| Displaced Syrians leave Jordan border zone. Thousands of Syrians who had fled fighting in southwest Syria to gather near a border crossing with Jordan have left the area. Anders Pedersen, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Jordan told reporters on Sunday that just 150 to 200 Syrians remained of the 60,000 who had been gathered near the Naseeb border crossing. The movement came two days after Syrian troops recaptured the crossing and rebels agreed to a ceasefire deal. International relief agency CARE told the Associated Press that thousands had returned to towns and villages that recently came back under the control of the Syrian government. CARE said others, who feared detention or conscription into the army, had moved to western Daraa and Quneitra province where they were living in the open, in desperate need of food, shelter and clean water. Pederson appealed for unimpeded access to the region, adding that an aid convoy was standing by. | | |
| Italy to ask naval vessels to take rescued refugees and migrants elsewhere. Italy’s interior minister Matteo Salvini has said his government will seek commitments from other EU states to receive asylum seekers and migrants rescued by naval and border control vessels . He said the request would be made on Thursday at a meeting of European interior ministers in the Austrian city of Innsbruck. The announcement came a day after an Irish patrol vessel disembarked more than 100 people rescued from the Mediterranean at the Sicilian port of Messina. The ship is part of the EU mission to combat people smuggling known as Operation Sophia. | | |
| Ethiopia and Eritrea meet for peace talks. The New York Times reports that leaders of the two nations, which have had no diplomatic relations since a border war in the late 1990s, embraced on the airport tarmac in Asmara on Sunday morning before a day of peace talks. Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, later said they had agreed to re-open embassies in each other’s capitals, re-establish phone lines and resume air services. | | |
| Germans protest in support of migrant rescues in the Mediterranean. Thousands of people marched through German cities on Saturday in support of NGOs running search-and-rescue missions in the Mediterranean. Around 12,000 people attended a rally in Berlin, according to local radio, while a number of other cities also saw protests. In recent weeks, several NGO-run rescue vessels have been blocked from entering European harbours. The protests were organized by the activist alliance Seebrücke, which was formed recently after German NGO ship the Lifeline spent a week at sea waiting to disembark over 200 asylum seekers and migrants. | | |
| Talks on global refugee compact end with agreement on final draft. The sixth and final round of formal consultations on the global refugee compact wrapped up in Geneva on Wednesday, with broad support for the final draft , according to UNHCR, which has been leading a process of meetings with UN member states, civil society, refugees and academics that began 18 months ago. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi will put forward the final version of the compact in his annual report to the General Assembly so that it can be considered for adoption later this year. While not legally binding, the compact sets out a blueprint for actions aimed at strengthening the international response to refugee situations. | | |
| One year after recapture, Mosul still lies in ruins. Several international aid agencies marked the one-year anniversary since Mosul was retaken from ISIS by highlighting the city’s devastated infrastructure, lack of basic services and high levels of displacement. The Norwegian Refugee Council notes that 380,000 people are still displaced in and around Mosul and that more international support is needed to help Iraqi authorities rebuild and repair homes, schools, hospitals and water networks. According to Médecins Sans Frontières reconstruction of damaged health facilities has been “extremely slow”, leaving less than 1,000 hospital beds for a population of 1.8 million. | | |
| In Brazil, an organization called My Refugee Friend is encouraging local families to invite refugees into their homes to watch the World Cup. Khaled, a Syrian refugee who arrived in Brazil 11 months ago, joined Joana Sanches on the couch to watch Brazil play. "Thank god he found a country where everyone welcomed him," she said. | | |
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