| Rohingya call for recognition as Myanmar holds fresh repatriation talks - A top-level Myanmar government delegation held repatriation talks with Rohingya leaders in a Bangladesh refugee camp over the weekend, with many of the stateless Muslim minority fearing for their safety if they return home, The Guardian reports. More than 742,000 Rohingya refugees fled a 2017 crackdown by Myanmar’s military and are living in camps in Bangladesh’s south-eastern border district of Cox’s Bazar. The two countries signed a repatriation deal in November 2017 but so far virtually no Rohingya have volunteered to go back to Myanmar, where the group has faced decades of repression. The Myanmar team, led by permanent foreign secretary U Myint Thu, arrived in Cox’s Bazar on Saturday amid tightened security in the camps. The delegation visited Kutupalong – the world’s largest refugee settlement – where they discussed repatriation with Rohingya community leaders over several hours, said Bangladesh refugee commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam. “Both parties seemed positive about it,” he said on Saturday, noting that the talks would continue Sunday. One of the participating Rohingya leaders, Dil Mohammad, said the talks “went well” as he reiterated demands for Myanmar to recognise Rohingya as an ethnic group. “We hope this discussion will be fruitful. We told them that we won’t return unless we are recognized as Rohingya in Myanmar,” he said. Myanmar denies the minority citizenship and refers to them as “Bengalis” – inferring that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. It is the second time in less than a year that Myanmar officials have tried to convince Rohingya refugees to return. | |
| Italy says 130 people rescued at sea must not disembark until EU nations agree to receive them. An Italian coast guard vessel carrying some 130 people rescued in the Mediterranean last week was allowed to dock in Sicily, but its passengers will not be allowed to leave the ship until Brussels decides on which countries will take them in, according to news reports. Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said on Sunday that the EU had to give a clear response "because the migration issue concerns the whole continent," Deutsche Welle reported. The people on board the boat, who had set off from Libya in two rickety boats, were picked up by Italian patrols on Thursday night and transferred to the coastguard ship Bruno Gregoretti. The operation took place on the same day that as many as 150 lives were lost when a boat packed with people sank off Libya. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called the shipwreck " the worst Mediterranean tragedy of the year. " He went on to urge the restoration of rescue at sea, an end to refugee and migrant detention in Libya, and increased safe pathways out of the troubled North African country "before it is too late for many more desperate people.” Among additional help sought by UNHCR are further resettlement places and other safe pathways out of Libya for people who are vulnerable and at risk. In addition, the organization insists more must be done to arrest and prosecute ruthless traffickers and smugglers who profit from people’s desperation, and overturn the business model on which they rely. Even before the fatal wreck, 669 deaths had been reported on the Mediterranean Sea so far in 2019. | | |
| UNHCR welcomes El Salvador’s decision to join a regional initiative to better address forced displacement in and from Central America. By joining the scheme, known in the region by its Spanish acronym MIRPS, the new Government of El Salvador is taking an important step in assisting and protecting forcibly displaced people, UNHCR announced on Friday . Other countries involved in the MIRPS framework include Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama. It brings together different national and regional stakeholders to help displaced people and host communities across a range of sectors, including security, livelihoods, health, and education, as set out in the Global Compact on Refugees. Widespread violence in El Salvador, including by gangs that kill, rape, extort and harass, has forced thousands to flee their homes. In 2018, around 46,800 Salvadorans sought asylum worldwide, with the country ranking as the sixth country of origin for new asylum-seekers globally. | | |
| Australia has 'tarnished' Manus Island and military base is not welcome, governor says. The Australian and Papua New Guinean governments have failed the people of Manus Island, who did Australia a favour in hosting its offshore immigration centre only to be left with “bad memories” and no infrastructure, the province’s governor has said. Charlie Benjamin, who joined the PNG prime minister for an official visit to Australia last week, also opposed the forthcoming joint US-Australia military base, chiefly because of the way Australia treated Manus Island over the past six years. “The enormity and importance of this program to Australia – stopping the boat people – was very successful,” he told Guardian Australia in an exclusive interview on Sunday. “And I thought Australia would be even more grateful to us, and would have given a lot more, because this is nothing compared to the assistance they should be able to give us.” Benjamin said he and his constituents were never consulted about the establishment of Australia's offshore processing regime, and have been left with nothing but "bad memories." In October, UNHCR urged Australia to evacuate the off-shore facilities in Papua New Guinea and Naur following a collapsing health situation among refugees and asylum seekers there. | | |
| Increasing airstrike casualties in Syria being ignored – Bachelet. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called out what she said was apparent international indifference to the rising civilian death toll caused by a succession of airstrikes in Idlib and other parts of north-western Syria. “Despite repeated calls by the United Nations to respect the principle of precaution and distinction in their conduct of hostilities, this latest relentless campaign of airstrikes by the government and its allies has continued to hit medical facilities, schools and other civilian infrastructure such as markets and bakeries,” Bachelet said. “Intentional attacks against civilians are war crimes, and those who have ordered them or carried them out are criminally responsible for their actions.” At least 10 different locations (eight in Idlib and two in rural Aleppo) have experienced civilian casualties as a result of airstrikes in the past two weeks, causing a minimum of 103 civilian deaths, including at least 26 children. An attack in Idlib last Monday killed at least 60 civilians and injured 100. Since the end of April, there have been over 440,000 displacements (as of 14 July) from northern Hama and southern Idleb governorates, many of them multiple times. | | |
| Over 100 faith leaders call on Boris Johnson to accept at least 10,000 refugees a year. A letter signed by over 1,000 faith leaders is urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson to make the UK a place of welcome for refugees. Johnson announced last month that the UK would accept 5,000 refugees from 2020 to 2021, but the letter asks the Prime Minister to increase this number to 10,000. "10,000 people a year, including at least 1,000 vulnerable and unaccompanied children from conflict zones and Europe. As one of the world's richest countries, seeking to build and demonstrate global cooperation and goodwill, this is a small ask of the UK," the letter reads . The faith leaders, who represent all of the major faiths, said that the UK should offer a "route to safety" that would spare refugees the ordeal of having to turn to smugglers and make life-threatening journeys "in overcrowded dinghies." While they described the initial commitment of 5,000 refugees per year a "welcome development", they urged the Prime Minister to give assurances that it would not simply be a "one-off". The signatories are from all faiths and include 33 rabbis, twenty Church of England bishops, Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and a dozen Quakers. | | |
| UK mayor shares how migrants improve his city - Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees, the first mayor of Afro-Caribbean descent in European history, wants to reframe how the world views migrants. “Migrants are clearly an asset for us. They improve our diversity of thought. They improve our global connectivity, they give us a dynamic culture – and they give people like me. I am a product of migration and a physical product of integration,” said Rees, who has been mayor of the city of 450,000 people in the west of England since 2016. Rees, whose father came from Jamaica to Bristol, also called for refugees and asylum seekers to be allowed to work. “If they are unable to work, they are unable to put their skills into use and people are ending up destitute in poverty. Compassion, justice doesn’t have any boundaries.” | | |
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