| Humanitarian leaders launch campaign in solidarity with Idlib civilians. A number of humanitarian organizations warned on Thursday that the opposition-held province of Idlib, in north-west Syria, stands on the brink of disaster, with three million civilian lives at risk. In a video to launch a global campaign in solidarity with civilians trapped there, dubbed #TheWorldIsWatching, humanitarian leaders stress that people in Idlib face the constant threat of violence in the face of attacks on schools, hospitals and markets. At least 330,000 people have already been displaced during the last two month’s surge of violence. UN aid chief Mark Lowcock said the campaign “expresses solidarity with families under attack and tells everyone that we are watching and witnessing what is happening”. The UN Special Envoy for Syria, Gier Pedersen, urged the Security Council on Thursday to “work at the highest level to stabilize the situation in Idlib”. He said he hoped Syria would be a main item for discussion at this weekend’s G20 summit in Japan. | |
| US Congress approves US$4.6 billion in emergency border funding. The US House of Representatives approved a Senate-supported $4.6 billion bill to respond to the humanitarian situation at the United States’ southern border on Thursday. The emergency funding will provide a much-needed financial injection to government agencies struggling to manage a spike in arrivals of mainly Central American asylum-seekers at the border. The aid package was approved amid growing concern about children being sheltered at facilities that UNICEF head Henrietta Fore described on Wednesday as “not equipped to meet the needs of this vulnerable population”. | | |
| Thousands displaced by Boko Haram in Nigeria protest over food. AFP reports that an estimated 4,000 people from the Gubio camp for internally displaced people poured into the streets of the north-east Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Thursday to protest food and medicine shortages in the camp. Protesters accused camp authorities of diverting aid supplies meant for them. The head of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency said he would call an emergency meeting with the World Food Programme, which supplies food to the camp. Similar protests took place in Maiduguri in March. AFP reports that a funding shortfall has forced aid agencies to scale back operations, compounding the humanitarian situation in a region where more than 7 million people are estimated to be in need of assistance. | | |
| Pressure on reception centre for Venezuelans grows in Colombian border city. Al Jazeera reports from the Colombian border city of Maicao , where thousands of destitute Venezuelan families are sleeping rough. UNHCR and Colombian authorities opened a reception centre to accommodate the most vulnerable in March. The centre currently only has space for 350 people, while 1,600 people are on a waiting list and more are added every day, according to Federico Sersale, who heads UNHCR’s field office there. Plans to quadruple the capacity of the centre by next year have stalled due to a lack of funds. For those who are able to access the centre, it only provides a temporary solution as it only provides food and shelter for one month. | | |
| The Central African Republic’s forgotten displacement crisis. CNN reports from Bria camp , where 65,000 of the 1.2 million people displaced by six years of fighting in CAR have taken refuge. A two-hour flight from the capital, Bangui, it can take five weeks for aid convoys accompanied by armed escorts to reach the camp via difficult terrain that becomes even harder to traverse during the rainy season. While conditions at the camp are grim, the prospect that residents will be able to return home soon is remote. CNN reports that armed groups continue to roam the countryside and that violence can erupt out of minor disputes. The latest peace deal, signed between 14 rebel groups and the government in February, has done little to reduce the violence. | | |
| Amsterdam’s hire-a-refugee programme takes on tight labour market. The Dutch capital launched a programme in 2016 that aims to solve two problems in the city: integrating thousands of refugees and addressing a lack of workers. Bloomberg reports that the “Amsterdam Approach ” of encouraging businesses to hire refugees had helped 53 per cent of the city’s asylum-seekers who sought welfare benefits in 2014 find work by the end of last year. About 80 “client managers” – many of whom are migrants themselves – work with about 50 refugees each, helping them with asylum procedures, Dutch language lessons and finding work. It’s a long process that requires patience from all involved, according to a refugee integration specialist in Amsterdam’s City Hall. | | |
| For the final instalment of UNHCR’s podcast series, our Melissa Fleming spoke with actor and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett about what keeps her Awake at Night . Describing her experience of working with UNHCR and meeting refugees as “one of the great privileges of my life”, she talks about how it has profoundly altered her perception of human suffering and the capacity to hope. “We can all sit late at night feeling despair,” she says. “Our hope can very, very quickly turn to despair, but there are positive things that we can all do to keep that hope alive… We've all got networks, we've all got the power of language and we all have hearts.” | | |
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