| EU leaders aim to break migration deadlock at summit. Ahead of a summit due to start in Salzburg this evening, European Council President Donald Tusk has called on EU leaders to end their “mutual resentment ” and “return to a constructive approach” on the issue of migration. At the last summit in June, leaders agreed in principle to the idea of “controlled centres” for processing migrants and asylum-seekers in member countries and “regional disembarkation platforms” in North Africa for those rescued at sea. But, even as arrivals have dropped significantly this summer, no progress has been made on setting up such facilities either inside or outside the EU. Speaking to Politico, Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR’s Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean, suggested that North African countries would not act until the EU has a clear plan for processing asylum-seekers within its own borders. Europeans “cannot ask other countries to do things they are not ready to do themselves,” he said. | | |
| Violence escalates in Cameroon’s Anglophone region. Brutal attacks on civilians and security forces in anglophone regions of Cameroon have escalated in recent weeks and could rise further in the run-up to presidential elections next month, rights group Amnesty International warned on Tuesday. Up to 400 civilians have been killed in the past year by both security forces and armed separatists, according to Amnesty, while tens of thousands of people have fled to neighbouring Nigeria and hundreds of thousands are internally displaced. Several schools and colleges have been targeted by armed separatists, most recently a school near Buea, in Southwest Region, where more than 20 people were wounded during an attack at the weekend. Thousands of parents are now withdrawing their children from schools in the region, reports Voice of America. In a recent piece for the New York Times, author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explains some of the long history that has led to the current conflict in Cameroon. | | |
| Pakistan’s prime minister rows back on promise of citizenship to Afghan refugees. The Guardian reports that, after announcing on Sunday that he would start work immediately to provide passports to the children of Afghan refugees born in the country, Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan faced a backlash from politicians who support the repatriation of Afghan refugees. Khan said on Tuesday that no final decision had been made and that he had raised the issue to “initiate a debate”. | | |
| UN cautiously welcomes agreement on buffer zone in Syria’s Idlib. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday called on all warring parties to implement the agreement between Turkey and Russia to create a demilitarized buffer zone in Idlib and stressed the need to forge a lasting political solution to the conflict. UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock also welcomed Monday’s agreement as having the potential to avert a humanitarian catastrophe. He told the UN Security Council that civilians who wanted to leave the buffer zone must be allowed to seek refuge elsewhere and that screening to distinguish between civilians and fighters should be done in accordance with international humanitarian law. | | |
| New Zealand to raise refugee quota to 1,500 by 2020. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Wednesday that New Zealand will increase the number of refugees it resettles each year from 1,000 to 1,500. The new quota will only take effect from July 2020 to ensure enough capacity and support is available, Ardern said. New Zealand focuses most of its efforts on resettling refugees from the Asia-Pacific region, said Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. He said other regions could be considered in the future. | | |
| Thirty-eight years to the day after he was resettled to the United States as a refugee, author and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Khaled Hosseini spoke with Seth Meyers about his new book, Sea Prayer, and what Americans can do to help refugees in their community. “Every little thing that you do counts, and every small act of friendship and solidarity is appreciated and remembered,” he says. | | |
So far this year, nearly 39,000 asylum-seekers and migrants have arrived in Spain, mainly via the Western Mediterranean, nearly the double the number who have arrived by sea to Italy.
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