One village in Lebanon hosts as many Syrian refugees as the entire United States

Global Post
Ketermaya, Lebanon — There is a small village in the mountains of Lebanon that is hosting about as many Syrian refugees as all 50 US states combined.

Sihan and Ibrahim stand with their children outside their 

home at an informal refugee camp for Syrians in Ketermaya, Lebanon.

Situated at the southern end of the Mount Lebanon range, Ketermaya is a quiet little place surrounded by patches of farmland. Much of the traffic in the area goes to and from a nearby cement factory.

It isn’t a particularly wealthy town, but the residents here have taken in thousands of refugees fleeing the war in Syria.

“We have a history of welcoming refugees,” says Ali Tafesh, a local business owner. “In 2006 we did the same,” he adds, referring to the displacement of people caused by Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon that year.

Tafesh has done more than most. When Syrian families started to arrive in the town in the early days of the civil war, he arranged housing for them. When there were no more places left to stay he offered up his own land.

"We built the first tent for two families. Then more people came and we built a second, and then it just kept growing,” he says.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in late December that more than 1 million refugees and migrants entered Europe in 2015, compared with 280,000 for the whole of 2014. The organization has said it's likely that even more people went in undetected.

European leaders have struggled to find a coherent solution to a worsening refugee crisis within its borders. Germany has led the way, promising to take in half a million refugees annually over several years. Hungary, meanwhile, began introducing harsh new laws that would target migrants and rushed to build an anti-migrant fence on its southern border.

As of mid-November, the White House said the US had resettled 2,174 Syrian refugees. The US State Department gave the number as 2,234 on Nov. 25. The village of Ketermaya hit 2,000 recorded refugees that same month. President Barack Obama's administration had aimed to admit 5,000 by the end of 2015, and the president said in September that he had ordered his administration to prepare for double that number in 2016. Aid agencies have said this is not enough: Oxfam America had been calling for the US to resettle 70,000 Syrian refugees.

But compared to the crisis facing Lebanon, those numbers are a drop in the ocean.

A warm welcome
There are currently more than one million registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon (the actual number of refugees is thought to be much higher). If you include the estimated number of unregistered refugees, Syrians now account for more than a quarter of the country’s population. The Chouf region, where Ketermaya is located, is hosting nearly 60,000 refugees.

In some areas, the influx has put a strain on the local population as they now have to compete for jobs and resources with a greater number of people.

There are no official refugee camps in Lebanon. Instead, refugees are scattered across the country and make their home on whatever land they can find. Some make arrangements with landowners before building their shelters. Others build and then wait for their landlords to arrive, asking for rent.

Tafesh hosts 330 Syrians on his one-acre plot — a stony patch of land on the side of a hill, with olive trees scattered in between makeshift tents. At his own expense, he built a toilet and installed running water into the camp.

He doesn’t charge the residents of this camp, but people like him are in the minority. Most refugees pay rent to landowners, even when their accommodation is little more than a wooden shack.

“I wasn’t using my land for business purposes so I could afford to let people stay here. Others are not so lucky,” says Tafesh.

The crisis is visible all over Lebanon. Mothers beg on the streets of Beirut with their children in tow; others sell their wares by the side of the road. In the north and east of the country settlements are built by the side of the road.

Most of these settlements exist at the mercy of the elements. In the winter they are bashed around and sometimes destroyed by storms, and in the summer they are often too hot to bear staying inside.

‘No other choice’
While some Syrians are making the journey to Europe, others do not have the money or other means to get there. Many of those who fled to Lebanon did so because it was the only option open to them.

Sihan left her hometown of Qusayr with her husband and four children in 2013, after their house was destroyed in a government airstrike. She pulls back the hair of her young son Muhammad to reveal a small scar on the side of his head made by the explosion.

“We have no other choice but to be here,” she says. “We are sitting here with nothing. My husband is not working so we have no money for rent. It’s hard in the winter and in the summer.”

The UN is currently facing a funding shortfall that means refugees here barely have enough to survive on. Sihan and her family receive $13 per person per month from the UN for food, and often it won’t last two weeks.

“Thank God we have this tent,” says Sihan. “Lebanon is not able to look after its own people, how are they going to look after Syrians as well?”

Despite the miserable living conditions for refugees in Lebanon, not everyone wants to go to Europe.

Ahmed, an Arabic literature graduate, came to Lebanon from Damascus suburb of Ghouta three years ago, bringing his wife and two children. He and a few other camp residents built a school among the tents and now he teaches the children in the camp.

“I don’t want to go to Europe,” he says. Even if someone says I can go I don’t want to.”

He says that going to Europe would make it less likely he would return to Syria one day.

“Everyone loves their country. If the bombing stopped I would go back home. I am here because I want my children to be safe.”

Employment prospects are dim for the camp’s residents. Sihan’s husband Ibrahim can earn $20 a day working in construction, but the work is irregular.

Save the Children was running a school in the area which recently ran out of funding. It is to reopen soon, providing full time education for children up to the age of 12.

A dangerous journeySihan and Ibrahim say they have thought about going elsewhere, but wonder where they would get the money to move.

When asked if Gulf countries should do more to help Syrian refugees, Ibrahim replies: “In Kuwait, they have big parties with fireworks. The amount they spend on that could feed the Syrian population.”

The couple would like to go to Europe, but they fear the journey is too dangerous.

“We would go if we thought it was safe. We don’t want to get thrown out of a boat,” says Ibrahim.

The whole family is weary from their ordeal. They entered the country illegally by traversing the anti-Lebanon mountains on the border with Syria.

Sihan, it seems, would like to wait a little while longer before making another arduous journey.

“We came over a mountain to get here. We are not ready to do it again.”

UNHCR relief operations for thousands of refugees buffeted by the first winter storms

UNHCR
Geneva – The UN refugee agency said today it had begun distributing raincoats, blankets and other relief items to tens of thousands of refugees buffeted by the first winter storms that have already struck many parts of Central and South Eastern Europe, along with freezing temperatures.

The packages are to be distributed to the most vulnerable refugees up to February 2016. Their contents will vary depending on needs and circumstances, but the standard packages include sleeping bags, thermal blankets, raincoats, socks, clothes, and footwear.

The winter plans also include targeted provision of emergency shelters including family tents, refugee housing units and emergency reception facilities, and supporting efforts to improve reception and waiting areas and preparing or adapting them to winter conditions.

UNHCR is also seeking to identify people who might be more vulnerable to the cold, including the elderly and children, both unaccompanied or traveling with their families, and refer them to where they can receive the care they need.

So far this year, more than 644,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe by sea. Thousands making an onward journey by foot, on buses and trains have been exposed to cold and rain at frequent bottlenecks in transit countries.

UNHCR is also preparing to help some 15 million displaced people survive the coming winter across the Middle East, in countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq and Syria where temperatures in some areas frequently drop below freezing and snow storms are common. Vulnerable internally displaced people in Iraq and Syria will also receive aid.

A US $236 million UNHCR aid programme seeks to help 2.5 million Syrians and 700,000 Iraqis particularly exposed to winter conditions, is already underway. It includes a mix of extra cash, high thermal blankets, plastic tarpaulins and other shelter insulation ranging from tent liners to polystyrene foam boards and insulated floor mats.

In Lebanon, where more than half the country's 1 million plus refugees live in sub-standard shelters, preparations are in full swing to protect the most vulnerable families from possible winter storms. UNHCR has doubled the number of people receiving cash grants for winter in Lebanon this year because of this increased vulnerability among the refugee population.

The agency is giving four consecutive months of cash grants to more than 151,000 families (750,000 people) starting in November. This will allow refugees to stagger purchases such as fuel for heating. Among these, 75,000 Syrian families living above 500 metres will receive US $147 per month, while 76,000 families below 500 metres will receive US $100 per month.

Last winter hit Lebanon early in November and continued until late March, with several villages experiencing waves of snowfall, strong winds and heavy rain making access difficult, especially in locations above 1,600 metres.

In neighbouring Jordan, meanwhile, UNHCR's winter plan will support 229,400 vulnerable Syrians, representing 37 per cent of the population, through cash assistance, provision of relief items, and reinforcing shelters. For urban refugees, it will give cash to allow refugees to buy heating, blankets, clothing, shoes and other items.

In Syria itself, where temperatures dived to -13 degrees centigrade in many parts of the country last winter, UNHCR's aid programme aims to help almost a million refugees by distributing kits including thermal blankets, extra plastic sheets and winter clothes.

In Egypt, where 128,000 Syrian refugees have sought safety, UNHCR will give a one-off cash grant of US $28 to 48,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees living mainly in Greater Cairo, Alexandria and Damietta to help them survive the winter.

These grants are distributed through the post office system across Egypt, and refugees typically spend the money on buying winter clothes, blankets or electric heaters.

What's driving Eritrea's refugee exodus? What you need to know about Eritrea

The Guardian
What you need to know about Eritrea

What’s the story?
Hundreds of thousands of Eritreans are voting with their feet and embarking on a perilous journey north through Sudan and Libya or to Egypt and Israel, their goal to eventually reach safer destinations in Europe. An estimated 5,000 people leave the small Horn of Africa country every month, fleeing the highly repressive regime run by president Isaias Afwerki.

Why do so many Eritreans leave?
Eritreans have been leaving the country for years to escape repression, but recent refugees say they are fleeing an intensified recruitment drive into the mandatory and indefinite national service.

A damning report released in June by the UN commission of inquiry on human rights in Eritrea said: “Faced with a seemingly hopeless situation they feel powerless to change, hundreds of thousands of Eritreans are fleeing their country. In desperation, they resort to deadly escape routes through deserts and neighbouring war-torn countries and across dangerous seas in search of safety. They risk capture, torture and death at the hands of ruthless human traffickers.”

Where do Eritrean refugees end up?

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said they were dealing with 357,406 Eritrean refugees as of last year, making Eritreans the second largest group after Syrians arriving in Italy by boat – more than 34,000 people. There are reportedly more than 100,000 Eritrean refugees in Sudan, and a similar number in Ethiopia.

No fewer than 50 Eritrean national football players have absconded since 2010, most recently in December 2013, when nine players disappeared along with their coach in Kenya. In early October 2012, two air force pilots fled with the presidential plane to Saudi Arabia. Other defections include the former minister of information, Ali Abdu, while on a trip to Germany.

Just how repressive is the regime?
In its report, the UN commission found that systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations are being committed by the Eritrean government: rights and freedoms are severely curtailed, without the rule of law. The commission also found violations in the areas of extrajudicial executions, torture (including sexual torture), national service and forced labour may constitute crimes against humanity.
What about politics?

The country has been ruled by Afwerki since ever since independence was won in 1991 after a 30-year war with neighbouring Ethiopia. Tall and austere, Afwerki co-founded the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) in 1970, to fight for independence.

After the war, Afwerki accumulated more and more power. In a secret diplomatic cable written in 2009, the then US ambassador to Eritrea, Ronald McMullen, wrote: “Young Eritreans are fleeing their country in droves, the economy appears to be in a death spiral, Eritrea’s prisons are overflowing, and the country’s unhinged dictator remains cruel and defiant.”

The only political party allowed to exist is the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ); the 1997 constitution, supposedly the country’s supreme law, has never been implemented.

Is there any opposition?
In 1998, a border clash between Eritrea and Ethiopia over the nondescript town of Badme erupted into all-out war. The two-year conflict left tens of thousands dead – Eritrea said it lost as many as 19,000. The war was a disaster for the fledgling country and prompted 15 members of the ruling PFDJ to express their concerns on the slide to one-man rule. Of the G-15, as the group is known, three are in America, one rejoined the government, but 11 have been in jail since 2001, accused of committing crimes against “the security of the nation”.

More recently, following the Arab Spring protests across north Africa and the Middle East, a grassroots opposition movement has been growing. Called “Freedom Friday”, the movement calls on Eritreans to empty the streets, while others put up posters and distribute leaflets late at night. Many members of the movement are currently living outside the country.

Are there any positive stories?
The country has achieved sporting success in Daniel Teklehaimanot and Merhawi Kudus, two professional riders who are the first black Africans to participate in the Tour de France.

Despite being one of the world’s poorest countries, Eritrea is one of the few expected to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals in health. The UN Development Programme says infant and child mortality rates have reduced dramatically; immunisation coverage has increased sharply; malaria mortality and morbidity have plummeted; and HIV prevalence has almost halved in a very short period of time.

However, critics of the government say these figures are misleading, suggesting that the findings of the UN staff members in Eritrea were contrary to well-established facts about the country found elsewhere.

Where can I find out more?
Anyone interested in Eritrea should read Michela Wrong’s engrossing book, I Didn’t Do it For You, which chronicles the country’s turbulent history from its days as an Italian colony, its time as a UN trust territory, and its 30-year struggle for independence from Ethiopia. The UN commission report also delves into the grim human rights situation in Eritrea in exhaustive detail.

The Guardian Africa network will also be devoting three days of coverage to the country now being called “Africa’s North Korea”. From reports on migration, political opposition and media, the series will also focus on life inside the country, looking at sport, music and the capital’s architecture, along with diaspora experiences.

UNHCR - Numbers of refugee arrivals to Greece increase dramatically

The UN Refugee Agency

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 18 August 2015, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The number of refugees and migrants arriving in Greece is accelerating dramatically and has now reached the 160,000 mark. The latest figures compiled by UNHCR in Greece show the number of sea arrivals from 1 January to 14 August 2015 to be 158,456. During the same period, 1,716 refugees and migrants entered Greece through its land border with Turkey, bringing the total number of arrivals (sea and land) to 160,172.

The pace of arrivals has been steadily increasing in recent weeks. More refugees and migrants arrived in Greece during the month of July (50,242) than during the whole of last year (43,500). Last week (8 to 14 August) a total of 20,843 people arrived by sea in Greece, almost half as many as during the whole of 2014. The vast majority of last week's arrivals were Syrians (16,997 people or 82% of the total), Afghans (2,847 or 14%) and Iraqis (582 or 3%), confirming that the overwhelming majority or arrivals are likely to qualify for refugee status.

The latest figures from Greece bring the total number of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean this year to some 264,500, including 158,456 to Greece, approximately 104,000 to Italy, 1,953 to Spain and 94 to Malta.

For months, UNHCR has been warning of a mounting refugee crisis on the Greek islands. The reception infrastructure, services and registration procedures both on the islands and on the mainland need to be strengthened urgently. We are recommending Greek authorities to designate a single body to coordinate an emergency response and set up an adequate humanitarian assistance mechanism. European countries should support Greece on these efforts. UNHCR is working to support the Greek authorities.

Europe must not mimic Australia's tough talk on asylum seekers the worst thing it could do now is to start acting like it

The Guardian
Language is not an afterthought or addendum to policy. Increasingly militaristic rhetoric about asylum seekers drives governments in only one direction

An Indonesian police officer carries an exhausted boy during 

a rescue operation after a fishing boat carrying mostly 

asylum seekers to Australia sank off Indonesia's Java

Language is important. Words are powerful, especially when discussing people who have no voice of their own, no place in the debate, and whose identities are shaped by the words others use about them.

The language that is used now by governments to describe asylum seekers who arrive on their borders, is a demonstration of why the debate has become so polarised, so emotive, and so intractable.

The evolution of Australian government language on asylum seekers has been a tortuous one.

In the late 1970s, when the first post-colonial asylum seekers (“boat people”) turned up on Australian shores fleeing conflict in Indochina, the then-immigration minister Michael MacKellar publicly welcomed them, drawing attention to their “harrowing” ordeals in their home country and promising “Australia would offer sanctuary”.

He publicly read statements prepared by the asylum seekers, which asked Australia to “please help us for freedom”.

The issue of asylum, MacKellar and then-foreign minister Andrew Peacock said in a statement, must not be politicised “because the basic question of human suffering involved transcends partisan advantage in an election context … we will not risk taking action against genuine refugees just to get a message across”.

“That would be … utterly inhuman,” they said.

As the 70s drew to a close, and as more boats continued to arrive, public unease with the arrivals began to grow louder. Echoing it, government rhetoric began to change.


Against the backdrop of the success of the Orderly Departure Plan – the multilateral UN-run program which, in 1979, began intercepting boat-borne asylum seekers in their first country of refuge and resettling them all over the world, including Australia – there emerged a sense that for people to turn up on boats was the “wrong” way of arriving.

It was improper if not unlawful, a “soft” invasion of a complacent Australia. New boat-borne arrivals began to be dismissed as “queue jumpers” and “economic migrants”.

In the 1990s, the term “illegal” – previously used to describe a person who had overstayed a visa (still a far larger number) – was re-fashioned to refer to boat arrivals in the country (by now, coming from post-war Cambodia).

It was a crucial semantic shift: the “illegal” construction gave the government the imprimatur, almost the obligation, to enact more punitive policies against asylum seekers.

Australia also saw the introduction of mandatory detention. Originally intended as a temporary policy for time-limited administrative detention, it has since been converted to a permanent policy involving indefinite detention.

Any boat-borne asylum seeker is now referred to as “illegal”. However, Australia is a party to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which affords any person the right to present to the country’s borders – by any means and without a visa – and claim asylum.

In 2001, asylum became terror. Within 48 hours of al-Qaida’s attack on the World Trade Centre, government ministers claimed terror groups were using asylum boats to infiltrate Australia.

Defence minister Peter Reith saidunauthorised boats “can be a pipeline for terrorists”: parliamentary secretary Peter Slipper claimed “there is an undeniable link between illegals and terrorists”.

The government’s most senior security adviser, Asio chief Dennis Richardson, dismissed the concerns as “extremely remote” and said he had “not seen evidence” of terror links – but the rhetoric remained, and consciously so.

The government was anxious to present those coming by boat as an undifferentiated mass (of potential terrorists), not as individual people; the defence department issued a diktat that “no personalising or humanising images” be taken of asylum seekers, lest they find their way into the public domain.

By 2013, the language of asylum had become conflated with that of war: the Australian government was “engaged in a war” with those organising boat journeys.

This became the justification for the government keeping secrets from its own people: “if we were at war we wouldn’t be giving out advice that is of use to the enemy, just because we have an idle curiosity,” Tony Abbott said.

Australia is held up by some as an exemplar of how to deal with asylum seekers – and how to speak about them. The federal government is promoting itself as such. Abbott counselled in April that Europe must “urgently … adopt very strong policies” like Australia’s.

What exactly is Australia offering? Australia’s avowal to stop the boats is untrue. The boats have not stopped, they are still coming, they are still being stopped: 46 Vietnamese asylum seekers were intercepted at sea last month and secretly returned to Vietnam, some reportedly to detention; undenied allegations the crew of an asylum boat travelling to New Zealand were paid (in US dollars) by Australian officials to turn around; a boat forced back to Indonesia crashing and breaking up on a reef.

Offshore processing is mired in scandal – two deaths, including a murder, on Manus Island; allegations Australian workers raped a local woman and were spirited off home to escape prosecution; yet another parliamentary inquiry into child sexual assault and other abuses on Nauru.

And in onshore detention, healthcare failures, hunger-strikes, and deathscontinue to plague a broken, benighted system.

All this, despite Australia only ever dealing with a fraction of the numbers of asylum seekers of European countries. Who would want to buy a suite of policies with these outcomes?
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But the UK and Europe appear to be following the Australian lead. Certainly, they are beginning to sound like Australia.

David Cameron’s “swarms of people” comment this month echoes Australian immigration minister Phillip Ruddock’s warnings years earlier of a “pipeline” of asylum seekers and of “whole villages” bound for Australia.

When Theresa May wrote that most of those on boats in the Mediterranean had come from Eritrea and Somalia as “economic migrants who’ve paid criminal gangs” she used the exact terminology of Australia’s foreign minister Bob Carr three years earlier, who dismissed Tamil asylum seekers as “a whole bunch of … economic migrants”.

The EU, similarly, is adopting militaristic and secretive language to outline its response to irregular migration across the Med.

Leaked documents out of the EU show proposals for a “military operation” to “seek and destroy” boats and “disrupt the migrants smuggling business model”.

It is familiar rhetoric to those who’ve heard a succession of Australian government ministers propound a “military-led border security operation” to “disrupt the people smuggling trade”.

The Australian government has long refused to “comment on operational matters”. The EU is proposing an “information strategy” which includes no information at all: “rescue operations should not be publicised”.

This language is significant. It is not an afterthought or addendum to policy. Rhetoric establishes an agenda. The problem with aggressive, oppositional language – beyond the crude political distortion of a complex global issue – is that it drives policy in only one direction, leaving no option of more humanitarian policies.

Aggressive, militaristic rhetoric constrains governments (or supra-national organisations like the EU), forcing them to respond with aggressive, militaristic action.

The issue of asylum is no longer one of humanitarian responsibility, or international legal obligation. It frames the issue as a threat to national security or a violation of sovereignty.

By speaking in such a way, governments make a rod for their own backs, and are forced, by their own hand, into more and more punitive actions, to make the policies match the threat they’ve created.

Stoking domestic fears of disordered migration is electorally successful, but it leaves governments with few policy options.

Solutions do need to be found to the current crises around the world. Where it can be, order should be brought to the current disorder.

The chaos that has been seen at Calais, the drownings on the Mediterranean, or the forcible push-back of boats in the Andaman are problems too acute to be allowed to continue or reoccur.

And a perfect solution to the world’s forced migration issues may be an impossibility. But governments that believe their unilateral actions can “solve” the problem are being wilfully ignorant. The forces that drive people to move are far greater than any power they have to stop them.

By talking tough against asylum seekers – by abusing and dehumanising them, by casting their movement as some amorphous threat rather than a natural and rational human instinct – political leaders are doing nothing to solve the problem, and are only making it worse.

Europe is starting to sound like Australia on asylum, the worst thing it could do now is to start acting like it.
Guardian journalist Ben Doherty is a 2015 Thomson Reuters Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. During Oxford’s 2015 Trinity term he studied the way governments and the media in Australia have changed the narrative and language around people arriving by boat. His paper, Call me illegal: The semantic struggle over asylum in Australia, can be read here.

US Welcomes Iraqi Christian Refugees, with Jail Time

The Hope
San Diego – Some Iraqi Christians fleeing the Islamic State sought safety and freedom in America. But instead of being welcomed in as religious refugees, they were arrested and sent to a San Diego prison.

The news comes despite the fact that 300,000 immigrants from Muslim countries were welcomed into the United States last year.

"It's clear our border is open to everyone except Christians," Mark Arabo, spokesman for the Minority Humanity Foundation, observed.

Arabo recently joined fellow Iraqi Christians in prayer outside San Diego's Otay Detention Facility. They gathered in protest and support for some of those detained inside.

For nearly six months now, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has imprisoned 20 Chaldean Catholics here for attempting to enter the United States from Mexico without prior approval.

Rarely does the government comment about pending detainee cases. However, Arabo said the INS did tell the families that it lacked sufficient resources to go through individual case files to provide them with an explanation.

Arabo suggests the families deserve better.

"We're going to protest. We're going to pray for the administration and the officials to open up their hearts and minds to the victims of genocide. We're not going to stop and we're going to hold them accountable," he vowed.

Iraqi Christian Aamer Moshi served as an interpreter for the U.S. Army during the Iraq war.

Muslim extremists threatened his life because he worked for the Americans. Now, he's living in San Diego and prays that his 26-year-old cousin Ziad Matty will soon be able to join him.

Matty was taken into INS custody last January. His case is finally scheduled to be heard later this week.

Moshi wonders why his cousin is still detained. He's not an Islamic terrorist, explained Aamer, but a kind Christian who would not hurt anyone.

"Ziad will not be harmful to this country, will not be a danger to this country. Let him go live with his family. It's not too much. He is young, he can work, he can pay taxes, he can be happy around his family, and his family will sponsor him," Moshi said.

Just moments before the prayer vigil, word came that the mother of one of the detainees inside had died of cancer. The detainee had requested release for a day or two to go to the hospital and see her mother before she died. That request was denied.

These Chaldean Christians say that's just another example of a broken immigration system.

Moshi said many of them now believe America's early troop withdrawal from Iraq is to blame for the rise of ISIS. The jihadist group has been forcing Christians to convert to Islam, leave, or die.

"They did not finish the mission. And we cannot get papers to stay in America? Where should we go now?" Moshi asked.

"When did the symbol of America become a gated fence as opposed to the statue of Liberty?" Give me your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free. These are those Christians," he said.

East Africa: EU Increases Humanitarian Aid for Burundi Refugees

All Africa
The European Commission is releasing €4.5 million in humanitarian assistance to help the growing number of Burundian refugees in neighbouring countries, including Rwanda.

More than 175,000 people, the majority of them women and children, are estimated to have fled Burundi since April, citing intimidation, threats and fear of violence ahead of last week's presidential election.

In a statement issued yesterday, the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides, said the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Burundi cannot be overlooked.

"Refugee numbers have gone up in the last three months, which is a serious cause of concern... This additional EU humanitarian funding will help neighbouring countries accommodate refugees and meet their most urgent needs. It is a strong signal of the EU's solidarity with the most vulnerable people caught in a difficult situation beyond their control," said Stylianides.

He commended "the generous hospitality of the countries in the region who have welcomed their Burundian neighbours."

Michael Ryan, the head of the EU Delegation in Rwanda, said: "I am proud to announce another release of EU humanitarian funding. The €4.5 million will go solely to assist in the Burundi refugee crisis. It is well needed, Rwanda has so far welcomed more than 71 ,000 refugees. The EU is committed to continue its support of Rwanda and the neighbouring countries in this crisis."

The increase in funding brings the total humanitarian aid for the Great Lakes region for 2015 to €56.5 million.

The aid released for Burundi refugees since the end of April when their numbers started growing amounts to about €9 million.

Certain refugee camps have become overpopulated and health risks have increased.

There has been a continuing inflow of Burundian refugees in Rwanda, Tanzania, the DR Congo and Uganda since April.

Tanzania is so far the main hosting country, with nearly 80,000 Burundian refugees, followed by Rwanda (71,158), the DR Congo (13,368), and Uganda (11,165).

The most urgent humanitarian needs to address are shelter, water and sanitation, as well as health services to stop a possible surge of diseases, especially epidemics, notably cholera.

Overpopulation of certain refugee camps is also a major concern as the rainy season looms.

These are refugees, not migrants, arriving in their thousands on Greek shores

The Guardian
As Europe turns its back, the compassionate crisis response of local Greek volunteers, despite harsh austerity, puts the international community to shame

As I stood in the middle of the squalid Kara Tepe transit camp on Lesbos, I was struck by the utter perverseness of the refugee drama unfolding on this Greek island.

I was supporting a flash-mob of local volunteers and tourists – supported by local officials – to clean the camp, which is now a temporary home for 3,000 refugees. Litter was everywhere – and posing a health risk. The selflessness and dedication of the local volunteers, who have been responding to the crisis virtually unaided for several years, is awe-inspiring.

As I picked up the trash under a searing sun, four questions came to my mind, the answers to which should make us all uncomfortable.

First, why is the crisis repeatedly referred to by the media and by officials in European capitals as a “migrant” crisis? Here, in Greece, nothing could be further from the truth.

Greece grapples with massive migrant influx as Syria conflict exacerbates crisis

According to the most recent figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, of the more than 77,000 arrivals in Greece since the beginning of the year, 85% are refugees.

More than 60% of these are fleeing the conflict in Syria, with others escaping continued violence in Afghanistan. Likewise, the majority of people arriving nearby in Italy are fleeing armed conflict in Somalia or conscription in Eritrea.

Even among those who are not refugees, many arriving on Europe’s shores are vulnerable for other reasons. Some are unaccompanied children, or victims of sexual trafficking, or have been tortured and traumatised as they made their way across the Sahara to Africa’s Mediterranean coast before eventually reaching Europe. Refugees and other vulnerable people deserve the protection and assistance to which they are entitled under international law.

Second, this crisis was not unexpected. For some time, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and others have warned that countries neighbouring conflict areas are reaching their maximum capacity to absorb any more refugees.

Without legal alternative routes for refugees to enter other European countries, people fleeing conflicts in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere have taken matters into their own hands, risking their lives – often on flimsy rubber dinghies across dangerous stretches of the Aegean and Mediterranean – to seek the sanctuary of Europe.

With more people displaced by conflict globally than ever before– 59.5 million – Europe has to recognise that this problem is not going away, and that it needs to respond meaningfully to provide help.

Third, why has much of the world looked away from the crisis in the Mediterranean? The IRC is built to respond to emergencies in some of the poorest and most conflict-ridden countries. That we have had to deploy an emergency response team to Europe to make sure refugees receive clean water and have access to toilets, rather than defecate in the open, is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in the region.

For far, far too long, local Greek officials and volunteers have had to shoulder this burden, and at a time when they have had to endure paralysing austerity measures and the most recent financial crisis. Despite these hardships, the compassion and generosity of local groups has put the international community to shame. And, the refugee crisis in Greece is only likely to get worse.

Local officials and aid experts estimate that 200,000 refugees will come to Greece this year. This will undoubtedly overwhelm the primarily local-led relief efforts.

Europe also needs to provide more support to Greece so that it can provide a humane and dignified reception for refugees. When they arrive on Lesbos, refugees are not provided with medical check-ups or other assistance, aside from that provided by community volunteers. Until very recently, refugees often walked 40 miles, often in 32C (90F) heat, from the northern coast where they landed to the Kara Tepe transit camp. This is simply cruel.

Fourth, why have European members states continued the ongoing asylum charade, forcing refugees to further risk their lives by requiring them to furtively travel to their desired asylum destinations?

Europe’s asylum policies mean that a refugee has to apply for asylum in the country where he or she first arrives, which for those coming from Libya and Turkey almost always means Italy or Greece. Desperate to rejoin family members in other European countries or to live where there are real job prospects, many people avoid registration and continue their journeys illegally.

Would it not be more humane to allow these vulnerable groups to seek asylum at European embassies in Athens, or better yet, in European embassies in their home regions? Or at the very least ensure safe passage to their desired onward destinations – often to be reunited with waiting family members?

As it stands, refugees who reach Greece are then forced to travel through Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary to other destinations in Europe, a route making them vulnerable to human traffickers, gangs and corrupt officials.

Ultimately, at what point do we all conclude that these people have already suffered enough and deserve to be aided in their flight to safety? At the International Rescue Committee, we have already made this decision.

Greece - Thousands of Refugees are Overwhelming Greek Tourist Islands

TIME
Syrian refugees risk a perilous journey before arrive at the island of Lesbos

Syrians disembark on the island of Lesbos,
Greece, early on June 18, 2015

Perhaps it’s the stench of human waste, or the puddles of putrid water at the Kara Tepe transit camp which show the extent of the refugee crisis facing Greece. The six toilets at the entrance of the camp of 2,500 people are not properly connected to the water supply and rarely work; when they do, they quickly become blocked.

Lesbos is the third biggest Greek island and has a population of 90,000 yet it has been overwhelmed in recent days by the arrival of more than 5,000 Syrian refugees. “People have taken to defecating in the open”, says Kirk Day of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which is launching a new water and sanitation program there this week.

The refugees have to travel six miles by sea from the Turkish coast. First they crowd onto boats operated by people smugglers and then crowd into inflatable dinghies for the final stretch. “It is a death trip; a death trip,” says 26-year-old Fahd Majzoub from Damascus, who paid $1,200 to smugglers and hopes to get to Germany. “If the Turkish police had arrested us along the way, there’s no way I’d try it again – I’d just go back to Syria.”

Upon arrival at Molyvos, the far northern tip of the island, refugees must walk 70 kilometres (44 miles) to Lesbos port to register with port police. For the elderly, sick or families with small children, it can take 2 days to walk to the port in temperatures above 80 degrees. After around 10 days, they should be given documentation of their refugee status by Greek officials which allows them leave for Athens and then, they hope, to more prosperous European countries.


“We walked about 70 kilometres to get here, a night and a day. No-one stopped to take us. Look at my legs and feet – they’re destroyed,” says Abu Ahmed, who left his family in Raqqa in Syria, the capital of the territory held by the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria. He hopes his wife and disabled daughter will follow when he sets up a new home in Germany. “I don’t mean the Greeks are not friendly; they are very nice and they are in a bad economic situation, but we are also human,” he says.

Jasoun Al Ahmad from Idlib in Syria says the boats she travelled on was overcrowded. “The boat can carry 20 people but there were 44 of us in it. We had no water for a long time and my niece was very sick.”

The Greek coast guard and port police are completely overwhelmed by the refugee numbers. The coast guards enter the sea to rescue civilians, although unknown numbers still drown. “There are more in the sea than we have ever recorded; there are many more dead,” says Giorgos Tyrikos Ergas, a fisherman and volunteer providing shelter and support for the refugees. “The dead will keep coming from the bottom of the sea and people will keep drowning because there’s no other way for them to escape war and misery.”

Last year, August and September saw the largest numbers of refugees arrive in the Greek islands, according to IRC, which alongside the United Nations High Commission for Refugees is bracing itself for a similar increase this year.

So far, refugees have been treated with remarkable kindness and generosity from local residents and tourists. But as the numbers continue to grow it may not be long before the goodwill dissipates. One or two cars speeding past a cluster of tents outside Kara Tepe beeped loudly and shouted racist slogans. ‘Get out; you’re not welcome’, was the rough translation.

UNHCR Report - Global Trends Forced Displacement in 2014 

Trends Global Report: World at War

UNHCR Global Trends Forced Displacement in 2014 - Click for open Report PDF

Des milliers de personnes fuient les violences dans le nord du Mali

IRIN
Bamako - La flambée de violence qui embrase le nord du Mali a fait grimper le nombre de déplacés à plus de 100 000. Bon nombre d'entre eux ont un besoin urgent de nourriture, d'eau et d'abris avant l'arrivée de la saison des pluies.

C'est dans la région de Tombouctou, au nord du pays, que la situation est la plus critique : selon les estimations, 23 000 personnes ont quitté leur logement en l'espace de quelques jours seulement, fuyant l'escalade des attaques commises par des coalitions rebelles et des milices contrôlées par le gouvernement.

Plusieurs acteurs clés n'ont pas participé à la cérémonie de signature de l'accord de paix organisée à Bamako, la capitale, le 15 mai. Cet accord avait été présenté comme la solution au conflit qui fait rage depuis plusieurs années entre le gouvernement malien, les milices, les groupes islamistes et les rebelles touaregs.

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Immigration: refugee offices open in Ceuta and Melilla - Will facilitate requests for asylum in Spain

ANSAmed
Madrid - Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diez inaugurated two international protection offices at the borders of Ceuta and Melilla to facilitate asylum requests by migrants trying to illegally enter the two Spanish enclaves in Morocco.

Fifteen Guardia Civil agents were assigned to each of the two offices, Tarajal and Beni-Enzar border gates, to identify immigrants entitled to request international protection and ensure the start of the asylum applicant process "in a period of eight days." 

The initiative, Fernandez Diaz told media, is "a step of enormous significance to facilitate access to international procedure at the border, and bring international and European legislation to the subject." Applications will be reviewed and resolved, as is the case so far, by the Interior Ministry's Office of Asylum and Refugees.

Italy - Cargo with hundreds of Syrian refugees docked in Gallipoli

ANSAmed
Vessel seized, suspected human-trafficker arrestedGallipoli (Lecce) - A cargo ship carrying 970 migrants, most of them from war-torn Syria and including some 40 children and 20 pregnant women, arrived early Wednesday in the southern Italian port of Gallipoli, authorities said.

One man was taken into custody on suspicion of human smuggling when the cargo ship Blue Sky M arrived. Authorities released no information about his nationality or identity.

Italian Coast Guard officials were dropped by an Air Force helicopter on to the Moldovan-flagged ship Tuesday afternoon after it sent distress signals from somewhere near the Greek island of Corfu. Initial reports suggested armed men were on board but none were found and some media later reported the distress signals instead related to engine problems.

Meanwhile, Red Cross officials were on hand Wednesday morning to help the migrants, and about 130 were sent to southern Italian hospitals in the Lecce region for care.

Police did not find any weapons on board, but they seized

Turkey: 82 refugees rescued after two days stranded at sea

ANSAmed
Istanbul - Eighty-two illegal refugees who human traffickers had promised to transport to Romania have been rescued after being marooned on a small boat 24 miles off the coast of Istanbul, as Dogan News Agency reported. The group of 82, composed of Afghans, Syrians, and Iranians, included 15 children and 20 women, two of whom were pregnant. They had been left at sea after the captain promised to bring help to fix to a technical problem but never returned.

The capacity of the 15-meter boat was 50 people, according to news reports. After two days without food or water, the refugees started a fire on the ship to attract attention. A ship en route from the Black Sea to the Bosphorus Strait noticed the fire and informed coastguards, who reached the boat at around 10:30 on September 4. The refugees were taken to a pier at Cayirbasi and were offered food, water and medical help. The police are still searching for the captain who marooned the migrants.

The number of illegal migrants trying to reach countries neighboring Turkey is increasing rapidly, mainly due to the unrest on the country's southern border. Migrants risking their lives while trying to enter Greece illegally also come from African and Asian countries. The coast guards have captured 7,540 illegal migrants trying to reach Greece via the Aegean Sea this year, according to data provided by the Izmir Governor's Office yesterday. 

The total number stood at 6,937 last year, a dramatic increase from just 2,531 in 2012. Amnesty International wrote in a June report that the policies of the European Union and its member states were putting at risk the lives and rights of refugees in many countries, including Turkey. Figures indicate that the Aegean Sea has turned into "sea of illegal migrants." (ANSAmed).

June 20 - World Refugee Day - Giornata Mondiale del rifugiato -

There are now more than 45.2 million displaced people

15.4 million refugees, 937,000 asylum seekers and 

28.8 million forced to flee within 

he borders of their own countries

45,2 milioni di rifugiati, 15,4 milioni di profughi, 937,000 richiedenti asilo, 28,8 milioni di sfollati

UN refugee agency reports 2013

Eritrea: The Homeless Eritreans Refugees in the streets of Yemen

Geeska Afrika Online
Djibouti (HAN)- According to the Eritrean Refugee voice: Geeska Afrika Online received this note with pictures from Eritrean refugees living in the streets of Sana’a, Yemen; with English error, we decided to publish online, exactly the way we received their letter. Idris Lahda  said, ‘to deliver a message to the international community, to show the suffering of Eritrean refugees  in Sana’a.’

Why hundreds of Eritrean Refugees in Sana’a Live in the Streets! Eritrea, ruled by an extremely repressive government, requires all citizens under 50 to serve in the military for years. Anyone of draft age leaving the country without permission is branded a deserter, risking five years in prison

Having no shelter or a place to go to; they had to be rough sleepers, just spending the night in the open without a home. Since April 29, more than 200 Eritrean refugees -including women and children- have been living in the streets of Taiz in the capital city Sana’a after the United Nation High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) decided to be devoid of every sense of empathy -as the Eritrean refugees put it- and abandon them and cover no longer their expenses after paying for Three months for their stay in the hotels of Sana’a as a part of providing a temporary shelter until after the completion of the resettlement procedures in a third country, but for their surprise, the Eritrean refugees found themselves ,without a prior notice, homeless. 

The story of (Refugees of Taiz Street) can be traced back to the year 2011, after the influx of hundreds of Eritrean refugees in the Yemeni coasts; fleeing from the suppression- as they put it – practiced by the Eritrean regime and the persecution of the security forces. The Yemeni authorities detained the Eritrean refugees in the Central Prison of Hodeida until the UNHCR considers/examines their situation and grants them a refugee status. Eritrean refugees- after years of waiting- were granted refugee status by the UNCHR and then it lodged them in hotels in Sana’a, however, they were soon informed that the UNCHR doesn’t recognize them as refugees anymore, claiming that its mission was accomplished as they got Yemeni refugee cards, and it didn’t take long for Eritrean refugees to recognize their new status as homeless.

The 216 Eritrean refugees- including women and children- claim their right of asylum, and demand to be provided with the most basic needs of a respectful life, especially that they are living now as homeless receiving no support or care. In the meanwhile, some local organizations deprecated the cruel treatment of the Commission, and appealed with sense of urgency for saving the lives of the destitute women and children who are in the Streets that don’t keep them safe from below freezing temperatures or high heats, and they can’t help but to wait for the procedures of the Commission to complete.

Head of “Ard Al Sedq Association Charitable” -Idris Lahda- said that some local organizations undertook a comprehensive assessment on the Eritrean refugees’ situation and came up with an integrated aid plan requiring immediate support to enter into force. He noted that the UN Commission and its partners have some options, such as: providing temporary shelter and livelihood opportunities, and housing Eritrean refugees in the camps located across the cities of Yemen, like other refugees in Yemen.
Lahda also explained that the “Refugees of Taiz Street” was actually an outcome of a grave legal mistake done by the Commission; it first recognized those Eritrean in Yemen as refugees, then it showed a complete turn about as it abandoned its mission and later explained that with illegal justifications. Taiz Street could witness a humane catastrophe if the Commission remains unmoved in regard to saving those helpless refugees, who left their countries fleeing from persecution to suffer another one of a different kind.

Source

Immigration: Amnesty condemns Athens for refugee expulsions

ANSAmed
The NGO calls for the EU to impose sanctions on Greece
Athens - Amnesty International has published a report regarding "the ongoing, persistent and shameful treatment by the Greek authorities of people risking their lives to find refuge in Europe" and has called for the European Union to impose sanctions for direct violations of international human rights obligations. 

According to the report, as To Vima online writes, Greece's treatment of refugees and immigrants on the borders is "deplorable", with the report detailing that violence, intimidation and humiliation tactics have become widespread and routine practices.

The report includes chilling testimonies from refugees and immigrants who attempted to cross over to Greece from neighboring countries, including survivors from the sinking at Farmakonisi. According to the testimonies, refugees are typically stripped of valuables and passports, before being pushed back across the border.

US State Department slams Greece on human rights violations - Report details abuse against refugees and discrimination

ANSAmed
Athens - The US State Department's annual report on human rights is anything but positive for Greece, with the report making reference to refugee abuse, anti-Semitism and discrimination against Roma gypsies.

As daily To Vima online reports, The US State Department is particularly concerned about violent attitudes towards migrants.

In the report it is stated that despite the efficient inspections of Greek authorities, there are instances of members from the country's security forces being involved in human rights violations. Among others, the report details refers to the dire living conditions in migrant detention centers and prisons, abuse against refugees, prisoners and demonstrators, as well as the actions of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.

Regarding freedom of speech, the report stresses that while it is regulated and legally protected, there have been "exceptions", in reference to race and social distinctions.

Other findings include the excessive use of police violence against demonstrators and attacks against journalists.

The report cites a number of reports from other international groups, such as Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch. 

Kenya: Somali refugees unlawfully forced out of country

 Horseed Media
Widespread intimidation, the abuse of human rights and the withdrawal of services are forcing Somali refugees out of Kenya, said Amnesty International in a report published today.

“The environment in Kenya is now so hostile that some refugees feel they have no option but to return to Somalia where the ongoing conflict in parts of the country continues to destroy lives. This is tantamount to forced return” said Sarah Jackson, Deputy Regional Director at Amnesty International.

Amnesty International’s report “No Place Like Home” reveals how life for Somali refugees has been made unbearable. People are denied access to registration, meaning they are illegally staying in Kenya, and are actively targeted by the police with indiscriminate arrests.

Abdi, 28, said “Here, in Kenya, it’s like a prison. At night we can’t leave the house, in the day we might be arrested. It is not currently safe in Somalia, we hear of killings and murder, but the situation here is very desperate… so instead of being here, let me go back.”

Last November, in the wake of the al-Shabab attack on Westgate in Nairobi, the governments of Somalia and Kenya met with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and signed an agreement setting out a framework for the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees to Somalia. This programme is expected to start imminently.

“The combination of insecurity and harassment has left refugees struggling to survive in Kenya. They are effectively being pushed out of their safe havens. For returns to be legal, they must be voluntary. That means without undue pressure, with their safety and dignity guaranteed. At present we are extremely concerned that these criteria will not be met” said Sarah Jackson.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)’s own guidelines, a refugee’s decision to return can only be considered voluntary if it is motivated by positive ‘pull-factors’ in Somalia and not by pressure for them to leave Kenya.

The vast majority of refugees interviewed by Amnesty International felt they were being compelled to leave Kenya.

Those that have returned to conflict areas in Somalia risk persecution and retribution.

Fartuun told Amnesty International about his uncle’s return home to Lower Shabelle. “He was captured the day he returned home. Al-Shabab soldiers took him away and held him captive. After five days they brought him in front of the stadium and beheaded him in front of people. After, they left him outside with his head on his stomach […] for one week.”

“According to international law, voluntary returns can only take place when safety and dignity is guaranteed. How can this be possible when grave human rights abuses happen on a daily basis in Somalia?” said Sarah Jackson.

“The Kenyan government and UNHCR are duty bound to protect refugees in Kenya. Pressuring people to return to areas of active armed conflict where their lives and freedom are at risk is prohibited under international law.”

Syria: 300 refugees rejected at Spanish border of Melilla - They were trying to enter to seek political asylum

ANSAmed
Madrid - A group of some 300 Syrian refugees was refused entry to the Spanish enclave of Melilla in Moroccan territory by police and the Guardia Civil on Friday.

Melilla border

Many were screaming 'freedom and Madrid'.

Officers closed the Beni-Enzar border crossing and had to confront the refugees for several hours. The Syrians had fled the civil war in Syria and, after crossing North Africa, wanted to enter Spanish territory to seek political asylum. Spanish security forces were alerted by their Moroccan counterparts.