Syrians return to rubble in Hajin. CNN reports from the town of Hajin in north-east Syria, which was liberated from ISIL control last month. Some residents are starting to return only to find their homes reduced to rubble. With no means to support their families, many are retrieving what’s left of their belongings and then leaving again. More than 25,000 people from Hajin and surrounding areas have arrived to Al Hol camp for displaced people in Hassakeh since early December, according to figures released yesterday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). UNHCR warned on Friday that conditions on the road to Al Hol were harsh and that there was an urgent need for aid agencies to be allowed access to the area to provide life-saving assistance. OCHA reports that, as of 4 February, at least 35 children and newborns have died during the journey to the camp or soon after arriving, mostly due to hypothermia. | | |
| Escalating violence in Burkina Faso displaces thousands. Fourteen civilians were killed in the latest attack by Islamic extremists in the northern Burkina Faso village of Kain in Yatenga province on Monday. The army responded with operations in three northern provinces near the border with Mali that left 146 militants dead, according to AFP. Last week, Médecins Sans Frontières said the escalation in violence since the beginning of the year has resulted in dozens of deaths and displaced thousands of people from their homes. More than 900 people are sheltering at Barsalogho camp for the internally displaced where MSF said access to drinking water is a problem. Some 8,000 others are living in a camp in Foubé where tents are still being set up and local health teams are working to minimize the risk of an epidemic. | | |
| LGBT+ Venezuelans flee worsening crisis. Reuters reports that Venezuela’s shrinking economy and political turmoil has pushed gay rights to the bottom of the agenda, leaving organizations that were supporting vulnerable gay and transgender people with little or no funding . Those who have joined the exodus leaving the country have found that their situation is often not much better in host countries. Trans women are reportedly particularly at risk from a spike in human trafficking of Venezuelans while opportunities for Venezuelans in Colombia to earn a living are scarce. | | |
| Syrian refugee calls for change to UK rules on family reunion. Two years after arriving in the UK, Syrian refugee Ammar Alsaker is studying at the London College of Fashion and working for fashion chain, Topshop. Now he’s focused on his next challenge – persuading the UK government to relax restrictive family reunion rules that only allow adult refugees to apply for their married or civil partners and dependent children under 18 to join them. That means Alasker’s parents and two-year-old brother, who he has yet to meet, are ineligible. Twenty organizations that make up the #familiestogether coalition, including UNHCR are campaigning to make family reunion rules fairer through a private member’s bill. | | |
| Feared rise in trafficking in Rohingya refugee settlements. Recent reports by police in Bangladesh suggest that Rohingya refugees confined to settlements and barred from holding jobs other than small cash-for-work programmes run by aid agencies are becoming more susceptible to traffickers’ promises of work or better lives elsewhere. Last week, police rescued five Rohingya teenagers from being trafficked into India and six days earlier, 11 Rohingya were rescued from Chittagong. The Bangladesh government has not released an official figure for the number of Rohingya who have been trafficked, but aid agencies told Reuters they have identified about 200 cases so far and that many more likely go unreported. | | |
| Somali refugee and UNHCR interpreter Guled Nur Hussein decided to join a local running club in Cairo after watching British distance runner Mo Farah become a double Olympic champion. He was soon hooked and has since won his own array of medals and made many friends within the running community in Egypt. | | |
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