| Eleven migrants die in abandoned truck in Libya. Around 100 refugees and migrants were found inside an abandoned truck on the outskirts of Zwara on Libya’s western coast early on Monday morning. They had reportedly been locked inside a sealed cargo container along with some canisters of gasoline. By the time they were found, 11 had died, at least six of them children, and others were in critical condition. According to a statement from UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration, the truck was on its way to a location west of Zwara, where boats often set out for Europe. The driver reportedly abandoned the truck to avoid a police checkpoint. Those trapped in the container were from a number of countries including Guinea, Sudan, Syria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Morocco and Libya. “The fatalities of last night join the more than 1,000 others who, in trying to reach safer shores this year, have paid this journey with their lives,” notes the statement. | | |
| Australia deports Sri Lankan man, separating him from his refugee wife and daughter. A Sri Lankan man deported from Australia on Monday night faces indefinite separation from his wife and their 11-month-old daughter, who are both recognized refugees. In a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, UNHCR urged Australia to end the separation of refugee families. Spokesperson Andrej Mahecic noted that in addition to yesterday’s deportation, Australia’s offshore processing of asylum-seekers “has led to the ongoing separation of refugee families since 2013”. Asylum-seekers held in Nauru and Papua New Guinea have been prevented from reuniting with loved ones in Australia. In several cases, children have remained in Nauru while their parents were sent to Australia for medical care. | | |
| Rohingya refugees hunker down as monsoon arrives. AP spoke to Rohingya refugees living in fear that their bamboo shelters will be crushed by landslides or swept away by flooding as the most intense rains of the long-dreaded monsoon season get underway. Heavy downpours that started in June have already caused more than 160 landslides, it said, crushing shelters, injuring dozens and killing one child. Shelters have been reinforced, trenches dug, latrines cleaned out and some 34,000 refugees relocated to safer areas, but the hilly topography of the area, now stripped of vegetation, means that as many as 200,000 people remain at risk from landslides and flooding. | | |
| US judge temporarily halts deportations of reunified families. A federal judge in San Diego on Monday ordered that deportations of families reunited after being separated at the border be delayed for at least a week. The order was a response to a request by the American Civil Liberties Union that parents be given time to decide whether to pursue asylum in the US after being reunited with their children. The government has until next Monday to outline its objections. Late last month, the same judge ordered the government to reunite thousands of children and parents who had been separated at the border. | | |
| Six countries commit to community-based refugee sponsorship programmes. Ministers from Canada, Britain, Ireland, Argentina, New Zealand and Spain issued a joint statement on Monday committing to pilot or implement community-based refugee sponsorship programmes in their countries. Such programmes allow individuals, communities and organizations to get involved in refugee resettlement efforts by providing financial and emotional support to newly arrived refugees. Canada has long history of such programmes, while the UK launched its community sponsorship scheme in 2016. Other countries are still in the process of piloting or developing their own sponsorship programmes. | | |
| UK MPs to debate refugee homelessness. A debate in Westminster Hall this afternoon will focus on homelessness and destitution among refugees in the UK. According to Kate Green, the MP introducing the debate, many refugees experience hardship and homelessness after being granted refugee status because they have only 28 days to leave Home Office accommodation and find somewhere else to live while navigating a complex benefits system or trying to find work. A recent report found that one in four homeless people using night shelters were refugees. MPs will debate extending the so-called move-on period and providing more support to new refugees. | | |
| This clip is from a Channel 4 documentary that followed six refugee children as they adapted to new lives in Britain. It features 10-year-old Abdul’s first day at his new primary school in Wales. Abdul has a progressive disease called spinal muscular atrophy and fled Syria to Turkey in a wheelchair. “The thing I like most about school,” he says, “is that I can make friends.” | | |
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