Refugees

In Asia, a strong monsoon season has caused floods and landslides over the past week, killing hundreds of people, displacing millions and destroying infrastructure.  The United Nations and aid partners are supporting Government-led responses in several countries despite COVID-19-related logistical challenges.

There is a real danger that the global health crisis will create a COVID-19 generation who lose out on schooling and see their opportunities permanently damaged, warned Gordon Brown, Special Envoy on Global Education, noting that an estimated 30 million children may never return to school, according to UNESCO.

In Somalia, more than 150,000 people have fled their homes since late June — including 230,000 in the last week alone — due to flooding in the south.  Some 650,000 people across the country having been displaced by heavy rains since January, with many now living in overcrowded, makeshift shelters.  Food is in short supply and many are going hungry.

Adopted 21 years ago, the Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour reached universal ratification, with Tonga depositing its instruments.  The International Labour Organization estimates there are 152 million children in child labour and warns that COVID-19 could cause a spike in such practices for the first time in 20 years, unless action is taken.

The World Food Programme (WFP) today said swift action is needed to avoid severe food insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean, the world’s most coronavirus‑affected region that also faces a relentless rise of hunger, deepening inequality and an active hurricane season.

Exceptional and prolonged heat in Siberia has fuelled devastating Arctic fires, the World Meteorological Organization said today, noting that temperatures in Siberia again topped 30°C this week.  The heat will influence weather and climate in lower latitudes, where hundreds of millions of people live, it warned.

A UNICEF research brief published today warns that at least 40 million children around the world have missed out on early childhood education in their critical pre-school year as COVID-19 shuttered childcare and early education facilities.  Lockdowns also left parents struggling to balance childcare and paid employment.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that it is providing tents, water, tanks and toilets to the more than 3,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo that arrived in north-western Uganda last week during a temporary opening of two border crossing points.

For the Syria crisis response, the international community has pledged $5.5 billion to support humanitarian, resilience and development activities in 2020, plus $2.2 billion in 2021 and beyond, demonstrating a clear commitment to continue supporting those most affected and ensuring aid agencies are able to plan ahead.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the extraordinary virtual ministerial pledging conference “A strong United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in a challenging world — mobilizing collective action”, in New York today: