| Myanmar to screen displaced Kachin villagers before delivering aid. An escalation in fighting between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and government troops in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State has displaced more than 5,000 people in April alone. At least 2,000 are trapped in remote conflict-stricken areas where they have had little access to food and clean water for several weeks. Aid agencies have been urgently calling for humanitarian access and safe passage out of conflict zones for civilians, but on Thursday a government spokesman said the displaced villagers would have to be scrutinized to ensure KIA members were not among them before aid could be distributed. | | |
| “Marathon of suffering” in Syria far from over, says UN envoy. A fall in the number of civilians trapped in besieged areas has come at the cost of devastating battles in heavily populated areas and “bad humanitarian agreements” between government and opposition groups to evacuate civilians to Idlib in the north-west, said UN Special Envoy for Syria, Jan Egeland on Thursday. With Idlib already “full to the brim” with displaced people, Egeland said new arrivals were forced to live out in the open while aid agencies in the region were overwhelmed and under-funded. The latest evacuation deal is reported from Yarmouk, the former Palestinian refugee camp south of Damascus, where opposition fighters surrendered to the government earlier this week and began boarding buses for Idlib. The Economist reports that the last two weeks of intense fighting in Yarmouk has caused more damage to the area than four years of war. As the government plans to redevelop the area, the future of the Palestinian refugees who once lived there is unclear. | | |
| Monsoon response underway as first rains hit Bangladesh. As the first rains of the monsoon season fall in Cox’s Bazar district, UNHCR is rushing additional aid to the country via air and sea. Work is underway to level additional land allocated by the government for relocating refugees particularly at risk from flooding and landslides, but at a briefing in Geneva on Friday, UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said the work was going slower than expected due to the hilliness and instability of the land. In case of an emergency, plans are in place to host 35,000 refugees in communal structures and for another 35,000 to be hosted by refugees living in safer areas. | | |
| Worsening conditions in “dangerously overcrowded” Libyan detention centre. The situation is “deteriorating daily” for some 800 refugees and migrants being held at a detention centre in the port city of Zuwara, warned Médecins Sans Frontières on Thursday. The number far exceeds the facility’s capacity and detainees are suffering from shortages of water, food, ventilation and floor space. MSF’s emergency programme manager described the situation as “critical”. Aid agencies are providing emergency aid while UNHCR airlifted 88 people in need of international protection from Zuwara to a less congested detention centre in Tripoli on Monday. The most vulnerable will be evacuated out of the country. | | |
| Nigerian refugees in Cameroon warned about dangers of going home. Last year, nearly 14,000 refugees who had been living in exile at Minawao camp in Cameroon decided to head home to northeast Nigeria. Hundreds of others have been forcibly returned by Cameroonian authorities in recent months. But many of the returnees have had to flee again after being attacked by Boko Haram militants. Now UNHCR is running an awareness campaign to warn some 50,000 refugees in the camp about the violence that persists in many areas of northern Nigeria. | | |
| When Syrian refugee, Ali, arrived in Denmark two years ago, it was his dream to continue his studies, but he had had no idea how to take the next step. A friend told him about Student Refugees , a volunteer group of university students who help refugees negotiate Denmark’s higher education system and pursue career paths they started back home. They helped Ali to get his Syrian qualifications recognized in Denmark and to apply to a Danish university. “Student Refugees gave me hope,” Ali says. “They made me feel like I could do it.” | | |
For every Syrian who has returned home in 2018, another three have been newly displaced.
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