| UNHCR calls on Europe to allow Sea Watch passengers ashore. In a statement on Thursday, UNHCR urged European States to allow a group of 43 people , including three unaccompanied children, to disembark from the NGO vessel Sea-Watch 3, which rescued them off the coast of Libya nine days ago. “Europe played an intrinsic role in creating the legal architecture that underpins modern day international refugee law,” said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR’s Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean. “It is time to invoke that proud history of assisting people fleeing war, violence and persecution.” The Sea-Watch 3 has been waiting at the edge of Italian territorial waters near Lampedusa for over a week. Ten passengers were allowed to disembark on Saturday on medical grounds. Sea Watch tweeted on Thursday that it was desperately needed for search-and-rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean, where it was aware of at least three boats in distress. UNHCR reiterated on Thursday that Libya could not be considered safe at this time and that no one rescued at sea should be returned there. | |
| Another 131 refugees evacuated out of Libya. The group, who are from Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan, were flown to Niger on Wednesday night as part of UNHCR’s Emergency Transit Mechanism, which has helped nearly 1,300 refugees to leave Libya so far this year. Prior to the evacuation, they had been staying at UNHCR’s Gathering and Departure Facility in Tripoli after the refugee agency secured their release from various detention centres across the country. In a statement, UNHCR said that rising numbers of people are being brought to detention centres after being intercepted at sea and that more resettlement spots are urgently needed. More than 3,800 refugees and migrants are currently being held in centres close to the frontlines of the ongoing conflict in Tripoli. | | |
| Pressure on Uganda grows as more refugees arrive from DR Congo. Located between three active conflicts in the Great Lakes region, Uganda’s refugee population has climbed to over one million in recent years. The greatest share are from South Sudan, but the country is also host to 345,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and more are arriving every day, including 1,000 just last week, according to UNHCR. Al Jazeera reports on the many challenges this poses for Ugandan authorities, including the threat posed by an Ebola outbreak in the same region of DRC from which most of the refugees are fleeing. Efforts to respond are constrained by a funding shortfall. Less than 20 per cent of the $927 million needed for the refugee response in Uganda has been received. | | |
| Manus Island refugee sets himself on fire. The Guardian reports that the man set himself alight in his room in one of three accommodation blocks in Lorengau housing refugees under Australia’s offshore asylum processing policy. Another refugee said the man had been suffering from severe mental health issues and had been denied help at a local clinic that day. He was taken to hospital after the blaze was extinguished. The incident comes amid a worsening mental health crisis on Manus, with more than 90 acts of self-harm and suicide attempts since Australia’s federal election on 19 May, according to refugees and advocates. UN human rights officials on Tuesday urged Australia to immediately provide appropriate medical care to more than 800 asylum-seekers and refugees who remain on Manus and Nauru. | | |
| Tokyo refugee team to be bigger than in Rio. The refugee team competing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be larger than the inaugural 10-member squad in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the International Olympic Committee said on Thursday. The IOC unveiled a list of 37 refugee athletes who are currently receiving Olympic scholarships and who will need to “at least come close” to the international qualification criteria to make the final cut to compete next year. Representing eight sports, they include all 10 of the athletes who took part in the Rio games, who were from Syria, DR Congo, Ethiopia and South Sudan. The list of 37 Olympic hopefuls for Tokyo also includes refugees from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Eritrea, Iran and Sudan. They will come together for a joint training camp in April 2020 before the final team is announced in June 2020. | | |
| Child refugees share their hopes and fears. To mark World Refugee Day on Thursday, Save the Children released a series of Polaroid images by children living in three of the world’s largest refugee settlements in Jordan, Bangladesh and Uganda. The children were invited to draw their hopes and dreams for the future on portraits of themselves captured with Polaroid cameras. UNHCR’s Global Trends report found that half of all refugees in 2018 were children, up from 41 per cent in 2009. | | |
| Eric fled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Kenya with no family. After moving to Nairobi, he met Peter at a music school. Now the two friends run music classes for refugees and Kenyans. | | |
Only 16 per cent of the global refugee population were hosted by developed countries in 2018, while one third were living in least developed countries.
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