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When a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd last year, the video of his killing immediately ricocheted around the web. The massive social movement that followed may have been the largest in U.S. history. Millions took to the streets and the internet to express a desire for racial justice in the United States, in a movement that has become encapsulated by the viral hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.

But a year after Floyds killing many observers have begun to ask whatif anythinghas fundamentally changed? These questions are in part about the possibility of racial equality and real police reform in America, but also address the extent to which a political and social movement with online origins can break into the U.S. mainstream and effect real change. In the year since Floyds murder, online interest in Black Lives Matter has steadily grown. An analysis of more than 50 million Twitter posts between Jan. 28, 2013 and April 30, 2021 finds that the outpouring of online support for #BlackLivesMatter following Floyds killing resulted in a lasting shift and a more vocal and engaged online public, with no evidence of hashtag cooptation by more conservative users over the past year. While the Black Lives Matter movements impact on the policy landscape remains uncertain, its online presence is undoubtedly stronger.

The growth of a hashtag movement

On July 13, 2013, George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. Immediately, several Twitter users aired their disappointment and reminded the world of a simple truth: Black Lives Matter. Their tweets marked some of the first uses of a hashtag that would enter the mainstream a year later, on November 25, 2014, when a grand jury declined to indict Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brownand protesters online and off turned to the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag to express their anger and grief. As police violence has persisted and the movement for racial justice continues, the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag has emerged as an enduring feature of online discourse. As of April 30, 2021, it has been used in more than 25 million original Twitter posts, which collectively have garnered approximately 444 billion likes, retweets, comments, or quotesroughly 17,000 engagements per post.[1]

Since Floyds murder, this online activism has only accelerated. In the seven days between his death on May 25, 2020, and the police attack on protesters in Lafayette Square on June 1, the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag generated approximately 3.4 million original posts with 69 billion engagementsor roughly 13% of all posts and 15.5% of all engagements on Twitter in that period. #BlackLivesMatter content peaked on June 8, with some 1.2 million original posts mentioning the hashtag.This marked an astonishing increase in use of the hashtag: Prior to the June protests, the record for posts had been July 8, 2016, following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, when original content reached 145,631 posts with an average of 7.4 engagements per post.

Figure 1 plots this dramatic increase in use of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, alongside markers of milestones in the movement. Following Floyds murder, posts increased exponentially and previous spikes in content barely register in comparison. The figure also plots use of #BlueLivesMatter, a hashtag movement expressing support for the police and that, here, illustrates the disparity in interest between the two hashtags. Between 2013 and 2021, #BlueLivesMatter has registered 1.6 million original posts and 1.7 billion engagements (about 1,000 per post), which while smaller in scope than #BlackLivesMatter, is not insignificant. Use of the two hashtag movements appear to rise and fall together.

Figure 1: Total Original #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter Posts

The basic time series detailed above highlights how atypical last summers social media discourse was surrounding #BlackLivesMatter. But the skewed nature of the data masks underlying patterns. Though it may not be immediately apparent, Floyds murder marked a turning point in Twitter conversations around #BlackLivesMatter. By transforming the data to a log-scale, the steady growth of a movement (and separation from a countermovement) becomes clear (Figure 2). This type of transformation is particularly useful on highly skewed data. Visually, the log transformation represents data as a percentage change, such that going from 1 to 2 will appear the same on a graph as going from 100 to 200, even though the absolute change in value (1 vs. 100) differs.

Figure 2: Total Original #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter Posts (Logged)

In the run-up to Floyds murder, #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter content tracked together, rising and falling in response to instances of police violence. But Floyds murder breaks this pattern: Both #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter content surge, but the former does not return to its pre-Floyd normal. #BlueLivesMatter content declines steadily in the subsequent months after the initial spike, but #BlackLivesMatter content rises relative to the time prior to Floyds murder. Between January 1 and March 31, 2020, the average daily number of original posts for #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter content was 1,829 and 836 respectively. During this same period in 2021, these numbers stand at 4,368 and 394 respectively. This represents a nearly 250% increase in #BlackLivesMatter content on the year, a sizableand seemingly durableshift.

Over the years, the overlapping spikes in #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter content have sparked intense rhetorical competition online among Twitter users. As a result, the sustained growth in #BlackLivesMatter content might be dismissed as a case of hashtag cooptation, in which the movements opponents ironically or negatively post using the hashtag. But by examining the expanded network of users sharing content, it is evident that this is not the case. Figures 3 and 4 plot the average political ideology of Twitter accounts using the #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter hashtags at two contentious political moments over the past yearthe January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol and the Derek Chauvin trial.[2]

Until early January, the political ideology of these users was as we would expect itusers sharing the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag more liberal, users sharing the #BlueLivesMatter hashtag more conservative. Then, the ideology of users sharing the #BlueLivesMatter hashtag becomes dramatically more liberal for a brief period of time. This is likely due to an ironic appropriation of the hashtag in response to the Capitol assault, which resulted in one police officer dying and many more being injured. By contrast, the steady ideological score associated with posts that used the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag suggests that content during this period was driven by users supportive of the hashtags message.

Figure 3: Average Political Ideology of #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter Hashtag Users

The political ideology of users posting #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter has held steady during other periods of upheaval, indicating that it is unlikely that hashtag cooptation is causing a significant portion of the growth in use of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag. Over the course of April, a police officer shot and killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, while former police officer Derek Chauvin stood trial nearby for Floyds murder. Figure 4 shows that, as in January, the average ideology of users posting content with the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag barely fluctuated. Unlike in January, however, the average ideology of #BlueLivesMatter hashtag users did not change. Instead, what registers is an online battle for control of the #AllLivesMatter hashtag, which fluctuates wildly over the course of the month in ways that coincide with Wrights killing and Chauvins conviction.

Figure 4: Average Political Ideology of #BlackLivesMatter, #BlueLivesMatter, and #AllLivesMatter Hashtag Users

While support for the Black Lives Matter movement has declined in recent months, particularly in conservative America, there remains a steady interest in this online conversation. A growing number of users are actively engaged both during and outside the times of intense interest associated with moments of upheaval. For a social and political movement bolstered by a hashtag, this growth may serve as a silver lining to a challenging year. The difficulty, of course, is translating online activismcommonly critiqued as slacktivisminto offline political change. Yet some research has found that online support can translate to meaningful offline action. And this may be particularly true of young people, who unsurprisingly are disproportionately represented in online political conversations. This may be somewhat less difficult for #BlackLivesMatter, which began, in part, as a social media conversation and has now firmly entered the political mainstream.

Valerie Wirtschafter is a senior data analyst in the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies Initiative at the Brookings Institution and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles.

[1] In this analysis, I exclude retweets, which are counted as observations in some analyses. Instead, retweets are included in engagements, which also includes likes, comments, and quote tweets. Data for this analysis from January 2013 to June 2020 comes from Giorgi, et al. (2020), which due to Twitters terms of service, provides only posts ids for approximately 41 million tweets that reference #BlackLivesMatter, #BlueLivesMatter or #AllLivesMatter. I use the rehydratoR package in R to pull the Twitter content from the post ids provided. Finally, I use the Twitter API to pull the remaining posts from July 2020 through April 2021. Twitter post IDs for this expanded dataset can be made available on request.

[2] In his 2015 Political Analysis paper, Pablo Barber develops a strategy for calculating the partisan ideology of Twitter users, based on the network of Twitter users they chose to follow. The idea is that the decision to follow certain elites is a signal of political interest, which can then be used as an input to determine the partisan preferences of a given Twitter user. This estimation strategy aligns well with other common measures of ideology, including party registration records and DW-NOMINATE scores. Given that these calculations are data intensive and Twitter API rate limits for this content are fairly restrictive, I utilize this strategy but restrict my analysis to users who shared relevant content over a given time period that received at least fifty likes, retweets, comments or quotes. In order to ensure the precision of ideology estimates, I also exclude users who follow fewer than five elites. Elites include politicians, media outlets, think tanks, political commentators, and other influential Twitter users. Positive scores are more conservative and negative scores are more liberal. More details on the methodology and implementation can be found here.

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How George Floyd changed the online conversation around BLM - Brookings Institution

Patrick Washington is the CEO and publisher of The Dallas Weekly

The Texas-birthed holiday ofJuneteenthis a very interesting holiday, to say the least. See, I, a native-born Texan, have two Yankee parents. As such, Ive been able to hear both sides of the idea of Juneteenth, and now am at a final resting place for my attitude about this NEW celebration of what used to be a regional observance.

Im ok with it.

Let me explain; I love the idea of Juneteenth. Its simple to me. Civil War ended, white folks were trippin, army had to come in, let everybody know whats up. Easy right? I thought so toobut then the other side came in.

Now, for the sake of fairness, Idoget some of the opposition that was very prevalent in my younger days. Its kind of strange to celebrate the late arrival of emancipation, however, I also didnt understand why others cared so much when this wasnt a national thing. It was for us Texans. Then an elder of mine stated plainly, They dont like that we celebrate our freedom, because they dont celebrate theirs. And never have. But will celebrate the fourth of July like it meant something. And there it was: clarity. The line had been drawn in the sand and I now stood firmly on the side of Juneteenth.

I admit I never understood why other Black communities had no observance of their freedom. I figured someone heard about the Emancipation Proclamation and said thats a good day to light up a barbecue and shoot up some fireworks, but no. Even a simple observance of Black liberation would be cool, right? Butno.

So, I carried on quietly eating my ribs and finding some strawberries to munch on (Im not a watermelon fan, so I kept it 19thwith another red fruit). Then something happened. I met someone who would eventually become a close friend from upstate New York; Syracuse to be exact. At some point, we were talking, and I mentioned Juneteenth and she said, yeah, I havent celebrated that since I left home.

You know I the native-born Texan was confused. How couldwhy would a New Yorker know anything about Juneteenth? As curious as a cat, I probed for everything she knew about MY holiday, and to my surprise she got it all right! She told me that there were observances in small places all the time, and they were often met with the same disdain as I was familiar with when it came to outsiderslearning aboutJuneteenth.

Still, at that point, I couldnt care less. I was far too excited to have a friend to silence the haters who didnt have a country accent. It was glorious. And we both were soldiers in the army of Juneteenth laying tongue thrashings to haters at the drop of a dime.

Then, in late February 2012, George Zimmerman killedTrayvon Martinand the world changed. For years, the Black community had endured a seemingly unending display of Black bodies murdered by police with no accountability or consequence. Now, here was this civilian, with a far more extensive criminal background than the child hed literally stalked against police orders before instigating contact with and killing him, being given the same hand-waving latitude as police officers, while social media exploded with concentrated efforts to dehumanize the victim.

Call it the first moments of the resurgence of the Civil Rights Movement, and the global awareness campaign that would become Black Lives Matter. Everything had changed, but not really. It was still business as usual but something else was there. An underlying tone was getting louder. A fervor that was just under the surface ready to explode, and we all knew it was coming.

The next few years, things just grew more and more tense. During that whole time, we still celebrated Juneteenth. More Black celebrities were talking about it; I sawUsherwear a shirt on stage X-ing out the Fourth of July and underlining Juneteenth. Cool. I look up and folks in California are explaining to the internet the importance of Juneteenth.

What the hell is happening? I called my friend; she already knew. We lamented, asked whats the deal with this, laughed, and casually dismissed the fair weather freedom lovers for what we thought was, at best, a momentary interest.

Thankfully, we were wrong, but I still had a few lingering reservations. After all, my mother told me about growing up in the 1960s and watching all her peers rock afros and Afrocentric garments, but by the mid-70s to early-80s she said, Most of them negroes went back to perms and tight fades to appease white folks to get jobs in the corporate sector.

I couldnt deny that, nor could I separate how humans use trends in horrible situations to feel better about what we feel we cant control. Id be lying if I said that didnt sit at the top of my thought process when bringing up Juneteenth with certain people.

And then there was George Floyd. The chillingly silent explosion we had all been waiting for. That tragic, horrific, damn near 9-minute bomb that blew up in our faces as we just watched. Say what you want, but we all watched. For whatever reason, we watched. We saw that clock ticking, and we watched. We heard that fear, and we watched. BOOM. The whole world heard that explosion, but this time, the world was not turning away.

For a while, the planet was engulfed in conversation about Black lives. Not only through marches, but also via dialogue, history lessons, context, perspectives, think pieces, andwait for it, Juneteenth. Yep, right there in the middle of all this turmoil, were groups of people talking about Juneteenth.

To be fair, Juneteenth occurred that year as usual, however, at that time, I was feeling like, oh, it just takes slavery, Jim Crow, civil right movement, black power movement, hip hop, countless black people killed by the police and a global protest to get Black people to recognize thisgreat. Looking back, I think I was just upset that thats the norm for things like this.

My mother-in-law blames it on socialization. According to her, Americans are not wired to learn lessons easily. It takes a lot, but once we move the needle, it tends to stay moved. Today there are national talks about Juneteenth, as well as different states recognizing the date as important in the history and context of the USAs racial past.

I was still having reservations about supporting this, but like most things in my life, an elder spoke to me. Saying mostly better late than never, but also re-affirming what I already knew to be true.This isnt about white folks not letting us go free. It aint about Black folks not knowing about the end of the war, nor not being given anything.

Juneteenth is about us.

Its about us recognizing our inherit liberty and freedom. The thing is, when did any enslaved person truly know they were free? Hell, Malcolm X was talking about the mentally enslaved DURING the Civil Rights Movement. When were the shackles truly taken off? And did they stay off? What reminds you of not slipping back into a place of subjugation? No need to guess, Ill tell you; Its a ritual. A ceremony that takes all that and puts it in its place. I took for granted that I was born in a place where that was the norm, and others were just now waking up to the idea that we deserve a day of recognition that are NOT slaves. Who celebrates that? We do.

In the words of the illustrious Charles ONeil, Chairman, Board of Directors at U.S. Black Chambers, Inc, Apparently there was NO party before Juneteenthwhat emancipation date is commemorated in SC, AL, GA, TN, KY, MS, LA, AR, VA, NC? Juneteenth mighta been late, but wutno party til Texas got there! Its a point of pride really. Through all this weve been telling yall we free! Late sure, messed up, yes, but were here EVERY YEAR, doing our most to enjoy us, to celebrate us.

So, welcome all you colored people time-having freedom lovers. Pull up a seat, pour some fresh prepared strawberry soda, slice a watermelon, and inhale the sweet smells from the grill, cuz we are all free. Free to be who we want and who we are now and forever.

We now understand our foundational influence on this place. Our ownership of its history and our roles in making sure that it never reverts.Were in it now, like yesterday never left. Voter suppression efforts like its still the Jim Crow era, law enforcement still acting like slave catchers, and racists in power doing their best to keep it.

But we have Juneteenth. Not just the day, but also the attitude, the philosophy, the ideal. Its ours.

I do not know what the future holds, clich as that is, but I can be sure of a one thing this year. On the 19thof June, the United States of Americas African population will be as unified as ever, and I cant see that going away. Im thankful for that. I appreciate that, and I will allow that to melt away the younger sentiments I had towards my fellow Black folks whom I welcome with open arms into this new head space.

Just dont forget where it comes from: TEXAS BABY!

Patrick Washington is the second-generation CEO and publisher ofThe Dallas Weeklywhich has been serving the Black community of the 4thlargest metroplex in the nation since 1954.

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Texas Native Son talks Juneteenth: Better late than never - St. Louis American

When President Joe Biden took office in January, there was an expectation that changes to policies on the southern border would help reverse the crisis there.

But what resulted was a surge in arriving migrants, some believing that Biden's friendlier approach toward immigration compared to his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, would make the end result of the arduous process easier.

In addition, hopes of reuniting families of children separated by Trump's controversial separation policy have also been slow-going and the issue of immigration generally has been a source of contention for the new administration.

Illustrating the turmoil is a dramatic surge in unauthorized U.S. southern border crossings. There were 180,000 just last month, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection -- a two-decade high and a 76% increase since February.

During the Trump administration encounters with migrants were lower with monthly totals peaking at nearly 150,000, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, overwhelming immigration authorities and leading to overcrowding at Border Patrol facilities. The Biden administration has handled the elevated volume through combination of efforts including the transformation of ICE detention facilities into rapid processing centers and the expansion of migrant child care facilities.

Changing demographics of migrants and recidivism

Biden administration officials have underscored the elevated rate of repeat offenders as well as the shifting demographics of those coming across.

The number of single adults increased from April to May by about 10,000 while the number of families and children declined, according to CBP data. Adults are often easier to repatriate while children pose additional challenges of care, education, housing accommodations and health care needs.

Recidivism was also up with 38% of those arrested or detained in May having tried to cross at least one time before in the past year. That's up from an average one-year recidivism rate of 15% between 2014 and 2019.

A majority of those who made illegal crossings were sent back immediately or "expelled" under the controversial "Title 42" process. The order, critics say, drastically cuts access to humanitarian programs for asylum seekers and incentivizes families to send their children across the border alone as it facilitates the return of migrants, including families, to Mexico in a matter of hours. Children have been exempt from the rapid removal protocols since a November court ruling last year forced the Trump administration to stop sending them back.

A group of migrants mainly from Honduras and Nicaragua wait along a road after turning themselves in upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, in La Joya, Texas, May 17, 2021.

"The large number of expulsions during the pandemic has contributed to a larger-than-usual number of non-citizens making multiple border crossing attempts, and means total encounters somewhat overstate the number of unique individuals arriving at the border," CBP said in a recent statement.

Some success but challenges remain

As a result of the Biden administration's efforts to reunite children in U.S. custody with families and sponsors, the number of minors in Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement care has dropped from about 23,000 to about 16,000 in recent months.

The numbers remain at record levels compared to previous years, but the administration has opened a series of emergency sites to handle the intake and processing and give children a safe, clean place to stay before they are matched with sponsors.

Not all facilities have met government standards, however. One center in Houston was shuttered for failing to comply with federal guidelines. Sources familiar with the facility's operation said the girls housed there, aged 13-17, were at times instructed to use plastic bags for toilets because there were not enough staff members to accompany them to restrooms.

Until its closure, the Houston facility had been run by a local nonprofit with no prior experience housing unaccompanied migrant children.

A pair of migrant families from Brazil pass through a gap in the border wall after crossing from Mexico into Yuma, Ariz., June 10, 2021, to seek asylum. The families are part of an influx of asylum-seekers entering the U.S. in the Yuma area from South America and other continents.

So far, the HHS facilities designed to alleviate crowding in Border Patrol stations have not been met with the pushback that accompanied them under the Trump administration. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., referred to some government facilities as "racist child prisons" when the prior administration moved to house children at an Army based once used as an internment camp for Japanese Americans in World War II.

Changes and clearing the backlog

One of the principal issues is a major backlog in processing deportation cases, including for those who may be eligible for asylum. According to researchers at Syracuse University there are more than 1.3 million pending cases as of May 2021, a number which has steadily grown since the late '90s.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) under the Biden administration updated expedited criteria policy allowing individuals with urgent humanitarian needs to move through the system faster.

U.S. Border Patrol agents observe the body of a person covered in a white sheet near the border wall in El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, June 11, 2021.

The agency also reinstated its policy of allowing immigrant applicants, including those seeking asylum, to be notified of disqualifying elements in their applications and make corrections.

This is a reversal of a Trump-era policy that allowed for immediate cancellation of applications with errors without notice. Green card applicants can now get a work permit for two years instead of one before needing to reapply.

USCIS is also working to build operating capacity with fewer COVID-19-related restrictions.

High-traffic application support centers, where people go to get fingerprinted, are open for extended 12-hour periods after many were shuttered during the pandemic. USCIS is also allowing applicants to skip re-submitting biometric data if that information is already in the system. The measures have led to a 33% reduction in the wait queue for applications, according to one Biden administration official.

'Do not come'

Vice President Kamala Harris, who has the border as part of her portfolio, recently announced during a trip to Guatemala and Mexico task force groups for smuggling, trafficking and corruption, assistance for housing and entrepreneurs and a $40 million young women's empowerment initiative.

Yet benchmarks, timelines and exact goals of the programs remain vague and apparently long-term. Harris also took the opportunity to issue an urgent-sounding message to those planning migration.

Vice President Kamala Harris, left, looks toward Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, during a news conference on June 7, 2021, at the National Palace in Guatemala City.

"I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come. Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border. There are legal methods by which migration can and should occur, but we, as one of our priorities, will discourage illegal migration. And I believe, if you come to our border, you will be turned back."

The vice president's comments were widely criticized as insensitive to real asylum claims, which migrants have legal rights to initiate upon arrival in the U.S. even if the means of arrival are unlawful.

In a gaggle with reporters on the tarmac in Guatemala City earlier this month, Harris defended her message to migrants.

"I'm really clear we have to deal with the root cause," she said. "And that is my focus. Period."

ABC News' Ben Gittleson and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

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Crisis at the border: How it happened and what is being done - ABC News

As Amy Boyden clambered over a mountain of orange foam lifejackets on the Greek island of Lesbos, the nauseating scale of the humanitarian crisis knocking on Europes door hit her hard.

It felt like I was at a funeral," she said. "There were thousands and thousands and thousands of lifejackets."

You can walk over them. It felt like walking across the ocean and across dead bodies. The air was so still and there was such a sense of hopelessness. Its so sad that these people had to go through this.

A graveyard of lifejackets

Ms Boyden, a recent UCC Law graduate, visited 'Lifejacket Graveyard', a place where washed-up lifejackets or those left on the beaches by people who make it to shore are gathered after she arrived on the Greek island as an international humanitarian aid worker this year to help with the unending refugee crisis.

She noticed a little girls shoes among the mountains of black and orange foam.

What happened to that four-year-old girl who wore those shoes? Did she survive?

"Its so distressing to think of my own niece in that situation, Ms Boyden said.

But despite their overwhelming mass, the volume of jackets at Lifejacket Graveyard barely hints at the scale of the refugee crisis.

Internationally, some 82.4m people are forcibly displaced worldwide according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

And although headlines now rarely scream about people drowning in the Mediterranean, 815 people have died trying to make that crossing already this year, according to estimates by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Missing Migrants project.

And Greece, a country that saw more than a million people arrive on its shores during the refugee crisis of 2015 and 2016, is now hardening its stance on new arrivals.

The Mediterranean country says it has little choice due to the lack of support from the rest of Europe.

Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi recently told Reuters that the government is taking a tougher approach so we dont send the wrong message of incentivising people to come to Greece.

Many of those who arrive in Greece do so through Lesbos, which is only separated from Turkey by a narrow strait.

People ferried like livestock

From Turkey, people are stuffed onto little boats like livestock and are often sold fake lifejackets, death traps painted brightly to pose as something good.

The horrifying subject of defective lifejackets was raised in the European Parliament as far back as 2016, when they were viewed as clearly to blame for many deaths at sea.

These people are just like you and me, they have skills and dreams and aspirations.

"Its horrifying how theyve been treated," Ms Boyden said.

Inspired by her godmother, who still volunteers in her 60s, Ms Boyden eventually made the trip to Greece in March, two months after she planned to leave following five Covid-cancelled flights.

Ms Boyden has been teaching English at the Kara Tepe or New Moria refugee camp which was hastily located on an abandoned army firing range after a fire ripped through the infamous Moria refugee camp last September.

Moria, Europes largest refugee camp, was originally designed to hold 3,000 people but 13,000 subsisted there when the fire hit in the middle of a Covid outbreak.

Armageddon-like images from that fire and its aftermath show dazed children clutching what little possessions they could save as they shuffle beneath looming charred security fences ensnared in sharp, blackened barbed wire.

Human Rights Watch raised serious concerns that the new site where Ms Boyden works has significant lead poisoning from its days as a firing range.

Some 6,000 souls in the camp

However, Ms Boyden said that the facilities are at least an improvement on Moria, and the camp is not as overcrowded.

It is estimated that some 6,000 people live at the new, temporary camp including more than 2,000 minors.

A strict lockdown was imposed on the camp to contain the spread of Covid-19, further limiting the already restricted lives of its inhabitants.

She said life at the camp is not easy for those seeking asylum:

The shelter is completely inadequate. There are two, three families living in one tent with no windows. The temperatures are rising, well be seeing 30 degrees heat with little to no shading or shelter. Its unbearable to stay inside the tents.

There is running water, toilets, showers but people sometimes have to walk quite a bit to get to them.

Its pretty tough. The mental health situation in the camp is catastrophic. Theres a lack of resources for supporting people trapped in this situation, theyre overstretched.

Some people say to me that every day is the same. All their hope is drained. Theres a lot of waiting and isolation.

Everyone wears masks in camp, she said, and an NGO provides hand sanitation. There are rapid antigen and PCR tests and if someone tests positive they go into a quarantine area for two weeks. However, serious cases of Covid in the camp have been very rare, she said, as most people are still quite young.

Refugees fleeing horrific situations

Ms Boyden teaches adults. Her youngest pupil is 18 and her oldest is 46.

Im teaching them how to read and write its very rewarding," she says. "They try so hard. They just need to believe in themselves more.

Learning a European language empowers them and will be valuable when navigating the asylum process, she said.

She said that many of her students have had to flee horrifying realities in their home countries.

A lot of them come from Afghanistan. To face the Taliban, to decide that youre going to leave with your family and walk across so many countries by foot. Its insane.

Then they have to go on that boat journey from Turkey to Greece which is also so treacherous:

Theyre so desperate, they feel they have no other option but to put their whole family in the boat and just hope to God that they wont drown, or be pushed back.

The Greek authorities have repeatedly denied that their coastguards have been pushing migrant boats back into Turkish waters.

However, Ms Boyden said that allegations about this horrible practice are rife.

She said that people are too quick to demand that people should now return to countries such as Afghanistan which are still violent and unstable.

'We'll never understand what they've lost'

It makes me so angry. A lot of people say, well if the country is safe refugees should go back to them'. But if they were willing to make that massive, dangerous journey, well never begin to understand what they have gone through and what theyve lost.

In Kabul, in Afghanistan, 40 schoolgirls were killed in a bombing. Or in Iran, an Iranian man was beheaded because of his sexual orientation. Or in Palestine, the Gaza Strip is being bombed by Israel.

If your daughter runs the risk of being blown up going to school, is this a safe place?

If your son runs the risk of being beheaded because of his sexual orientation, dont you think he has the right to leave and resettle? I think they have every right.

'Unspeakable crimes against human rights'

Unspeakable crimes against human rights are being committed every day.

All these men, women, and children travel thousands of miles in search of a safe haven. But they continuously face inhumane treatment and breaches of human rights law, even when they make it to Europes door.

Its devastating to see peoples hopes and dreams being drained in camps.

Its intense. Recently, there was a mother of three, she was pregnant with her fourth child and she put her three children outside the tent, she went back in and set herself on fire. She just could not do it any more.

"But she didnt die, and now shes being prosecuted for arson.

'Ireland could do more'

Ms Boyden believes that Ireland could do more to help these people, by ending direct provision and by taking in more refugees.

When the camp Moria burned down in September 2020, Ireland said it would take in four refugees four out of more than 12,000 people.

Since the 1800s, 10m Irish people have migrated to countries across the world. Ireland, I feel, could take in far more refugees. We have quite a low population, and so many countries took us in. I feel we should do something in return.

These people just want their children to go to school without the fear of them being blown up by extremists. They just want to live peaceful lives.

We have a tendency to turn a blind eye if its not affecting us. But if it was affecting you, God almighty, youd want somebody to be helping you.

She encouraged every adult to volunteer.

Its a hugely rewarding experience and anyone can do it. Its great to make life that bit better for people, to help them forget the nightmare theyve been living and to show them that there is hope.

Ms Boyden is fundraising for school materials and for hygiene products and clothes for fast-growing babies and children at the camp.

To donate to her campaign, visit exa.mn/AmyBoydenFundraiser.

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Refugee crisis: 'What happened to that four-year-old girl who wore those shoes?' - Irish Examiner

As Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is moving to allocate $250 million of state taxpayer money toward completing the southern border wall within his state, which began construction under President Trump but halted under President Biden, "The Five" discussed how governors are filling the absence of leadership at the federal level when it comes to the migrant crisis.

On Thursday, host Dana Perino pointed to Abbott's decision to use state money for what is supposed to be a federal responsibility as a result of inaction from Biden and Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

"I think it is very real," Perino replied when asked whether Abbott is acting in real support of his state, or in support of partisan politics. "Especially if you are in Texas and one big frustration has to be for the governor that they have this problem, the federal government is unwilling to helpbut immigration and border security is a federal government responsibility."

"That's why it's amazing that they say, we will take a billion dollars of state taxpayer money to try to deal with this problem,'" she said. Texas allocated $1 billion to border security with $250 million being a down payment for the border wall.

Perino added that she understands Abbott's frustration with the Biden administration.

"On the political side of things, because of the lack of action by the Biden administration, you are allowing these governors a chance to shine," she said, adding that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, R, is the other border state governor appearing to make decisions towards addressing the issue.

However, she noted, the other two border state governors, Govs. Michelle Lujan-Grisham of New Mexico and Gavin Newsom of Californiaboth Democratsare not being proactive in addressing border security.

Cohost Jesse Watters recalled Biden's predecessor who sought to help states with their crises rather than ignore them.

"I remember when we had a president that would help the states. He sent New York ventilators," Watters said, referring to former President Trump giving federal assistance to New York during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Now Biden is hanging Texas out to dry, so [Abbott] stepping up."

"But like Dana said, it is hard for a governor to build a border wall because most of that is federal land in the land that is not federal land, it is privately owned, all landowners adjacent to each other all have to agree to have a wall built," Watters noted.

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During a testy exchange in a congressional hearing on Thursday, Mayorkas bristled at Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who asked him about Vice President Harris' "laugh" about visiting the border, and whether that was a proper response.

"I consider that question to be quite unfair and disrespectful," Mayorkas replied.

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Dana Perino: Biden's inaction on immigration crisis, border wall allows 'governors a chance to shine' - Fox News