| One year on, the Rohingya refugee crisis continues. Media outlets, rights groups and aid organizations have been marking the one-year anniversary of the Rohingya crisis, which began on 25 August 2017 with the launch of a violent crackdown. In the span of a few months, more than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh. Médecins Sans Frontières highlights the dire living conditions in the makeshift refugee settlements in Cox’s Bazar district, which have been made worse in recent weeks by relentless monsoon rains. Several aid agencies point out that funding shortfalls are hampering the humanitarian response. A UN-led appeal for US$950 million launched in March to cover relief efforts until the end of the year has so far only raised only a third of that sum. At a briefing in Geneva today, UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic described the funding gap as “ deeply worrying”. He called on the international community to step up its support and show solidarity with Bangladesh so the emergency response can be expanded to addresses challenges such as education, environmental impacts and refugee self-reliance. | | |
| Spiralling violence, Ebola and under-funding threaten millions in DR Congo. Fighting between armed groups has intensified in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s volatile and Ebola-hit North Kivu province, said UNHCR on Friday, threatening to worsen an already dire humanitarian situation. The agency said it was particularly worried about the situation in the northern territory of Beni, where residents have described brutal attacks against civilians, extortion, forced displacement and rampant sexual and gender-based violence. Earlier this month, a UNHCR team witnessed empty villages full of torched houses and displaced indigenous communities sleeping rough after being forced out of their forest homes. This week Refugees International warned that the response to the DRC’s complex mix of emergencies is threatened by donor fatigue, with international funding at its lowest level in a decade. UNHCR’s DRC appeal for 2018 is currently only 17 per cent funded. | | |
| EU calls emergency meeting over Diciotti standoff. The European Commission is holding an emergency meeting today to bring a “swift resolution” to the situation of 150 adult asylum-seekers and migrants awaiting permission from the Italian government to disembark from the Diciotti, an Italian coast guard ship that has been docked in the Sicilian port of Catania for the past four days. Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister, Luigi Di Maio, yesterday threatened to suspend Italy’s funding to the EU unless other EU states agree to share responsibility for the rescued migrants. In a joint statement yesterday, UNHCR and IOM called for “an urgent resolution” to the impasse, pointing out that many on board have already endured traumatic experiences in Libya and may be in need of international protection. | | |
| Tanzania accused of pressuring Burundian refugees to return. Thijs Van Laer, a programme manager at the International Refugee Rights Initiative, wrote in African Arguments earlier this week that senior Tanzanian officials have been visiting camps sheltering Burundian refugees and urging them to sign up for voluntary return . Market days in the camp have also been reduced from three to one per week while the sale of some non-food items have been banned. In a statement today, UNHCR urged Tanzania to ensure Burundian refugee returns are voluntary and based on individual choice. UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Volker Türk said the agency was not promoting returns to Burundi at this stage but was working with host countries to assist those refugees wanting to return. | | |
| Progress reported in reuniting families separated at US border. Lawyers for the US government and families separated by border officials after they entered the United States from Mexico said 37 more children have been released from federal custody in the last week. According to Thursday’s court filing, 505 children aged 5 to 17 remain separated from their families, while more than 2,100 have been discharged from federal custody since President Trump ended the policy of separating migrant and asylum-seeking families on 20 June following widespread global criticism. The American Civil Liberties Union has been reaching out to hundreds of parents who were removed from the country, to determine their wishes for children still in US custody. | | |
| Some Syrian refugees find Turkey more welcoming than Europe. The Economist looks at what makes Turkey a better refuge for many than Europe. Not only is it closer to home and more familiar, but finding work is often easier than in European countries that restrict asylum-seekers right to work. Although only a fraction of the refugee population in Turkey have work permits, most are able to work informally. Economic activity helps integration, but The Economist suggests that the lack of formal schemes could pose problems in the long run by making Syrians’ more vulnerable to anti-refugee feeling and discrimination. A full-blown economic crisis in Turkey or a new influx of refugees from Idlib could increase tensions, The Economist said. | | |
| Khaled Hosseini talks to the Sydney Morning Herald about his journey from refugee to author of the Kite Runner to UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. “I see my role as an advocate on a human level for people who used to have a place in the world and because of circumstances that have nothing to do with them have seen their lives totally splintered," he says. | | |
More than a million people are displaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu province – the highest concentration of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the DRC.
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