US sends first families to Mexico to await asylum. Reuters reports that the United States sent five Central American families, encompassing a total of 16 children and adults , to the Mexican border city of Tijuana on Wednesday. The US began sending non-Mexican asylum-seekers back to Mexico to wait for their claims to be processed in late January. Under the so-called Migrant Protection Protocols policy, announced in December, 63 people have so far been returned, but until this week they were all single adults. Immigrant rights groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday on behalf of 11 asylum-seekers returned to Mexico, arguing that the policy puts them in danger and violates protections they are entitled to under US and international law. Mexican border cities like Tijuana have high rates of violent crime. Meanwhile, the White House announced on Thursday that US President Donald Trump will declare a national emergency at the country’s southern border in order to fund a long-promised border wall. | | |
| UN launches new funding appeal for Rohingya crisis. UN aid agencies and NGO partners today launched a new US$920 million funding plan to assist more than 900,000 Rohingya refugees and 330,000 members of the local host community in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh. The 2019 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya addresses basic needs such as food, water, sanitation and shelter, which account for more than half of this year’s appeal. Other key areas include health, education, nutrition and social cohesion. “Our humanitarian imperative today is to stabilize the situation of stateless Rohingya refugees and their Bangladesh hosts,” said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. He added that until Myanmar acts to address the root causes of the crisis, making it possible for the Rohingya to return home voluntarily and in safety, the international community must continue to support the efforts of the Bangladeshi authorities to meet the needs of the refugees. Last year’s $950 million response plan was 69 per cent funded. | | |
| Humanitarian crisis in Yemen deepening. An estimated 80 per cent of the population – 24 million people – are now in need of assistance or protection, the UN warned on Thursday. According to a 2019 Humanitarian Needs Overview , the “severity of needs is deepening”, with the number of people in acute need 27 per cent higher than last year when Yemen’s humanitarian crisis was already considered the worst in the world. More than 20 million people across the country are food insecure, including 3.2 million who need treatment for acute malnutrition. An estimated 3.3 million people remain displaced, up from 2.2 million last year. The report notes that humanitarian needs are most acute in those regions most affected by conflict. A donor conference to generate support for the humanitarian response in Yemen is due to take place in Geneva on 26 February. | | |
| Bangladesh stops more Rohingya refugees from taking boats to Malaysia. Bangladesh police stopped 43 Rohingya refugees from being smuggled to Malaysia by boat, officials said on Thursday. They included 12 women who were being held by alleged traffickers in a house in Cox’s Bazar city. Another 31 Rohingya were reportedly found late on Wednesday hiding in a coastal forest 110 kilometres away from Kutupalong refugee settlement, waiting to board a Malaysia-bound boat. A third group of 22 refugees were intercepted on Monday. Authorities fear that more Rohingya will attempt the dangerous journey to Malaysia while the Bay of Bengal is calm up until the end of March. UNHCR has warned that the Rohingya will continue to risk their lives at sea unless there are tangible solutions to their plight. | | |
| UNHCR reports “desperate” conditions in Rukban camp. The UN and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent yesterday completed the delivery of more than 100 trucks full of aid to more than 40,000 people stranded in the remote Rukban camp in south-eastern Syria, on the border with Jordan. Addressing reporters in Geneva today, UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said more than 300 aid workers had spent nine days distributing the aid. A team from UNHCR talked to families, especially women, to understand the difficulties they face living in the makeshift settlement. Mothers told them they were afraid to let their daughters go outside because of the threat of sexual abuse. Early marriages are common and education opportunities scarce. Most people said they wanted to return home. | | |
| Bosnian authorities argue over responsibility for refugees and migrants. Local authorities in Una Sana Canton in north-west Bosnia are threatening to send some 2,500 refugees and migrants to the capital, Sarajevo, unless state authorities assume responsibility for the canton’s reception centres for refugees and migrants. The canton, which lies on the border with Croatia, is temporary home to the majority of refugees and migrants in the country. Some 24,000 refugees and migrants were registered upon entering Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2018. According to government figures, only 3,900 remain in the country, but aid agencies estimate the figure to be closer to 5,300 and say that reception centres are overcrowded and unsafe . UNHCR spokesperson Neven Crvenkovic said the agency would welcome state authorities taking responsibility for the reception centres. | | |
| Abdul Aziz Muhamat, a Sudanese refugee and activist detained for five years on Manus Island, accepted the 2019 Martin Ennals award for human rights defenders in Geneva on Wednesday night. Describing his incarceration on Manus Island, he said, “instead of making me weak, the cage made me so strong”. You can watch his full acceptance speech here, or this edited version published by The Guardian. | | |
More than 745,000 Rohingya refugees have fled from Myanmar to Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh during the past 18 months. Most arrived between August and December 2017, but 16,000 have arrived since January 2018.
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