Irish Network for Middle Eastern and North African Studies

  by Yvonne Leckey, Sinead McGilloway and Rita Sakr  Families from refugee backgrounds living in high income countries, often experience poorer psychological and wellbeing outcomes due to the many health, social and cultural challenges experienced post-migration (Fazel et al. 2012).  Over half of the world’s refugees are children aged under 18, many of whom have come from conflict-affected countries where they have experienced multiple traumas. The long-term effects of pre-migration traumas, including conflict, violence, separation and/or loss of family members, may persist without adequate supports, potentially exacerbating existing difficulties. Post-migration, refugees commonly face stigmatisation and discrimination in their host countries, contributing further to poor mental wellbeing.  In response to the refugee crisis in 2015, the Irish Government established the Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP), with a commitment to accept up to 4000 refugees through ...

  By Matthew Heinrichs In February 2020, a video circulated on social media showing a distraught Lina Jaber grieving near her daughter’s grave. Lina, a Shia woman, was barred from seeing her children for almost three years by her ex-husband before her daughter’s death, after the judge adjudicating her divorce in the Shia Jafari court granted full custody to her ex-husband. While Lina’s sister claims that the children’s father signed a decree allowing visitation, he prohibited Lina from visiting them, knowing that Lina would be unable to afford an attorney to challenge him. In January 2020, Lina’s daughter Maya was killed by a gunshot under circumstances that remain unknown, after which Lina’s ex-husband barred her and her family from attending Maya’s funeral, burying her within his fenced garden to keep Lina from even leaning on her daughter’s grave. [1] Similar stories appear regularly in Lebanese media outlets due to Lebanon’s system of personal status laws. In Lebanon, ...