“Caravan” of Hondurans treks through Guatemala. A group of some 2,000 Honduran migrants and asylum-seekers hoping to reach Mexico and the United States arrived in the Guatemalan town of Chiquimula on Tuesday after a confrontation with riot police at the border a day earlier. The group’s numbers have grown since about 160 people departed from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula on Friday. Both Mexico and the US Embassy in Honduras have issued statements saying the migrants will need proper documentation to be able to cross their borders. On Tuesday, President Trump warned that if the caravan was not stopped, the US would cut off millions of dollars in aid to Honduras. Some in the group told Al Jazeera they were fleeing gang violence and insecurity and that the risks of the journey outweighed the potential consequences of staying in Honduras. | | |
| Thousands of civilians caught up in fighting in eastern Syria. The UN warned on Tuesday that fighting between the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and ISIS over the past month has displaced 7,000 people from the Hajin area in eastern Deir-ez-Zor governorate and resulted in the deaths and injuries of scores of civilians. Many of the displaced are sheltering in makeshift settlements in SDF-controlled areas where conditions are “extremely dire”, according to the UN. One such settlement in al-Bahra was reportedly attacked by ISIS fighters on Friday. UK-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that some 250 civilians were abducted from the camp, including dozens of women and children. While a one-time delivery of aid has reached some 5,000 displaced people, the UN said more assistance was needed. | | |
| Australia considers New Zealand offer to resettle offshore refugees. Under rising pressure over deteriorating conditions at offshore asylum processing sites on Nauru and Manus Island, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has signalled willingness to accept New Zealand’s long-standing offer to resettle some of the refugees. But only on the condition the government passes legislation intended to ensure they can never enter Australia. Some 500 people marched to the Australian parliament on Tuesday to demand the government suspend its offshore asylum policy. Three representatives from the ruling Liberal Party also broke ranks to call for child refugees to be brought to Australia. | | |
| Lack of support for children returned from Europe to Afghanistan, says report.A new report from Save the Children highlights a lack of reintegration support available to young Afghans returned by European States over the past five years. The survey of 53 child returnees revealed that nearly three-quarters of the children did not feel safe during the return process and were no longer attending school. One in five said someone had tried to recruit them to fight or engage with an armed group after returning. Save the Children is calling for an immediate halt to the return of children and young people from Europe to Afghanistan. UNHCR recently issued guidelines advising against returns to areas of Afghanistan affected by armed conflict, and urban areas with limited capacity to absorb returnees. | | |
| South Korea grants temporary protection to Yemeni asylum-seekers on Jeju. Five months after the arrival of more than 500 Yemenis in Jeju, a South Korean tourist island, the Justice Ministry announced today that 339 of them will be allowed to stay in the country on one-year humanitarian visas. Another 23 Yemenis on Jeju have already been granted such visas. The authorities are still reviewing 85 other cases. | | |
| A community-centre kitchen run by Colombian and Venezuelan volunteers near the busy border between the two countries is serving 6,000 free meals a day to hungry new arrivals from Venezuela. As well as food, the centre provides a legal information service and basic medical care. | | |
Last night, 135 refugees were evacuated from detention centres in Libya to Niger to await resettlement to third countries, bringing the total number of evacuations to Niger since last November to 1,675.
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