‘Marshall Plan’ for Central America needed, says Mexico’s incoming foreign minister. Marcelo Ebrard has said that a major investment similar to the Marshall Plan, which helped rebuild Western Europe after the Second World War, was needed in Central America and southern Mexico to address conditions pushing migrants and asylum-seekers north. Ebrard, who is due to meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday to discuss the border and migration, said estimates were still being prepared to determine just how much funding would be needed to develop the region. Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump’s administration has suggested that thousands of Central Americans in Tijuana and elsewhere along the border should be kept in Mexico while their asylum claims are processed, but Mexican officials say the strain on overcrowded city shelters is already causing a humanitarian crisis. At a media briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch said, “any person whose life is at risk in their country of origin must be able to access territory and request asylum in a safe country”. He added that UNHCR has repeatedly called on US authorities “to grant access to the territory and to asylum procedures to those who are fleeing persecution and violence". | | |
| Search for solutions to Afghan displacement ‘must be intensified’, says UNHCR chief. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told a high-level panel at the Geneva Conference on Afghanistan on Tuesday that solutions to Afghan displacement are “central to any debate about the future of Afghanistan”. Grandi said six million Afghans were living in neighbouring countries and beyond, while two million were displaced within the country’s borders. The needs of millions of Afghan returnees are high on the agenda of the conference taking place this week, although the pace of returns has slowed in recent years amid security concerns. Addressing the panel, the Chief Executive of Afghanistan’s National Unity Government, Abdullah Abdullah, said that “much work remains to be done to create an environment that is conducive to return in safety and dignity.” Al Jazeera reports that the Afghan government signed an aid agreement with the European Union on Tuesday worth €37 million, which will be used to help Afghanistan address migration and forced displacement challenges. | | |
| Report details devastating toll of Syrian conflict on children. More than 7,000 children have been killed or maimed during nearly five years of conflict in Syria, according to a report released by the UN Secretary-General which monitored violations against children between November 2013 and June this year. Commenting on the report on Tuesday, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the crisis, Panos Moumtzis, said it documented “a devastating increase in grave violations against children each year by all parties to the conflict”. He added that the figures represented “only the tip of the iceberg”, as it was not possible to capture and verify all casualties. About 42 per cent of Syria’s 6.2 million displaced people are children. “The suffering endured by children and documented in this report is unprecedented and unacceptable,” said Moumtzis. | | |
| Germany launches campaign to boost voluntary returns of asylum-seekers. Posters headlined "Your country. Your future. Now!" have appeared around the German capital recently, written in several languages. They are part of a campaign to promote a repatriation programme through which asylum-seekers can qualify for additional assistance if they apply to leave before 31 December. Qualifying returnees can receive housing assistance worth up to €3,000 for a family or €1,000 for a single person. Euronews reports that the campaign has “raised some eyebrows”, with some denouncing it as cynical and others suggesting that the poster’s wording does not make it clear that it’s aimed solely at asylum-seekers. | | |
| Elephant task force saving refugees’ lives in Bangladesh, but elephants still at risk. National Geographic reports on the predicament of 38 endangered Asian elephants that have been hemmed into the forest adjacent to Kutupalong settlement for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Efforts by UNHCR and the International Union for Conservation of Nature to teach refugees how to cope with elephant encounters and the establishment of an elephant response team have helped prevent deaths, but Ehsanul Hoque, an assistant environment officer for UNHCR in Bangladesh, says the approach is a temporary solution. As the settlement grows and people clear more forest, the elephants’ habitat will continue to shrink. The long-term solution is to re-establish a migration corridor for the elephants, but it would involve relocating 100,000 people and negotiating with neighbouring Myanmar. | | |
| Refugees adrift in Libyan coastal town. Deutsche Welle reports from Zuwara, once a major launching point for migrants and refugees attempting sea crossings to Europe. A crackdown by the Libyan authorities and a lack of NGO rescue boats operating in the Central Mediterranean means a sea crossing is now “next to impossible” and local authorities have been left to deal with the refugees and migrants stranded in the city . While some have agreed to voluntary repatriation to their home countries after being taken to the local detention centre, others feel they can’t return to war-torn countries such as Yemen. In a statement on Friday, UNHCR called for alternatives to detention and more international support for evacuations of refugees and asylum-seekers from Libya. | | |
| This festive season, shoppers have the option of buying real gifts for refugees at two pop-up stores in London and New York. The Choose Love stores, created by the charity Help Refugees, contain practical items like tents, nappies, solar lamps and sleeping bags. But instead of taking them home, shoppers purchase a similar item for people who really need them. If you’re not in London or New York, you can shop for the same items on the Choose Love website. | | |
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