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###The Yazidis: Displacement, Memory and the Search for Home

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 A story of a minority community forced displacement, cultural survival and the struggle to return to ancestral lands. By Janifer Yasmin Introduction: When Home Becomes a Distant Memory What happens when people are forced to leave the land where their ancestors lived for generations? What happens when homes are destroyed, families are separated and the places associated with childhood, culture and identity become unsafe? For the Yazidi community of northern Iraq, these questions are part of everyday life. The Yazidis are an ancient religious minority whose history, traditions and cultural identity are deeply connected to their ancestral homeland, particularly the Sinjar region of Iraq. For generations, they have maintained their distinctive religious beliefs, customs and community traditions despite experiencing discrimination and persecution. However, their lives changed dramatically in August 2014, when the Islamic State (ISIS) launched a violent campaign against their community....
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Beyond the Border: Kurdish Communities, Shared Histories and Divided Homelands Between Iraq and Iran

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 Janifer Yasmin  What does it mean to belong to a place when an international border separates your community from people who share your language, culture and history? Across the mountainous landscapes between Iraq and Iran, Kurdish communities have lived with this question for generations. The mountains, valleys and villages of this region are connected through histories, family relationships, cultural traditions and trade. Yet, political boundaries have divided these landscapes into separate national territories. For many Kurdish communities, the border is not simply a line on a map. It is part of everyday life, shaping relationships, movement, identity and the meaning of home. A Border Shaped by History The Iraq–Iran border has a long and complicated history. Its origins can be traced to centuries of political competition between the Ottoman and Persian empires. The Treaty of Zuhab in 1639 and the Treaty of Erzurum in 1847 were important developments in the historical forma...
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#Home Across the Border: Syrian Journeys of Displacement and Belonging

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    Janifer Yasmin For some people, home is a house, a street, a neighbourhood or a familiar landscape. For others, home is found in family, language, memories and everyday routines. But what happens when a person is forced to leave all of these behind? For many Syrians, displacement has meant much more than moving from one country to another. It has meant leaving behind homes, relatives, work, schools and familiar communities, while trying to build a new life somewhere else. For those who crossed into Türkiye, the journey did not end when they crossed the border. In many ways, another journey began: the journey of finding safety, rebuilding everyday life and asking what it means to belong to a new place. This is the story of movement from Syria to Türkiye—not simply as a story of crossing a border, but as a story of people trying to rebuild a sense of home. Leaving Syria Before displacement, people had ordinary lives. They worked, studied, raised children, visited relatives ...
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###Libya Is Not Europe: Where Refugee Journeys Are Broken Before the Sea

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 By Janifer Yasmin The Journey Before the Sea Fatima was 19 when she packed her bag and left her home in Sudan. She left because war had turned her city into ruins. Families around her were killed. Her brother had disappeared. The only direction she saw was forward  toward somewhere safe. Somewhere called “Europe.” But long before the Mediterranean Sea ever appeared on her horizon, Libya became her prison. Fatima was detained at a checkpoint near the outskirts of Tripoli. She was told to pay a bribe. When she couldn’t, guards took her to a detention centre a place surrounded by barbed wire, where men, women, and children lived in overcrowded rooms, lacking food, water, and medicine. She had not even started the sea crossing yet. For thousands of refugees like Fatima, the journey does not begin with a deadly sea. It begins in Libya and for many, it ends there.  OCCRP Libya: A Transit Country That Became a Dead End Libya has long been a transit country in North Africa ...
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#Where the Border Breathes: Everyday Journeys Across the Myanmar–India Frontier

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 Written by Janifer Yasmin Dawn breaks slowly over the hills of Manipur and Mizoram. As the mist lifts from the valleys, the border between India and Myanmar begins to wake not with soldiers or barbed wire, but with footsteps. Women carrying baskets, children in school uniforms, traders with worn-out bags, refugees seeking safety… they all move along narrow paths that zigzag across a line drawn long ago on someone else’s map. On paper, the Indo–Myanmar border is an international boundary stretching nearly 1,643 kilometres. But in the everyday lives of the people here, it is a space that breathes, opens, and moves. A Line That Cut, But Never Divided Before the British ever imagined a border, the hills had their own geography. Villages of Chin, Mizo, Kuki, Zou, and other related tribes stretched naturally across what are today two countries. Families shared bloodlines, foods, songs, and rituals. When colonial rulers drew the boundary, it divided lands but never the hearts or identit...
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#The Sea That Became a Grave: How and Why the Mediterranean Keeps Claiming Lives

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Written by Janifer Yasmin. She is a writer and researcher interested about migration, displacement, and human stories behind global movements. She is pursuing a Master’s in Migration and Diaspora Studies at IGNOU and runs the blog Stories of Movement, where she explores how borders, policies, and personal journeys intersect. Her work sheds light on the lived realities of migrants and refugees — turning statistics into stories that speak of courage, loss, and hope.  “I had to cross the sea because I want to live.” — A survivor speaking in the report In Search of Safe Haven, published by Human Rights at Sea in partnership with SOS Méditerranée, about the dangers of the central Mediterranean route from Libya. Human Rights at Sea Every year, people leave homes, families and futures to board fragile boats across the Mediterranean hoping for safety, work, or a new start. Many make it; too many do not. The sea has become a corridor of desperation — and a place where Europe’s migration pol...
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