Portside

The migrant crisis in the Mediterranean has captured the global spotlight. The EU response has focused on enforcement and a crackdown on traffickers. Some European political leaders propose using their navies to stop boats, returning the refuge-seekers to their points of origin, and then sinking the craft. This enforcement-based approach ignores the primary drives of migration but also jeopardizes millions of people who are seeking refuge from repressive regimes.

Qatar will host the 2022 Soccer World Cup, and this week the International Trade Union Confederation, Play Fair Qatar, and NewFifaNow launched a campaign to force sponsors of the Fédération Internationale de Football (FIFA) to demand a change in the slave-like conditions endured by migrant laborers building Qatar’s tournament infrastructure. According to Play Fair Qatar, “As things stand, more than 62 workers will die for each game played during the 2022 tournament.”

Hiring migrant farm labor is very profitable for big agribusiness. Last year workers walked out of the fields at Sakuma Brothers Farms in Washington - one of the largest berry growers in the state. Berries are big business, with annual sales of $6.1 million, and big corporate customers like Häagen Dazs ice cream. Here is their story.

It is a society operating in defiance of all manner of human rights that has been clearly seen and exposed; as the thousands of Ethiopians protesting outside Saudi Arabian embassies across the world have chanted; “shame on you, shame on you, shame on you.”