| Mali violence drives thousands to Burkina Faso. Clashes between the Dogon and Peul communities in central Mali’s Mopti region pushed some 3,000 people to flee across the border into Burkina Faso’s Nord Region between mid-February and early April, according to UNHCR. The new arrivals, who add to some 24,000 Malians refugees already living in Burkina Faso, are staying in hard-to-reach, insecure areas near the border. UNHCR is urging them to move to a camp where they can be registered and access protection and services. More displacement is considered likely with extremist and inter-communal violence on the rise in Mali. Militants disguised as UN peacekeepers attacked two bases in Timbuktu on Saturday, killing one peacekeeper and injuring dozens of others. | | |
| Italian judge orders release of NGO search-and-rescue vessel. The boat belonging to Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms had been impounded after rescuing 218 migrants and refugees off the coast of Libya and bringing them to the Sicilian port of Pozzallo on 19 March. Its crew had refused to hand the passengers over to the Libyan coastguard, arguing that they were in international waters and that returning them to Libya would put them at risk of abuse and human rights violations . The judge ordered the boat be released after finding it had been operating in an emergency when it launched the rescue. He noted that international standards call for those rescued at sea to be brought somewhere “safe”, and that Libya was not safe. Prosecutors are still investigating two members of the boat’s crew on suspicion of enabling illegal immigration. | | |
| Iraqi women with suspected links to ISIS “trapped and exploited”. According to a new report by Amnesty International, Iraqi women and children with perceived ties to ISIS living in camps for the internally displaced are being subjected to collective punishment . Separated from their husbands and male relatives, most of whom have been arrested, Amnesty alleges that these women and children are being denied access to food, water and health care and blocked from obtaining documents they need to work or return home. It says the women are also subjected to sexual violence and exploitation. | | |
| Race against time to find pregnant Rohingya rape survivors. Nearly nine months after the violent crackdown in Myanmar that drove almost 700,000 Rohingya people into Bangladesh, aid groups are scrambling to identify pregnant rape survivors who will soon be due to give birth . They fear that some women and girls may have hidden their pregnancies because of shame and stigma, and risk giving birth in secret or abandoning their babies. IRIN reports that aid groups in the camps are planning to offer shelter to women before and after they give birth, and to care for abandoned newborns. | | |
| New regulation to help Syrian teenagers in Lebanon go to school. The new rule will allow Syrian children who turned 15 to 18 after entering Lebanon to obtain temporary residency by presenting a Syrian individual status document, provided it’s not more than two years old. Previously, they had to have a Syrian passport or national identify card, which most children lacked. Lack of legal status bars the majority of young Syrians from attending secondary school. In a statement, Human Rights Watch welcomed the change but urged the Lebanese authorities to accept additional forms of documentation, such as UNHCR registration. | | |
| Refugees and migrants offer solution to America’s caregiver shortage. One in four caregivers in the United States is an immigrant, but as the country grapples with an ageing population, caregivers are in increasingly short supply. This BBC report looks at a creative solution from Minnesota, where free nursing classes are offered to immigrants to help them get jobs in the caregiving industry. It also profiles caregivers like Phillip, an Iraqi refugee, who already works as a certified nursing assistant in a care home. | | |
| Bravo indeed to journalist Jake Halpern and illustrator Michael Sloan, who won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning for their collaboration on this New York Times series “Welcome to the New World” . It uses graphic narrative form to tell the real-life story of a Syrian refugee family who arrived in America on the day that Donald Trump won the presidential election. | | |
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