General News

The number of refugees arriving in Europe is not slowing despite harsh winter conditions in the region according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Almost a million people arrived by sea alone in 2015.

They’re fleeing conflict and instability in the Middle East and Africa.

Christopher Tidey has been working for UNICEF in transit countries including Greece, Serbia and Croatia as well as destination countries, Austria and Germany.

Daniel Dickinson has been speaking to him.

Duration: 2’49”

Finding practical solutions to the challenges that Afghan women face accessing education and health services was the focus of a day-long workshop held recently in the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul.

Some 50 people took part in the event, including the principal of a girl’s high school who said many of her students do not get to finish their education due to early marriage.

The recent mass execution in Saudi Arabia continues to spur reactions in the region and at the UN in New York.

On Saturday the Kingdom announced that it had executed 47 prisoners, including a prominent Shia cleric, on terrorism-related charges.

The incident sparked violent protests in Iran and has led to a break in diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Dianne Penn reports.

Duration: 2'56"

A culmination of issues, including excess rains, has exacerbated a cholera outbreak at the world’s largest site for displaced people, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has said.

More than 1,000 have fallen sick due to cholera at the Dadaab complex in Kenya, which hosts nearly 350,000 refugees and asylum seekers, the majority of them from Somalia.

The water-borne bacterial illness is blamed for at least 10 deaths since November.

The new head of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, has started work at the agency's headquarters in Geneva.

He succeeds António Guterres, whose more than 10 years in office ended last week.

Mr Gutteres sat down with his chief Spokesperson, Melissa Fleming and reflected on one of the biggest challenges of his tenure, this past year’s refugee crisis.

Duration: 3’24”

The recent political accord paving the way for a unity Government in Libya is "not open for renegotiating," according to the UN representative for the country.

Martin Kobler was in Libya over the New Year's holiday, just weeks after the signing of the deal aimed at bringing an end to more than four years of conflict.

Mr Kobler met with representatives of the country's two rival governments: the General National Congress (GNC) based in Tripoli in the west, and the House of Representatives in the eastern city of Tobruk.