Millions of displaced Syrians hit by harsh winter weather. Snowfall and heavy rain have destroyed shelters and forced tens of thousands of Syrians to move while millions are braving freezing temperatures in tents or damaged buildings with no heating, said UN relief chief Mark Lowcock in a briefing to the UN Security Council on Wednesday. Lowcock said that among those facing difficult winter conditions were three million civilians in Idlib, an opposition-held enclave in the country’s northwest. He noted that January had seen an increase in fighting between non-State armed groups in Idlib and reiterated the importance of sustaining a nonmilitarized buffer zone in place since last September. Local rescue workers reported that at least 12 people were killed by shelling in the town of Maarat al-Numan in Idlib earlier this week. | | |
| Rescue ship docks in Catania. The Sea-Watch 3 docked in the Sicilian port of Catania on Thursday after 11 days at sea with 47 rescued refugees and migrants, including 15 unaccompanied minors. The ship had been moored off the coast of Sicily for several days while it waited for a safe port. Seven European countries, including Italy, broke the deadlock by agreeing to accept some of the passengers. In a statement on Wednesday, Sea Watch, the German NGO that operates the ship, said the long wait had taken a toll on those on board. “Some people have stopped eating, shrink into themselves, others become emotionally unstable,” said Frank Dörner, the ship’s doctor. | | |
| Mass graves found in western Democratic Republic of the Congo. A preliminary UN investigation into a massacre reportedly carried out in western DRC last month has revealed that at least 565 civilians were killed during inter-ethnic clashes between the Banunu and Batende communities in Yumbi. The UN mission in the country, MONUSCO, said on Wednesday that an investigative team had found 59 burial sites in two of the towns that came under attack. Hundreds of houses, schools, churches and health centres were also looted and destroyed. An estimated 16,000 people fled to neighbouring Republic of the Congo-Brazzaville, according to UNHCR. | | |
| Nonstop Dutch church service to protect refugees ends. The Bethel Church in the Hague ended a nonstop 96-day long service on Wednesday afternoon after its organizers received confirmation that a family of Armenian asylum-seekers sheltering inside would no longer face immediate deportation. Dutch law prohibits authorities from entering a church while a service is underway. The Dutch ruling coalition announced on Tuesday that many children whose asylum applications had previously been rejected would have their cases reviewed and that a large number are expected to become eligible for residency permits. Dutch media reported that about 700 children and their families will be affected, including the Tamrazyan family sheltering at the church. Some have lived in the Netherlands for a decade or more. | | |
| Creating legal pathways for Venezuelans in Latin America. The latest policy brief from the Migration Policy Institute explores the various approaches governments in Latin America have used to help ensure that people arriving from Venezuela have a legal status . Most have opted to use existing visa categories or temporary regularization programmes that have shortcomings in terms of their coverage and the access to public services they allow. The brief argues that, with Venezuelan arrivals expected to continue in 2019 and returns unlikely in the short-term, policymakers need to look beyond the immediate humanitarian crisis and start planning for the long term. The Atlantic reports on Colombia’s efforts to document more than a million Venezuelans. | | |
| Manus Island refugee wins Australian literary prize. Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish Iranian refugee who has been confined to Manus Island for the past six years as part of Australia’s offshore asylum system, won two literary prizes worth $125,000 today for his book, No Friend But the Mountains. Organizers of the Victorian Literary Award made an exception to allow Boochani to enter despite him not being a permanent resident or citizen. The book, which is a record of his time on Manus Island, first won the non-fiction category before going on to win the prize for literature. His translator, Omid Tofighian, accepted the prize on Boochani’s behalf. | | |
| Nineteen-year-old Maya Ghazal dreams of becoming the first female Syrian refugee pilot and has already earned a place studying aviation engineering at Brunel University. In this talk she gave at a TEDx event in Geneva last month, she offers five steps for better understanding refugees and investing in their potential. | | |
At least 136 people died along land routes at Europe’s borders or within Europe last year, up from 75 deaths recorded in 2017.
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