Migrants and Refugees

© UNICEF/Sokol

Friday’s Daily Brief: solidarity with Japan, call for DR Congo support, family-friendly workplaces, hottest June ever, Venezuela and Afghanistan updates

19 July 2019

In today’s Daily Brief: UN stands in solidarity with Japan; avoid panic over DR Congo Ebola emergency; ‘transformative shift’ needed towards family-friendly work policies; hottest June EVER; Venezuelan migrant dangers; stop targeting Afghanistan civilians call.

Photo: UNHCR/Béla Szandelszky

Politicization of migrant ‘crisis’ in Hungary making them scapegoats, independent UN human rights expert warns 

17 July 2019
Europe

Expressing deep concern over how migration and migrants themselves are being politicized and scapegoated in Hungary, an independent United Nations human rights expert on Wednesday urged the Government to immediately end its “crisis” approach to the issue. 

WFP/Gemma Snowdon

As monsoon rains pound Rohingya refugee camps, UN food relief agency steps up aid

12 July 2019
Asia Pacific

Since 4 July, heavy monsoon rains and wind have pounded the refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, with deaths, displacement and major damage following in their wake, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.

© UNHCR/Mohamed Alalem

In aftermath of Libya airstrike deaths, UN officials call for refugees and migrants to be freed from detention

12 July 2019
Africa

“As a priority, we ask that 5,600 refugees and migrants currently held in centres across Libya be freed in an orderly manner and their protection guaranteed” the UN refugee and migrants chiefs said in a joint statement, released on Friday.

WFP/Gemma Snowdon

‘Brutal weather’ continues as Rohingya refugee children endure devastating rainfall in Bangladesh

9 July 2019

Heavy flooding and landslides in the Rohingya refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, has left thousands of children and families in an increasingly dire situation with critical infrastructure damaged or destroyed, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday, while scaling up relief efforts to those vulnerable children.

© UNICEF/Velasquez

UN agencies welcome regional road map to help integrate ‘continuing exodus of Venezuelans’

8 July 2019
Americas

A new road map adopted by Latin American and Caribbean countries, to help better integrate refugees and migrants from crisis-hit Venezuela into new host societies, drew a warm welcome from two UN agencies on Monday.

UNHCR/V. Tan

UN rights chief ‘appalled’ by US border detention conditions, says holding migrant children may violate international law

8 July 2019
Americas

Conditions in which migrants and refugees are being held in the United States are appalling, said the UN human rights chief on Monday, underscoring that children should never be held in immigration detention, or separated from their families.

WFP/Gemma Snowdon

Scores of Rohingya refugee shelters in Bangladesh destroyed by flooding

5 July 2019
Asia Pacific

Heavy monsoon rains in Bangladesh have drenched the Cox’s Bazar settlement, home to more than 900,000 Rohingya refugees, destroying some 273 shelters, and injuring 11 people, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday. The huge refugee camp has been hit by three days of non-stop rain, and more heavy downpours are expected throughout next week, with four months of the monsoon season still to go. 

UNICEF/Romenzi

Six children among 53 confirmed fatalities after Libya detention centre airstrikes: Security Council condemns attack

5 July 2019
Africa

The toll from Tuesday’s reported airstrikes on a detention centre in the suburbs of Tripoli has risen to 53 dead and more than 130 injured among the “severely traumatized” surviving migrants and refugees, UN aid agencies said on Friday, reiterating their appeal to close all such facilities in the embattled country.

© UNHCR/Gordon Welters

1.4 million refugees set to need urgent resettlement in 2020: UNHCR

1 July 2019

More than 1.4 million displaced people in over 60 refugee hosting countries will need resettlement next year, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Monday, while also supporting a call for far greater protection for vulnerable LGBTI individuals seeking asylum.