“We became the orphans of the world”
UNICEF reports on how Syrian refugees are sharing what UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow calls an “unbroken chain of stories of loss, grief, deprivation, frustration, anxiety and always the longing to go home,” on her visit to Lebanon.
For more information, visit: http://www.unicef.org/.
Amid insecurity, more Somalis cite difficulties sustaining themselves
Conflict is normally cited by displaced Somalis as the main reason for flight, but in recent weeks we have seen an increase in IDPs and refugees also citing difficulty in providing for themselves. Over the past seven weeks we have registered some 6,000 Somalis who have cited such difficulties – usually arising from meager seasonal rains and resulting food insecurity. The majority are from Somalia’s Bay, Lower Juba and Bakool regions. Read more…
Somali Refugees: Ongoing Crisis, New Realities
Newly released report from Refugees International.
The United Nations has declared that famine conditions in south-central Somalia no longer exist. But the ongoing conflict in the country, coupled with a precarious food situation, will keep large numbers of Somali refugees from voluntarily returning anytime soon – this despite the rising insecurity in refugee-hosting areas of Kenya and Ethiopia. This insecurity poses a serious threat to protection and services for refugees. However, it also provides an opportunity to shake-up the unsustainable way that agencies have delivered services for decades. Despite security restrictions on access, donor governments must maintain their level of focus and funding for refugee operations in the region.
While States have the right to define their own immigration policies, they should do so in respect for human dignity and basic rights, he stated.
“All this can be done, and needs to be done, in ways that ensure protection is granted to those who need it,” Mr. Guterres stressed. “This means guaranteeing their access to territory, fair treatment of their asylum claims, and adequate integration policies that contribute to social harmony.” UN urges better protection for world’s forcibly displaced, stateless people
UN: Somalia drought is worst humanitarian crisis
DADAAB, Kenya (AP) — The head of the U.N. refugee agency said Sunday that drought-riddenSomalia is the “worst humanitarian disaster” in the world after meeting with refugees who endured unspeakable hardship to reach the world’s largest refugee camp.
The Kenyan camp, Dadaab, is overflowing with tens of thousands of newly arrived refugees forced into the camp by the parched landscape in the region where Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya meet. The World Food Program estimates that 10 million people already need humanitarian aid. The U.N. Children’s Fund estimates that more than 2 million children are malnourished and in need of lifesaving action.
Antonio Guterra, the head of UNHCR who visited Dadaab on Sunday, appealed to the world to supply the “massive support” needed by thousands of refugees showing up at this camp every week. More than 380,000 refugees now live there.
In Dadaab, Guterra spoke with a Somalia mother who lost three of her children during a 35-day walk to reach the camp. Guterra said Dadaab holds “the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.”
“I became a bit insane after I lost them,” said the mother, Muslima Aden. “I lost them in different times on my way.”
Guterra is on a tour of the region to highlight the dire need. On Thursday he was in the Ethiopian camp of Dollo Ado, a camp that is also overflowing.
“The mortality rates we are witnessing are three times the level of emergency ceilings,” he said. “The level of malnutrition of the children coming in is 50 percent. That is enough to explain why a very high level of mortality is inevitable,” he said.
Dr. Dejene Kebede, a health officer for UNHCR, said there were 58 deaths in camps in one week alone in June.
You can donate to the UNHCR Somali Emergency fund here.
Refugees on rise and poor countries bear brunt: UNHCR
(Reuters) - The number of people forced to flee their homes to escape war or abuse has risen to its highest for 15 years, with four out of five refugees in developing countries, the United Nations said on Monday.
In all, there were 43.7 million displaced people worldwide at the end of 2010, up from 43.3 million a year before, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.
They include 15.4 million refugees who fled across borders — 80 percent of them to nearby developing countries — and 27.5 million uprooted within their own homelands, it said in an annual report. A further 850,000 are asylum seekers who lodged claims.
“Fear about supposed floods of refugees in industrialized countries are being vastly overblown or mistakenly conflated with issues of migration,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
“Meanwhile it’s poorer countries that are left having to pick up the burden,” said Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal who heads the Geneva-based agency.
“I don’t have a problem with another Alawi President,” said Fadi, 31, referring to Assad’s minority sect, which represents about 12% of Syria’s largely Sunni population.
“Regardless of what politicians overseas fear, they must know that we want democracy,” said Mohammad, 26, who was uploading a video of testimony from a refugee. “Nothing fuels religious extremism more than poverty and oppression. They know that, don’t they?” Refugees in the Dark: Fleeing a Devastated Syrian Town
Libyan refugee camp, via @UNICEF_UK
UNHCR fears for the safety of refugees caught in Libya's violence
GENEVA, February 22 (UNHCR) –The UN refugee agency said in Geneva on Tuesday it has become “increasingly concerned” about the dangers for civilians inadvertently caught up in the mounting violence in Libya, especially asylum-seekers and refugees.
“We have no access at this time to the refugee community. Over the past months we have been trying to regularize our presence in Libya, and this has constrained our work,” Melissa Fleming, UNHCR’s chief spokesperson, told journalists in Geneva.
She added that some of the reports that UNHCR has been receiving from third-party sources were very worrying. “A journalist has passed information to us from Somalis in Tripoli who say they are being hunted on suspicion of being mercenaries. He says they feel trapped and are frightened to go out, even though there is little or no food at home,” Fleming said.
Scores of people are believed to have been killed in Libya since the government cracked down on protests that erupted against the government last week. Fighting has been continuing in the capital, Tripoli, and elsewhere.
Prior to the current unrest UNHCR had registered more than 8,000 refugees in Libya, with a further 3,000 asylum-seekers having pending cases. The main places of origin are Chad, Eritrea, Iraq, Palestine, Somalia and Sudan.
“We are calling on all neighbouring countries to welcome those arrivals from Libya who may be fleeing targeted violence and fearing for their lives,” UNHCR’s Fleming said.
Why millions in US aid may help few Iraqi refugees in the end
Jordan, one of two main destinations for Iraqis displaced by the US-led war, has received nearly $400 million in aid designed to help as many as 1 million Iraqis reported to have fled there. Much of the aid came from the United States and went to the Jordanian government directly.
The idea was that donors would help Jordan, and Jordan would help the Iraqis.
But it’s now widely recognized that the actual number of Iraqis in Jordan is vastly smaller than originally thought. The inflated numbers mean more aid went to the Jordanian government, and some argue that that prevented the Iraqis from getting effective assistance.
“We could have dealt with 50,000 refugees, who had very little, much more effectively, provided the funding had been appropriate,” says Harriet Dodd, who was country director for CARE International in Jordan during the crisis.
Indeed, many nongovernmental organization workers, academics, and independent researchers now say that the aid has failed to provide the help Iraqis needed, while significant funding went to programs that suited Jordan’s national priorities – and thus, some argue, it aided Jordanians more than Iraqis.
Officials from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) counter that building up local institutions like schools, hospitals, and water systems is the only effective and fair way to help the Iraqis.
As casualties climb and violence continues in war torn Darfur, the International Rescue Committee offers assistance to the conflict’s most vulnerable victims. Even after we’ve helped many of the nearly 880,000 refugees resettle and begin to rebuild their lives, leaving isn’t an option for us. We’ve made a mission of turning grim stories into stories of hope- however long it takes.
