Angelina Jolie in Pakistan, one of 40 missions she has undertaken for UNHCR in the past 10 years (photo, ©2012 UNHCR)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Actress Angelina Jolie, who has for a decade been an active Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, has been named Special Envoy of High Commissioner António Guterres.
Jolie has done more than 40 field visits around the world, says the Geneva-based organization, “becoming an expert on the phenomenon of forced displacement and a tireless advocate on their behalf.”
The new post begins immediately. She will focus on complex emergencies: “large-scale crises resulting in the mass displacement of people, to undertake advocacy and represent UNHCR” and its commissioner at the diplomatic level, “engaging with relevant interlocutors on global displacement issues”, the UNHCR said in a statement Tuesday.
South Sudan reception centre, UNHCR refugee camp, November 2011
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Friday 11 November was a day of rising fears internationally that tensions are building along the Sudan-South Sudan border after a series of bombs were dropped just inside South Sudan’s Unity state, hitting a refugee camp. Several Geneva-based humanitarian groups expressed their growing concern Friday.
And then late Friday came some good news from New York, that the newly-formed Republic of South Sudan has made banning anti-personnel mines one of its first multilateral commitments.
It became an independent state 9 July 2011, but fighting and accusations have continued between the two countries.
South Sudan “deposited its notification of succession to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or Ottawa Convention today at the United Nations headquarters in New York, becoming the 158th state to agree to be legally bound by this landmark humanitarian instrument,” the AP Mine Ban Convention office in Geneva said in a statement Friday night.
The news was a bright spot in the otherwise gloomy reports of the bombs and world reactions to them. Authorities in South Sudan blamed Sudan for the bombardment of a refugee camp in the oil-rich border state of Unity, according to UPI.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called for “an independent, thorough and credible investigation to establish the precise circumstances of this aerial bombing.” She said in a statement late Friday that “The camp at Yida, which is close to the border with Sudan, is housing thousands of civilians, including women and children.” She added that “while the number of casualties is not yet clear, I understand that five or six bombs were dropped on the camp, and that at least one fell close to a school.” Pillay says that if “it is established that an international crime or serious human rights violation has been committed, then those responsible should be brought to justice.”
The UNHRC, the High Commissioner for Refugees office in Geneva deplored the bombings, noting at its weekly briefing Friday that there were reports earlier in the week of bombings in New Guffa Village in Upper Nile state, in addition to Thursday’s bombings in Unity state.
“Several bombs dropped by an aircraft in the Yida area impacted a temporary camp that shelters over 20,000 refugees who have recently fled violence in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan’s Southern Kordofan State.
Two of the bombs fell within the Yida camp, including one close to the school. Fortunately there were no casualties in the camp and we are verifying the situation of surrounding communities. UNHCR had been readying new refugee sites away from the border when the incident occurred in Yida yesterday. We had hoped to begin the relocation of refugees but our efforts have so far been hampered by heavy rains which have made the road to the camp impassable.”
The significance of the measure taken by South Sudan was noted by the Convention’s leadership. “ndmine contamination in South Sudan is a grave problem for reconstruction and development, and impedes agricultural activities,” said H.E. Gazmend Turdiu, the Convention’s President. “By joining the Convention, South Sudan is making a commitment to clear mines on its territory, to assist landmine survivors and to never, under any circumstances, use anti-personnel mines.”
The Internal Displacement Centre (IDMC) in Geneva also voiced its concern Friday, noting that each side has been blaming the other for escalating violence. The US Wednesday condemned Sudan for air attacks in recent days, with State Department spokesperson Mark Toner saying, “The provocative aerial bombardments near the border increase the potential of direct confrontation between Sudan and South Sudan.”
The IDMC said Friday in a statement that
“The government of Sudan has accused South Sudan of supporting rebels on the northern side of the border, in the states of South Kordofan, where fighting has been ongoing since June, and in Blue Nile which has seen fighting since September. On 5 November, Sudan submitted a complaint against South Sudan to the UN Security Council, accusing it of providing rebels with “anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles as well as with ammunition, landmines and mortars”. Sudan has imposed restrictions on humanitarian access to South Kordofan and Blue Nile citing security concerns, including the presence of landmines and the movements of rebel groups. Humanitarian organisations estimate that over 200,000 people have either been displaced or severely affected by the conflict in South Kordofan. The UN estimates that 28,500 Sudanese from Blue Nile have fled to Ethiopia and that 19,500 others have taken shelter among communities along the border.”
South Sudan, for its part, says the IDMC, denies supporting the rebels. It “has repeatedly accused Sudan of supporting rebels on its side, in Upper Nile and Unity states. The most recent fighting in Unity state took place on 29 October, after the rebel SSLA (South Sudan Liberation Army) warned the UN and humanitarian organizations to leave the area for their own safety. This put at risk displaced communities who depend on aid for survival, and troops with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMiss) were deployed to help local authorities deal with the aftermath of the attacks and to monitor the situation. In addition to ongoing internal displacement within Unity state, the UN has reported more than 20,000 people fleeing into the state from South Kordofan in Sudan. Humanitarian aid organizations are concerned that “the number of people arriving to Unity might double before the end of the year if fighting continues in South Kordofan.”
Landmines in South Sudan are the result of over 20 years of civil war and the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Centre in South Sudan reports that, “all 10 states of the newly-formed country have reported mine-related injuries and deaths. Contamination in 306 villages varies in size, from an item that may take an hour or so to destroy, to entire minefields which could take up to a year or more to address.” The AP Mine Ban Convention says that as of September 2011, “a total of 3,210 injuries and 1,263 deaths had been reported in the country. Since 2005, over 25,000 landmines have been destroyed. To date over 2,700 landmine survivors have received support.”
South Sudan, as a party to the Convention, will now have the right to ask other signatory states for help.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The number of asylum seekers in Switzerland rose 4.9 percent in October, representing 100 more individuals (total, 31 October: 2,142) than in September, new figures from the Federal Migration Office shows. The office says that at the end of September the figures for the second quarter of the year were stable, with a 1.2 percent increase.
Zurich, Bern and Vaud have the largest number of active asylum applications under consideration.
Eritreans and Tunisians remain the two largest groups seeking asylum, with Nigerians third.
Switzerland sent 351 applicants to Italy in October, under the terms of the Dublin Regulation, which is designed to prevent asylum-seekers from applying to several European Union states or to move continually from one to another.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The UN refugee organization, UNHCR, says supplies from several organizations, including its own, are now flowing into the region in Turkey hit by an earthquake 10 days ago. The UNHCR says that government officials now say 600 people died and 4,000 are injured as a result of the earthquake. “The city of Van alone, near the epi-centre, has a population of some 400,000 people and many homes have been reduced to rubble or rendered unusable,” says the Geneva-based group.
The city’s population includes some 2,000 refugees and asylum seekers were living in the area when the quake struck, most of them citizens of Iran or Afghanistan.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Three staff members died and two others were injured when a suicide bomb went off at the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) head office in Kandahar, Afghanistan about 08:00 Monday morning 31 October.The Geneva-based agency says the functioning of its office in Kandahar has been seriously disrupted.
The agency has “facilitated the return of millions of refugees” since it began working in the country in 1980, it says.
“‘This is a tragedy for UNHCR and for the families of the dead and wounded. It also underscores the great risks for humanitarian workers in
Afghanistan,” says High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. “I am hugely saddened. All of us at UNHCR stand in solidarity with
the families of those who have died or been injured.”
The UNHCR was still trying to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the attack, it said Monday afternoon.
Tunisians fleeing Libya early in 2011: the Arab Spring events were not the driving force behind the growing number of asylum seekers in 2011 (photo, UNHCR)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The number of asylum seekers worldwide increased by 17 percent, the UN refugee group UNHCR announced Tuesday. Applications to industrialized countries numbered 198,300 from 1 January to 30 June 2011, with “most claimants coming from countries with longstanding displacement situations.”
The figures are part of report issued 18 October by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office, “Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, First Half 2011″. The group notes that applications usually peak in the second half of a year and it expects that the final tally may be the highest in eight years: 420,000.
The report does not show how many applications translate into the granting of asylum, in other words refugee status.
The floodgates have not been opened by the Arab Spring events, with neighbouring countries accepting most of the refugees who have fled conflict in northern Africa. Rather,
© 2011 MSF / Brendan Bannon
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Two women, Medecin Sans Frontieres (MSF) staff, were kidnapped at 13:20 Thursday 13 October from the Ifo extension area of the Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya. Their driver is undergoing urgent medical treatment after being shot.
Dadaab is the world’s largest refugee camp, with 463,739 Somali refugees, more than 190,000 of whom have fled Somalia this year.
MSF issued the following statement, saying that in the interests of the safe return of the woman, it will not issue further statements:
“Two international staff, both Spanish, were taken. As yet, MSF has not been able to re-establish contact with the two staff taken. A crisis team has been set up to deal with this incident, and the families have been informed.
“‘We strongly condemn this attack,’ says José Antonio Bastos, the president of MSF-Spain. ‘MSF is in contact with all the relevant authorities and is doing all it can to ensure the swift and safe return of our colleagues. Meanwhile, our thoughts are with them and with their families in this difficult time.’”
International agencies expressed their outrage. “These MSF colleagues were working to rescue lives, says UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres. “It is wholly unacceptable that they should be made targets for kidnap. I appeal to those responsible to facilitate their immediate and safe return.”
ICRC, the International Red Cross, has been increasingly vocal about the dangers facing international independent aid workers.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, will be recommending to states that they end Rwandan refugee status as of 31 December, with the change taking effect in July 2012.
The move is one of the clearest signs to date of the normalization of Rwanda’s political and economic situation. A 1990 civil war was followed by the 1994 genocide that killed between half a million and a million people (estimates vary)). Only some 10,000 of the 115,000 refugees from Rwanda have returned home, despite a growing economy with coffee, tea and tourism in particular booming.
The UNHCR made the announcement jointly with the Rwanda government 7 October, with the two noting that they have “agreed that a meeting of all relevant States and other actors will be organized in December this year with a view to achieving increased voluntary repatriation and securing greater opportunities for local integration or alternative legal status for Rwandan refugees in countries of asylum. The cessation of refugee status is one of the components of this strategy.”
Special envoy Joli can help draw attention to “some of the world’s most difficult refugee situations”
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie at the annual meeting of the refugee agency's governing body.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Actress Angelina Jolie was asked Tuesday 4 October by the head of the UN refugee organization UNHCR to take on a new role as special envoy, in the wake of several new emergency refugee situations this year.
The invitation was extended by High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, who recognized her 10 years of service with the agency by asking her to take on an expanded role in some of the world’s most difficult refugee situations.
His request came just as news reports began to flow in of a bomb blast in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Seventy people were reportedly killed and 150 injured, according to Somalia’s President Sharif Sheikh Ahmedhe.
Al-Shabab, which is fighting the government, took responsibility for the suicide bomb. The news is the latest evidence of the rising level of violence in the country, from which people are fleeing in growing numbers.
The Dabaad camps in Kenya, across the border from Somalia, now have nearly half a million people, with 1,000 arriving daily. Some 200,000 Somalis have fled to these camps in the past four months.
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie at the annual meeting of the refugee agency's governing body.
Jolie is in Geneva for the annual meeting of UNHCR’s executive committee, which oversees funding for the organization and its projects.
She has become one of the best-known goodwill ambassadors for a UN agency, through her regular and frequent visits, on average four a year, to refugee camps around the world, including some in very remote regions. She took on the ambassadorial role in August 2001.
“Today, three-quarters of a million people are at risk of death in the next four months in the Horn of Africa,” she told the executive committee. “The work we are doing needs to scale up to meet the needs of these individuals. How we continue to respond to this period of malnutrition and famine is going to define the work of those NGOs, governments, and international organizations working in the Horn of Africa. It will, quite starkly, determine whether a huge number of people live or die.”
Monday Jolie shared the spotlight with Nasser Salim Ali Al-Hamairy, founder of Yemen’s Society for Humanitarian Solidarity: she co-presented with Guterres the 2011 Nansen Refugee Award, given to the SHS. The prize, widely considered the refugee world’s highest honour, was awarded to the founder and the 290 staff of SHS, a non-governmental organization, for their life-saving work in helping thousands of refugees and migrants who arrive on Yemen’s shores each year.
The staff comb the Yemeni coastline year round, pulling people from the sea and helping them find safety and assistance.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The mystery and confusion surrounding 10,000 requests for asylum by Iraqi citizens in 2006 that were reportedly never treated by the Swiss government continues. TSR public television reporting 30 September that new information it obtained shows no one at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees told the Swiss representative to Syria at the time that he could ignore the requests, as he has claimed.
Federal Councillor Simonetta Somaruga brought the case to light in August, demanding an investigation. The report is expected by the end of the year.
Jacques de Watteville, the Swiss representative in Syria in 2006, was under instructions from the Federal Office for Migration, according to TSR, to handle the overwhelming number of asylum requests from Iraq, but he had no budget for this and he appears to have taken his concerns to the UNHCR. He replied to the IOM that the UN refugee organization said the letters did not need to be dealt with, but it remains unclear if this referred to all asylum requests. There appears to have been confusion about the role the UNHCR would play in accepting refugees in a camp in Syria, which did not exist at the time of the correspondence.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – United Nations groups based in Geneva, already under enormous pressure to meet demands for help in the Horn of Africa, are increasing their efforts to help Pakistan’s flood victims. Pakistan has been hit hard by floods for the second year in a row.
Some 6 million people have been affected by this year’s flooding in the southern province of Sindh alone and, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 1.3 million homes have been destroyed and 428,000 people are living in camps.
The IOM says it has distributed the last of 18,000 emergency kits it pre-positioned in Sindh, one of the worst-hit areas. The kits, with two plastic tarpaulins, 2 shovels, a bucket and a kitchen set each, are providing help to 126,000 people.
The IOM is appealing to international donors for $14.6 million in aid to supply basic food and housing needs and it is also appealing for $2.2 million in aid for its local partner, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.
The flooding is mainly in the south of the country, affecting several provinces but with Sindh one of the most affected areas. Aid workers say it is taking several days for provisions to reach the area overland from Peshawar in the country’s northwest. Flood victims are having trouble finding enough dry ground to set up emergency tents. Details, Pakistan Shelter Cluster: http://www.shelterpakistan.org
UNHCR, the office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, says several social problems are on the rise as a direct result of the crisis, such as domestic violence and child labour.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Ikea Foundation has donated $62 million to the UN refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya, working with the UNHCR. The camp, which is a focal point for Somalians fleeing fighting, drought and famine, now hosts 440,000 refugees from Somalia, 152,000 of whom have arrived this year.
“The donation, which will be staggered over three years, is the largest private donation that the UN refugee agency has received in its 60-year history, and the first time that a private body has chosen to directly support a major refugee complex. UNHCR is working with the staff of the Foundation on the development of a detailed submission for how these funds will be used, but in the short-term the immediate focus will be helping the needs of up to recently arrived 120,000 refugees, with a particular focus on refugee families and children,” the UNHCR says.
Europe, with only 29 percent of world’s refugee applications, called on to do more
Update 11:30, latest Somalia figures GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – UNHCR, the Geneva-based refugee organization, barely has time to observe its own birthday, which is in itself a comment on the state of refugee affairs in the world today.The UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees is an international treaty created after the second world war to resolve Europe’s refugee problem. It was adopted 28 July 1951.
“This global treaty provides a definition of who qualifies as a refugee – a person with a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion – and spells out the rights and obligations between host countries and refugees. As the legal foundation on which UNHCR’s work is based, it has enabled the agency to help millions of uprooted people to restart their lives in the last 60 years,” the group notes in an anniversary statement issued Thursday.
Libya’s million, Somalia’s 800,000
Africa has seen a surge in refugees in 2011, with the fighting linked to the demise of several dictatorships. Libya alone has created one million refugees. Somalia is the latest crisis-riddled country to create a massive outflow, with years-long fighting now couple with the worst drought in half a century that has now created a severe famine. More than 800,000 Somali refugees now live outside their country, with the vast majority in the region:
| COUNTRY OF ASYLUM | TOTAL NUMBER |
| Kenya | 351,773 |
| Ethiopia | 81,247 |
| Djibouti | 14,216 |
| Yemen | 180,341 |
| Others | 17,306 |
| Total | 644,883 |
Nearly 1.5 million more Somalis are internally displaced, mostly in the south-central region of the country. More than 100,000 of them have been displaced inside Somalia so far this year.
80% of world’s refugees flee to neighbouring developing countries
Somalia refugees were already fleeing their country in July 2009, before fighting was coupled with famine (photo ©2011 UNHCR / E Hockstein)
Somalia’s refugees now number some 450,000 in neighbouring countries Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti, and the numbers are growing daily, says the UNHCR. Tunisia and Egypt have “received the bulk of the exodus from Libya” says the organization, which underscores that four-fifths of the world’s refugees are in developing countries.
Europe, by contrast, received 243,000 refugee applications in 2010, 29 percent of the world’s total. Antonio Guterres, the High Commissioner for Refugees, says that “at present, a truly common system remains elusive, as significant differences persist among Member States in their reception and treatment of asylum-seekers. The 60th anniversary of the Refugee Convention, we hope, will give impetus to the establishment of a true Common European Asylum System. Europe could also do more to resettle refugees,” referring to the process through which refugees in one country, usually in the developing world, are permanently relocated to new countries, usually in the developed world.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Appeals are being launched from Geneva to help fight the famine that is following the worst drought in 50 years in southern Somalia, coupled with fighting in the region. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon 18 July officially labelled the catastrophic situation a famine and UN organizations, including those based in Geneva, are scrambling to provide more aid, rapidly.
Links to operations update and donors pages for some organizations:
- ICRC, International Red Cross
- IOM, International Organization for Migration
- UNHCR, UN High Commissioner for Refugees
- Chaine de bonheur, known in English as Swiss Solidarity, is a Swiss foundation that works with Swiss Public Broadcast Corporation and Swiss humanitarian and charitable organizations to organize major fundraising drives. The funds are then shared by several organizations. The current on to help fight the famine in Somalia has raised nearly CHF2.3 million in 10 days, but more is needed, the group says.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees FRiday 8 July called on governments and other donors to come up with $136.3 million in emergency funds to help the rapidly growing number of Somali refugees. The funds should cover the needs of some 90,000 new refugees heading to Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. They are fleeing what the UNHCR calls “deteriorating conditions and growing displacement from Somalia” due to drought and fighting.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, is flying to Ethiopia for a two-day inspection of one of the areas where Somalis are fleeing: 25 percent of the population of 7.5 million is now displaced, the UNHCR warns, with 54,000 people fleeing violence compounded by severe drought, in June alone. Most are fleein to Ethiopia and Kenya.
“Malnutrition rates among Somali refugee children arriving in Ethiopia and Kenya are alarmingly high and on a scale not seen in decades,” the Geneva-based organization said in a statement 6 July.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The gap is widening, between the number of refugees in the world who need somewhere to go and the number of places countries are offering them, the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) in Geneva says. The Geneva-based organization presented more than 108,000 refugees for settlement in 2010 and some 73,000 were resettled with UNHCR assistance.
US accepts far more refugees than any other country
Government figures show 22 countries admitting 98,000 people in total, with or without UNHCR assistance, of which the US accepted the largest number by far, more than 71,000 people.
Wei-Meng Lim-Kabaa, head of UNHCR’s resettlement service, told a group Monday 4 July at the opening of the Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement that “if states do not come forward with more places, almost 100,000 vulnerable refugees in need of resettlement will remain without any solution this year. It is of paramount importance to understand that these people have no alternative solution and failure to resettle them means these people remain in an agonizing limbo.”
The UNHCR estimates that “currently, 80,000 resettlement places are available each year.It is estimated that 780,000 refugees will be in need of resettlement as a solution over the next three to five years, of whom, 172,000 will be prioritized for 2012.”
The shortage is worsened by problems with a drop in departures for those accepted for resettlement “due to stringent security checks and
various challenges resettlement countries face in managing their resettlement pipelines.”
Middle East massive displacements call for countries to look beyond their quotas
The massive displacements caused by violence in the Middle East, particularly the exodus of over one million people from Libya, calls for a special effort, the Geneva group says, asking that countries accept more than their quotas to help ease the emergency.
An ailing 85-year-old surrounded by her family in a camp for people displaced by floods in Balochistan, Pakistan. The elderly are especially vulnerable to water-borne diseases associated with flooding (photo, ©2011 UNHCR / D Khan, September 2010)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The numbers alone are daunting: 43.7 million displaced persons worldwide, of which 15.4m are refugees, 27.5m are internally displaced refugees and nearly 850,000 are asylum seekers, with one-fifth of asylum seekers in South Africa alone.
The world’s 49 least developed countries hosted some 2 million refugees last year.
Just under 100,000 refugees were admitted for resettlement in 2010, by 22 countries. The United States accounted for 71,000 of these.
The figures are part of the “UNHCR Global Trends 2010″ (2.7 MB pdf) published 20 June to mark World Refugees Day.
The numbers don’t yet include refugees from 2011 conflicts in Cote d’Ivoire, Syria and Libya, among others.
The imbalance in how the world supports refugees, or people who are forcibly displaced, is equally stark and marks this year’s report, says the UN High Commissioner for Refugees agency, based in Geneva: “Pakistan, Iran, and Syria have the largest refugee populations at 1.9 million, 1.1 million, and 1 million respectively. Pakistan also has the biggest economic impact with 710 refugees for each dollar of its per capita GDP (PPP) followed by Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya with 475 and 247 refugees respectively. By comparison Germany, the industrialized country with the largest refugee population (594,000 people), has 17 refugees for each dollar of per capita GDP.”
Click on charts to view larger
Drawn-out wars taking their toll
Roughly one-quarter of the 15.4m refugees are registered with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The UNHCR says that of those under its care, 7.2m or about one-third, have been stuck in a refugee situation for more than five years, mainly due to drawn-out wars.
Within view of the Itombwe Massif, a convoy of UNHCR trucks carries Burundian refugees home after years of exile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (photo, ©2011 UNHCR / M Hofer, December 2010)
The figure is the highest since 2001 and at the same time the lowest number since 1990 have been able to return home, fewer than 200,000.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, comments bluntly that “Fears about supposed floods of refugees in industrialized countries are being vastly overblown or mistakenly conflated with issues of migration. Meanwhile it’s poorer countries that are left having to pick up the burden.”
Some people have been refugees for up to 30 years, with Afghanistan a notable case in point. Afghans were one-third of the world’s refugees in 2001, as they were a decade later, at the start of 2011.
60th anniversary for UNHCR shows dramatic changes
A woman returns to the ruins of her home after violence strikes southern Kyrgyzstan (photo, ©2011 UNHCR / S Schulman, June 2010)
The UNHCR will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its founding in July 2011 and the report notes that the picture today is “of a dratically changed protection environment”. The organization’s early “caseload was 2.1 million Europeans, uprooted by World War Two. Today, UNHCR’s work extends to more than 120 countries and encompasses people forced to flee across borders as well as those in flight within their own countries.”
Two relatively recent developments have been the huge growth in numbers of internally displaced persons and the growing number of stateless persons, or “people lacking the basic safety-net of a nationality”, says the Geneva group, which plans to highlight this group during 2011.
“The number of countries reporting stateless populations has increased steadily since 2004, but differences in definitions and methodologies still prevent reliable measurement of the problem. In 2010, the reported number of stateless people (3.5 million) was nearly half of that in 2009, but mainly due to methodological changes in some countries that supply data. Unofficial estimates put the global number closer to 12 million.”
Actress Angelina Jolie to help tell individual stories for 60th anniversary
The UNHCR’s Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie is helping draw attention to refugees’ stories in a series of videos, including one released 18 June of her visit to Syrian refugees in Turkey. The videos are part of the organization’s efforts to draw attention to refugees by recounting individuals’ stories.
Floods in the Philippines, October 2009 (photo: UNHCR)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The number of people displaced by climate change in general and “sudden onset disasters caused by natural hazard events” in particular is growing steadily and will continue to increase.
Two Geneva organizations taking part in the Nansen Conference on Climate Change and Displacement in the 21st Century in Oslo, Norway, are making the case that governments will need to be better prepared to cope with internal displacement, which is where most displacement caused by climate factors occurs.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, speaking at the 6-7 June conference, the first international meeting to focus on the issue, called it “the defining challenge of our times”, saying that “there is increasing evidence to suggest that natural disasters are growing in frequency and intensity, and that this is linked to the longer-term process of climate change.”
A report published Monday 6 June by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) in Geneva, “Displacement due to natural hazard-induced disasters 2009-2010″ provides numbers that back up his remarks.
42.3 million people displaced in 2010
The world saw 36.1 million people displaced in 2008, with the China earthquake alone responsible for 15m, a dip in 2009 to 16.7m and a sharp climb in 2010 to 42.3m.
The report states that “large-scale disasters dominated the global figures and the world’s attention. They caused more than 90 percent of total displacement reported in 2009 and 2010. Over three years from 2008 to 2010, 86 disasters displaced 100,000 or more people, including 18 ‘mega-disasters’ which each displaced from one million people up to over 15 million in the case of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and the 2010 floods in China. These mega-disasters, despite being relatively few, strongly influenced the total global estimate for each year and their impacts accounted, in large part, for differences between the years.”
Pakistan, floods: a young girl collecting water at a camp for displaced persons in Sindh (Photo: ©2010, J Tanner/UNHCR)
UNHCR’s Guterres noted in his speech in Oslo that a number of trends—population growth, urbanization, water, food, and energy insecurity—will “increasingly interact with each other and create the potential for competition and conflict over scarce natural resources.”
He argues that as a result, “we are also likely to see growing numbers of people being displaced from one community, country and continent to another.”
Data on climate change and displacement goes back only to 2008
A mother and her young child, saved at sea after their boat sank in the Mediterranean (photo ©22011 UNHCR/ F Noy)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) in Geneva says it is seeing a disturbing new trend as growing numbers of refugees who fled Libya are heading back into the country in a desperate attempt to reach Europe.
One large group at risk for making the treacherous sea journey from Libya to Malta or Italy includes members of the Somali, Ethiopian and Eritrean communities in the camps at Shousha near Tunisia’s border with Libya.
The Geneva refugee group said at a press briefing in Geneva 17 May that hundreds of people who fled Libya for Tunisia and Egypt in recent weeks have crossed back into Libya with the intention of boarding boats for Europe.
Some 14,000 people have landed in Italy and Malta to date, but the UNHCR says, based on accounts from survivors and family members, over 1,200 people are unaccounted for since March 25.
It believes that thousands more are preparing to undertake the journey from Libya by sea.
Details of drama gradually coming to light, Europe may see more refugees
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A boat carrying 600 people fleeing Libya foundered shortly after leaving the country’s capital Friday 6 May and the number of people lost is still unknown, according to UNHCR‘s (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) chief spokesperson, Melissa Fleming. Almost 2,400 people, including many women and children, arrived on five boats at the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Linosa the weekend of 7-8 May. The IOM (International Organization for Migration) has also been monitoring the situation closely, and the two Geneva-based humanitarian agencies say details remain murky for now.
Survivors and family members reported to UNHCR before Friday’s disaster that other vessels fleeing Libya have been running into problems, and there are as many as 800 people unaccounted for.
Europe is new goal for those desperate enough to escape by sea
Since the Libyan crisis started, Europe has received fewer than 2 percent of those escaping the conflict, with most people escaping to Egypt and Tunisia, but this latest in the long string of unsafe sea crossings highlights a shift – an increasing number of people risking the dangerous journey by sea.
More than 11,000 migrants of various nationalities have arrived in Italy from Libya since the crisis started in mid-February.
“All five boats needed rescuing by the Italian coastguard and maritime police, with one boat running aground close to the Lampedusa shore. Yesterday three bodies washed ashore, thought to have been passengers from the boat that ran aground,” says Fleming.
Migrants who witnessed the accident Friday and who were waiting on land changed their minds about getting to Italy by sea, but Libyan soldiers and officials fired their guns indirectly to force them onto a waiting boat, the IOM reports.
The vessels used by people fleeing Libya are often not seaworthy and overloaded. UNHCR first appealed in early April to European countries to establish more reliable and effective mechanisms for sea rescue.
“We reiterate that call today,” Fleming says. The UNHCR is also calling for all Mediterranean shipmasters to provide aid to people in distress. “UNHCR urges states, commercial shipping companies and others present in the Mediterranean to consider that all boats leaving Libya for Europe are likely to require assistance.”
The IOM hopes to continue evacuating migrants from Misrata to help prevent more disasters. With funding from the Australian, British, German, Irish and US governments, and the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civilian Protection Office, the IOM says it has already evacuated more than 6,000 people from Misrata to Benghazi.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two Geneva-based humanitarian aid groups, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Red Cross (ICRC) are to receive $8 million in new funding from the US government for operations in Cote d’Ivoire, the US Mission in Geneva announced Friday 6 May. The money brings to $43m the total the US State Department has earmarked for humanitarian aid in the region.
The UNHCR will receive $6.5 million and the ICRC $2m. The funds are intended for health care and essential household items, construction and maintenance of camps, increasing access to clean water, and restoring family links severed as a result of displacement, the US State Department says.
More than 170,000 people have fled the fighting in Cote d’Ivoire, most of them to neighboring Liberia and hundreds of thousands more have been displaced.
The US announced 5 May it is donating $6.5m to the IOM in Geneva to help fund the evacuations from Misrata, Libya.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Italy has reacted angrily after France stopped trains at the Ventimiglia-Menton border for several hours Sunday 17 April, to prevent North Africans entering the France. Italy has given temporary visas to thousands of Tunisians, according to the BBC, in the wake of the overthrow of Tunisia’s government, despite both Italy and France stepping up measures to stem the flow of immigrants from North Africa. The visas issued by Italy allow them to travel throughout the Schengen area, Italy says, under European Union rules, but France argues that they must show they can support themselves.
The Italian ambassador in Paris was instructed by his foreign minister to tell the French government of the “strong” protest by Italy to the halt, undertaken by the prefecture in France’s Alpes-Maritimes region. Italy insists the temporary visas are in line with EU regulations.
Italy has been negotiating with Tunisia over terms for repatriating illegal immigrants, including how to keep the returns low key to avoid too much publicity.
16 refugees drowned, 5 went missing just 2km from Yemen’s shores
The UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) in Geneva last Friday issued sharp words to ships at sea who ignore troubled refugee boats, after the latest incident in which 16 people drowned and five went missing after an overcrowded boat from Somalia sank off the coast of Yemen. The survivors say they appealed to a passing cargo ship that ignored them. The UNHCR has previously said the number of such incidents, in the Gulf of Aden but also in the Mediterranean, may be increasing and Friday it appealed to shipmasters “to uphold the longstanding tradition of rescue at sea and helping vessels in distress.”
Links to other sites: BBC, Le Monde, Courriere della sera (Eng) and Courrierre front page (Ita)
Situation becoming desperate as funds to evacuate dry up, human smugglers find victims
Some 84,000 migrants evacuated from Libya have been sent home, but another 75,000 will need help
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The International Organization for Migration, at its weekly Friday briefing in Geneva, has asked for “donor stamina” in the face of fresh appeals for funding to help thousands of migrant workers to escape the conflict in Libya.
The group is making a fresh appeal for $160 million to ensure that evacuations can continue. The $44 million pledged until now falls “far short” of what is needed, says the IOM, and human smugglers are starting to take advantage of the situation to offer to take those fleeing the fighting to Europe.
Some 84,000 migrants have been helped by the IOM, the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) and other humanitarian groups, to reach their homes after fleeing the fighting.
In total, more than 410,ooo people have fled Libya in the past month.
Another 75,000 migrants are expected to need help getting home in coming days, according to the IOM. Caring for and organizing their repatriation will cost an additional $160,000, says the Geneva organization.
The IOM notes in a statement 1 April:
“[New funds] would also enable the continued provision of humanitarian assistance such as food and medical attention at the border areas, travel health checks for all those being evacuated and health referrals for particularly vulnerable people in addition to providing reintegration assistance to some of the returning Tunisian and Egyptian migrants.
“This is the third IOM appeal since the Libyan crisis began. So far, the Organization has either been pledged or received US$44 million, far short of what is required.
“As a result, funding for IOM operations have now dried up. IOM has been forced to dramatically reduce the number of people it can evacuate on a daily basis from more than 6,000 a day at the height of its operations to a bare minimum.
“This is despite the fact that at least 6,000 people are fleeing Libya each day towards Egypt and Tunisia alone and thousands more towards Chad and Niger.”
More than 12,000 migrants still remain stranded on Libya’s border with Tunisia and Egypt with more migrants in need of help in Niger, Algeria and Chad.
Those waiting for help in Tunisia and Egypt have become increasingly impatient to return home and are now looking to alternatives out of their situation.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva-based refugee and migration officials say the conflict in Cote d’Ivoire, which has been building for weeks, has suddenly heated up and some 20,000 people have been sealed off by fighting in the west.
“A major military offensive launched in Western Cote d’Ivoire by forces loyal to president-elect Alassane Ouattara has effectively sealed off tens of thousands of vulnerable displaced persons, preventing them from receiving adequate humanitarian assistance and protection,” the IOM (International Migration Organization) said in a statement issued late Tuesday afternoon 29 March.
Fighting near the western town of Duékoué has sealed off some 20,000 Ivoirians and migrant workers from neighbouring countries. They have taken refuge in a Catholic mission, with little in the way of supplies.
In the east, the city of Abidjan is reportedly by IOM to be the scene of violence, but the extent of it is difficult to gauge, and people are fleeing to Ghana. Some 800 people at the Takoradi border crossing are housed in a shelter designed for 200-300 and new arrivals say they have been victims of violence. Many of them saying they had to sell their possessions to find transport out of Cote d’Ivoire.
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, says that some 3,000 Ivoirians have now fled to Ghana, but there are reports that many more are on their way and the agency is rushing to establish more refugee centres to handle them.
An estimated 116,000 Ivoirians have fled the country for eight other West African nations since November’s presidential election, reports UNHCR, and thousands of migrant workers have also escaped. Liberia, the neighbour to the west, has the largest number, more than 24,000 Ivoirians, with 10,000 crossing the border in the past seven days.
UNHCR reports that it has received $24 million of the estimated $96m needed to care for the refugees.
Source: UNHCR, Geneva, 28 March 2011 (click on image to view larger)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The number of asylum seekers in the world has been halved in the past 10 years, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says in its 2010 annual asylum report issued early Monday 27 March. Whether this is good news or bad is difficult to judge, concedes the Geneva-based organization’s head.
“The global dynamics of asylum are changing. Asylum claims in the industrialized world are much lower than a decade ago while year-on-year levels are up in only a handful of countries,” notes High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. “We need to study the root causes to see if the decline is because of fewer push factors in areas of origin, or tighter migration control in countries of asylum.”
He notes that developing countries still host the lion’s share of applications, and asks that other countries continue to support countries like Liberia, Tunisia and Egypt who are hosting large numbers of asylum seekers due to conflicts in neighbouring countries.
The report covers 44 countries that are destinations for asylum seekers.
US remains most popular host country
Switzerland was the 8th most popular country, with 13,800 applicants.
The report states that 358,800 asylum applications were made to industrialized countries last year, a 5 percent fall from 2009, and some 42 percent lower than the decade’s peak in 2001, when almost 620,000 asylum applications were made.
The US is the top destination for asylum seekers, for the fifth year in a row, followed by France, Germany, Sweden and Canada. These five countries accounted for 56 percent of all applications.
US numbers of new applicants were boosted by requests for asylum by more Chinese and Mexicans, while France saw an increase in applicants from Serbia, Russia and Congo. Germany saw an influx from Serbia, notably Kosovo, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The UNHCR says the “development is widely attributed to the introduction of visa-free entry to the European Union for nationals of these two countries since December 2009.”
Serbia has highest number of applicants
Serbia was the country with the highest number of applicants, 28,900, which the UNHCR says is almost as high as in 2001, “soon after teh Kosovo crisis”.
Several changes have taken place, including:
- the number of applications from Afghans fell by 9 percent and whereas in the past Norway and the UK were the main destinations, Germany and Sweden have become the top hosts
- Chinese asylum-seekers made up the third-largest asylum group in 2010, partly due to a substantial drop in the number of new applications from Iraq and Somalia
- for the first time since 2005, Iraq was not one of the top two countries of origin of asylum-seekers. It dropped to fourth place, followed by the Russian Federation
- Somalia, which occupied the third spot in 2009, fell to sixth in 2010.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The massive exodus from Libya in recent weeks is “one of the biggest humanitarian evacuations in history” William Swing Lacy, director of the International Organization for Migration, told journalists Friday morning. The IOM and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issued a rare joint press release to underscore their appeal to governments for additional new funding to help the streams of people, up to 2,000 a day, expected to flee Libya following the UN’s decision to create a no-fly zone and to allow military action by UN members.
The US has already committed $47 million, US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Betty King promptly responded, saying that the US will “will be reviewing the appeals carefully to determine how we can further respond”, and she urged other countries to do the same.
“I think we should with gratitude recognize the heroic efforts of IOM and UNHCR in spearheading an operation that has already assisted nearly 34,000 people return home. The suffering these people have endured in reaching Libya’s borders has been immense, and without UNHCR and IOM’s joint humanitarian evacuation operation that suffering would have been compounded. We cannot let this operation flounder for lack of funding.”
The UNHCR late Friday morning issued a new press release, reproduced here in full, which gives one of the clearest pictures to emerge of the efforts of people to flee Libya. Among the negative notes: Palestinians at the border with Egypt have been turned back, those fleeing describe numerous checkpoints and say cameras, cell phones and cards for these are being confiscated, while in Tunisia gunfire from across the border in Libya can be heard.
From the UNHCR:
UNHCR and partners have done extensive contingency planning and are
ready to work with the Egyptian Government to prepare for a massive
influx of people fleeing the violence in Libya. It is also possible
that the current conflict could cut off access to safe places and
passage out of the country. The events in the coming days will be
critical in determining whether mass displacement from the eastern part
of Libya takes place.
We have seen an increase in the number of Libyans fleeing into Egypt in
the past few days, with around 1,490 arriving on Wednesday, out of a
total of 3,163 people. The majority of those interviewed at the Egypt
border said that they left because of fear of being caught up in
fighting. Many mentioned the threats made by the Government in recent
days to bombard Benghazi.
A Libyan family from Ajdabiyya that crossed into Egypt yesterday told
UNHCR that radio broadcasts are telling the population that they should
leave or risk being caught up in combat. They also said that planes were
dropping pamphlets encouraging civilians to leave.
Libya-Tunisian border, end of February (photo, ©UNHCR / A Duclos)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The numbers are daunting, whether the size of the crowds fleeing Libya’s battlegrounds, or the amount of aid needed, in kind and in cash, to help them. A roundup of the latest news and appeals from Geneva-based humanitarian and emergency aid teams:
ICRC (International Red Cross)
Two ICRC medical teams, 10 surgeons and nurses, have been in the cities of Benghazi and Ajdabya since 5-6 March, treating people wounded in the fighting.
“The first team was sent to Al Jalaa Hospital in Benghazi, which has received the bulk of the casualties since the onset of the crisis. The second team was posted to Ajdabya Central Hospital, which has also received dozens injured in the clashes in and around the city. These steps were taken in coordination with the Libyan Red Crescent and the Benghazi Health Committee, after thorough discussions with all concerned.”
The ICRC teams comprise four specialists from the German Red Cross, four specialists from the Norwegian Red Cross, and an ICRC doctor and nurse.
“‘Even though hospitals in Benghazi and nearby cities have coped so far with the influx of casualties, we are helping some of them replenish their emergency stocks in case the situation deteriorates,’ said Simon Brooks, ICRC representative in Benghazi. ‘Today, in cooperation with the Libyan Red Crescent, we also sent enough surgical supplies and equipment to treat 100 injured people in the west of the country.’”
The ICRC’s medical teams, headed by Dr Marco Baldan, held a surgical seminar for more than 70 Libyan doctors and nurses at Al Jalaa hospital on 5 and 6 March.
IOM (International Organization for Migration)
The IOM says the hardest-hit group is Bangladeshis, many of whom have now been sleeping out in the open in bitterly cold weather for 10 days, with very limited food and water supplies. Evacuations “cannot happen fast enough” for them, say IOM spokespersons.
“In Tunisia, where there are still about 13,000 Bangladeshis at Choucha camp near the Ras Adjir border, 1,264 will leave on IOM charter flights from Djerba. A group of 516 Bangladeshis who left Libya by road via Egypt’s Sallum border crossing will leave on IOM three charter flights in the course of the day from Marsa Matroh, 230 kms east of the border.
A further 372, who arrived in Alexandria yesterday on an IOM-chartered ferry from Benghazi in Libya, will fly home directly from Alexandria airport.
While today’s evacuations were welcomed by the nearly 3,700 Bangladeshis still stranded on the Egyptian border, IOM will need to charter at least 20 more similar flights from Egypt alone to get them home, even if there are no new arrivals from Libya.
However, IOM sources in Libya and passengers on the ferry from Benghazi which docked in Alexandria yesterday indicate that there are thousands more foreigners, including Bangladeshis in the city, who may decide to leave if conditions deteriorate. Two more IOM charters carrying nearly 340 more Bangladeshis are scheduled to fly out of Marsa Matroh tomorrow, Wednesday, with an estimated 1,200 more to fly from Djerba.”
UNHCR (High Commissioner for Refugees)
The UNHCR is urgently seeking help to provide an additiona 40-50 flights to help Bangladeshis and other Asians to leave, even though funds and charter flights donated by governments are already well underway. The number of refugees on the Libya-Tunisia border has dropped significantly, but this is because of limited mobility, arriving refugees say, due to intense fighting in Libya.
“The UNHCR is alarmed by increasing accounts of violence and discrimination in Libya against sub-Saharan Africans. These accounts are coming from both eastern and western areas. . . Yesterday a UNHCR team at the Egypt border interviewed a group of Sudanese who arrived from eastern Libya who said that armed Libyans were going door to door, forcing sub-Saharan Africans to leave. In one instance a 12-year-old Sudanese girl was said to have been raped. They reported that many people had their documents confiscated or destroyed. We heard similar accounts from a group of Chadians who fled Benghazi, Al Bayda and Brega in the past few days.
At the Egyptian border, one Bangladeshi man died over the weekend after a fight over food distribution. UNHCR staff said that many of the 3,500 Bangladeshis at the border have been waiting for up to 10 days for onward transport, and are becoming increasingly agitated. Many are sleeping outside in the bitter cold as available shelter at the border is filled to capacity. Over 14,000 meals were distributed to the stranded population who are in and around the border post yesterday. An estimated 5,000 people are awaiting onwards transport.”
Thousands of migrants are waiting at Ras Djir in Tunisia after fleeing the violence in Libya. The UNHCR is working with authorities to prepare a transit camp for 12,000 people to house those waiting to move on (photo, ©2011 UNHCR/A Duclos)
Update 19:05 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Governments are responding to the urgent appeal from the joint IOM/UNHCR project to evacuate thousands of refugees who have made it out of Libya or are trying to leave, the Geneva migration and refugee organizations said Wednesday 2 March.
New arrivals in the transit camp of Choucha Ras Djir, situated eight kilometers from the Tunisian border with Libya. More than 55,000 new arrivals have been registered over the past ten days. Most are foreign nationals working in Libya and so the majority will travel on to their home country (photo, ©2011 UNHCR/A Duclos)
In the past 36 hours the US has pledged $2 million in emergency funding, Great Britain has supplied charter planes and half a million pounds to help pay for staffing and processing costs related to the operation, and the Swiss government has donated an initial emergency fund of CHF500,000.
The British government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and UNHCR have provided chartered planes that will allow the IOM to evacuate up to 8,800 Egyptian migrants from Djerba in Tunisia to the Egyptian capital, Cairo, the IOM says.
New arrivals in the transit camp of Choucha Ras Djir, 8km from the Tunisian-Libyan border (photo, ©2011 UNHCR/A Duclos)
The first flights were scheduled to leave Wednesday.
UNHCR is providing IOM 16 charter flights.
“The in-kind assistance will help to ease some of the enormous pressure at the Tunisian-Libyan border where in nine days more than 75,000 migrants had fled across the border from Libya and many tens of thousands more are stranded on the Libyan side,” the IOM said in a statement.
The US ambassador to the UN and international organizations in Geneva, Betty King, told the joint IOM/UNHCR funding appeal meeting Tuesday that “We particularly appreciate the cooperation and commitment demonstrated by both Tunisia and Egypt in maintaining open borders and providing safe haven to refugees, returning nationals, and third-country nationals. In this 60th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees, Egypt and Tunisia have reminded us all of the importance of providing protection and asylum to those in need.”
Photos, 27-28 February (click on images to view larger)
Update 2 March Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Libyan government Tuesday 1 March sent troops to the remote southern border crossing of Dehiba, reports Reuters, ignoring the warships massing around the country. Humanitarian agencies in Geneva meanwhile report that Monday saw the heaviest outpouring of refugees from Libya to date, 14,000 people, with another 10-12,000 expected Tuesday.
The Tunisian border has seen more than 75,000 people cross the border from Libya since 19 February, the vast majority of them Egyptian, and another 40,000 are waiting to cross the border. The massive exodus is putting an enormous strain on local resources in Tunisia, report the IOM and UNHCR in Geneva.
Joint project to speed up evacuations to avoid humanitarian disaster on Libyan border
UNHCR and IOM joined forces late Tuesday, working in partnership with the Egyptian and Tunisian governments, to put in place plans for handling the massive evacuation from Libya on the Tunisian border. Thousands of Egyptians, but also citizens of several other countries, need to be moved rapidly beyond the border areas to avoid a humanitarian disaster. The two Geneva UN organizations are appealing to governments to fund the joint effort and to send experts and supplies as well as to provide boats and planes urgently.
Updates from international organizations in Geneva that are heavily involved in helping the refugees:
UNHCR: UN High Commissioner for Refugees staff at border points Tuesday said the situation is quickly reaching a crisis point, with transport to move those who have just arrived on to their final destinations. Thousands have waited three days on the Libyan side of the Tunisian border, with no shelter at night and bitterly cold temperatures. Self-appointed border guards are refusing to let sub-Saharan Africans cross into Tunisian. Some 1,000 tents that will hold 6-8 persons are being erected Tuesday, and UNHCR is appealing to Unicef and ICRC for more assistance in supplying precariously scarce drinking water and food to the refugees.
ICRC: Medical staff from the International Red Cross are waiting with supplies, ambulances and equipment to enter the western part of Libya to, but conditions are as yet too unstable and the ICRC is calling on Libya to allow it to help the wounded and those in need of medical care.
IOM: Sea and air evacuations organized by the International Organization for Migration are picking up speed, with about 900 Egyptians being flown from the island of Djerba on five planes carrying about 900 people and another 1,450 Egyptians heading for the sea port of Sfax where they will pick up a chartered sea vessel. Bangladeshi refugees are also being helped to move on from Libyan border points and the IOM is working with their government to get them home.
