Syria

UNHCR today released a report that shows a widening gap between the number of refugees in need of resettlement and the places available for them around the world.  It projects that some 1.4 million refugees will need a resettlement country in 2019, but the number of available resettlement places has dropped to just 75,000.

Lise Grande, Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, says cholera tops the list of concerns over Hodeidah, an epicentre of the 2017 outbreak, among the worst in modern history.  Meanwhile, 25 per cent of children in the city are suffering from acute malnutrition, and without nutritional support, 100,000 will be at risk.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

A concert to benefit Rohingya refugees will be performed at the Baruch Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. on Monday, 25 June.  Masud Bin Momen, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, and Ninette Kelley, Director of the High Commissioner for Refugees New York Office, will attend.

Today is World Refugee Day, and the Secretary-General says in a message he is deeply concerned to see more and more situations where refugees are not receiving the protection they need and to which they are entitled.  Also, FAO and UNHCR launched a new handbook to help restore forests in displacement-affected areas.

The Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process briefed the Security Council this morning and said that settlement activity has continued in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.  He reiterated that all settlement activity is illegal under international law.

The Human Rights Office published the United Nations first-ever report on the human rights situation in Kashmir today, which states that past and ongoing human rights abuses must be urgently addressed, and details violations committed by security forces with impunity.

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator said he is increasingly concerned by the situation in the Sahel, where nearly 6 million people are struggling to meet their daily food needs.  The crisis has been triggered by scarce rainfall in 2017, which resulted in acute water, crop and pasture shortages and livestock losses.

Heavy rains marking the start of the monsoon season in Bangladesh have impacted nearly 2,500 families in the Rohingya refugee settlements in the Cox’s Bazar district, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which is continuing aid distribution and prepositioning more supplies.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres: