| Alarming rates of malnutrition at Libyan detention centre, says MSF. Médecins Sans Frontières reports that nearly a quarter of refugees and migrants held at Sabaa detention centre in Tripoli are malnourished or underweight . The medical charity based its findings on two rounds of nutrition assessments of Sabaa’s 300 detainees. Children were significantly more likely to suffer from malnutrition than adults. Detainees reported that they only received one meal every two or three days and that new arrivals sometimes waited up to four days to be fed. Some 5,700 refugees and migrants are being held in detention centres in Libya, according to UNHCR which is working to evacuate the most vulnerable refugees to Niger and resettlement countries. | |
| Activists project “Refugees Welcome” on Acropolis to mark anniversary of EU-Turkey agreement. Amnesty International marked the third anniversary of an agreement between the European Union and Turkey earlier this week by projecting the words: “Humanity First: Refugees Welcome ” onto the walls of the Acropolis in Athens. Amnesty said that thousands of people were in limbo on the Greek islands as a result of the EU-Turkey deal. An AP report reflects on the initial aims of the deal and how it has worked in practice. While the numbers of asylum-seekers reaching Europe has fallen dramatically since its implementation, the reduction has come at a cost . Aid agencies, including UNHCR, have repeatedly urged action to address the overcrowded conditions on Lesvos and Samos islands. UNHCR estimates that some 15,000 asylum-seekers remain on five Aegean islands. | | |
| UK MPs criticize immigration detention “failings”. A report by the home affairs select committee has found “serious problems” in almost every part of the UK’s immigration detention system and says the Home Office has “utterly failed” to ensure the safety of detainees. The committee’s chair, Yvette Cooper, said the failures had led to wrongful detentions of vulnerable people such as torture survivors and people being held for “far too long”. The MPs called for an end to indefinite detention and more measures to protect vulnerable detainees. The BBC reports on the experiences of Kingsley Newuh, an asylum-seeker from Cameroon who was held at Morton Hall detention centre twice and found the detention process “terrifying”. | | |
| Israeli court orders state to explain refusal of residency to Sudanese asylum-seekers. Israel’s high court ordered the state on Wednesday to explain within two months why it is refusing to grant temporary residency to asylum-seekers from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region while they await the outcome of their asylum claims. Temporary residency would make them eligible for health insurance and other services. The court also ordered an explanation as to why the state had not issued guidelines for determining asylum claims of Sudanese originating from Darfur, Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains. Or, alternatively, why the state had not given instructions for the asylum claims to be examined individually. Some 3,800 Sudanese have applied for asylum in Israel, but only a single application has been granted. | | |
| The crowd-funded charity helping refugees top up their phones. A Facebook-based refugee charity is raising funds to add money to the pay-as-you-go mobile accounts frequently used by refugees. While volunteering at an informal settlement for refugees in Calais, founder of the group, James Pearce, realized that phone credit was a lifeline for refugees desperate to stay connected with family members and reach out to aid agencies. He set up a Facebook group called Phone Credit for Refugees and Displaced People, or PC4R, which allows refugees to request phone credit when they need it and group members to make donations. The group quickly grew and now provides phone credit to some 1,200 refugees per month. | | |
| Trinidad and Tobago is host to more than 40,000 Venezuelans. Current legislation bars them from work or school, but many Tribagonians are welcoming Venezuelans and other asylum-seekers and helping them to integrate through activities like Moko Jumbie – stilt walking. This trailer for soon-to-be-released documentary “Lifted”, shows Carlos and his family as they get back on their feet and learn to stilt walk. | | |
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