UK grants refugees residency after 20 years on Cyprus base. Britain has granted permanent residency to six refugee families who have been stranded on a British army base in Cyprus for more than 20 years. The Leigh Day law firm that represents the refugees said Monday that the government settled the case just before it was to be heard by the Supreme Court. The families were among a larger group from Ethiopia, Iraq, Sudan and Syria whose boat was abandoned by people smugglers off the coast of Cyprus in 1998. Until now, the UK government had denied legal responsibility for the refugees, arguing that the 1951 Refugee Convention doesn’t apply to its overseas military bases. Expert reports carried out on behalf of UNHCR in 2013 had found high levels of anxiety and depression among the families who have been living in disused military accommodation. | | |
| UN launches humanitarian funding appeal for 2019. The Global Humanitarian Overview 2019 , which launches in Geneva today, estimates that nearly 132 million people in 42 countries will need humanitarian assistance and protection next year. The UN and its partner organizations aim to assist nearly 94 million of the most vulnerable at a cost of US$21.9 billion. The amount excludes the crisis in Syria for which a humanitarian response plan is still being finalized. Writing for the Thompson Reuters Foundation, Mark Lowcock, the UN’s humanitarian chief, said that while the humanitarian situation had stabilised in some places, such as Burkina Faso and Senegal, crises in other countries such as Yemen and Afghanistan required a scaled-up response. So far this year, donors have contributed a record $14 billion towards humanitarian appeals, still well below the $25 billion target. Lowcock sets out four ways the humanitarian sector can do “more with what we have” including reforming humanitarian financing, shifting responses to prevention of large-scale crises and tackling root causes of vulnerability and instability. | | |
| US-hired law firm calls for tribunal on crimes against Rohingya. A law firm contracted by the US State Department to investigate atrocities against the Rohingya in Myanmar has called for the urgent establishment of a criminal tribunal to bring those responsible to justice. In a report released on Monday, based on interviews with more than 1,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, the Public International Law and Policy Group said there were reasonable grounds to believe the Myanmar military had committed crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes against the Rohingya. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington also issued a statement on Monday saying there was compelling evidence that the Myanmar military committed genocide against the Rohingya. | | |
| Construction companies failing to protect refugee workers in Jordan and Lebanon. A study by the London-based Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRCC) found dozens of construction companies in Jordan and Lebanon working on projects funded by international donors had no clear policies to protect their refugee and migrant workers. As a result, those workers – many of them refugees from neighbouring Syria – faced late or non-payment of wages, discrimination, dangerous working environments and extortionate recruitment fees . Migrants and refugees make up the majority of construction workers in Jordan and Lebanon and are particularly vulnerable to exploitation as they often lack the right to work, notes the report. | | |
| Two dead as fire rips through refugee settlement in Lebanon. A fire that burned nearly two dozen tents at a refugee settlement in the north-eastern town of Yammouneh early on Monday killed two Syrian refugees , according to local officials. The Daily Star reports that one of the victims was the 46-year-old owner of the tent where the fire started. He managed to get his family out of the tent but died while trying to retrieve their belongings. The other victim was a boy aged 7 or 8 who was living in a nearby tent. Fires in informal refugee settlements are not uncommon, especially in the winter when refugees use heaters and stoves to try to stay warm in their tents. Security forces and a UN team were reportedly dispatched to the area. | | |
| Kenyan newspaper, the Daily Nation, profiles 10 former refugees who spent time in Kenya’s refugee camps before being resettled and finding success elsewhere. The list starts with Ilhan Omar, who was recently elected to the US Congress, and includes model Halima Aden, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Ahmed Hussen, as well as sports stars, authors, activists and a rapper. | | |
The average humanitarian crisis now lasts more than nine years. Nearly three quarters of people targeted to receive assistance in 2018 are in countries affected by humanitarian crisis lasting for seven years or more.
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