| Myanmar military committing fresh war crimes in Rakhine, says rights group. In a report released today, Amnesty International alleges that the same units of the Myanmar military implicated in a brutal crackdown that drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh are committing fresh war crimes in their campaign against the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine armed group. The conflict in Rakhine State has escalated since January, when 13 police officers were killed by the Arakan Army. The military launched a new operation to “crush” the group, which, according to Amnesty, has resulted in the deaths of at least 14 civilians in indiscriminate and direct attacks as well as arbitrary arrests, torture and enforced disappearances. The report finds that the Arakan Army has also committed abuses against civilians, including abductions. The latest violence has displaced some 30,000 people from their homes, but the Myanmar authorities have blocked humanitarian access to affected areas. Amnesty is calling on the UN Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court and to impose an arms embargo. | |
| UN warns more military action in Syria’s Idlib will overwhelm aid efforts. The UN’s deputy humanitarian chief warned on Tuesday that further military operations in Syria’s Idlib province would overwhelm already stretched efforts to respond to the needs of some 270,000 people newly displaced so far this month, in addition to the 1.2 million people in the province already dependant on aid. Assistant Secretary-General Ursula Mueller told the Security Council that humanitarian operations in many areas hit by heavy shelling and aerial bombardment since the end of April have already had to be suspended. She asked Council members what they would do to protect civilians in Idlib from the “preventable humanitarian disaster unfolding before our eyes”. Mueller’s comments came as 21 civilians were reportedly killed by artillery fire in Idlib on Tuesday. CNN today released satellite images showing a trail of damage across swathes of countryside and city streets in Idlib. | | |
| New Zealand’s refugee policy accused of being “discriminatory”. Rights groups are calling on the New Zealand government to change the country’s refugee policy when it comes up for review next month. Under the current policy, implemented in 2009, refugees from Africa and the Middle East can only qualify for resettlement in New Zealand if they have family members already in the country. Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway acknowledged that the current policy is discriminatory. He told Radio New Zealand that it was put in place by the previous government so they could focus on resettling refugees from the Asia-Pacific region. | | |
| Malaysian-born descendants of Indonesian migrants face deportation. The Jakarta Post reports on the plight of stateless people born to Indonesian parents in Malaysia who are considered undocumented migrants and are at risk of detention and deportation to Indonesia . To acquire Malaysian citizenship, one parent must be a national or a permanent resident. Registering themselves as Indonesian through Indonesian consulates in Malaysia comes with the risk of being fined for staying illegally in Malaysia. As a result, many prefer to remain invisible, even if it means they lack access to education, medical services and legal employment. Government officials from 15 countries in the Asia and Pacific region are attending a high-level meeting in Bangkok on Thursday to discuss steps aimed at preventing and reducing statelessness in the region and better protecting stateless people. | | |
| Denmark rejects final appeal by Afghan woman with dementia. The New York Times reports on the case of Zarmena Waziri, a 72-year-old Afghan woman with increasingly advanced dementia, who is facing possible deportation from Denmark. Waziri’s repeated requests for humanitarian residency have been denied by the Danish government since November 2012 and a new review of her case was rejected earlier this month. She has been told to report to a deportation centre on 4 June, but her daughter and carer, Marzia Waziri, says that deportation would amount to a death sentence for her mother, who is bed-ridden and barely recognizes family members. Advocates working on Waziri’s behalf say she is a victim of Denmark’s increasingly strict asylum policies. | | |
| Study looks at drivers of early marriage among Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The study found that 18 per cent of Syrian refugee girls living in south Lebanon were married by the age of 19. While the majority married at the age of 16 or above, the researchers spoke to some girls who had married as young as 11. Most of the married adolescents surveyed – about 75 per cent – had not chosen their own spouses. While the financial hardships of displacement are often thought to contribute to increasing rates of child marriage, the girls surveyed also cited family tradition and religion as major factors driving them to marry. Lebanese lawmakers have been debating the possibility of introducing a minimum age for marriage, but so far have not agreed on legislation, reports the Daily Star. | | |
| A goat, a cooking pot, a solar panel, a Koran. These are some of the things that 60 refugees from six different countries carried with them when they were forced to flee their homes. They were photographed for a project called The Most Important Thing, which photographer Brian Sokol has been working on together with UNHCR over the past seven years. This selection featuring 11 images and interviews from the project, reveals some of the anguished decisions refugee families face when they leave their homes behind, sometimes with little or no warning. | | |
The number of children living in war zones has more than doubled since 1995 to 420 million – about one in five children.
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