Number of Venezuelan refugees and migrants reaches 3 million. UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration announced on Thursday that the number of refugees and migrants from Venezuela worldwide has now reached 3 million . Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are hosting the majority, with over one million in Colombia, followed by Peru with over half a million, Ecuador with over 220,000, and hundreds of thousands living in Argentina, Chile and Brazil. Much of the exodus has occurred since 2015, but it has accelerated in the past six months . Eduardo Stein, UNHCR-IOM Joint Special Representative for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela, commended countries in the region for largely maintaining an open-door policy but said reception capacity was now “severely strained” and required “a more robust and immediate response from the international community if this generosity and solidarity are to continue”. Regional government officials are to meet in Quito, Ecuador, on 22 and 23 November to discuss the humanitarian response and how to coordinate their efforts. | | |
| Life as an aid worker in Yemen’s Al-Hudaydah. As fighting between coalition and Houthi rebel forces continues ahead of a planned ceasefire at the of this month, Salem Jaffer Baobaid, a project coordinator for Islamic Relief, writes for IRIN about his first-hand experiences of life in the besieged port city . As the fighting edges closer to the city centre, the streets have emptied, food prices have soared and more shops have closed their doors. Families are struggling to get by and keep asking Baobaid's organization to bring more food, “but no matter what we do, aid organisations are not designed or equipped to feed an entire nation,” he writes. At a briefing today in Geneva, UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told journalists that the agency was “concerned that fighting is blocking access to our humanitarian supplies”, including a warehouse stocked with emergency shelter and essential aid items. | | |
| Dozens of Rohingya board boats for Malaysia. Reuters reports that dozens of Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh have boarded boats to try to reach Malaysia in recent days. One boat attempted to set sail from the southern coast of Bangladesh on Wednesday, while several vessels left Rakhine state in western Myanmar. More such attempts at dangerous voyages are likely following the end of the monsoon season. Meanwhile, 42 aid agencies and civil society groups working in Myanmar and Bangladesh said in a statement on Friday that Rohingya refugees are “terrified” about the prospect of returning to Myanmar under repatriation plans announced by the two governments last month. The NGOs echoed views expressed by UNHCR last week that conditions in Rakhine State are “not yet conducive for returns”. | | |
| Arrivals of Cameroonian refugees to Nigeria surpass 30,000. UNHCR announced today that the total number of Cameroonian refugees who have arrived in Nigeria since the outbreak of violence in Cameroon’s South-West and North-West regions last September is now more than 30,000. Almost 600 arrived just in the last two weeks, with many of the new arrivals telling UNHCR that they had been ordered to leave their homes due to increasing violence . Most of the refugees are living with host communities, while more than 9,000 have been moved to new settlements where they are receiving food and other essential items. Another 436,000 Cameroonians are estimated to be displaced inside Cameroon in areas where humanitarian agencies have limited access. | | |
| The network of quiet humanitarians resettling refugees to the UK. The New Statesman reports on the “Refugees Welcome” movement that started in the UK in the summer of 2015 and has led to initiatives such as the community refugee sponsorship scheme, grassroots groups that are helping migrants and refugees in Calais, and schemes that match destitute refugees and asylum-seekers with volunteers willing to house them. A community sponsorship group in Milton Keynes together with the local council has committed to resettle 150 Syrian refugees, of whom 90 have already arrived. The role of volunteers in helping the refugees settle into their new lives and integrate has proved vital. | | |
| Kafia Mahdi fled a forced marriage in her native Somalia at the age of 15 and arrived in Hungary alone, nearly a year later. A new documentary film by Hungarian director Dorottya Zurbó follows Mahdi’s journey from a state children’s home in Budapest to the beginnings of a modelling career. During two years of filming, Mahdi reveals her doubts about breaking away from her past. | | |
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