Refugees

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) regained access to two refugee camps previously cut off by clashes in Ethiopia’s Tigray Province.  It is calling for urgent support amid rising displacement, as well as safe passage to transfer refugees to a safer site, 135 kilometres away.

The United Nations refugee agency said today it is deeply saddened by the tragic deaths of six Rohingya refugees following heavy monsoon rains and strong winds which pelted refugee sites in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, causing flash floods and landslides.  More than 12,000 refugees have been affected, initial reports say.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that half a million people in parts of Balochistan province in Pakistan are facing crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity.  Another 100,000 people need immediate life-saving assistance due to severe drought-like conditions.

Today at the G20 environment and energy ministers meeting in Naples, Italy, Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, called upon countries to provide the leadership needed to hold the global average temperature rise as close to 1.5°C as possible.

The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon expressed deep regret over the inability of Lebanon’s leaders to reach agreement on the formation of a new Government that is urgently needed to address the country’s numerous challenges.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned of a looming humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan as escalating conflict has displaced 270,000 Afghans inside the country since January, bringing the total uprooted population to more than 3.5 million.  UNHCR said the needs of those who have fled are “suddenly acute”.

Some 1.47 million refugees will be in need of resettlement in 2021, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced today.  The agency said that, despite the coronavirus pandemic, wars and conflict continue to rage across the world, displacing millions and barring many from returning home.

Clashes in northern Mozambique are driving one of the world’s fastest-growing displacement crises, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), says with the number of people who have fled their homes in Cabo Delgado having surged by nearly 650 per cent in 2020, and more than 732,000 people currently displaced.

Humanitarian officials say the security and access situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray region remains complex and extremely fluid, with active hostilities impeding people’s access to assistance and the movement of aid workers.  They say more than 500 cases of gender-based violence, including rape, were reported in May.

A new World Health Organization (WHO) report calls for immediate, binding action to protect children, adolescents and expectant mothers at risk from exposure to toxins in discarded electrical or electronic devices, or e-waste.  As many as 12.9 million women and some 18 million young people work in the informal waste sector.