| Influx of Venezuelans stretches Colombian public services in border areas. Colombia’s border city of Cucuta is struggling to provide for the thousands of Venezuelans now crossing the border daily. The LA Times reports that signs the city is under pressure are visible everywhere, with shelters and soup kitchens overwhelmed, schools overcrowded and police under-manned. The city's largest hospital treated 1,200 Venezuelans with broken bones, infections and trauma injuries last month, but has received no additional government funding, leaving the facility significantly in debt. AP reports that police in border cities have stepped up arrests of Venezuelans without documents who entered the country illegally. Faced with the choice of paying a fine or returning to Venezuela, most opt for return but soon cross the border again. UNHCR has urged countries in the region to provide Venezuelans fleeing their country with some kind of legal status as well as access to health and education and the right to work. In statements issued on Friday, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration said they were supporting the Colombian government's efforts to register Venezuelans and identify those in need of aid and international protection. | | |
| Urgent protection needed for children in Central African Republic. A significant increase in violence in the Central African Republic has forced at least 55,000 people – more than half of them children – to flee, according to UNICEF. More than 357,400 children are displaced in the country and have lost access to education, health and protection services. The Humanitarian Coordinator for OCHA in the Central Africa Republic, Najat Rochdi, is holding a briefing today to address the humanitarian situation, where funding has been too low to provide assistance for 1.9 million people in need. | | |
| Flare-up of violence near the Myanmar-China border causes people to flee. On Saturday, fighting between government troops and ethnic militants near Myanmar's northeastern border with China resulted in 19 deaths, 15 of them civilians, and pushed an unknown number of people to flee into Chinese territory, Reuters reports. According to estimates by Chinese authorities, violence on the Myanmar side of the border sent 20,000 people across the border into China in 2017. | | |
| UN warns of imminent surge in births among Rohingya women. A surge of births among Rohingya women who were raped before they fled Myanmar to Bangladesh last August and September is imminent, according to aid officials working in the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar. Some 40,000 Rohingya refugees are estimated to be pregnant, with many of the pregnancies resulting from last year's "frenzy of sexual violence", according to Andrew Gilmour, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights. Fearing stigma, many of the women are reluctant to admit they were raped, making it harder to provide them with needed support. | | |
| Haitians and Dominicans at risk of exploitation in Chile. Thousands of people from Haiti and the Dominican Republic are at high risk of labour exploitation and trafficking in Chile, Thomson Reuters Foundation reported. Last month, Chilean authorities charged five people with smuggling dozens of Haitians with false promises of jobs and work visas. Each Haitian paid up to US$3,000 and most were later abandoned. Haitian men often work in construction or in factories where they are victims of labour exploitation. Dominican women are promised jobs and then forced into prostitution, a state prosecutor told Thomson Reuters. | | |
| Young entrepreneur helps asylum-seekers integrate into Japanese society. One of 1,000 asylum-seekers was granted refugee status in Japan in 2017, and the average wait for a decision is 10 months. Only those deemed highly likely to be refugees after an initial screening are allowed to work. Sayaka Watanabe, 27, founded Welgee (a combination of “welcome” and “refugee”) to help asylum-seekers integrate in Japan by offering them a place to stay, through host families or shared houses, and helping those who are eligible find work. | | |
| Walaa is a Syrian refugee in Jordan. She was shocked when she found out that she would be having quadruplets. Since giving birth to four daughters 10 months ago, the parents sometimes skip meals to provide for them. But Walaa says the girls give her strength. “It’s like a miracle. It’s something that’s rare,” she said. | | |
| There has been a 2,000% increase in the number of Venezuelan nationals seeking asylum worldwide since 2014. | | |
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