| UN evacuates 325 detained refugees away from Tripoli clashes. The UN Refugee Agency said it evacuated the refugees from Qaser Ben Gasheer detention centre in southern Tripoli on Wednesday following reports on Tuesday of armed violence being used against detainees who were protesting the conditions in which they were being held. Twelve refugees required hospital treatment after the attacks. The refugees were transferred to Azzawya detention centre, where UNHCR said there was less risk of being caught up in the hostilities that have engulfed the Libyan capital in recent weeks. UNHCR has relocated 825 refugees from detention centres close to the front lines in the past two weeks, but it said some 3,000 refugees and migrants remain detained in Tripoli, many of them in facilities where the agency has restricted access. According to figures released by the UN on Wednesday, at least 36,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since eastern forces began their offensive on Tripoli on 4 April, while some 272 people have been killed. | |
| Muslim refugees in Sri Lanka flee angry backlash. On Wednesday, hundreds of Muslim refugees fled the town of Negombo, where an attack on a church during Easter services killed more than 100 people. News that a series of blasts targeting churches and hotels on Easter Sunday was carried out by Muslim extremists has caused communal tensions to flare in Negombo and elsewhere. The New York Times reports that mobs of men beat some refugees who sought protection at a police station and then a mosque before they were relocated by bus to a safe location. Police told Reuters they had been inundated with calls from locals casting suspicion on refugees in Negombo. UNHCR said it was in touch with refugee communities and was working with the authorities to ensure the safety and security of refugees and asylum-seekers in the country. | | |
| Case filed against Greece over crackdown on NGO sea rescues. Salam Kamal-Aldeen, founder of the NGO Team Humanity, has filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights accusing Greece of violating human rights laws when it arrested him in 2016 for trying to assist asylum-seekers in distress at sea. Kamal-Aldeen and his crew were arrested and charged with attempted smuggling. The Court of Appeal acquitted him in May 2018, but lawyers from the Global Legal Action Network, who filed the application on Kamal-Aldeen’s behalf, argue that his prosecution was part of a broader effort by EU Member States to criminalize NGOs’ search-and-rescue activities. | | |
| Syrian refugee with disability tells UN ‘we are invisible’. Nujeen Mustafa, who lives with cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, on Wednesday called on members of the UN Security Council to do more to address the acute vulnerabilities of people living with disabilities in conflict zones . When the war in Syria reached her home city of Aleppo, Mustafa said she feared her disability would prevent her family from escaping an air strike. She said that thousands of Syrians with disabilities were struggling to survive with limited or no access to basic services. “I understand that there are many competing priorities in this conflict and the humanitarian response, but you need to address the needs of people with disabilities, particularly women,” she told the Council. “This is our right.” | | |
| Powerful blast in northwest Syria kills 18. Thirteen civilians were reportedly among 18 people killed by an explosion on Wednesday in the town of Jisr al-Shughour , in Syria’s opposition-held Idlib province. The cause of the blast, which collapsed a four-storey building, was not immediately clear. Briefing the UN Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria on Wednesday, the deputy UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ursula Mueller, said an escalation of hostilities in Idlib since February had killed at least 200 civilians and caused more than 120,000 people to flee to areas closer to the Turkish border. Mueller also highlighted the situation in Al-Hol camp in eastern Syria, where more than 73,000 people – two-thirds of them children under the age of 12 – are living in what she described as “extremely difficult conditions”. | | |
| 500 families flee fighting between Taliban and ISIS in Afghanistan. Reuters reports that the fighting erupted on Monday in two districts of the eastern Afghan border province of Nangarhar when ISIS fighters attacked six villages under Taliban control. A provincial official said about 500 families had fled the fighting. Fleeing villagers said they had to run for their lives and were forced to leave everything behind. Local authorities said they would provide the displaced families, some of whom had sought safety in a neighbouring village, with food and medicine. | | |
| “Where is home?” is a question with no easy answer for many refugees. In this video, refugees living in Ireland talk about their identities as both Irish and Iranian, or Hungarian, or Congolese. | | |
An estimated 1.5 million Syrians are now living with disabilities as a result of the war. In Idlib, 175,000 people with disabilities are among civilians who would be affected by an escalation of military action.
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