The Refugee Brief, 27 September 2019
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Rwanda welcomes first group of refugees evacuated from Libya. The first group of refugees and asylum-seekers to be evacuated from Libya to Rwanda under a new agreement between Rwanda, UNHCR and the African Union arrived in Kigali on Thursday night. The 66 evacuees included unaccompanied minors, single mothers and families, all of them from Sudan, Somalia or Eritrea. Many had been held for months in Libyan detention centres and one had spent more than four years in detention. After being registered, they were taken to a transit centre in Gashora, 60 kilometres south of the capital, where a team of health professionals – including a psychologist and counsellors specialized in working with children and survivors of sexual violence – were standing by. According to UNHCR, the group will have the same rights as other refugees in Rwanda, including access to education and health care as well as freedom of movement and freedom to work. A second evacuation flight is expected in the coming weeks. |
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Violence in northern Nigeria forces thousands into Niger. UNHCR reports that more than 40,000 people have been forced to cross from north-west Nigeria into Niger over the last 10 months, due to escalating violence by organized armed groups in the Nigerian states of Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina. The refugees, many of them women and children, are arriving in villages in Niger's border region with stories of mass killings, kidnappings, torture and sexual violence. With more refugees expected to arrive as the security situation in Sokoto state deteriorates, UNHCR made an urgent appeal today for more funding to support them. A response plan launched this week is seeking US$35.5 million until the end of this year. |
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US to further cut refugee resettlement programme. The US administration said on Thursday it will admit no more than 18,000 refugees over the next fiscal year – the lowest number since the programme began in 1980. It represents a 40 per cent reduction from the cap of 30,000 people set for this fiscal year. The administration said the lower cap would allow it to focus on processing a backlog of hundreds of thousands of asylum claims. Under US law, the President must consult with Congress before finalizing the annual cap for refugee admissions, but the final determination is made by the White House. |
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Bangladesh to erect fences around Rohingya camps. Authorities in Bangladesh will soon erect barbed-wire fences around camps housing Rohingya refugees in the Cox's Bazar district. Citing security concerns, Home Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said watch towers and CCTV cameras would also be installed to monitor activity in the settlements. He did not say when construction would begin. Refugees are already forbidden from leaving the camps, but their sprawling nature means authorities have struggled to police the Rohingya's movements. Earlier this month, Bangladesh's telecommunication regulator instructed cellphone companies to halt service in the camps and restrict internet access because of a "security threat". |
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Residents of Idlib city begin to pick up the pieces. EFE News reports that a month after Syrian government forces retook the city of Khan Sheikhoun in Syria's Idlib province from opposition control, residents have started to return from elsewhere in Idlib and from Homs. Before fighting began, the city had a population of around 65,000. Now, only 4,000 remain, according to the city's acting governor, and more than a third of houses lie in ruins. Local authorities are now working to de-mine the southern parts of the city, restore the water supply and build new schools. Addressing a high-level meeting on the Syrian crisis at the UN General Assembly earlier this week, UN aid chief Mark Lowcock said more than 400,000 people have fled fighting in Idlib since a military escalation began in late April. |
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Villagers in northern Burkina Faso forced to flee homes and livelihoods. A spike in attacks by militant groups has uprooted nearly 300,000 people from their homes in northern and eastern Burkina Faso. AFP spoke to an extended family of 43 people forced to abandon their village 70 kilometres from the town of Djibo, and move to a village north of the capital, Ouagadougou. The family reported that armed attackers had gone into people's homes and taken their animals, killing many of the men and abducting others. They are living in houses made available by local villagers, but with no land to farm, they lack an income. According to the UN, more than 95 per cent of the displaced have sought refuge in other communities and villages, but access to food and livelihoods is becoming increasingly difficult. |
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Every summer since 2016, an abandoned school in southern Lebanon is transformed into a place where around 800 children living in nearby informal refugee settlements can learn and play. Many of the children bussed to the centre are not enrolled in formal education during the rest of the year. The project aims to provide not just a a safe space for recreation, but a possible route into Lebanon's education system. |
During this fiscal year, the United States has admitted 29,818 refugees for resettlement. The top countries of origin were the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Ukraine and Eritrea. |
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