Over 1,000 Rohingya cross into Bangladesh from India fearing crackdown. At least 1,300 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh from India since the start of the year, an official said on Wednesday, amid fears that India would carry out further deportations of Rohingya to Myanmar. Nayana Bose, a spokesperson for the Inter Sector Coordination Group, which coordinates the humanitarian response in Cox’s Bazar, said the pace of new arrivals from India had escalated since 3 January, the date when India deported a Rohingya family of five to Myanmar. According to rights groups, India arrested and imprisoned 230 Rohingya in 2018. The new arrivals have been sent to Cox’s Bazar and are being housed in a UN transit centre, said Bose. | | |
| Thailand signals shift in refugee policy. Speaking on Wednesday, Thailand’s newly appointed head of immigration, Surachate Hakparn, said refugees would no longer be returned home “involuntarily” . The country is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention and has drawn criticism for holding refugees and asylum-seekers in detention and deporting them to countries where they could face danger. Surachate pledged that going forward, Thailand's treatment of refugees would follow "international norms". | | |
| Renewed clashes in Tripoli leave five dead. A new round of clashes between rival militias in Libya’s capital left at least five people dead on Wednesday, according to the country’s health ministry, which said it expected the number of casualties to rise as the fighting continued. The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) condemned the violence in southern Tripoli and warned against any breach of a ceasefire agreement reached in September last year. | | |
| Living through winter in eastern Ukraine’s war zone. Temperatures can plummet to –20 degrees Celsius in Ukraine. Five years into a conflict that has displaced 1.5 million people, many of those forced to flee have exhausted their resources and cannot afford to pay for heating as well as food and medicines. UNHCR profiles four displaced Ukrainians who have endured years of shelling and living in damaged or unheated homes. This winter, distributions of fuel, cash and clothing by UNHCR and its NGO partners will ensure they’re not left out in the cold. | | |
| Nauru doctor wins free speech award for speaking out against medical neglect of refugees. Nick Martin, the former senior medical officer on Nauru, spoke out publicly against what he described as Australia’s “inflexible, unswerving, and shameless” offshore asylum policy. He said the policy had led to asylum-seekers being harmed and doctors’ recommendations to treat seriously ill people being ignored. Martin’s advocacy cost him his job, but the Guardian reports that his reports provided key evidence to several successful court challenges that brought dangerously unwell children to Australia. He was awarded the 2019 Blueprint for Free Speech prize in London on Wednesday night. | | |
| Afghan refugee Ahmad Musawer Faizi has had a passion for fashion since watching his mother sew as a child. Now he’s among a group of six refugees living in Jakarta who are learning the trade through a project set up by Indonesian fashion entrepreneur Franka Soeria. The refugees are learning how to cut patterns, create their own designs and organize fashion shows. | | |
Some 70,000 Syrian refugees living in informal settlements in Lebanon are at risk from more extreme weather this week as Storm Miriam hits the country.
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