Myanmar villagers flee escalating violence. At a briefing in Geneva today, UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic stressed the agency’s concerns about the humanitarian impact of the continuing violence in Myanmar’s southern Chin State and Rakhine State which is forcing people to flee their homes. Some of those displaced have crossed into neighbouring Bangladesh in search of safety. Reuters reports that a group of 136 people are now sheltering in a remote jungle camp in Bangladesh’s Bandarban district after fleeing fighting between the Myanmar military and ethnic Rakhine rebels several days ago. They reportedly fled two villages in Chin State’s Paletwa township after hearing gunfire and seeing helicopters nearby. Clashes between government forces and the Arakan Army, a separatist group, have displaced more than 5,000 people since early January. UNHCR called on the Bangladesh authorities to continue to allow people fleeing violence in Myanmar to seek safety in Bangladesh. | | |
| Yemenis "a step away from famine" while grain silos remain out of bounds. While nearly 10 million Yemenis remain close to famine, enough grain to feed 3.7 million people for a month has sat unused , and possibly spoiling, in silos at the Red Sea Mills in Al-Hudaydah since September. Last month two of the silos were hit by mortar shells that destroyed some of the grain. “These events are to be deplored,” said the UN’s humanitarian chief, Mark Lowcock, on Thursday. Lowcock called on all parties to the conflict to allow the UN access to reach the mills . The UN and its partners are scaling up to reach 12 million people with emergency food aid, a 50 per cent increase over 2018 targets. Meanwhile, the UN said talks continue aboard one of its ships in Al-Hudaydah harbour to resolve outstanding issues related to the mutual redeployment of forces away from the city and the opening of humanitarian corridors as called for in the Stockholm agreement reached in December. | | |
| African Union summit to focus on refugees. This year’s annual African Union summit, which kicked off in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday, will focus on refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons. In his opening remarks, AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat stressed the need to end the many conflicts that are the cause of so much internal displacement and cross-border movement in Africa and to meet the target Africa has set itself of ending conflicts by 2020. UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, will be part of a high-level dialogue on refugees and internal displacement at the summit tomorrow. | | |
| EU elections must not “paralyze” asylum reform, says migration commissioner. The upcoming European elections must not stall efforts to reform the European Union’s asylum system , said migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos on Thursday. The European Commission proposed modifications to EU asylum rules in 2016, but agreement over changes to the Dublin Regulation, which determines which Member State bears responsibility for processing an asylum request, has remained elusive. Several eastern European States have rejected proposals to distribute asylum-seekers more evenly across the EU and ease pressure on frontline countries like Italy and Greece. Pending a breakthrough in negotiations, the Commission is urging Member States to adopt “temporary arrangements” for responsibility-sharing. | | |
| The refugee families stranded on Cyprus for over 20 years. Six refugee families who have been living at a disused British military base in Cyprus for more than 20 years, will move to the UK after a lengthy legal battle. But their long wait is not quite over. Al Jazeera spoke to some of the refugees about life in limbo while they waited to travel to the UK. A whole new generation has grown up on the island, living in huts that once housed British soldiers and that have been found to contain potentially harmful levels of asbestos. Now the younger generation may have a chance to realize some of their dreams. | | |
| MSF launches tele-mental health service for former patients on Nauru. Médecins Sans Frontières on Thursday launched a free tele-health service to provide psychological support to patients it was forced to leave behind when it was ordered to stop its work on the island last October. The medical NGO said the remote service would provide continuity of care to former patients, including refugees, asylum-seekers and Nauruan nationals, who remained “highly vulnerable” and continued to report “severe levels of mental distress”. MPs in Australia are preparing to vote on a medical transfers bill that could see up to 1,000 people on Nauru and Manus Islands access long-awaited treatment within weeks, reports the Guardian. | | |
| Aminah Rwimo, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, spoke at TEDxKakumaCamp last June about using the skills she has learned as filmmaker to tell the stories of other refugees living at the camp. “Do your best to make your life here where you are now,” is her advice to other refugees. “Use every opportunity that you have, and never, ever give up.” | | |
Africa hosts more than 30 per cent of the world’s refugee population, and three African countries are among the top 10 countries hosting refugees.
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