2LT National News

Editor’s note: We want you to know what’s happening, why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

South Africa: Four killed in xenophobia-driven slayings

Several foreigners are dead in a spate of xenophobic attacks in South Africa. A new political party is capitalizing on fear and blaming of outsiders to gain momentum. One Malawi-born woman told VOA while she was working at a nail salon that she’s just not having it. ‘You see, they are saying, ‘Foreigners, we are stealing their jobs,” she said. ‘Well, they can’t do what I’m doing, you see? They will say, ‘Foreigners, they are taking our wives.’ They can’t support their wives.’

FILE – Syrian refugees who crossed the Evros river, the natural border between Greece and Turkey, rest on a field as they wait for the police to arrive and transfer them to a first reception center, near the village of Nea Vyssa, Greece, May 2, 2018.

Greece: Displaced camps ‘unfit for human habitation’

Mental health problems. Sexual assaults. Subpar sanitation. The Aegean islands are housing more asylum-seekers than they can healthfully handle, according to the U.N. this week.

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​Bangladesh: Need for firewood damaging environment

In the last year of the Rohingya refugee crisis, the need to cook and boil water has outpaced the supply of wood around the camps. Some NGO workers are trying to curb the deforestation.

Brazil: Crisis in Caracas displaces indigenous Venezuelans

They fled economic disintegration and security concerns at home for northeast Brazil. Now the Warao tribes are struggling to get by in a new home they barely know.

Australia: Mental health emergency

Medical experts and refugee advocates say they are seeing signs of ‘resignation syndrome’ among children, and are warning of a mounting health crisis for asylum-seekers held at Australia’s offshore detention centers on Nauru.

In this May 9, 2017 photo, U.S. passports lie on a table in Dallas, Texas. The U.S. State Department is in the middle of a record year for processing passport applications, with 20.5 million renewals and applications for new passports expected.

USA: Papers, please… again

Some Latinos born in U.S. cities along the Mexico border are being denied US passports, the Washington Post reported this week. It’s not a new thing for residents in the area, but there’s a disquieting resurgence that affects families – including that of Texas-born stand-up comedian Cristela Alonzo, who has repeatedly documented on Twitter her siblings’ recent struggles to get passports: ‘This happened to my brother and sister months ago. Were both born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley. Turned in birth certificates, all documentation needed. Were denied passports and asked to produce paperwork to prove they’re American… So yeah.’