No prospect Rohingya refugees can go home soon, warns UN envoy. Myanmar is not working to create conditions for the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees but is instead engaging in a “sustained campaign of violence, intimidation and harassment,” said UN human rights expert Yanghee Lee on Friday at the end of an 11-day mission to Thailand and Bangladesh. She shared the testimonies of Rohingya refugees who had recently arrived in Cox's Bazar and had described fleeing attacks by Myanmar security forces. "It is clear that Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh cannot return to Myanmar in the near future," Lee said. She also expressed concerns about plans by the Bangladeshi government to relocate some 100,000 refugees from Cox's Bazar to an isolated island in the Bay of Bengal. She said any relocations should be voluntary and in full cooperation with the UN and the international community. | | |
| Situation “critical” for 47 refugees and migrants on board Sea-Watch 3. In a joint statement on Saturday, UNHCR, IOM and UNICEF called for the NGO rescue ship, which is now anchored in Italian waters off the coast of Sicily, to be immediately allowed to bring its 47 passengers to shore at the nearest port. The mayors of Syracuse, Naples and Palermo have offered their ports, but national authorities have refused to give the Sea-Watch 3 permission to dock. On Sunday, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini threatened to take legal action against the boat’s crew for “favouring illegal immigration”. Cramped conditions below deck are reportedly forcing some of the passengers to remain above deck, exposed to the cold. The three UN agencies expressed particular concern for 13 unaccompanied minors on board the ship, which has now been at sea with its passengers for over a week. | | |
| Mexico promises to protect asylum-seekers sent back by US. The Mexican government on Friday said it disagreed with the US administration’s decision to begin implementing a policy that will require asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while their US asylum cases are processed but promised to protect those sent back. As the first group of asylum-seekers were reportedly moved through San Diego’s San Ysidro crossing late on Friday, officials in the northern Mexican border city of Tijuana said shelters were already running at capacity and would not be able to cope with significant numbers of returnees. Advocates on both sides of the border have warned that the policy could put asylum-seekers at risk by sending them back to Mexican border cities with some of the highest homicide rates in the country. | | |
| Eight people killed at centre for displaced in Yemen. The shelling of a centre for internally displaced people in Yemen’s north-western Hajjah Governorate on Saturday killed eight people and wounded 30 others. The UN warned on Sunday that fighting in Hajjah has escalated during the last two months, driving up the civilian death toll and displacing hundreds of families. In Haradh district, where the shelling of the centre took place, hospitals and other public services have closed due to the violence. Hajjah has some of the greatest humanitarian needs in Yemen, with more than a million people currently food insecure, according to the UN. | | |
| Austrian employers woo refugees amid labour shortage. AFP reports on a job fair held in Vienna last week where 1,200 refugees, many of them Syrians and Afghans who arrived in Austria in 2015, were encouraged to apply for jobs with some of Austria’s leading employers. The government-sponsored event was aimed at helping Austrian companies address a chronic labour shortage. Meanwhile, according to official figures, 30,000 refugees are unemployed. “These are people who can be trained and who have enormous potential,” said the head of Austria’s Chamber of Commerce, Karlheinz Kopf. | | |
| Latin American leaders urged to support Venezuelan refugees and migrants. UNHCR and IOM released a statement today describing physical and verbal attacks against Venezuelans in the region as “extremely worrying” and calling on political leaders to condemn xenophobia and racism. The statement comes a week after an Ecuadorian woman was killed by a Venezuelan man in the northern Ecuadorian city of Ibarra, triggering a spate of attacks against Venezuelan people in the country. | | |
| On a farm in County Mayo, refugees resettled to Ireland are getting a chance to work and exchange skills with local farmers as part of a 10-week ‘social farming’ initiative. Refugees like Abdul, who had his own farm in Syria before the conflict, bring with them skills that the Irish farmers find valuable. “They get to show us a different culture [and] we can show them how we do things here,” says local farmer Oliver Dixon. | | |
Nearly 30,000 people applied for asylum in Mexico in 2018 – more than a tenfold increase over the last five years.
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