| Image of drowned father and child must propel prevention measures, says UNHCR. The photo of Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his 23-month-old daughter, Valeria, lying face down in shallow water on the banks of the Rio Grande was published by the Mexican newspaper La Jornada on Monday and has been re-published by numerous media outlets . According to La Jornada, Ramirez and his wife and daughter, who were from El Salvador, decided to swim across the river after learning they would have to wait weeks to request asylum with US authorities. Ramirez reportedly made it across with his daughter, but when he started to return for his wife, the girl jumped in after him. He grabbed her before the current swept them both away. In a statement today, UNHCR said the circumstances that led to the tragedy were “unacceptable ” and called on countries in the region to take immediate and coordinated steps to prevent further deaths. UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said the absence of safe pathways for people to seek protection was “leaving people with no other choice than to risk their lives”. So far this year, dozens of people have died attempting to cross the Rio Grande, where water levels are at their highest in 20 years due to record levels of snowmelt run-off. | |
| Violence in northwest Syria boosts business for smugglers. The New Humanitarian reports that the market for smugglers to help desperate families escape opposition-held north-west Syria into Turkey has been booming since the breakdown of a ceasefire in late April. Smugglers charge hundreds or thousands of dollars to help people scale Turkey’s border wall under the cover of night, but few attempts end in success. The UN’s humanitarian chief, Mark Lowcock , briefed the Security Council on Tuesday, once again pleading for the protection of civilians and greater humanitarian access. He said that fighting continued unabated in the north-west, with air-strikes affecting 55 communities over the weekend, killing at least 39 people in southern Idlib and northern Hama. He expressed particular concern about Maraat National Hospital in southern Idlib, which treats about 20,000 people a month in an area coming under regular attack. Dozens of medical facilities have come under attack since late April. | | |
| As violence flares in Burkina Faso, refugees trickle into Ghana. Since the start of the year, a sharp rise in insecurity and armed violence has tripled the number of people forced from their homes in Burkina Faso. Al Jazeera reports that in recent weeks more than 1,000 Burkinabes have arrived in north-west Ghana . Hundreds of others have fled to Bawku West, in north-eastern Ghana, since the start of the year. The local areas where they have settled are struggling to cope, and some of the refugees are sleeping outside. Last week, UNHCR warned that the scale of the crisis in Burkina Faso was outpacing resources to respond, with only three per cent of some 170,000 people who have been internally displaced finding shelter in camps. | | |
| Donors pledge US$110 million for Palestinian refugees but budget gap remains. A pledging conference for the UN agency responsible for assisting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, raised $110 million in pledges on Tuesday, helping to plug a $211 million shortfall in the agency’s $1.2 billion annual budget. Pierre Krähenbühl, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, thanked donors but said the agency was far from “out of the woods”. He called for early disbursement of the funds to avoid having to cut food aid to a million people in Gaza and to allow schools to open on time at the end of August. UNRWA has faced a financial crisis since the US, historically the agency’s largest donor, cut its contributions last year and then ended them this year. Speaking at the pledging conference in New York, UN Secretary-General António Guterres commended the agency’s work over its almost 70-year existence. | | |
| On the road with Congolese refugees fleeing to Uganda. Al Jazeera travelled with a group of Congolese refugees who had recently arrived in Uganda via Lake Albert and were travelling from a transit centre on the lakeshore to a reception centre further inland. UNHCR reported yesterday that fighting between rival Hema and Lendu groups in the DRC’s Ituri province has driven some 7,500 Congolese across the border into Uganda in recent weeks as well as displacing an estimated 300,000 people within the DRC. Al Jazeera spoke to a 14-year-old boy who had escaped from a village close to Lake Albert after seeing his mother being pursued by a man with a machete. Another woman and her two children had been separated from her husband and two other children when their village was attacked. | | |
| UNHCR launches appeal to assist refugees travelling through North and Sub-Sharan Africa. The UN Refugee Agency today released an appeal calling for US$210 million to assist and protect thousands of refugees and others travelling each year through North and Sub-Saharan Africa, many of whom suffer abuses at the hands of smugglers and traffickers. UNHCR said the appeal was for a comprehensive programme of support that would provide alternatives to dangerous journeys in first countries of asylum and would offer increased humanitarian assistance to survivors of human rights abuses. UNHCR also urged States to address a “dangerous gap” in sea rescue capacity on the Mediterranean. | | |
| Bassem Al-Attar was a theatre director and actor in his native Syria. After losing his father to the conflict in 2012 and fleeing to Egypt, he initially struggled to establish a life there. But after organizing some free acting classes and clown shows for refugee children, he realized the positive impact his art could have. Now he runs a 30-member theatre group in Alexandria that includes refugees and local Egyptians. | | |
At least 507 people are estimated to have died or gone missing on the Central and Western Mediterranean Sea in 2019. The number of people who died before they even reached the sea is unknown, but is likely to be even higher.
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