This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Over one billion methamphetamine tablets seized in East and Southeast Asia

More than one billion methamphetamine tablets were seized in East and Southeast Asia last year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has warned.

The staggering drugs haul across the vast region is further proof that the illicit trade there continues to expand unchecked, with “extreme volumes of methamphetamine” being produced.

Organized crime syndicates and armed gangs are behind the booming industry, the UN agency said.

It pointed to the lack of official checks and controls that have resulted from the pandemic and political instability in the so-called “Golden Triangle” of countries where the highly addictive stimulant originates or is moved, in particular, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos.

UNODC said that methamphetamine, commonly known as meth, is the “the primary drug of concern” to all countries in East and Southeast Asia, from China to Japan and from Indonesia to Singapore.

Yemen-bound Horn of Africa migrant numbers tick up, despite ongoing conflict

To Yemen now, where despite an ongoing war, there’s been a rise in the number of migrants sailing there from the Horn of Africa, only to find themselves being shot at, exploited or worse, once they arrive.

That’s the message from UN migration agency, IOM, which on Tuesday said that nearly 28,000 people have already crossed from east Africa to Yemen in the first five months of this year – that’s more than for the whole of last year.

Every day, IOM staff meet migrants who’ve been injured in the eight-year conflict, or become stranded as they try to reach the Gulf States to the north, in the hope of finding work.

Here’s IOM spokesperson Paul Dillon, in Geneva:

“Upon arriving in Yemen migrants face perilous onward journeys to the Gulf Countries where they are looking for work, they often travel across conflict front lines and face grave human rights violations such as detention in inhumane conditions, exploitation and forced transfers across the lines of control.”

Every month, IOM said that hundreds of migrants are treated for gunshot wounds at a hospital that the agency supports, near the border town of Sa’dah.

Humanitarian partners have also reported that over 1,000 migrants – including women and children – have been injured or killed by attacks and deliberate targeting at the border this year.

Tobacco industry is killing people and our planet, says UN health agency

Tobacco use kills millions of people a year – that’s shocking but not surprising, perhaps. What’s less well known is that it’s poisoning our planet too, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

Marking this year’s World No Tobacco Day on 31 May, the UN health agency highlighted the massive pollution that’s caused by cigarettes and e-cigarettes.

In a call to governments to make the tobacco industry pay to clean up its act, WHO noted that a staggering 4.5 trillion cigarette filters pollute our oceans, rivers, city sidewalks, parks, soil and beaches every year.

Producing tobacco also uses 200,000 hectares of land and costs us 600 million trees, 84 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and 22 billion tonnes of water, said Dr Ruediger Krech, Director of Health Promotion at WHO, who called for an end to the $500 billion in subsidies granted to the tobacco industry every year:

“WHO urges countries to create legislation enforcing the tobacco industry to be responsible for cleaning up their deadly tobacco products and paying for damaging the environment. This would spare $240 million for German taxpayers every year, $760 for Indian taxpayers and $2.6 billion for Chinese.”

Dr Ruediger Krech from the World Health Organization there.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.