Re: [GTALUG] [offtopic] Global telenetworking
Evan You said that you were looking for people to hire teleworkers situated in refugee camps who were bound to their locations. For starters, how does this scheme prevent refoulment? (ie The return of a refugee to their persecutors.) Brent From: Evan Leibovitch Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2015 09:49 To: GTALUG Talk Reply To: GTALUG Talk Subject: Re: [GTALUG] [offtopic] Global telenetworking On 24 June 2015 at 13:59, Brent Kimberley <Brent.Kimberley@durham.ca<mailto:Brent.Kimberley@durham.ca>> wrote: Refugees are at risk of being "the face of modern slavery". Hi Brent, Please explain what you mean, and how at all it relates to my question. Meanwhile, I include my day-job .sig below, so you might better understand the context. I am looking for livelihoods, not exploitation -- and certainly not sloganeering. ---- Evan Leibovitch, Computer Technology Access (CTA) Coordinator United Nations High Commissioner for Refugeees • Rue Montbrilliant 94, 1202 Geneva • leibovit@unhcr.org<mailto:leibovit@unhcr.org> evanleibovitch @el56 • +41 22 739 7651 THIS MESSAGE IS FOR THE USE OF THE INTENDED RECIPIENT(S) ONLY AND MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT IS PRIVILEGED, PROPRIETARY, CONFIDENTIAL, AND/OR EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE UNDER ANY RELEVANT PRIVACY LEGISLATION. No rights to any privilege have been waived. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, retransmission, dissemination, distribution, copying, conversion to hard copy, taking of action in reliance on or other use of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient and have received this message in error, please notify me by return e-mail and delete or destroy all copies of this message.
On 24 June 2015 at 17:44, Brent Kimberley <Brent.Kimberley@durham.ca> wrote: You said that you were looking for people to hire teleworkers situated in
refugee camps who were bound to their locations.
Not so much bound, but unable to legally work outside the settlement. Some refugee environments have more hospitable hosts than others.
For starters, how does this scheme prevent refoulment? (ie The return of a refugee to their persecutors.)
The "scheme" is primarily a training and Internet-access program designed to equip people to make a living in what is often a hostile environment. One of the options in the most-hostile areas -- when local work simply isn't available -- is telework. At this point I am exploring the most suitable skills for those seeking that path, as well as the companies willing to hire/contract people with such skills. The UNHCR takes refugee security very seriously; in fact it considers itself primarily a protection agency first, a livelihood-finding org third (after education) . And refoulment is high on the list of concerns. Everything I am doing is vetted by the internal protection unit with exactly such issues in mind. The program I am involved with has already implemented a number of security measures (mainly in the realm of privacy protection) along these lines, supervised by people far better versed in the subject than I. Other issues that are addressed include protection against gender-based violence in environments where education (and Internet access) for women can put them (and the education/computer centres) at risk. All this and more is being addressed and guides all that we do. This may not completely address your question, but it's as good as I can get -- I'm not sure I can do anything utterly risk-free, but doing nothing is worse. Cheers, Evan
participants (2)
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Brent Kimberley -
Evan Leibovitch