| UNHCR urges Greece to address severe overcrowding at island reception centres. UNHCR today called on the Greek government to rapidly accelerate procedures for transferring eligible asylum-seekers from the Aegean islands to the mainland and to quickly improve “squalid, inadequate and rapidly deteriorating conditions” at reception centres. The agency said the situation was reaching “boiling point” at the Moria reception centre on the island of Lesvos, where more than 7,000 asylum-seekers and migrants are crammed into shelters built to accommodate just 2,000 people. Centres on Samos, Chios and Kos are also seeing high levels of overcrowding. A BBC report from Moria earlier this week found children suffering the physical and psychological effects of poor conditions in the centre. Staff from Médecins Sans Frontières told the BBC that they had had to deal with children as young as 10 attempting suicide. | | |
| Detained refugees and migrants moved away from fighting in Libya. Some 300 refugees and migrants held in Ain Zara detention centre in Tripoli were evacuated on Tuesday as clashes between armed groups came so close to the centre that their guards reportedly fled, leaving them without food for several days. In a joint effort by UNHCR, IOM, Médecins Sans Frontières, UNOCHA and the Libyan Department for Combatting Illegal Migration, the mainly Eritrean, Ethiopian and Somali nationals were moved to another government-run detention centre in a safer area. In a statement on Thursday night, UNHCR said it was providing the detainees with life-saving assistance while advocating for their release. Dozens of Libyan families were also displaced by the fighting in areas south of Tripoli and are now sheltering in a school and in urgent need of aid, said UNHCR. | | |
| Italy demands other states open ports to EU rescue mission. Italy used a meeting of EU defence ministers in Vienna on Thursday to call on other EU states to offer up their ports for the disembarkation of refugees and migrants rescued in the Mediterranean by the EU’s Operation Sophia mission. Currently, all those rescued by the naval mission are brought to Italy, although Italy’s Foreign Minister, Enzo Moavero, has insisted this would only be allowed to continue on a temporary basis until the EU came up with an alternative. No country offered its ports, but EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said she expected talks to continue. Citing the “criminalization” of NGOs in the Central Mediterranean, Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms announced on Thursday that it will halt its operations near Libya and instead join rescue efforts by the Spanish coastguard in the Strait of Gibraltar and the Sea of Alboran.al’ about claims that it is safe to return home. | | |
| UN Syria envoy calls for humanitarian corridors out of Idlib. Speaking to journalists in Geneva on Thursday, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura offered to travel to the country’s last opposition stronghold in the north of the country to negotiate a ceasefire while humanitarian corridors are set up to evacuate civilians to safer areas under government control. He warned of a “ perfect storm” in Idlib if the government goes ahead with its threatened offensive. De Mistrua offered to go to Idlib personally to help set up the humanitarian corridor. While visiting Syria on Thursday, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi also voiced his concern about the situation in Idlib and expressed his hope that any military offensive there “is conducted in a manner that respects human lives, spares civilians and doesn’t create new refugees.” | | |
| Picture books tell children the stories of refugees. The New York Times reviews some of the recent spate of picture books designed to help children engage with stories of migration and forced displacement. With their striking imagery and heart-wrenching moments, the reviewer points out that the books are bound to provoke questions in young readers that adults will need to be ready to answer. | | |
| An online platform called NaTakallam (“we speak” in Arabic) is connecting refugees with language learners who want to practice their Arabic. For Shadi, a Syrian refugee in Beirut who has weekly conversations with Megan in London, it’s an opportunity, not only to earn some money, but also to feel productive and less isolated. | | |
An average of 114 people arrived on the Greek islands each day in August. More than 70 per cent are families from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
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