He was not paid his wages when he returned home during the lockdown, and has not found any steady work since. He said he had invested his lifes savings of Rs 2.5 lakh to install a tubewell in his farm before the pandemic. With no savings and no work coming his way, he could barely meet his daily expenses. He found work for a few days under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and at private construction sites, earning Rs 100 to Rs 200 a day, which is lower than the minimum wage rate of Rs 225 for unskilled workers in Rajasthan.

Rajasthan accounted for 6.57 million of 60 million households that have availed MGNREGS since April this year. This was the second most, after Uttar Pradeshs 8 million households. There were gaps in implementation, the wages paid were below the daily wage stipulation, work was stalled and supervisors pilfered material and money, according to labour rights groups. These issues have been noted across the country.

MGNREGS has been a shock absorber in the post-lockdown period, said PC Kishan, state commissioner for MGNREGS in Rajasthan. We employed 5.4 million persons per day in the month of June this year, compared to 3 million last year in the peak months of summer. The state has revised its budget from 300 million person days for this year to 370 million.

We are anticipating more demand for MGNREGS in January and February, since migration has started but only in certain sectors and people are on the brink of poverty, he added. We will revise the budget again to 400 million person days.

However, the situation is worsening as MGNREGS work has dwindled since August, said Saloni Mundra, a knowledge and programme support executive at Aajeevika Bureau: When the workers returned in April and May, they came back without any wages. Some found work under MGNREGS and at the local level between June and July. But from August onwards that work has depleted. A lot of workers have changed their trade out of desperation, she said those who worked in textiles or hotels were taking up work in construction, a sector that has picked up while others had shrunk.

This shift in occupation has been noticed across the country. A report on the impact of Covid-19 on the urban poor conducted in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region by the non-governmental organisation Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action said, Some skilled workers reported shifting to other unskilled work in an attempt to earn. Those who have gone back to their villages to farm reported being unable to do so. In such situations, the dependence on state-provided welfare is high.

Workers have had to adapt due to loss of income, said Marina Joseph, associate director at Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action. Those who did skilled work in a sector like construction like plumbing or electrician would have moved to lifting and loading, she said, Many others have taken up street vending.

Diamond cutting in Gujarat employs a large number of youth from Rajasthan and these are skilled workers who are paid good wages. [They] are taking up unskilled work like loading and unloading to earn a few hundred rupees a day, said Madan Vaishnav, a field officer at the workers rights collective, Centre for Labour Research and Action.

It is a process of deskilling, said S Irudaya Rajan, an expert on migration at the Centre for Development Studies in Kerala. As we get closer to Diwali, sustaining livelihood in rural areas will become more challenging as people will borrow money for spending during the festive season. The government needs to recognise the crisis and make direct cash transfers to the bank accounts of those who have lost their jobs to help them tide over this period, so that the workers are not compelled to return immediately to cities, where they could face exploitation given the state of the economy.

Forming cooperative societies where groups of migrant workers come together could be a way for them to protect their rights and to develop their services, as most development economists have recommended.

In August, Ram, the cook from Ajaypura, was offered work at Mundra, a port town in Gujarat. When he reached there with 27 men from his village, they realised that the contractor had misled them. They had been promised work in a utensils factory, but on reaching there they found that the factory manufactured iron pipes. They had to work 12-hour shifts loading and unloading pipes. We are not trained for this work, each pipe was almost 50 kg, said Ram, adding, I felt my body was breaking. We returned to our village in three days. Before the pandemic, loading and unloading, work that is considered hazardous, was handled mostly by migrants from Bihar.

Ram is back in his village now, tending to his maize crop. The terrain is hard and rocky and difficult to cultivate. His one bigha (0.25 hectare) of land is not enough to sustain his family of six. But there is no fear of the novel coronavirus in these parts, Ram said, unlike in the city. The hills in the area keep the virus away, he insisted.

The crisis here is one of economic survival as the uncertainty stretches on. But Ram did not want to risk searching for new work in the city again and hoped that schools would open after Diwali so he could get back to his job cooking in a school canteen.

Amid all this, there are signs of resilience too. Some workers, supported by NGOs or of their own initiative, are trying to upgrade their skills to fit into the rural economy.

Lokesh Khorwal, a trainer at Aajeevika Bureau working on their livelihood programme, has been training young people from rural Rajasthan to repair mobile phones to enable them to set up shops in villages. There has been a steady uptick in demand for these workshops over the past few months, he said. Since this crisis we have had the highest interest in this workshop, every batch is full, said Khorwal. Every person in the village has a mobile phone but not every village has a mobile repair shop and they all have to travel far for it.

On a weekday afternoon in late September when IndiaSpend contacted them, 31 men from different districts had been attending the training for two weeks and were preparing for an exam.

Mahendra Dhodiya, 20, who was learning how to repair the motherboard of a mobile phone, said there was a lot of pressure to study and practice in the workshop. Dhodiya, who had been stranded for two months before returning home during the lockdown, used to work at a tea shop in Pune. He had already thought of a busy spot in the village market where he would set up shop.

It is possible to earn anywhere between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 a day from a mobile repair shop, said Khorwal, adding that it was more than the wages the trainees would earn in the city. The workshops for two-wheeler repair and electrical wiring for houses skills that can be used to set up small enterprises in villages were also running full, he said.

This article first appeared on IndiaSpend, a data-driven and public-interest journalism non-profit.

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Migrant workers returning to Rajasthan are learning new skills to survive in a post-lockdown world - Scroll.in

In moments of crisis we often turn to data in an attempt to both understand the situation we are in, and to look for answers of how to escape.

In response to COVID-19, governments around the world have employed algorithms, used data from apps installed on our phones, alongside CCTV, facial recognition and other data gathering tools to fight the pandemic. Data is being used to drive the daily movements of billions of people in a way that many of us have never before seen. People are being instructed to stay home, go to work, wear masks, or send their children to school based on the invisible hand of data.

Yet 2020 has also highlighted the dangers of this. The interpretations and collection of this data are not without their problems doctors and politicians looking at the same data can draw wildly different conclusions about the right course of action.

Without doubt, we should be harnessing all the tools we can in the fight to save lives, but the pandemic has also brought many issues with data mapping to the fore. COVID-19 disproportionately affects the poorest people in many countries, as well as black and Asian communities. This is is no small part due to data-driven regulations designed to stop the spread of the disease; often modelled on assumptions made by the people who design and run them.

These inequalities already existed, but models that slow a spread through the closing of offices, reduced transport and home schooling put enormous pressures on the poorest and most vulnerable members of society, who are not privileged enough to change their working or living arrangements. As digital technologies are further introduced, such as mobile track and trace, these communities will be marginalised even further. Even in the richest countries, those without a smartphone will be missed from any digital tracing apps designed to protect people.

Read more: Northern lockdowns shine a light on Britain's landscape of inequality

While these practices are newly confronting to many, such technologies and their failings have long been used to shape the lives, and deaths, of millions around the world. In the digital age, mapping and data continue to be seen as a fix-all. More people than ever are subjected to having their lives dictated not by elected officials, but by black box algorithms, maps, and data visualisations. As our attempts to hold the pandemic at bay continue, we must look at lessons from other crises and push for a more just world.

To do this, it is crucial that people understand the slippery quality of data. Statistics seem solid to many people. But data can mislead, and understanding how this happens is a huge step in the right direction of using data to improve the lives of millions of people around the world, and to tackling global crises such as COVID-19.

There are three main issues with data.

This article is part of Conversation InsightsThe Insights team generates long-form journalism derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.

The first issue seems on the surface the easiest to fix. Dark data refers to data that is not collected at all. Many people believe that if we collected enough data about everything then we could solve any issue. Yet it is impossible to collect everything: there will always be dark data.

We dont, for example, collect data about or from children in the same way as adults because of laws around consent. Data is often collected through tools that are not available to everyone mobile phones share huge amounts of information, but not everybody has a phone.

The real trouble comes due to what are known as epistemic and ideological assumptions. These assumptions mean that even with the best intentions, we cannot gather data about things that we assume we do not need, or that we do not know that we need data about. Stark examples include how frequently women are excluded from trials and testing, either forgotten about, or based upon assumptions they are the same as men. This can have deadly consequences.

At times our biases also push us towards not collecting data that we sense goes against our own interests or views of the world. A surprisingly powerful urge to retain our status quo paralyses us from breaking through this barrier.

The issues of dark data are closely linked to another issue, known as data positivism. This relates to what we do with the data we have captured.

It is all but impossible to present all the data we find. This might be because we have too much of it, or because we are trying to tell a specific story with our data. As we turn the data in to maps and visualisations, we must make choices about what is and isnt included, which often takes the form of prioritising one type of knowledge over another.

Data that fits well with traditional mapping practices will be more likely to be included on a map than other forms of information. This can turn extremely complex and competing sets of ideas into overly simple sets of data, which in turn is transformed into an even further simplified data visualisation. These visualisations are rarely questioned, because the way they are made is beyond the expertise of most people. The expertise of the creator is trusted wholesale they create a false sense of certainty, but one we hold on to, especially if they reinforce our status quo.

Then theres the issue of data washing. Lets assume that you have avoided the problems of dark data and collected everything, including the data you didnt know you needed, and that you have navigated data positivism in the cleaning and preparing of your data.

You then come to present your findings. Perhaps they dont really show the story you wanted, or show the opposite of what you thought what do you do? Do you tweak things so they look different? Do you skip that diagram and move to another that shows something closer to your hypothesis? Do you choose not to share anything at all?

These seem like easy questions to answer, easy to stay on the correct side of ethical practice. But even with the best of intentions we can dismiss our own data when it doesnt conform to pre-held assumptions. We might tell ourselves we must have made a mistake in data collection, so shouldnt share it. Or we might think: that doesnt tell a good story, Ill leave it out. Or perhaps: this should be more dramatic, Ill change the colours and design to make it pop.

These are not always disingenuous, but these seemingly innocent decisions conceal or obscure data and knowledge. They are hard to avoid even with the best of intentions, and when it comes to issues of controversy, the best of intentions is often left wanting.

In turning people into pure data, life and death decisions are made about people without their consent. These are the dehumanising effects of an algorithm-driven world.

Mapping and data visualisation have long been used in times of crisis to help us make sense of what is happening, and to find ways forwards that might preserve lives and create a better future. Prominent examples include Thomas Shapters 1832 maps of cholera in Exeter, UK, followed by the more famous maps of cholera deaths produced by John Snow in London. These maps and their authors were credited with bringing new understanding of waterborne disease and saving many lives.

Florence Nightingale, whose name was given over to the emergency hospitals constructed around the UK in the wake of COVID-19, was also a statistician.

In 1861, as part of her consultation to the US army about care for Civil War casualties, Nightingale made data visualisations, and a lot of them. She created bar charts, stacked bars, honeycomb density plots, and 100% area plots.

Nightingales data visualisations were not about just showing what was happening, they were designed to call for change; to indicate required reform. She also invented a new type of chart to help her arguments: a comparative polar-area diagram known today as the Nightingale rose (she called them wedges). Her most famous diagrams showed the changes in survival rates of patients following sanitary improvements, such as washing hands regularly, and emphasised the effectiveness of these improvements by difference in size.

Nightingale, Shapter, Snow, and many others have used charts and diagrams to build graphic arguments and easy-to-understand comparisons that saved many lives. But when looking back at them, we often only consider the final product (map or chart), rather than the process of their creation. Yet at the time, these works were widely dismissed, and often misinterpreted as supporting the prevailing thoughts of the period.

There were many who did not want to enact the reforms proposed by Nightingale, although they are now seen as transformative in how hospitals are run. And Snows maps became more famous than Shapters not only because they were of London, but because of the evocative story of him striding onto Broad Street and tearing off the handle of the community water pump. Whats forgotten is that this act was required precisely because his data and mappings were initially misinterpreted by those who chose to see Snows maps as supporting their own theories an example of confirmation bias where we read data in a way that suits our own views.

Both Snow and Nightingale saved countless lives through their data work, but even they came up against many of the issues of dark data, data positivism and misinterpretation.

In the digital age, where data is collected on a massive scale, often without consent, and is increasingly organised, sorted and interpreted by computers and algorithms, data has become seen as both a fix all for everything, and a dangerous commodity. The use of data to track people and dictate their actions can mean the difference between life and death in a very real and present sense. While that has been made clear to many of us in relation to COVID-19, there are many more stories of data, crisis and the fight for survival.

In our new book, Mapping Crisis, we look at the experiences of those who have been mapped or had their complex lives reduced to data, aerial photos or reports. From this we are able to draw out better ways of working, and better understandings of the various effects the secret world of data has on our everyday lives.

One of our examples is the case of the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

The Mediterranean Sea is a place that for many conjures images of sun-kissed beaches, fine waterfront dining and turquoise seas. But this stretch of water is also one of the most heavily policed in the world. All movements in the region, whether deemed legal or not, are extensively mapped and monitored by the European Union.

While individual countries on the Mediterranean have long fortified their borders, the formation of the EU effectively created a single border along the northern shores. Since then, European states have continued to put in place an ever more comprehensive, and complex, system for monitoring and exchanging information about irregular migrants trying to reach the continent.

Running under the label EUROSUR, the system combines high-resolution satellite images, long-endurance drones, automated vessel identification systems and seaborne military radars that allow for situational reports and risk analyses in next to real time. These reports give daily updates on successfully intercepted migrant vessels.

But this highly sophisticated tool of mapping the movements of migrants is only interested in those who are stopped. The extensive databases held by EU states hold next to no information about those who die or go missing as they attempt to seek refuge. Those who make it onto European shores, by contrast, are rigorously screened for biometric data, including electronic fingerprints, iris scans and medical checks, and also for personal details about their lives to verify their identity.

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), more than 19,000 people have drowned or gone missing on their way to Europe over the last decade. These figures are only estimates: there is no comprehensive system in place to document migrant fatalities across EU member states. European governments do not consider migrant deaths part of their legal responsibility and so do not keep a regular track record of them. This leaves humanitarian agencies like IOM dependent on eyewitness accounts and reports from search and rescue NGOs, medical examiners or the media.

The lack of knowledge regarding migrant deaths reveals how patchy real time tracking of movement across borders really is. It also serves political agendas, where data on the risk to Europe from migration can easily be found, but data on the true life and death risks of crossing the Mediterranean is occluded from public knowledge. This makes it easier to present migrants as a threat, rather than as refugees putting everything on the line to seek safety.

And for Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, this provides a convenient backdrop to legitimise the increasing militarisation of Europes borders under the pretext of preventing further deaths and human suffering.

Along the border, digital maps and statistical charts operate to reinforce the political and social aims of the organisations and governments that collate them. Data is selectively collected, and selectively presented by the EU and European governments, extending Europes migration policy of deterrence and containment deep into the digital domain.

In the specific context of the Mediterranean, this selective reading of data not only minimises the chances of successful asylum applications for those lingering in the reception centres of Greece and Turkey, it also allows governments and the EU as a whole to evade any legal and political responsibility for the human cost of border policing. By not collecting data on those who drown, the EU can hide the fact that for all its sophisticated mapping and tracking technologies, they have no interest in using the data to save lives, or for rescuing men, women and children lost at sea.

No records of deaths means no records of how many European governments watched drown.

That said, Europes wilful unseeing of migrants has not gone uncontested. Numerous civil society initiatives and humanitarian activists have made it a point to keep a regular track record of those who die or go missing and to hold Europe to account.

Initiatives such as the List of Deaths, compiled by organisations such as UNITED and FORTRESS Europe, meticulously document each and every reported incident, using these figures for advocating a radical revision of European asylum policy. While these counter-mappings certainly manage to disrupt the wall of silence surrounding the human cost of border policing, the death lists have done little to disrupt or redirect the priorities of the state.

The transnational network Alarm Phone marks a rare exception in this regard. Alarm Phone offers a 24/7 hotline for migrants in distress. The organisation secures their rescue by notifying national coastguards and port authorities of unfolding emergencies at sea. Using a combination of mobile phones and online messaging apps such as Facebook, Viber, WhatsApp and Skype, alongside logistical platforms such as AIS (The global Automatic identification system used for vessel tracking) and call management software, they attempt to preempt deaths, and prompt action to rescue people at risk of drowning.

The organisation has aided thousands of people in distress. The summer of 2020 was an especially difficult one. With Europes borders closed tighter than ever, Alarm Phone was inundated with calls. In the seven days following August 13, nearly 900 people on 14 boats called Alarm Phone with pleas for help. Alarm Phone raised the alert, and while some were helped to safety, either in Europe or Libya, more than 260 people perished or remain missing.

By bring together technology, networking capacities, and through solidarity and compassion the volunteer network is able to both aid migrants in times of trouble, and to help them pass more effectively under the radar of the EU. The hotline is more than just a distress call: it brings together the knowledge of migrants into effective maps that aid in the logistics of crossing the med. In doing so it also highlights the wilful misuse, and sporadic data collections of the EU member states.

A lot can be learned from the data mapping of the migrant crisis. Maps and data can only ever be partial representations of reality, but as we gather more and more data we can be lured into thinking that these representations are infallible.

Yet, it is clear from the example above that the processes in place do not preserve life: they are tools of control rather than support. There are glimmers of hope in the counter-mapping projects that have arisen to give voice to those who are condemned to silence as they seek a new life. But even the most well-intentioned projects can fall foul of misunderstanding data. Data tends to have a life of its own.

COVID-19 has brought the world of data-driven crisis management to the doorstep of the whole world, but these are not new experiences. Many people have already been reduced to data points. From the Mediterranean to school grades, lives are increasingly dictated by algorithm, computation, and the biases built into these technologies. The way in which we use data is heavily influenced by politics, a desire to maintain the status quo and by conscious and unconscious decisions made at every stage of the process.

So we should question data: how it is collected, and how it is deployed. But data is also important, and we must not dismiss it all outright. The world has seen a push-back against science and a growth in alternative facts. The rise in anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers, 5G conspiracy theorists and coronavirus deniers has shown how dangerous this can be. Such arguments push backwards, not forwards. They do not seek to understand more, but are maintaining a status quo.

While some might try and twist the arguments weve presented here in order to reject science, we are instead saying that we should ask questions that take our understanding further. It is near impossible to eliminate issues caused by dark data, data washing, and data positivism. This can be purposefully, or accidental, but the effects can be far reaching.

So, next time you look at a map and or data visualisation, ask: who is this for? Whose power does it enhance or consolidate? Who is missing from the data? Who was never asked, forgotten or excluded? Who loses? And how can we do it better?

For you: more from our Insights series:

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The way we use data is a life or death matter from the refugee crisis to COVID-19 - The Conversation UK

Home means everything. It is a safe haven that has come to mean so much more to us during the pandemic where it has doubled up as an office for all the work-from-home folk. So with no job projects, evicted from their rented places and lockdown hitting them hard, can you blame the migrant labourers for undertaking long journeys from the cities to walk back to their homes in their villages the place that they call home? But that they will come out in such large numbers was the shocker, numbers that are hard to keep track off. So the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), whose mission is to bridge the digital divide, decided to conduct an Ethnography Study. The by-product of it was The Migrants, short films and documentaries.

Abner Manzar was volunteering with DEF and helping with relief work at Nuh and Sohna, two towns near Delhi, in May. And as he was a part of the communications team, he started talking to migrants and taking their interview. "They were all extremely agitated, hungry, tired and emotional. So I reasoned that this might not be the best time for a recorded interview," says the 22-year-old. So he and Ravi Guria, Head, Media and Communication, DEF, decided to set out on a journey of discovering the true stories of the migrants. "Beyond the city, no one was following them. It was assumed that if they reached their homes, the crisis was solved. But that's when the crisis actually began," he points out. So over 16 days in June, armed with an iPhone 11, the two travelled across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand and in each state, they visited four to five villages to document the plight of migrants.

Let the journey beginThe duo interviewed 60 migrants and it was a mixed bag when it comes to the latter opening up and really talking. With the help of DEF coordinators in every village, they connected to various labourers who had come back home. While some were downright reticent, others were vague and yet others, like Arbaz Khan, a 20-year-old from Bhitiharwa, Bihar, really had a lot to say. When he heard about them, he came to meet them on a bike, almost bursting on the seams to share his story. "Since elections were coming up in Bihar, there were people who were reluctant as well. All we told them that your story needs to reach the world," explains Abner, who is an author as well.

We wonder what the migrants had to say about going back to the cities after the unlock, were they willing or reluctant? "They were people who refused to go back until a vaccine was in place, others wanted to go back to earn. But frankly, their answers were emotional. Out of desperation, most of them must have already gone back," reasons Abner who shuttles between Delhi and Puducherry. And what about the anger? Who was it directed towards? The government, surely. "Surprisingly, no. They were angrier with their employees. They felt betrayed by them. And yet, they had somehow resigned to their faith in some way," shares the travel enthusiast.

The shame of coming backAnother aspect that Abner introduces us to is the ridicule labourers faced after coming back to villages. Since having a job in the city is considered to be the ultimate achievement, when they came back, they were mocked by the rest of the villagers. "I think the solution to this would be more rural employment opportunities," mulls the youngster. However, the romantic idea that one holds of an Indian village was completely shattered as the duo went from one village to another. "As a youngster, it was eye-opening for me to travel to the heartland of India and see the abject poverty that some people live in. Also, the rampant discrimination, it's always in the air," he says with a tinge of sadness in his voice. And then adds, "But I feel that we have all seen migrant labourers as victims, but they are such inspirational figures. Would someone like you or I be able to sustain all that they have had to bear? I don't think so," shares the alumni of Sri Aurobindo International Centre Of Education, Puducherry.

The team is planning for a virtual screening on December 15. The idea is that there will be one 30-minute-long documentary, which is the main offering and then there would be 30 short films of the interviews that they conducted, highlighting different themes.

For more on them, check out themigrants.in

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How this 22-year-old helped shoot the definitive documentary on India's migrant crisis during the pandemic - EdexLive

The Greek government recently finalized plans for the construction of a wall, along the northeast border shared with Turkey. The twenty-six kilometre wall will be added to the ten kilometres of the fence dividing the nations. The $74 million project is expected to be completed by the end of April.

The five-meter wall is to be constructed using galvanized square steel tubes and concrete foundations. Currently, four million refugees and migrants, including approximately three million Syrians, are located in Turkey. The border wall is representative of an ongoing, concerted effort to disrupt migration.

In September, Associated Press journalists witnessed the rescue operations of Afghan migrants, forced onto life rafts, and abandoned at sea shortly after reaching the Greek island of Lesbos. Authorities have accused Greece of large-scale pushbacks between March and July, as migrants were deported without access to asylum procedures, in violation of international law.

Twenty-nine international organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, addressed an open letter to the Greek Parliament, advocating for an investigation into abuses at the border. The letter outlines allegations against Greek border forces, having used violence against and in the unlawful return of displaced people, including in the form of collective expulsions and pushbacks. collective expulsions Turkish authorities additionally accuse the European Union of purposefully overlooking the abuse of migrants. The lives and rights of refugees and migrants have effectively been weaponized by Greek and Turkish politicians.

The migrant crisis is ongoing. Greece became the primary entry point to the EU, as a million people crossed through the nation in 2015 alone. Individuals fleeing war and poverty throughout the Middle East, Asia and Africa arrive in Europe through the Greek islands via Turkey. Approximately one million reached Greece and Italy in 2015.

Thousands of migrants died attempting to reach the continent. The 2016 EU-Turkey Statement and Action Plan aimed to halt migration via Turkey to Europe. Under the agreement, all new asylum seekers from Turkey arriving on the Greek islands and those whose applications for asylum were deemed inadmissible would be returned to Turkey. However, following the Turkish governments February 27th announcement that it would no longer prevent migrants from trying to reach Europe, tens of thousands of refugees attempted to enter Greece, and the European Union by extension.

The large-scale attempt to cross the Greek border appeared to be backed by the Turkish government, an organized campaign. It is worth noting that Turkeys shared border with Bulgaria, also an EU member, remained unaffected. The resulting standoff at the Greco-Turkish border was violent. Greek border guards reportedly utilized force, firing rubber bullets at migrants. A surveillance camera network is planned, spanning the entire 192 kilometre border.

A UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants claimed those who managed to cross the border were allegedly intercepted by Greek border guards, detained, stripped, confiscated of belongings and pushed back to Turkey. This alleged excessive use of force seems to have led to the deaths and injuries.

However, the EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen demonstrated support for Greek actions, specifically the deterrence of migration. According to von der Leyen, the border is not only a Greek border, but it is also a European borderI thank Greece for being our European aspida in these times. The term aspida translates to shield. As noted by Amnesty International, Europe does not need to be shielded against vulnerable peoples. Video evidence of a Frontex ship, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, creating waves near a crowded dinghy full of people, effectively driving the vessel back.

Although conflicts between Greece and Turkey are longstanding, the recent announcement of a border wall was preceded by strife in the Aegean Sea. Hostility between the nations is ongoing specifically regarding control of the Mediterranean and the Cyprus dispute. Recently, offshore gas and oil exploration rights have been contested, as Turkish research and naval ships sailed into waters contested with Greece. Further, the Turkish decision to break with the 2016 agreement was seemingly an attempt to garner western support for the Turkish military campaign in the Syrian Idlib province.

According to Greek Shipping Minister Giannis Plakiotakis, authorities have already stopped more than 10,000 people trying to enter the nation by sea, this year alone. Plakiotakis, whose ministry is in charge of the coast guard, declined to elaborate on how the boats were stopped from entering Greek waters.

However, the Shipping Minister readily denied the accusations of breaches to international law against the coast guard. In fact, the UN Refugee Agency is deeply concerned by an increasing number of credible reports indicating that men, women, and children may have been informally returned to Turkey immediately after reaching Greek soil or territorial waters in recent months. The Greek government was further criticized for suspending asylum applications for thirty days as of March 1st.

The 2016 EU-Turkey statement, which aimed to keep migrants from crossing into Greece, is clearly flawed and requires significant reform. The director of the Migration Policy Institute think tank, Hanne Beirens, claims that the agreement was once characterized by EU members as a temporary measure.

However, the persistence of the 2016 deal into 2020 is ultimately reflective of increasingly xenophobic attitudes across the European continent. In July of 2020, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Polish denial of access to asylum procedures violated multiple articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The UNHCR called on Poland, as a signatory of the 1951 Refugee Convention, to grant refugees access to territory and asylum. Further, for over five years, the borders of Hungary have been sealed. Approximately 300 were stuck in migrant transit zones, several hundred square metres between the borders of Hungary and Serbia, until the European Court of Justice ruled the practice illegal in May of 2020.

The ECJ ruled in April, that both nations and the Czech Republic violated their obligations, effectively refusing to participate in the relocation of asylum seekers. The Eastern European nations failed to uphold an EU agreement to distribute 160,000 migrants housed in Greece and Italy in 2015. The relocation plan represented an attempt to mitigate the pressures of large scale migration placed on Mediterranean nations.

The European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, released a New Pact on Migration and Asylum in September of 2020. Although the policy is intended to be mandatory, yet flexible, it fails to truly address the member states unwilling to accept asylum-seekers, and the imbalance that is created in migration as a result. Nations that have refused to accept migrants will assume the obligation to organize and carry out returns. The EU failed to provide clear incentives to accept migrants.

International monetary support for migrants is necessary. Greece has been under a significant economic strain for years, exacerbated by the migrant crisis. Asylum seekers in Greece continue to be housed in overcrowded, poor conditions. On September 8th, 2020, a fire broke out on the Greek island of Lesvos.

Even more, fires were reported in the following days, destroying almost all of the Moria Reception and Identification Centre. The asylum centre housed 11,500. As of October 8th, approximately 7,800 of the refugees are living in an emergency site in Kara Tepe. Oncoming colder weather will make life even more difficult, as many people are sheltering in tents. The UNHCR is currently calling for donations to support the refugees impacted by the fires. However, life is difficult for migrants living in Turkey. According to Amnesty International, only 1.5% of Syrians of working-age have work permits in Turkey. Further, many Syrian peoples are unable to access basic services.

Community Sponsorship is a program in the UK, promoting resettlement. A refugee family is offered the opportunity to immigrate legally and safely, welcomed, and supported by a local community. Introduced in 2016, 450 families have benefitted from the program. Similar initiatives are also in place in Canada, Spain, Ireland, etc.

The program was recently promoted by the UNHCR. Amnesty International similarly encourages the relocation of asylum-seekers through humanitarian and family visas. However, in order to promote the settlement of displaced peoples, it is necessary to address harmful attitudes that underly the reluctance to accept immigration. Politicians frequently utilize Islamaphobic and xenophobic rhetoric, fear-mongering in order to effectively galvanize voters.

Calls to construct a border wall to prevent immigration in Greece are clearly prevalent internationally. As Amnesty International notes, however, walls wont stop people from moving; they just increase the human cost. Further, negative conceptions surrounding migration, often promoted by the far-right, are quite damaging. Economists suggest that the common assumption that immigration negatively impacts the economy is a myth. In fact, immigration is characterized as a means of creating a more dynamic economy.

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Large-Scale Pushbacks Of Asylum Seekers At The Greco-Turkish Border - The Organization for World Peace

Photo Credit: UNHCR/Siegfried Modola

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