| A year after assault on Philippines’ Marawi City, many former residents face little prospect of return. At least 360,000 people fled Marawi City on the Philippine island of Mindanao during an offensive by Islamic State militants last May. Government troops regained control after five months, but the long battle left the city in ruins and unexploded bombs have made return impossible for over 42,000 displaced families, according to UNHCR. Many displaced families have attempted to return to their homes only to find they’d been destroyed and their belongings looted. The Guardian reports that Marawi is “a ghost town ”. Demolition work is expected to begin in June before reconstruction of public facilities that is estimated to take at least 18 months. Only then will residents be allowed back into the city to begin rebuilding their own properties. IRIN reports that local advocates have accused the government of not doing enough to get people back on their feet and earning a living and that distributions of government aid are increasingly sporadic. | | |
| South Sudan peace talks end without deal. Talks in Ethiopia to revive South Sudan’s failed 2015 peace deal broke up on Wednesday without the two sides reaching an agreement, according to mediators with the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development. In a statement on Wednesday IGAD said “several attempts to narrow the gap between the positions of the parties” had proved fruitless . South Sudan’s five-year conflict has left a quarter of the population either internally displaced or living as refugees in neighbouring countries. “There is no military solution to the ongoing tragedy in South Sudan,” said Arnauld Akodjenou, the Regional Refugee Coordinator for the South Sudan Situation and Special Advisor to the High Commissioner for Refugees. “South Sudan’s warring groups need to sort out their differences through dialogue.” | | |
| Survey reveals Rohingya refugees’ views on repatriation. A survey by the Xchange Foundation conducted across 12 Rohingya refugee settlements in Cox’s Bazar during April and May found that just over half of the 1,200 refugees surveyed knew about the repatriation deal between Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed in November 2017. Of those who knew about it, 80 per cent were unsatisfied with the information they’d been given. Almost all surveyed said they’d be willing to go back to Myanmar, but only if certain conditions were met, such as citizenship and equal rights to education and employment opportunities. Almost 70 per cent expressed doubts that their rights would be recognized if they returned. | | |
| Toronto to convert college dorms into shelters for asylum-seekers. Canada’s largest city is activating an emergency plan to shelter asylum-seekers over the summer. Two community college residences will be converted into temporary housing for 800 asylum claimants. But city officials warned that a new plan will be needed in August, when students return. Some 2,700 asylum-seekers are currently staying in city shelters, with an average of 10 more arriving every day. Most come from Quebec after crossing the border from the United States. | | |
| The Somali refugees recreating Mogadishu’s pre-war splendour. The Guardian reports on a project to use crowdsourced photos of Mogadishu landmarks, taken before they were destroyed by years of civil war, to form 3D digital models . Founded by Yusuf Shegow, who left the city when he was a child and is now a graduate of the Manchester School of Architecture, Somali Architecture presents a positive vision of a city that was once a flourishing capital ̶ and could be again. A similar project used 3D photographs of Palmyra before it fell to extremists in 2015 to create 3D models. Such projects may be useful in the future for restoration. They’re also helping young refugees feel less separated from their roots. | | |
| Hamdi Ulukaya came to the US from Turkey in 1994 to attend university. Eleven years later he bought an abandoned yoghurt factory in upstate New York and went on to launch Chobani, America’s top-selling brand of Greek yoghurt. Today, nearly a third of Chobani’s 2,000 employees are immigrants or refugees and through his start up, the Tent Foundation, Ulukaya is working with other companies that have launched initiatives to hire and support refugees. “They want to work, and they have a right to work. There are obstacles: language, training, and transportation. We figure it out,” he told Inc. magazine. | | |
Some 230,000 people remain displaced a year after conflict broke out in Marawi City in the Philippines.
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