India arrests Rohingya group stuck on Bangladesh border. Indian police on Tuesday arrested a group of 31 Rohingya men, women and children who had been stranded on the border since Friday after being denied entry into Bangladesh. A police official said they had been arrested on charges of entering India without valid travel documents. The group had been living in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir for the past six years. They alleged that Bangladeshi border guards had beaten them and taken their UNHCR identity cards. Al Jazeera reports that on Monday night another group of 30 Rohingya were arrested in neighbouring Assam state. UNHCR has expressed concern that anxiety among Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers in India may cause others to undertake risky journeys to seek protection and safety in Bangladesh. | | |
| Refugees in the spotlight at Davos. The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos got under way on Tuesday with a strong message from one of its co-chairs, Mohammed Hassan Mohamud, a Somali refugee who has spent the last 20 years living in Kenya’s Kakuma camp. He said that he and others like him feel sidelined in debates about the future of the world economy. What keeps him up at night, he said, was wondering if he would spend the next 20 years living in a refugee camp. “People do not talk about those things on a global stage,” he said. “People would rather pretend that we don’t exist.” His message to the private sector was to help refugees gain the tools and skills they need to thrive and contribute to society. Before arriving in Davos, Mohamud said it was high time refugees were seen “as partners in development efforts, rather than a burden to society”. | | |
| Germany pulls out of EU anti-smuggling mission in the Mediterranean. Germany is suspending participation in Operation Sophia , the EU naval mission in the Central Mediterranean. A senior military officer said Germany would not be replacing a German frigate currently stationed off the coast of Libya early next month. Operation Sophia was launched in 2015 to disrupt people-smuggling networks, but its mandate has also included training Libyan coastguards and rescuing refugees and migrants at sea. German news agency DPA reports that Berlin’s decision was the result of Italy’s refusal to allow rescued refugees and migrants to disembark at its ports. | | |
| Kabul’s tent dwellers struggle to survive harsh winter. More than 1.2 million internally displaced people across Afghanistan are living in informal settlements, according the UN. Many of them are former refugees who returned to Afghanistan after years living in Pakistan and Iran, only to be forced to flee again due to violence. The Norwegian Refugee Council warned on Tuesday that displaced families living in makeshift shelters in Kabul are ill-equipped to survive temperatures as low as minus 15 degrees Celsius. In December, UNHCR estimated that 620,000 people are in need of assistance this winter and that aid agencies and the Afghan government will reach 420,000 of them. “There remains a gap of at least 28,000 families still in need,” noted the agency. | | |
| Outcry in Lebanon following Syrian refugee boy’s death. A 14-year-old Syrian boy named Ahmad Zoubi is thought to have fallen to his death down a six-storey ventilation shaft in Beirut while trying to hide from the police. His body was discovered by his family three days after he went missing last week. The story of his death has been provoking debate on social media since activists posted grainy CCTV images of him fleeing a police patrol and disappearing into an alleyway. Zoubdi was helping to support his family by shining shoes, work that reportedly brought him into conflict with the authorities. UNHCR estimates that more than half of Syrian refugees in Lebanon are living in extreme poverty. | | |
| Photographing the Yazidis as they struggle to rebuild their lives. Italian photographer Emilienne Malfatto has been documenting the lives of the Yazidis since 2015, a year after they were driven from Sinjar in north-western Iraq by Islamic militants. Following the recapture of the city in November 2015, Yazidi residents have been slowly returning to their decimated villages. Malfatto’s series, “Back Home ”, documents their attempts to rebuild their lives and their communities despite fears that the militants could return and a lack of basic services. | | |
| Thirteen-year-old Syrian refugee Zain Al Rafeea was spotted in the streets of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, by Lebanese film director Nadine Labaki. She cast him as the lead role in her film, “Capernaum”, which yesterday was nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign language film category. UNHCR met Zain and his family last year as they prepared to start a new life in Norway. | | |
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