This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.
UN stands ready to support relief, in aftermath of deadly India flash floods
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said that he’s been "deeply saddened” at the loss of life inflicted by deadly flooding from a glacier in the Indian Himalayas at the weekend.
At least 14 people reportedly died and over 170 are missing after the tragedy in Uttarakhand province on Sunday, which also saw 15 people rescued initially.
The United Nations stands ready to contribute to ongoing rescue and assistance efforts, Mr. Guterres said in a statement.
According to reports, a torrent of water, rock and debris from the glacier cascaded into communities living downstream, also damaging a dam.
Glacier bursts and the flash floods that they cause, are extremely destructive natural hazards. The Himalayan region is particularly vulnerable to such disasters which have been made more likely by climate change and temperature rise.
Refugee chief Filippo Grandi urges regularization of displaced Venezuelans
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has reiterated how important it is for Venezuela’s neighbours to continue to help all those leaving the country in search of food, work and shelter.
More than five million Venezuelans have left their homes so far, seeking safety from violence, insecurity, lack of food and medicine, and increasing poverty, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
The refugee agency chief’s appeal came on Sunday, during his visit to Colombia which, like many countries which share a border with Venezuela, now hosts the majority of those displaced.
Mr. Grandi met the Governor of La Guajira and local mayors in a region that hosts 150,000 Venezuelan refugees and migrants.
In a tweet, Mr. Grandi congratulated them for working “daily for the dignity of those fleeing - and (for) their peaceful coexistence with host communities” by promoting the regularization of refugees and migrants.
Rights experts insist foreign nationals should be returned from Syria camps
Alarm now over deeply worrying conditions in northeast Syria’s camps, where the wives and children of extremist fighters have been detained for years - and an appeal to 57 countries to bring back their nationals immediately.
At the Al-Hol camp – the largest camp for refugees and internally displaced people in Syria - more than 80 per cent of those being held are women and children, senior UN-appointed independent rights experts said on Monday.
Leading the appeal, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin said that the situation was so dire that grandparents are watching their grandchildren “starve” when talking to them on their cellphones.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva, the Special Rapporteur explained that there was no reason but a lack of political will to explain why some countries with “just a handful” of detainees being held in Syria had not made more efforts to get them home.
Ms Ni Aolain noted that some States had been successful in liberating their nationals, while non-State armed groups such as the Kurdish Syrian Defence Forces – SDF - were eager for them to go.
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“I would urge those countries to take back their nationals; the SDF the de facto authorities do not want these individuals in their camps, they are pleading for them to be taken home…we have other countries including the United States which has offered and supported many of these returns, we have many other countries willing to help. There is no viable excuse other than political will that explains the lack of returns in these places.”
Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, ending that item.
Daniel Johnson, UN News.
