Myanmar attempts to kickstart Rohingya repatriation process. Reuters reports that a delegation of Myanmar officials met with a group of about 60 Rohingya community leaders at Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh on Wednesday in an effort to kickstart a repatriation process . Officials from Bangladesh and Myanmar announced that returns of Rohingya refugees would begin by mid-November following a meeting in Dhaka on Tuesday, but UNHCR has cautioned that conditions in Rakhine state are “not yet conducive for returns”. Myint Thu, permanent secretary at Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and leader of the Myanmar delegation, said Myanmar had verified about 5,000 names of refugees and that repatriation would begin with a first batch of 2,000 returnees. Rohingya leaders said after Wednesday’s meeting that they were unconvinced. They were not given a timetable for how long they would have to stay in transit camps after return and were encouraged to accept new identity cards as a “first step” to citizenship. | | |
| Tracing the path of 56,800 dead and missing refugees and migrants. The Associated Press today published an investigation into the number of refugees and migrants who have died or gone missing since 2014, the year the International Organization for Migration began tracking such deaths and disappearances. AP said its figure of 56,800 is almost double IOM’s estimate because it drew on data from all regions and pulled together information from both formal and informal sources, including missing persons and death reports, forensic records and data from interviews with thousands of refugees and migrants. While fatalities in the Mediterranean have been better documented than in many other regions since 2014, AP reports that boats which go missing shortly after setting off from Tunisia or other North African countries often go unrecorded. Information about refugees and migrants who disappear after leaving their homes in Asia, Africa and South America is even more scarce. | | |
| All refugee children to be removed from Nauru by year’s end. The Australian government is set to move all remaining refugee children held as part of its offshore processing policy on the island nation of Nauru by the end of the year , according to George Brandis, Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK. “There are hardly any children in Nauru and in New Guinea, and we expect that by the end of this year there’ll be none,” Brandis told British radio station LBC. The Guardian Australia reported on Wednesday that fewer than 40 children remain on Nauru, owing to ongoing medical transfers. UNHCR has called for the evacuation of all refugees and asylum-seekers from Nauru and Papua New Guinea. | | |
| Forced out of Angola, Congolese returnees stranded at border. With nearly 350,000 Congolese forced to return from Angola during October and more arriving every day, aid agencies are warning of an emerging crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Kasai province, which is receiving most of the returnees. Some 50,000 people are currently trapped near the border town of Kamako with no resources or means to travel home, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday. At least 80,000 children are among the returnees and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, according to UNICEF. Andreas Kirchhof, a spokesperson with UNHCR, told Reuters the main needs were for onward transport, as well as food and health care. He said there was a risk the influx could exacerbate ethnic tensions in the region. | | |
| UN refugee chief urges states to support global compact on refugees. Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi urged member states to get behind a new global compact on refugees that emphasizes international cooperation and the rights and aspirations of refugees. Presenting his annual report and the compact to the Assembly’s Third Committee, Grandi said refugees were an international concern and a shared responsibility. “In the compact, we will for the first time have a practical workable model, a set of tools that translates this principle into action,” he said. The compact is expected to be validated by the UN General Assembly by the end of 2018. A separate global compact for migration is to be adopted at an intergovernmental conference in Morocco next month. | | |
| Green homes build cohesion between Syrian refugees and Jordanians. Reuters reports on a pilot project in northern Jordan that employs Syrian refugees and Jordanians to retrofit and build affordable “green” homes . Led by two non-profits – the Jordan Green Building Council and Habitat for Humanity – the project aims to not only cut carbon emissions, but also to build community cohesion. The influx of Syrian refugees to Jordan since 2011 has strained the country’s energy, water and housing demands and added pressure to Jordan’s ability to meet its obligations under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Meanwhile, some low-income Jordanians resent the attention and funds directed towards the refugees. The green homes project is helping to heal community rifts while lowering emissions. | | |
| Unable to afford text books, Abdullah Kattineh studied chemistry on his mobile phone from his bedroom in Syria. After coming third in a global chemistry competition, he decided to aim high and applied to study Natural Sciences at Cambridge University. Not only did he secure a place, but his college and a charitable trust are covering his costs. | | |
Since 2014, at least 18,400 African refugees and migrants have died while traveling within Africa, according to figures compiled by the Associated Press.
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