The Refugee Brief, 25 October 2019
| |  |
|
Syrian refugee influx to Iraq passes 10,000 mark. More than 10,000 Syrian refugees have crossed into northnern Iraq since last Monday, three-quarters of them women and children, UNHCR said today. With around 1,000 people arriving every day, Bardarash camp, where most of the new arrivals are being sheltered, is expected to soon reach its full capacity of 11,000. UNHCR is working with authorities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to identify other nearby sites to shelter more refugees. Meanwhile in Syria, some 180,000 people have been displaced across the country's north-east since 9 October, according to the latest UN estimates. Most are staying in collective shelters or with family and friends. In a briefing to the Security Council on Thursday, the UN's deputy emergency relief coordinator, Ursula Mueller, said the latest surge in fighting had compounded "an already dire humanitarian situation" in the north-east, where about 710,000 people were already displaced prior to the latest fighting and where 1.8 million were in need of humanitarian assistance. |
|
Greece's draft asylum law threatens refugee protection, says UNHCR. The UN refugee agency on Thursday listed concerns about Greek proposals to overhaul the country's over-burdened asylum system, suggesting they would "weaken refugee protection in the country" and were being rushed through Parliament after just four days of public consultation. In a statement, UNHCR said the draft law focuses on punitive measures – increasing the time that asylum-seekers can be detained from three to 18 months – and limits their right to appeal negative decisions. It would also force refugees to leave government accommodation after two months instead of the current six. Rather than easing the burden on administrative authorities, UNHCR said the draft law would create additional pressure and increase delays. "Greece has the opportunity to adopt a robust law through a genuine and constructive consultation," said UNHCR's Representative in Greece, Philippe Leclerc. "This is an objective we are here to support." |
|
|
|
|
|
Hundreds of Central African Republic refugees return home from Cameroon. On Wednesday 410 CAR refugees headed home from Cameroon, with several hundred more expected to return by the end of the week. Voice of America reports that they are among more than 6,000 CAR refugees in Cameroon who have expressed their intention to return by the end of the year as part of a voluntary repatriation programme agreed by Cameroon, CAR and UNHCR in June. Some 270,000 CAR refugees remain reluctant to leave Cameroon because of ongoing security threats in CAR, where sporadic fighting has continued since 14 armed groups signed a peace deal with the government in February. Last month, fighting between rival groups in the north-eastern city of Birao displaced more than 12,000 people, according to the UN. |
|
European Parliament rejects resolution on search-and-rescue in Mediterranean. A resolution calling for stepped up search-and-rescue efforts in the Mediterranean failed to pass the European Parliament on Thursday, with 288 MEPs voting in favour and 290 voting against. The resolution included a call for Member States to keep their ports open to NGO rescue vessels and not to criminalize their activities. It also called for Member States to set up their own dedicated search-and-rescue operations. Meanwhile, the Ocean Viking, an NGO rescue boat, has been at sea for a week waiting to be assigned a safe port for 104 people rescued off the coast of Libya. |
|
A Syrian family separated by war. The Guardian tells the stories of five brothers from the southern Syrian city of Dara'a who have been separated by the war and scattered across five countries. The last time all five brothers were together was in August 2012. Kareem, who was involved in the protests in 2011, was resettled to Sweden, after a spell in Jordan. Another brother, Farid, remains in Jordan, while Samir made it to Germany with his family in 2015. Rami and Hassan crossed into Lebanon, but Hassan was detained by Lebanese authorities in July for working without a permit and sent back to Syria, where he was detained for several weeks before being released. Now Rami rarely leaves the two-room home in Beirut that he shares with his wife and two daughters. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mursal is the only girl left in her sixth grade class, which takes place under a mulberry tree in Afghanistan's Qarabagh district outside Kabul. More than 500 children, many of them former refugees, attend primary school in this mulberry orchard. It's hoped that the construction of new primary and secondary schools in the village will persuade more families to keep their girls in school. |
|
|
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment