Bill Frelick

Unforgivable:

“DESTROY” stickers were affixed this week to hundreds of cases of U.S.-branded food aid — 15,000 pounds’ worth — that have languished for months in a Georgia warehouse and then expired before they could be sent overseas to famine-stricken areas like Sudan.

HRW's Nicole Widdersheim on Florida's immigration detention centers: "While instilling fear by propagating this cruelty may be a de facto policy to deter others from immigrating to the US, demeaning human beings in this way demeans us all." @hrw.org
www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/07/29/c...

America's pastime...

BangkokPost: Let's be clear: these camps R no longer shelters. They R holding pens. Pple R locked in, barred from work or leaving..W/out intervention, the risks R clear: illegal work, trafficking,..increased crime..Pple want the chance 2 stand on their own 2 feet. www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin...

“I’ll Never Feel Secure” The 48-page report, “‘I’ll Never Feel Secure’: Undocumented and Exploited Myanmar Nationals in Thailand,” examines how the Thai police frequently stop and interrogate Myanmar nationals and extort them...

Thailand does not recognize refugees, and the limited measures it has in place for “protected persons” are effectively closed to most Myanmar nationals. As a result, many Myanmar nationals, including children, have no legal access to basic health care, education or work.
www.hrw.org/report/2025/...

India: Hundreds of Muslims Unlawfully Expelled to Bangladesh Indian authorities have expelled hundreds of ethnic Bengali Muslims to Bangladesh in recent weeks without due process, claiming they are “illegal immigrants.

India is arbitrarily expelling Bengali Muslims from the country. Officials’ claims they are managing irregular immigration are unconvincing given their disregard 4 due process rights, domestic guarantees & int'l human rights standards. @elainepearson.bsky.social @hrw.org
www.hrw.org/news/2025/07...

US: Immigrants Abused in Florida Detention Sites The United States government has subjected immigrants detained in three Florida facilities to abusive, degrading, and in some cases life-threatening conditions, Americans for Immigrant Justice, Human ...

NEW REPORT: “You Feel Like Your Life is Over” — @hrw.org AI Justice @sanctuarylegalservices.com expose abusive conditions at 3 Florida immigration detention centers. Overcrowding, medical neglect, and degrading treatment are rampant. #HumanRights #ImmigrationJustice www.hrw.org/news/2025/07...

www.instagram.com/p/DMO0m3MpIT...

Thailand: Authorities Abuse, Exploit Myanmar Nationals Thai authorities are threatening, extorting, and detaining Myanmar nationals who fled the abusive military junta to seek safety in Thailand.

Because Thailand lacks a proper refugee law many Myanmar refugees are undocumented, exposing them 2 police threats & extortion, or they seek migrant worker status, which requires an employer sponsor & lacks basic protections needed 4 people fleeing persecution & conflict.
www.hrw.org/news/2025/07...

US Terminates Protected Status for Afghans The Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Afghans in the United States will take effect on July 14, leaving over 11,000 Afghans in the US subject to immediate dete...

TPS is a mechanism for circumstances that constitute generalized threats to safety, which is especially important for Afghan women who might lack documentation to show individualized threats to establish claims under the US asylum procedure.
www.hrw.org/news/2025/07...

bsky.app/profile/hrw....

The 'Beautiful Game' at Risk From Ugly US Migration Policies The United States is preparing to host the 2026 FIFA soccer World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico. Meeting in March in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said...

FIFA needs to press the Trump administration to roll back the pernicious visa policies and practices that threaten migrants and foreign visitors in the U.S. www.hrw.org/news/2025/06...

Kuwait’s Exit Permit Requirement Puts Migrant Workers at Risk Kuwaiti authorities recently announced that starting July 2025, migrant workers will require permission to leave the country. This decision is an alarming step backward in Kuwait’s migrant worker gove...

Kuwait will soon require migrant workers permission 2 leave the country. Instead of dismantling the kafala system, Kuwait is reinforcing it by putting migrant workers even further under the control of their employers & making them more vulnerable 2 exploitation. @hrw.org
www.hrw.org/news/2025/06...

US Travel Ban: New Rhetoric, Same Old Prejudice While the new version of the travel ban is worded more carefully than the ham-fisted “Muslim ban” of the first Trump administration, it nevertheless bears the hallmarks of prejudice and malice.

My thoughts on the new US Travel Ban: "People are not defined by their nationality. In fact, it is often dissent from ruling govts & majority cultures that compels individuals 2 leave their places of birth 2 seek freedom & restart their lives in foreign places." Read on: www.hrw.org/news/2025/06...

@hrw.org bsky.app/profile/hrw....

10 Years of Rohingya Refugees Stranded at Sea Today, Rohingya seeking asylum are still being beaten, extorted, and left to die, while the violence and repression pushing them from their homes has surged.

Today, Rohingya seeking asylum are still being beaten, extorted, and left to die, while the violence and repression pushing them from their homes has surged.

My @hrw.org colleagues, Shayna Bauchner and @nadiahardman.bsky.social comment:

thediplomat.com/2025/05/10-y...

bsky.app/profile/hrw....

US: Asylum Seekers Expelled to Costa Rica Detail Abuses The United States should offer to bring back and hear the asylum claims of approximately 200 third-party nationals, including children, who were wrongfully expelled to Costa Rica in February.

The US summarily expelled 200 asylum seekers, including 81 children, from Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, and other countries to Costa Rica in February. They detail the abuses they've faced in both countries in a new @hrw report out today. www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...

White House welcomes Afrikaners to the U.S., but drops protection for Afghan allies Veterans and others express outrage as the Trump administration ends special protective status for Afghans who had relocated to the U.S.

.@billfrelick.bsky.social of @hrw.org called the move to revoke the status 4 Afghans "a betrayal of US commitments. The only justification 4 revoking temporary protection would be if permanent protection was being offered since Taliban rule clearly makes returns unsafe."
www.npr.org/2025/05/13/n...

My interview on Al Jazeera about the contrast between the Trump administration welcome for White South Africans as refugees and its slamming of the door in the face of all other refugees worldwide:
mediaview.aljazeera.com/video/3HL5yN...

…What I do know is that my colleagues, many of whom are, like me, foreign scientists, are terrified of being detained or having their visa status revoked.”

Opinion | I Came to Study Aging. Now I’m Trapped in ICE Detention.

“I am hesitant to comment broadly on what it’s like for scientists now in America because I have only limited information about what is going on outside of this detention center….(see thread)…
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/o...

White South Africans arrive in U.S. after receiving refugee status from Trump Nearly 60 white South Africans were admitted into the U.S. as part of President Trump’s resettlement program. Afrikaners, largely descendants of Dutch and French colonial settlers, led the apartheid g...

My thoughts on the arrival yesterday of white South Africans under the US refugee resettlement program that has been shut down for all refugees worldwide except Afrikaners:
www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

... “Now, to have a group that didn’t flee their country, that has historically enjoyed tremendous privilege in the country and that are White, provides a cruel racial twist to the suspension of refugee resettlement.” @billfrelick.bsky.social @hrw.org

Trump shut out refugees but is making White South Africans an exception About 60 Afrikaners are set to be routed through Virginia next week, documents show, in a notable exception to President Donald Trump’s suspension of refugee admissions.

Bill Frelick, the refugee & migrant rights director at Human Rights Watch @hrw.org, said thousands of refugees, including many Black sub-Saharan Africans, were prepared and ready to be resettled in the US. “The door was slammed in their faces,” he said...
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

US: Don’t Forcibly Transfer Migrants to Libya The United States should not forcibly transfer migrants to Libya, where inhumane detention conditions are well-documented, including torture, ill treatment, sexual assault, and unlawful killings.

Appalling that the Trump Admin would strong-arm a fractured country like Libya w/ a well-documented history of horrific detention conditions & mistreatment of migrants to take non-Libyan migrants expelled from the US. Please protest and keep this from happening. @hrw.org
www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...

...none had an asylum pre-screening "credible fear" interview; none saw an immigration judge or were given so much as a slip of paper saying why and under what legal basis they were being removed from the U.S.; in fact, none knew they were being sent to Panama." @billfrelick.bsky.social @hrw.org

The US Expulsion of Third-Country Nationals to Panama | Opinion President Donald Trump proclaimed an "invasion" of "illegal aliens" at the southern border, claiming authority to explicitly exclude people from the right to seek asylum if doing so would permit their...

"Despite their varied backgrounds, all of the people we interviewed had this in common—each had crossed into the U.S. after January 20; all wanted to seek asylum in the U.S. and expressed to us a fear of return to their home countries; ... [see thread]... @hrw.org
www.newsweek.com/nobody-cared...

...The United States should process asylum claims of those arriving at the US border & take back people who were wrongfully expelled. Panama should ensure that people in its territory can access full & fair asylum procedures and stop accepting third-country nationals expelled from the United States

...Many of these people had fled persecution due to ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, family ties, and political views...