By Kristy Siegfried | 18 April, 2019
Please note that there will be no Refugee Brief on Friday or Monday due to the Easter break. We'll be back on Tuesday. | | Mexico stops issuing humanitarian visas, increases use of detention. Reuters reports that after issuing thousands of one-year humanitarian visas to Central Americans arriving at its southern border in January, Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) issued only a handful of the visas in February and has issued none since. The closure of the INM’s office in the border city of Tapachula a month ago has forced hundreds of migrants and asylum-seekers to move to the smaller town of Mapastepec, where some have been sheltering for weeks in a stadium, waiting to be registered and to receive a humanitarian visa that would allow them to travel north without fear of arrest or deportation. According to Reuters, an increase in detentions at the border has doubled the number of people being held at a detention centre in Tapachula. A migrant rights group that monitors the facility said some of those being detained there are asylum-seekers. In its April update on the situation in Mexico, UNHCR also noted the detention of asylum-seekers who had submitted claims at the border. | |
| Spreading violence triggers ‘unprecedented’ displacement in Burkina Faso. Attacks by Islamic militants, military operations and waves of inter-communal violence have triggered what the UN’s top official in Burkina Faso, Metsi Makhetha, describes as an “unprecedented” crisis in the country. Some 138,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, more than half of them since the start of the year. The New Humanitarian reports that as needs grow, aid groups’ ability to respond is being hampered by insecurity, poor access and a lack of resources. UNHCR sounded the alarm last month about the urgent need for more funding, but the UN’s US$100 million response plan for 2019 remains only 21 per cent funded. Two camps have been set up by the government since January, but the majority of the displaced are scattered across the countryside, many in areas that aid workers are struggling to access. | | |
| ‘If I had stayed in Venezuela, we would have starved’. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times visited the Colombia-Venezuela border and met some of the Venezuelans who have fled there. Here, they tell their own stories of why they felt forced to leave their country. Some came in search of medical treatment for their children, others hoped to earn enough money to send some home so their families could eat. On Tuesday, the Venezuelan government allowed a first shipment of humanitarian aid provided by the Red Cross to reach the country. The shipment included 24 tons of medical equipment and supplies and marked beginning of a large-scale relief programme intended to eventually help 650,000 Venezuelans. | | |
| Sudanese refugees in Chad still waiting to return home. AFP reports from Treguine refugee camp in Chad, one of 12 sites in the country that collectively are hosting 340,000 Sudanese refugees. Most fled over the border from Sudan’s western Darfur region 15 years ago to escape a conflict that left hundreds of thousands of people dead. Although a small number have returned to Darfur since Sudan, Chad and the UN signed a voluntary repatriation agreement in 2017, camp leaders at Treguine told AFP that they had a long list of requirements before they would consider return. The UN’s Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Ursula Mueller, told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that localized fighting continues in Darfur and that humanitarian needs have grown as a result of Sudan’s economic crisis. | | |
| Spain allows NGO boats to sail with aid for Greek islands. AP reports that the Spanish government has allowed two NGO vessels to depart from Spanish ports with aid supplies for asylum-seekers on the Greek islands. The Aita Mari, operated by the Humanitarian Rescue Service, reportedly waited four months for the green light to sail to the Aegean. Proactiva’s Open Arms will depart from Barcelona with blankets and other supplies. According to AP, both vessels have been told to stay away from search and rescue zones in the Central Mediterranean or face fines of up to US$1 million. Proactiva founder Oscar Camps said the Open Arms would still conduct rescues if it found people in need. | | |
| For refugee children, reading helps heal trauma. A local organization in Jordan that trains adults to read aloud to children using specially written books has found that regular story times can help refugee children recover from trauma. Two years after being piloted in Za’atari refugee camp, We Love Reading began working in all of Jordan’s refugee camps for Syrians and in the Gambella camp for South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia. The programme has gained the respect of psychologists and child trauma specialists who say it can help foster healthy relationships between parents and children and can be adapted to different cultures and the different needs of the children. | | |
| FAID School for the Deaf in Lebanon is helping Syrian refugee children like Maysa learn to use their voices for the first time. The school has expanded its work to reach deaf children living in some of Lebanon’s informal settelements for refugees. | | |
The number of asylum claims in Mexico rose by more than 100 per cent in 2018, climbing from 14,600 in 2017 to nearly 30,000 last year.
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