| Thousands of Yemenis flee offensive in Hudaydah. The battle to retake western coastal governorates from Houthi armed groups is taking a heavy toll on civilians, according to a report released today by Amnesty International, which warns that “the worst could be yet to come” if the fighting spreads to the densely populated port city of Hudaydah. Fierce ground and air attacks on Yemen’s western coast have displaced some 100,000 people in the last three months, according to UNHCR. Amnesty International interviewed some of those who’d recently fled to the southern city of Aden. They spoke of terrifying mortar attacks and air strikes. PBS correspondent Marcia Biggs also interviewed some of those who’d recently fled Hudaydah. One woman told her that the lack of food was worse than the bombs. Fleeing Hudaydah is costly, according to Amnesty, and the journey is hazardous, with mined roads and multiple Houthi checkpoints. In Aden, food is available but unaffordable to many of the displaced who are living in makeshift shelters in abandoned buildings and collective centres. | | |
| Talks to avoid “worst-case scenario” in Syria’s Idlib. Staffan de Mistura, the UN’s Special Envoy for Syria, briefed the UN Security Council on Wednesday about his efforts to revive stalled peace talks. He said he was “encouraged ” by talks earlier this week in the Kazakh capital, Astana, which explored ways to avoid “the worst-case scenario” in the northern Idlib Province, one of the last opposition strongholds. He warned that if the same tactics used to retake the suburbs of Ghouta were applied in Idlib, it could be “six times worse”, affecting 2.3 million people. Writing in The Independent, Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said that a battle to retake Idlib was his greatest fear. Half of the province’s population is made up of people displaced by violence elsewhere, making Idlib “a gigantic cluster of displacement camps”. Egeland reminded parties to the conflict that they are bound by international law to protect civilians from violence, “not use them as checkboard pawns”. | | |
| Flow of refugees to the US slows to a trickle. The New York Times reports that 13,501 refugees were admitted to the US for resettlement in the first 7.5 months of the fiscal year. At the current pace, 20,000 are projected to enter the country by the end of the year, the lowest figure since the resettlement program was created in 1980. Processing has become slower as the government implements new screening procedures, and the wait time for overseas interviews by US officials has become longer. The Times reports that the slowdown is forcing non-profit refugee resettlement agencies across the country to close offices, while employers in some areas used to a steady stream of newcomers are struggling to fill jobs. | | |
| Benghazi’s displaced: a litmus test for Libya. Reuters reports that former residents of the eastern city of Benghazi make up a significant proportion of Libya’s 185,000 internally displaced people and are central to the future stability of the country. Benghazi’s displaced consist of opponents of Khalifa Haftar, who controls much of eastern Libya and leads a government there in opposition to a UN-backed administration in Tripoli. Many of those displaced from Benghazi since 2014 fear returning and say their homes have been occupied by families loyal to Haftar, but they find themselves in a “legal limbo” in western Libya due to a lack of documents. | | |
| “Bittersweet” Ramadan begins for Rohingya in Bangladesh. As hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims living in Bangladesh as refugees begin to observe the holy month of Ramadan today, the Independent reports that it is likely to be a bittersweet time . While for many, it will be the first time they have been able to observe the month of fasting without fear of retribution, conditions in the camps are likely to make fasting more challenging. As monsoon season begins, daily heavy rains are likely to hit just as people prepare to break their fast. UNHCR spokesperson Caroline Gluck said Ramadan, usually a time spent with family, could also be a particularly difficult time for those who lost loved ones during last year’s violence. | | |
| “There is a better way” says former refugee and chair of Welsh Refugee Coalition. Refugees Deeply talked to Rocio Cifuentes, whose family fled the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile when she was still an infant and resettled in Wales in the 1970s. Cifuentes is now a leading figure in the movement to support refugees and promote tolerance in Wales and is chair of a coalition of more than 40 refugee support organizations. She describes her family’s experience of integration as “ really positive” compared to the typical experience of asylum-seekers today, who receive much less support and sympathy and whose legal status is often precarious and indefinite. “I know that integration doesn’t have to be this way,” she says. | | |
| Sweden’s IT Guide programme brings together young refugees who want to practise their Swedish with elderly Swedes who want to improve their IT skills. Founded in 2010, it now operates in 20 Swedish municipalities and employs about 200 refugees as IT guides. “Elderly people tend to speak a little bit slower, which makes it easier for us. And it also makes it less nerve-racking to talk to them, so we constantly get a chance to practise,” says Sara, a Syrian refugee and IT guide. | | |
Two million people are displaced inside Yemen. Nearly 90 per cent of them fled their homes more than a year ago.
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