| Monsoon season brings grave health risks for Rohingya, warns WHO. The World Health Organisation is asking the international community to step up support to a “grossly underfunded” health sector as it grapples to the meet the needs of 1.3 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar. Those needs are likely to become even greater as the coming rainy season brings a high risk of water-born disease outbreaks. WHO’s contingency planning for the rainy season includes ensuring health services remain functional, prepositioning medical supplies and carrying out vaccinations for cholera and diphtheria. The WHO’s regional director, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, said much of the health sector’s capacity to respond would depend on the availability of resources. UNHCR’s Caroline Gluck spoke to Channel 4’s Jon Snow on Wednesday about the urgent need to move more refugees from areas likely to be affected by flooding. | | |
| Pressure mounts on Eastern Ghouta’s last rebel stronghold. Syrian government forces are preparing to launch a “huge” military operation to capture Douma , the last rebel-held town in Eastern Ghouta, according to local media. Reuters reports that talks with Jaish al-Islam, the main rebel group controlling the town, broke down late on Wednesday after the rebels refused to evacuate the enclave and join other rebel groups who have withdrawn to opposition-held areas of Idlib province. An estimated 70,000 civilians remain trapped in Douma, where fighting resumed on Wednesday. People are sheltering from bombardments in basements with little access to food, water and medical supplies. In an open letter to doctors still working in Eastern Ghouta, Médecins Sans Frontières operations coordinator for Syria, Lorena Bilbao explains how the agency’s ability to support them has been eroded in recent weeks. “We went from supporting 20 clinics and hospitals at the beginning of this offensive, to just one clinic , which we are not even able to provide medical supplies to anymore,” writes Bilbao. | | |
| Caring for the chronically ill in Bangladesh’s refugee camps. Palliative care for people with chronic or incurable diseases is often overlooked in emergency refugee responses. As hundreds of thousands of Rohingya started arriving in Cox’s Bazar last August, medical workers focused on treating traumatic injuries and severe malnutrition. IRIN reports on a program set up by the Bangladesh-based Fasiuddin Khan Research Foundation to help care for 200 severely ill patients in the camps. For now, it’s an isolated effort with thousands more Rohingya refugees thought to be in need of palliative care. | | |
| Funding gap threatens refugee response in Ethiopia. Research conducted by the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies into the impact of violent extremism on South Sudanese and Somali refugees living in Ethiopia found no evidence to substantiate concerns that terrorist groups were infiltrating refugee populations. The research did reveal the impact of chronic under-funding on the refugees’ very poor living conditions. ISS senior researcher, Aimée-Noël Mbiyozo notes that Ethiopia has launched efforts to implement a national Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework that will aim to fully integrate refugees, but that it needs more financial and material support from the international community. | | |
| Refugee school in Uganda gives hope. In 2005, four teenage Congolese refugees living in western Uganda decided to open a school for children like themselves. The boys did manual labour to raise money for textbooks and held their first class under a tree. Twelve years later, the school has 500 students and four classroom blocks. Families that can afford it pay fees, outside donations and money from selling crops covers the rest. As thousands of new refugees flee violence in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo into in western Uganda, the school may soon have more students. | | |
| Small Texas town offers new start to refugees. Researcher and writer Katy Long has been documenting her two-month journey across the United States at a time when the country is fiercely debating questions of national identity and immigration. The third stop on her journey is Cactus, Texas, where a meatpacking factory that was struggling to recruit local workers is now largely dependent on the labour of resettled refugees . For the refugees, a job at the factory represents a welcome first rung on the ladder. In an area of the country not known for its warm welcome of refugees, writes Long, “local economic pragmatism – and a measure of human kindness – may prove a match for fear and hate.” | | |
| Photographer Giles Duley has been working with UNHCR to document refugees’ stories since 2015. On Tuesday, he sat down with Melissa Fleming for a Facebook Live conversation about duty of care when telling those stories. After suffering life-changing injuries while covering the conflict in Afghanistan, Duley felt he could connect with people affected by wars in a way that few other photographers could. “My belief is that each one of us has the power to create change using our own skills and for me, it’s storytelling,” he said. | | |
Eight boats carrying more than 300 people have reached the Greek island of Lesvos since Tuesday. More than 5,300 refugees and migrants are now living at Moria camp which is equipped to accommodate 2,000 people.
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