Refugees

Photo: Eritrean asylum seekers in Tunisia, in search of a better life ©MorganeWirtz

Migrants Prefer Returning to Libya Than Staying in Tunisia

By Morgane Wirtz*

This year, hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers settled in Tunisia have packed up to risk their lives again in Libya. For them, "It is better to die for something than to live for nothing".

BRUSSELS (IDN) – It is a large white house with blue shutters in Al-Maharas, a small town in central Tunisia. The ground is immaculate. The rooms are empty. Through the open windows, we hear the sea. The scent of seaweed and sea salt tickles our nostrils. If we close our eyes, it feels like we are on vacation. If we close our eyes.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 02 September 2020

Photo: A boy reads from his textbook in a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Credit: UNICEF Patrick Brown

Rohingya Refugee Children Want to Learn, Says UNICEF

By Sean Buchanan

NEW YORK (IDN) – The daily struggle to survive for Myanmar’s Rohingya people in some of the world’s largest refugee settlements has caused overwhelming despair and jeopardised the hopes of an entire generation, according to the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Henrietta Fore.

In a report marking two years since the arrival of around 745,000 Rohingya civilians in Bangladesh – after fleeing State-led persecution and violence in Myanmar – UNICEF Executive Director Fore appealed for urgent investment in education and skills training.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 18 August 2019

Photo: Relieved and happy to be released from detention, a refugee hugs UNHCR staff as they meet at the Gathering and Departure Facility in Tripoli, Libya. © UNHCR/Mohamed Alalem.

European Union Lambasted for 'Externalising' Migration Policy

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) – More than twenty African and international organizations have signed a letter which slates the European Union and its member states for externalizing migration policy through direct and indirect cooperation with regimes and militia forces that are utterly unaccountable for their actions, and violating its constitutional values and international obligations, including the responsibility to protect.

The letter to the European Council President Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, and High Representative of the European Union, Federica Mogherini, appeals for "an EU external policy framework based on European values".

: Reinhard Jacobsen; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 19 June 2019

Photo: Geneva Centre debates 'Migration and Human Solidarity'. Credit: Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue.

Experts Slate 'Fortress Europe' and Push-Back Policies

By Ronald Joshua

GENEVA (IDN) – Experts with first-hand experience in the migrant and refugee crisis have underlined problems during their work on the ground, in coordinating rescue operations and aid distribution, or documenting and raising awareness of the situation caused by the current massive displacement of people worldwide turning into a politicized crisis of solidarity, with closed border policies and the rise of xenophobic, populist trends.

: Ronald Joshua; SUSTAINABILITY; Reduced Inequalities; 27 April 2019

Photo: Three young children wait to be evacuated from Libya to Niger, at UNHCR’s Gathering and Departure Facility in Tripoli. © UNHCR/Mohamed Alalem

Fighting in Tripoli Throws Refugees Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire

By Klara Smits

BRUSSELS (IDN) – Multiple independent sources report that at least three people were killed and around 20 injured in an attack on the Qasr bin Ghashir detention centre in southern Tripoli. The attack seemed specifically aimed at the refugees and migrants in the centre, according to witnesses who say that the rebel militia fighters of General Khalifa Haftar were behind the attack.

Reports say that after a brief lull, the fighting around Libya’s capital Tripoli has intensified in the past week. In the southern districts of Tripoli, forces loyal to the UN-recognised Tripoli-based government clashed with the forces of General Khalifa Haftar.

: Klara Smits; THE WORLD; Middle East; 26 April 2019

Photo: Syrian refugees in Iraq. Credit: EU

Getting the Priorities on Human Rights Right in Syria

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The long war is almost over in Syria. Tyranny has won. Violence has won. Most have suffered, many unspeakably. For too long all sides were stalemated by each other’s brutality. Now the government of Bashar Al-Assad has come out on top, aided by Russia and Iran

What to do next? On March 12, 2019 the EU member states start their three-day third annual Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region, co-chaired by the UN. It’s time for some radical re-thinking. Well-wishing for good things like the persecution of war crimes is whistling in the wind, at least for now.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 12 March 2019

Photo: Nigerian refugees. Credit: CameroonConcordNews

Cameroon and Nigeria Uproot Thousands from Safe Haven

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – An estimated 30,000 refugees have been uprooted by officials in Cameroon and Nigeria this month and sent to known hotbeds of insurgents including Boko Haram on the Nigerian side of the border.

Humanitarian groups including Action against Hunger are questioning the wisdom of forcing refugees to move to the city of Rann in Borno state, the epicentre of the decade-long insurgency that has killed more than 27,000.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 08 March 2019

Photo: Bangladesh. Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar to safety in Cox's Bazar. Credit: UNHCR/Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo

Rohingya Refugees Remain in A Perilous Situation

Viewpoint by Vincent Auger*

United Nations aid agencies and partners launched an appeal on February 15 to raise $920 million to assist more than 900,000 refugees from Myanmar and the more than 330,000 vulnerable Bangladeshis hosting them.

MACOMB, Illinois, USA (IDN-INPS) – Eighteen months after being driven from their homes in Myanmar by what UN officials described as a campaign of genocidal violence by the military, the situation facing Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh remains perilous. Hundreds of thousands of people live in camps (the camp in Kutupalong alone houses more than 600,000 people), relying on aid from the World Food Program and help from the government of Bangladesh.

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 16 February 2019

Photo: Numbers of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean may have dropped in 2018, but at a heavy human cost. Source: MSF Sea.

Europe’s Invisible Wall Whets Human Trafficking

By Klara Smits

BRUSSELS (IDN) – After his visit to Austria, Libya’s foreign minister Mohammed Sayala told the Kuwaiti News Agency on January 31 that Libya’s southern borders have now become Europe’s borders. Illegal migration could not be stopped at the Mediterranean Sea, he argued. Therefore, he promised that on the February 20, Libya will present the EU with a policy to cooperate on ‘protecting’ those southern borders. The plan will also include border agreements with Chad, Niger and Sudan.

: Klara Smits; THE WORLD; Middle East; 14 February 2019

Photo: Bamboo becomes insect-resistant when soaked in a chemical solution for 12 -14 days. Credit: IOM/Abdullah Mashrif.

Providing New Bamboo Shelters in Bangladesh Refugee Camps

By UN Migration

COX'S BAZAR (IDN-INPS) – Work has begun on one of the largest bamboo treatment plants ever installed in an emergency response, as IOM experts tackle a tiny insect that is devastating structures in the world’s biggest refugee settlement.

An infestation of "boring beetles" means the bamboo in almost every shelter in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar – home to around 240,000 families – needs to be replaced. With just over four months to go until the beginning of the next monsoon season, the race is on to provide families living in the worst-affected shelters with new, more-durable bamboo.