| Death rates in Mediterranean rise as fewer ships carry out search-and-rescue. Figures released by UNHCR today show that last month one in every seven people who attempted to cross the Central Mediterranean died. The death rate has risen from one in 19 during the first half of this year and one in 38 during the first half of 2017. Over 1,000 deaths have been recorded so far this year, despite a sharp decline in the number of the asylum-seekers and migrants reaching European shores. UNHCR expressed concern about the impact of boats being discouraged from responding to distress calls, through fear of being denied permission to disembark those they rescue. In a briefing on Friday, UNHCR spokesperson Charlie Yaxley stressed the vital role NGOs play in rescuing people at sea, noting that NGO vessels carried out around 40 per cent of rescue operations for people disembarked in Italy from January to April this year. Several NGO vessels have been denied permission to disembark rescued passengers in Italy and Malta in recent weeks and some are now facing legal action in Malta, as reported by CNN. UNHCR reiterated its call for European countries to provide “clear and predictable guidelines for search and rescue, and disembarkation”. | | |
| German coalition reaches deal on migration, rules out transit centres. Reuters reports that the parties in Germany’s ruling coalition on Thursday reached agreement on a package of measures to deal with asylum-seekers who have already registered in another EU state. The parties agreed to speed up the process of returning such asylum-seekers to the country where they first registered if bi-lateral agreements are in place. The Social Democrats reportedly balked at the creation of so-called transit centres at Germany’s southern border but agreed that asylum-seekers who cannot immediately be returned to the country where they first applied for asylum from Munich Airport, should be processed within 48 hours in police facilities at the border. | | |
| The Rohingya babies loved and feared. More than 10 months after a wave of brutal violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar, the babies conceived during those assaults have been born over the border in Bangladesh. The Associated Press reports that the spike in births expected in June did not materialise and that only a handful of babies have been abandoned. With rape considered shameful by many in the community, aid workers suspect that many women quietly dealt with the pregnancies alone . Ten women and girls who have grown weary of the silence agreed to be interviewed by AP for this moving report. | | |
| For first time, US resettles fewer refugees than rest of world. In 2017, the United States resettled 33,000 refugees, a sharp drop from 2016 when it resettled 97,000. According to a Pew Research Center analysis of UNHCR data , last year was the first time since the adoption of the 1980 US Refugee Act that the US resettled fewer refugees than the rest of the world combined. However, the US still resettled more refugees than any other country. Following the US were Canada (27,000), Australia (15,000) and the United Kingdom (6,000). Per capita, Canada led the world by resettling 725 refugees per 1 million residents. | | |
| After long road to Agadez, Sudanese left in limbo. IRIN reports on how Agadez, once a gateway between West and North Africa, became a destination for some 2,000 Sudanese . Most had fled Darfur more than a decade ago and then spent time in refugee camps in Chad and living precariously in Libya before seeking safety in Niger. While UNHCR looked for solutions for the Sudanese, their presence in Agadez provoked tensions with locals, prompting authorities to deport 135 Sudanese to Libya in May. As the government of Niger has since stated it will not to return any more Sudanese to Libya, long-term solutions for some 1,200 who remain in Agadez are necessary. | | |
| Mental health of children in Australia’s off-shore detention centre reaches “crisis point”. The Australian government on Wednesday said it would allow a young girl to leave an offshore detention centre on the Pacific Island of Nauru to seek medical care in Australia. The New York Times reports that the girl is at least the seventh seriously ill child to be brought to Australia under legal pressure since the Nauru centre opened in 2012. George Newhouse, a lawyer with the National Justice Project, which has represented most of the children, told the Times there that levels of hopelessness and despair on Nauru had reached “crisis point”. On Friday, UNHCR published findings from a mission to Manus Island noting “ high levels of anxiety and depression” among about 580 refugees and asylum seekers transferred to the island by Australia since 2013. | | |
| Spend a day with 18-year-old Laura Vanessa Pino, in the town of Quibdó in Colombia where she and her family were displaced by violence. She’s a university student, football player and assistant in a youth-led programme for internally displaced people called “Come and Play”. Laura takes us into her neighbourhood, onto the football pitch and to the market where her mother sells soup. | | |
The 45,700 asylum-seekers and migrants who reached European shores in the first six months of 2018 is five times lower than the peak of sea arrivals to Europe in the first half of 2016.
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