Hunger and displacement drive cholera’s return to Yemen. IRIN reports from Al Hudaydah where health workers are witnessing some of the highest levels of cholera in the country. Fighting in the province has displaced more than 570,000 people since June. Many of those now seeking treatment for diarrhoeal diseases, including cholera, are living in makeshift camps with improvised sanitation facilities and limited access to clean water. Rising levels of malnourishment, driven by the collapsing economy and fighting around Al Hudaydah’s port – a vital lifeline for aid – have also made people more vulnerable to cholera. Addressing the UN Security Council on Tuesday, UN emergency relief chief Mark Lowcock said around 14 million people , or around half of Yemen’s total population, are now facing “pre-famine conditions”. Many deaths from cholera and starvation are hidden as families struggle to afford the cost of transport to health facilities or are trapped by fighting. “Unable to reach care, people often die at home,” said Lowcock. “Very few families report these deaths; their stories go unrecorded.” | | |
| Another ‘caravan’ of refugees and migrants gathers in Guatemala. As a group of some 7,000 mainly Honduran refugees and migrants makes its way across southern Mexico, the Wall Street Journal reports that another caravan has formed in its wake and is now gathered in the Guatemalan city of Chiquimula. Although estimates vary widely, charities and activists say the group numbers as many as 2,500. The rise of caravans could signal a new dynamic, charity workers told the WSJ, as people band together to avoid the cost of paying smugglers and for safety. The Guardian spoke to some of the Honduran members of the caravan who were resting in the Mexican town of Huixtla on Tuesday. Many talked about fleeing extortion and death threats by gangs. UNHCR yesterday reminded countries along the route that the caravan is likely to include people “in real danger”. | | |
| Migrants and refugees gather at Croatia border. Some 250 refugees and migrants gathered at a border crossing in north-west Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on Tuesday, hoping to cross into Croatia, but were turned back by BiH police, AFP reports. Earlier in the day, another group of 100 people, mostly families with children, were bussed back to an asylum centre after spending a night on the roadside near another border crossing in the same area. Croatian police said in a statement that false rumours were being spread that Croatia’s borders would be opened to allow people to enter freely. According to Serbian media, several hundred refugees and migrants also gathered at a border crossing to Croatia near the Serbian town of Sid on Tuesday. They also claimed to have heard that the Croatian border “was open”. The group eventually returned to reception centres. | | |
| Angelina Jolie calls for more international support for Venezuelan refugees. At the end of a visit to Peru, UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie called on the international community to do more to support Peru and other countries in the region taking in large numbers of Venezuelans leaving their country. “As in nearly every displacement crisis, the countries that have fewer resources are being asked to do the most,” she said. Jolie met Venezuelans in the border town of Tumbes where currently some 2,000 cross from Ecuador every day. “Every Venezuelan I met described the situation in their country as desperate ,” she told reporters. “I heard stories of people dying because of a lack of medical care and medicine… people starving, and tragic accounts of violence and persecution.” | | |
| Law experts express concern about EU proposals for asylum screening. In a statement on Tuesday, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) warned that the setting up of controlled centres within the European Union and regional landing platforms in third countries must be accompanied by legal assistance for potential asylum-seekers. Leaders at an EU summit in June proposed the creation of “controlled centres” and “disembarkation platforms” for screening migrants and asylum-seekers, but so far no EU or third country has offered to host such centres. The CCBE statement points out that legal safeguards are “already not being guaranteed in existing hotspots” where screening of new arrivals takes place, such as on the Greek island of Lesvos. | | |
| Syrian refugees and the schooling challenge. This blog for the Brookings Institution considers the challenges for Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan in educating 1.7 million school-age Syrian refugee children. Despite efforts to integrate those children into public schools, 40 per cent remain out of school – a situation likely to bring further social challenges for host countries and for Syria as refugees return. Beyond building more schools and making additional classes and teachers available, the authors argue that a key challenge is addressing high poverty rates among refugees that mean many children must work or cannot afford school supplies and transport costs. | | |
| Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera has created a huge, horizontal mural of a young Syrian refugee in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall that is only revealed when a large group of visitors come together to activate the heat-sensitive paint. The title of the work is an ever-increasing figure representing the number of people who migrated from one country to another last year added to the number of migrant deaths recorded so far this year. | | |
Nearly two thirds of refugee children who go to primary school do not make it to secondary school.
| | |
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment