Life-saving assistance for internally displaced Ethiopians

The Refugee Brief, 3 August
 
By Kate Bond @katebonduk   | 3 August, 2018
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Life-saving assistance for internally displaced Ethiopians. UNHCR is ramping up its response to the urgent needs of nearly one million people displaced by recent violence in south western Ethiopia. Since April of this year, inter-communal clashes have risen following more than a year-long crippling drought and tensions over resources. Those who fled described witnessing extreme violence during village raids, including indiscriminate killing, rape, livestock slaughter and houses being burnt to the ground. UNHCR is initially distributing 50,000 emergency kits. These include cooking sets, sleeping mats, blankets and plastic sheets.
Colombia grants 440,000 Venezuelans temporary residency permits. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has granted two-year temporary residency permits to 440,000 refugees from neighbouring Venezuela. The permits allow them to study, work and obtain medical care that many need after arriving. According to UNHCR, there has been a 2,000 per cent increase in the number of Venezuelan nationals seeking asylum worldwide since 2014.
WHAT’S ON OUR RADAR
Jalalabad attack claims life of IOM, IRC staff among civilians. An employee of the International Organization for Migration and a staff member of the International Rescue Committee were killed in this week’s attack on the Department of Refugees and Returnees in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan. The attack claimed the lives of at least 15 civilians. Among the injured was another IOM employee.
New initiative helps refugees get to know the US. The International Rescue Committee and TripAdvisor have partnered to provide the Welcome Home initiative, offering tours and activities in New York City and Northern California for recently resettled refugees.
MSF steps up efforts as Evros crossings increase. Some 9,600 refugees and migrants entered Greece in the first seven months of 2018 by traversing the Evros River from Turkey. Medecins Sans Frontieres announced that it would start offering medical services in the area to help address the rising numbers. In June, UNHCR had urged efforts to ensure access to asylum and timely registration in the Evros region. The agency also proposed setting up mobile registration units, and identifying open transit sites where arrivals from Evros can be directed, to undergo registration and identification procedures.
GET INSPIRED
A new app is connecting the world's bilingual speakers to translate for the 25.4 million refugees and the aid agencies supporting them.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Government of Ethiopia and humanitarian partners have issued a joint response plan, requiring a total of USD 117.7 million to meet the critical needs of the displaced.
 
 
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Produced by the Communications and Public Information Service. 
Managing Editors: Melissa Fleming, Christopher Reardon and Sybella Wilkes
Contributing Editor: Kate Bond
Subscribe to The Refugee Brief or view recent issues


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Views expressed in reports highlighted in this newsletter
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What will YOU do to protect animals in an emergency?

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Dear Aaaaaaa,

Whether you share your home with a cat, a dog, a rabbit, or another animal companion, your life is enriched daily by your relationship. Our animal companions depend on us for food, shelter, and affection—and their lives are in our hands the moment a natural disaster strikes.

That's why being prepared for an emergency is so critical—not only to keep you and your family safe but also to protect the animals you love from harm.

(Even if you don't share your home with any companion animals right now, you can still pledge to help animals before the next disaster strikes.)

 
Take the pledge to protect your animal companions in an emergency.
 

As the Atlantic hurricane season rapidly approaches its peak, emergency preparedness is top of mind for many of us who live in areas that could be hit by a deadly storm. But a natural disaster—from hurricanes, earthquakes, and snowstorms to mudslides, tornadoes, and wildfires—can strike at almost any time.

As a responsible guardian, it's up to you to ensure that your animal companions are cared for in an emergency. And as compassionate people who believe in the rights of all animals to live free from neglect and abuse, it's our responsibility to do all that we can to help other animals threatened by disaster as well.

Thank you, as always, for your support and for your unrelenting kindness and empathy for animals.

Kind regards,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

P.S. Not sure what to do to help animals in an emergency? After you sign the pledge, please take a moment to check out our helpful blog post about ensuring that your animal companions are protected in a disaster.

 

Germany lifts pause on family reunification

The Refugee Brief, 2 August
 
By Kate Bond @katebonduk   | 2 August, 2018
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Germany lifts pause on family reunification. Germany has resumed family reunifications , after suspending in 2016 the right to bring in immediate family members for asylum-seekers granted subsidiary protection. The halt was designed to ease the strain on social workers handling record numbers of new arrivals. Length of separation, the age of loved ones outside Germany, health considerations and safety are some of the criteria for reunification. While UNHCR welcomes that families with children are given special consideration in the law, the agency has also warned that the reunification application process lacks transparency and is unnecessarily complex.
EU to support Spain on migration. The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, says that while the EU is willing to increase funding to Spain and Morocco to help the countries manage a rise in migration across the western Mediterranean, budget is limited. On Wednesday, Juncker tweeted a copy of a letter in which he told Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez that the EU was willing to increase financial support to Spain and Morocco.
WHAT’S ON OUR RADAR
Fields Medal stolen from refugee mathematician in Rio. A Cambridge professor and Kurdish refugee who won the prestigious Fields Medal, often referred to as the ‘Nobel Prize of mathematics,’ has had his prize stolen shortly after receiving it. Caucher Birkar, who hails from Iran and teaches at Cambridge University, was one of four people honoured for their contributions to mathematics and had said he "couldn't imagine that this would come true".
Migrant rescue ship Aquarius returns to sea. The rescue ship Aquarius, which was stranded on the Mediterranean Sea in June for more than a week after rescuing over 600 passengers, is beginning a new mission in the southern Mediterranean. The vessel, operated by Franco-German charity SOS Mediterranee, will set sail from Marseille on its tenth operation of the year, having already rescued around 3,000 people during 2018.
Finding community in exile in Jordan. Friendships are being forged at a new community support center in Amman, Jordan, which aims to break down barriers between refugees and forge a sense of community for those who have lost their own. Jordan has become home to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, as well as tens of thousands of Iraqis and Yemenis.
GET INSPIRED
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Ben Stiller travels to Guatemala to meet a refugee from El Salvador who still fears the violent gangs that forced her to flee her home.
DID YOU KNOW?
More than 294,000 asylum-seekers and refugees from the North of Central America were registered globally as of the end of 2017, an increase of 58 per cent from a year earlier.
 
 
Follow UNHCR
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UNHCR
Produced by the Communications and Public Information Service. 
Managing Editors: Melissa Fleming, Christopher Reardon and Sybella Wilkes
Contributing Editor: Kate Bond
Subscribe to The Refugee Brief or view recent issues


HQP100 P.O. Box 2500 CH-1211 Geneva 2
Tel +41 22 739 85 02   |   Fax: +41 22 739 73 14


Views expressed in reports highlighted in this newsletter
do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR.

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Dear, embrace the global family

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CRS BRIEFING
August 2018

"If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,' but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it?"
— James 2:15–16

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PRAYER OF THE GLOBAL FAMILY

We ask God to help us recognize family in each of his children, to know them as brothers and sisters, and to help us embrace as families ought.

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