| Austria, Italy propose screening rescued asylum-seekers at sea. The interior ministers of Austria and Italy suggested on Friday that the European Union hold asylum-seekers rescued at sea on ships for days while making an initial determination of their asylum claims. Austrian Interior Minister Herbert Kickl told a joint press conference in Vienna that those deemed to have no chance of asylum would be denied entry to Europe . The proposal was suggested as an alternative to “regional disembarkation platforms” outside of the EU, which were proposed in June but seem unlikely to be implemented due to the lack of willing third countries. After two days of talks with government officials in Italy, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said European states need a clear mechanism for sharing responsibility for refugees and migrants rescued at sea rather than dealing with them on a boat-by-boat basis. “We are not talking about incredible figures – if Lebanon can deal with a million refugees then Europe can manage a few tens of thousands,” Grandi said. | | |
| Fighting in Yemen’s Al Hudaydah damages World Food Programme warehouse. The World Food Programme said a mortar shell hit one of its warehouses containing enough food to assist 19,200 people. WFP spokesperson Herve Verhoosel added that ongoing clashes taking place near the Red Sea Mill Silos could impact the agency’s ability “to feed up to 3.5 million very hungry people in northern and central Yemen for one month”. The recent increase in air strikes in Al Hudaydah is also impacting aid delivery to other parts of the country, with the main road linking the port city to the capital, Sana’a, closed for several days and trucks carrying food forced to take different routes. “Hudaydah Port must remain open and so too the arteries that lead from it,” said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, on Friday. “A single act of force to disrupt the flow of supplies from Hudaydah would be a deadly blow for millions." | | |
| Uganda launches refugee education plan. The Education Response Plan, launched on Friday by the Ugandan government together with UN agencies, NGOs and development partners, aims to provide access to education for the 57 per cent of refugee children and 34 per cent of local children in refugee-hosting districts who are currently missing out on school. The plan includes construction of new classrooms, hiring more teachers, strengthening national and local education systems and getting older children back into education. Uganda is appealing to international donors for funds to implement the plan. | | |
| Debate on refugees intensifies in South Korea. Groups in support of and in opposition to the government’s refugee policy held opposing rallies in central Seoul on Saturday, two days after the Justice Ministry granted one-year humanitarian permits to 23 Yemeni asylum-seekers. The arrival of 550 Yemeni asylum-seekers on the South Korean resort island of Jeju in recent months has sparked a national debate about refugees. In response to public pressure, the government announced last month it will amend the country’s Refugee Act to tighten screening of asylum claims. The Korea Times reports that the country has only accepted 3.8 per cent of refugee applicants since 1994. | | |
| Pakistan-born Afghan refugees to be granted citizenship. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced on Sunday that hundreds of thousands of Afghans born in Pakistan to refugee parents will be offered Pakistani citizenship. UN surveys suggest that around 60 per cent of Afghan refugees in the country were either born in Pakistan or were minors when their parents arrived. Khan said that without national identification cards and passports, the refugees are unable to find legal work or get a quality education. | | |
| How can we treat refugees with more dignity? This long read by Dina Nayeri reflects on the differences between charity and welcome , based on her own experiences as a refugee in Italy in the late 1980s, where, even in the relatively comfortable surroundings of a hotel converted into a refugee hostel, accepting charity was painful for her family. Nayeri recently volunteered with Refugee Support, a charity attempting to offer more choice and dignity in the way aid is distributed at refugee camps. At Katsikas camp, near Ionnina in Greece, an aid distribution point has been re-invented as a store where refugees can “shop” for their preferred items using a points system. | | |
| In this short film for Global Citizen, former Liberian refugee Wilmot Collins talks about the over-whelming response to his election as mayor of the city of Helena in Montana last November. “It made me realize that it was more than just me,” he says. “If I, Wilmot Collins, can do this in Helena, others can see and say, ‘Hey, we can emulate him’. I opened up the door.” | | |
Sea arrivals to Italy decreased by 81 per cent in the first seven months of 2018 compared to the same period last year.
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