Lyss, canton Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Twenty-six people were injured in Lyss, canton Bern, after a fire broke out in the early hours of Thursday 25 February at a centre for asylum seekers. Cantonal police say there is no reason at this stage of the investigation to suspect criminal activity. The fire broke out shortly after 04:00, waking residents of the centre. Many of them appear to have panicked and jumped out of windows rather than taking the emergency exits, which were open. Several of the injured suffered pelvic fractures from hitting the hard ground when they jumped.
The center has a population of 135 people from 30 countries.
Links to other sites: ats/romandie (Fre), Bern police (Fre)
About 40 people have been injured in brawls between Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers being held at a holding centre on Christmas Island over the past few days. Three people were evacuated to Perth for treatment. The center holds more than 1,000 people, mainly from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, while their applications are processed. Several Sri Lankans have had their applications denied and were sent home, increasing tensions, although human rights groups blame the tension on overcrowding. The Australian government has said it will increase capacity at the centre by 800 this year.
An Australian navy ship intercepted a boat with 56 suspected asylum-seekers on board 100 nautical miles norwest of Derby, Western Australia, Monday afternoon. It is the 46th ship intercepted this year, and the second in two days.
Many boats are organized by people-smugglers from Indonesia who organize the trip from the country of origin, and then hide people on small boats. Once they reach Australian waters, the boat sends out a false distress signal to alert rescue ships in the hope of being taken to the detention centre, Al-Jazeera reports.
Links to other sites: Al-Jazeera, BBC, News Sun, Radio Australia
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The number of people asking for asylum in Switzerland was down significantly in the third quarter of the year, compared to last year, but up 8.7 percent over the second quarter 2009. A total of 3,744 asylum seekers filed papers in Switzerland between July and September, according to the Federal Office for Migration (FOM).
The tally for the year to date comes to 12,136. The FOM points out that 1,161 persons were sent back to another EU country under the provisions of the Dublin Convention, which stipulates that an asylum seeker who applies in one country and then moves to another country, must have his application settled in the country of first asylum. Many Georgians who originally applied for asylum in Poland were sent back to that country for that reason.
Edward M Kennedy visiting Bengali refugee camps in Kolkata in India in 1971. Image: AFP PHOTO/AFP/Getty Images
Edward M Kennedy speaks to a meeting of student leaders in 1966 - he called for participation in humanitarian relief programmes in South Vietnam. Image: AP Photo/Bob Daugherty
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Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The 2009 Fridtjof Nansen award will go to the late US Senator Edward Kennedy in recognition of his work in favour of refugees and asylum-seekers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced 15 September. The ceremony takes place in the US, in Washington, DC 28 October.
Antonio Guterres, High Commissioner for Refugees, said in the announcement, “Kennedy stood out as a forceful advocate for those who suddenly found themselves with no voice and no rights. Year after year, conflict after conflict, he put the plight of refugees on the agenda and drove through policies that saved and shaped countless lives.” He noted that Kennedy’s work for refugees was not limited to the US and that most recently he had fought to draw attention to the needs of Iraqi refugees.
He added that Kennedy was informed of the Nansen committee’s decision in June before he died.
Senator Edward Kennedy, center left, has a smile and a handshake for an unidentified young refugee in the Tuki-Baab famine refugee camp during a visit, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 1984, Tuki-Baab, Eastern Sudan. Many of the refugees had walked for a week to reach the camp from Eritrea. Kennedy toured a number of refugee camps in the African drought area over Christmas week. The woman on the left is unidentified. Image: AP Photo/Robert Dear
Chart: UNHCR, "Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, 2008"
Geneva, Switzerland (Genevalunch) – Political turmoil in Afghanistan and Somalia increased the number of asylum seekers in 2008 for the second year running, according to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). Iraq provided the largest number of applicants for asylum, 40,500, a 10 percent decrease from 2007.
