Lebanon is a small country that has been swamped by hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. There are no refugee camps, so finding a place to stay is difficult. Every available space is precious . . . even underground garages.Read more<
The refugees streaming out of Syria have put severe stress on neighboring Middle Eastern countries, which have absorbed more than two million of them since the Syrian conflict began 30 months ago. Now Europe is beginning to feel the effects of the refugee crisis.
The United Nations refugee agency said Friday that boatloads of Syrians are crossing the Mediterranean and coming ashore in southern Italy at an increased pace, with a surge of 3,300 in the past 40 days, including more than 230 unaccompanied children. The government of Sweden, which this month became the first and only one in Europe to promise asylum to Syrians who were in the country, on Friday reported a spike in visits to its Middle East embassies from Syrians who mistakenly thought they could apply for asylum while still abroad.Read more<
Pope Francis made a private visit to the Astalli refugee center in Rome on Tuesday, and, while meeting with several hundred refugees, singled out a Syrian family to listen to their story. The family was given time with the pope during the visit to represent the present emergency in their homeland, an Astalli representative told Radio Vaticana. The Pope also talked with a Sudanese man.Read more<
A first group of 107 highly vulnerable Syrian refugees arrived by plane in the northern German city of Hanover today from Lebanon under a special humanitarian programme announced by the German government earlier this year.
"It is good to be here in a safe area," said one refugee on arrival in Hanover, who referred to himself as William. "It was a horrible time waiting for help and protection," he added.Read more<
In the afternoon, the Pope fulfilled a commitment he's had in mind for months with a visit to the Centro Astalli – a Roman shelter for migrants and asylum-seekers run by the worldwide Jesuit Refugee Service. The stop was a conspicuous echo of Francis' first trip outside Rome, the emotional July voyage to Lampedusa, where some 20,000 refugees have died offshore over recent years in the attempt to reach Europe.Read more<
In all the discussions flying back and forth about a possible US military strike in Syria, I’m struck by how rarely the issue of protecting civilians is raised.
When a national government is unable or unwilling to protect its people, the international community has a responsibility to do so. That, in a nutshell, is the essence of the ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P) concept affirmed by more than 170 heads of state and government at the 2005 World Summit. However, there haven’t been many references to R2P since the 2011 intervention in Libya and it certainly isn’t now being promoted by the US administration as a response to the carnage in Syria. Similarly, for the past decade, ‘protection of civilians’ has been high on the agenda of the UN Security Council, but also seems completely divorced from discussions of possible military intervention in Syria. It’s almost as though these three initiatives – R2P, protection of civilians and military intervention in Syria – are three parallel and unrelated tracks. But if protection of civilians is to mean anything, it should apply to Syria. After all, more than 100,000 Syrians have died, at least 6 million have been displaced and the civil war rages on with no end in sight.Read more<
Tomorrow, Wednesday 10 September, 107 highly vulnerable Syrian refugees are due to leave Lebanon under a temporary Humanitarian Admissions Programme that was announced by Germany in March of this year. The group is headed for Hannover, and is the first to be assisted by UNHCR in this process.
On arrival the refugees are being transferred to an accommodation centre in Friedland in Lower Saxony where they will stay for fourteen days. The refugees will be offered cultural orientation courses – basic language training and basic information on Germany, including the school and health systems, as well as help in interacting with the local authorities.Read more<
KATHMANDU, 3 September 2013 (IRIN) - Laws and interventions aimed at reducing human trafficking by targeting commercial sex workers can, whatever their good intentions, actually endanger their health and result in human rights violations, experts say.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 58 percent of human trafficking cases are for sexual exploitation, a number that activists worry has led the public and policy-makers to conflate trafficking with sex work, to the detriment of effective responses.Read more<
Dialogue and negotiations are "the only option for putting an end to the conflict and violence" in Syria, said Pope Francis and Jordan's King Abdullah II.
As Western leaders expressed strong convictions that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack against its own citizens and vowed to take action, Pope Francis met at the Vatican Aug. 29 with King Abdullah and Queen Rania.Read more<
JAKARTA, Indonesia, August 21 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency has hailed a pledge by 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific region to address the growing challenge of irregular movements that are costing hundreds of lives at sea every year.
UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration joined ministers and senior officials from Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand at the half-day meeting. The Jakarta Declaration was endorsed unanimously at the end of the Special Conference on the Irregular Movement of Persons organized by the Indonesia government on Tuesday.Read more<
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