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Scores killed in Yemen air strikes. Twenty-two civilians have been killed in two separate air strikes in Yemen this week, according to the UN. Seven civilians, including women and children from the same family, were killed on Monday in Amran Governorate, north of Sana'a, when a mosque was hit by an air strike. Another 15 people were killed on Tuesday when a house in southern Al Dhale'e Governorate was hit by another strike. "For these tragedies to have occurred during the UN General Assembly, when world leaders come together to advance peace and security, is profoundly disturbing," said the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, on Tuesday. So far this year, more than 700 civilians have been killed as a result of the conflict, while 53,000 families have been displaced. Al Jazeera reports from the countryside around Abs in north-west Yemen, where thousands of people displaced from Saada, a rebel stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia, are living in tent camps. They lack food, clean drinking water and electricity. |
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Rwanda prepares to receive first batch of refugees from Libya. According to media reports, a first group of 75 refugees evacuated from Libya are expected to arrive in Kigali this week before being transferred to Gashora Transit Centre, outside the capital. The New Times, a Rwandan daily, reports from Gashora, where preparations are underway to receive them. Under an agreement signed earlier this month by the Rwandan government, UNHCR and the African Union, Rwanda agreed to receive up to 500 refugees and asylum-seekers currently being held in detention centres in Libya. At the Transit Centre, which previously hosted Burundian refugees, the new arrivals will be allocated to housing blocks and supplied with food, bedding and kitchenware. UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi has urged other countries to come forward with further actions to help more than 3,600 refugees and asylum-seekers who remain in Libyan detention centres. |
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Turkish president reiterates call for "safe zone" in Syria. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pressed his case at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday for an expanded "safe zone" in northern Syria, where as many as 2 million Syrian refugees could be relocated. He said he was hoping to establish a corridor with an initial depth of 30 kilometres that would extend for 480 kilometres. He said such an expanded zone would increase the number of Syrians willing to return from Turkey, Europe and other parts of the world and called for an international donor conference to generate funding for those returning to safe areas. In recent weeks, Erdoğan has expressed impatience at the speed with which the United States is allowing the safe zone to be established. |
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Companies commit to hiring and supporting Venezuelan refugees. More than 20 companies attending the Latin American Business Summit on Refugees in New York this week announced new commitments to help Venezuelan refugees displaced across Latin America. The companies, which included Airbnb, Telefonica and Sodexo, pledged to create over 4,500 new jobs for refugees, to provide support to over 2,000 refugee-owned businesses and to improve access to services for more than 110,000 refugees. Research conducted by the Tent Partnership for Refugees, based on interviews with Venezuelan refugees in Colombia and Peru, found that Venezuelans are poorly integrated into local economies and that their skills are being under-utilized. |
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Ocean Viking passengers disembark to uncertain future in Europe. AP reports from the port of Messina in Sicily, where 182 people disembarked the Ocean Viking NGO ship on Tuesday, a week after being rescued from flimsy boats off Libya's coast. Although filled with excitement and hope, they also had myriad questions about what comes next. Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, members of the Italian government said most of them would be sent to other European countries and called for a permanent European solution for refugees and migrants rescued at sea. The Ocean Viking group come from a number of countries, including Bangladesh, Cameroon, Egypt, Guinea, Mali, Morocco and Sudan. |
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The Philippines starts project to issue ID documents to stateless indigenous people. The Sama Bajau people used to live a nomadic existence, roaming from the Philippines to Malaysia and Indonesia by boat, living from the sea. But clashes between the government and armed militants in 2013 forced many of them to seek shelter on land, in government-run facilities where their lack of citizenship and documentation became an obstacle to schooling and made them vulnerable to arrest during security sweeps. Now a pilot government project, supported by UNHCR, is registering Sama Bajau living in Zamboanga city with the aim of issuing families with identity documents by mid-December. |
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Italian lawyer-turned-physiotherapist Alberto Cairo has been providing prosthetic limbs to Afghans, many of displaced and disabled by landmines, for three decades. The seven orthopaedic centres he runs with a staff of 750 – nearly all of them former patients – treat more than 13,000 new patients a year. Cairo was chosen last week as the regional winner for Asia of UNHCR's Nansen Refugee Award. |
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