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23 November 2022 News in Brief

23 November 2022 News in Brief

This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Migrant deaths since 2014 top 50,000

Since 2014, more than 50,000 migrants are known to have died worldwide after risking their lives on dangerous journeys, the UN migration agency, IOMsaid on Wednesday.

The tragic milestone was confirmed in a new report from the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project.

In an urgent appeal to governments to prevent further people dying, IOM maintained that little had been done by all countries where migrants either originated, transited or arrived.

The nationality of over 30,00 dead migrants remains unknown.

Of the missing migrants whose nationality could be identified, more than 9,000 were from African nations, over 6,500 from Asia and another 3,000 were from the Americas.

The top three countries of origin for migrants were Afghanistan, Syria and Myanmar.

Haiti: children account for two in five cholera cases (UNICEF)

Children account for around two in five of confirmed cholera cases in Haiti, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.

In an appeal for $27.5 million to save lives, the UN agency warned that 90 per cent of confirmed cholera infections have come from areas where there is a high burden of severe acute malnutrition.

This leaves children more vulnerable to cholera and at least three times more likely to die from it.

Manuel Fontaine, Director of UNICEF’s Office of Emergency Programmes, warned that continuing armed violence linked to Haiti’s economic crisis represented a third deadly threat on the Caribbean island nation.

Latest government data indicated 924 confirmed cholera cases in Haiti, more than 10,600 suspected cases, and 188 deaths.

Humanitarian sanction exemptions fall short 

Humanitarian exemptions to international sanctions are “ineffective”, “inefficient” and “superficial”, top independent rights experts said on Wednesday.

The experts – who include Alena Douhan, Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures – said in a statement that the damage done by sanctions to countries barely counterbalanced agreements that allowed food, medicines and medical equipment through to vulnerable populations.

The experts also noted that “inconsistencies” in such humanitarian carve-outs “seriously affected the work” of relief agencies and created a feeling of “uncertainty and fear”.

And they insisted that authorized payments to allow humanitarian actors to do their work may still not be processed by banks, for fear of violating sanctions.

The international community should do more to help relief agencies work within the sanctions regime, by addressing problems including over-compliance, said the experts, who report to the Human Rights Council.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.

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  • Migrant deaths since 2014 top 50,000

  • Haiti: children account for two in five cholera cases (UNICEF)

  • Humanitarian sanction exemptions fall short

Audio Credit
Daniel Johnson, UN News Geneva
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Photo: IOM/Rami Ibrahim