Dear friends,
At the beginning of the New Year, we would like to take a moment to reflect on the one that passed. As 2016 was drawing to an end, there seemed to be a widespread consensus that it had been a terrible year.
The war in Syria entered into its fifth year and thousands of people lost their lives, while hundreds of thousands continued trying to flee to safety. As a response to this so-called 'migrant crisis' , the European Union (EU) struck a deal to return refugees to Turkey and went on to plan similar deals with African nations and Afghanistan, despite the protest of civil society. In India the sudden demonetisation hit poor people the hardest and risks exacerbating poverty and undermining social trust even further. In the Philippines, the newly-elected president encouraged the extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers and drug users, with the death toll rising every day. In Latin America, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was removed from office after a coup, and throughout the continent leftist governments lost popularity. In Europe and the US, xenophobia and right-wing populism continued to rise, culminating in the two events that shook the world and are likely to have the worst implications for 2017 and the coming years: the UK's vote to leave the EU and the US vote to elect a xenophobic, sexist and climate change-denying president. Although the impacts of these two votes on migration, human and labour rights around the world are yet to be seen, we have few reasons to be hopeful.