Citizens for Justice and Peace
Water scarcity could displace hundreds of millions by 2030: report
22-Mar-2018
A panel comprising 11 heads of state and a special advisor recently released a report on water action, which calls for major changes in the way water is managed so that the Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation can be reached, UN News reported. The report notes that…
Humanitarian access declines in Myanmar
22-Mar-2018
According to research group ACAPS, Myanmar leads the list of countries where aid organisations’ ability to reach those requiring assistance has declined in the last six months, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported. ACAPS considered 37 countries using nine indicators, such as violence against aid workers and restrictions that bar people from getting aid. “Myanmar is the…
Climate change could cause more than 140 million climate migrants: World Bank
20-Mar-2018
According to a new World Bank report, more than 140 million living in three world regions will likely migrate within their own countries by 2050, the Guardian reported. The World Bank considered three regions, and found that sub-Saharan African could see 86 million internall displaced people in the years leading up to 2050. This figure was…
Thousands of asylum seekers still remain stranded in Greek islands
12-Mar-2018
Nine human rights and humanitarian groups recently stated that several thousand asylum seekers remain stranded on the Greek island migrant “hotspots”, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). Greek government data indicates that more than 10,000 people remain stuck on the Aegean islands of Chios, Kos, Leros, Lesbos, and Samos, where most asylum seekers are being hosted. The…
Ethnic cleansing of Rohingya persists in Myanmar: UN Human Rights official
12-Mar-2018
UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour recently travelled to Bangladesh’s Cox Bazar, which is hosting several hundred thousand Rohingya refugees who have steadily fled from Myanmar after a military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in late August 2017. Following his visit, Gilmour said, “The ethnic cleansing of Rohingya from Myanmar continues. I don’t…
United States border agents detain immigrant families in freezing cells: HRW
03-Mar-2018
In a recently released report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) detailed that United States’ Customs and Border Protection agents regularly hold families, including infants, in freezing holding cells after they are taken into custody at or near the border. For the report, HRW conducted 110 interviews with women and children, and found that border agents regularly separate…
More than 6,000 migrant deaths documented in 2017
27-Feb-2018
According to the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Missing Migrants Project (MMP), 6,142 disappearances and deaths were documented around the world in 2017, making it the third straight year in which more than 6,000 fatalities were documented by the MMP. The IOM started monitoring migrant deaths in 2014, with almost 26,000 fatalities being documented thus far. However,…
US funding cuts imperilling millions of Palestinian refugees: UN official
23-Feb-2018
Pierre Krähenbühl, commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRW), the main UN agency aiding Palestinian refugees, told the Guardian that the agency is confronted with its worst-ever funding shortage. The UNRWA lacks nearly one-third of its budget, mostly due to the move by US President Donald Trump’s administration to withhold funding. According to Krähenbühl,…
UN refugees chief addresses Security Council on Rohingya crisis
14-Feb-2018
Filippo Grand, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, addressed the Security Council on February 13, 2018 regarding the Rohingya crisis. He said that although the numbers are significantly reduced, Rohingya continue to flee Myanmar for Bangladesh; around 1,500 have already reached in Bangladesh this month. He said that despite a large-scale humanitarian response, conditions in…
Rights group says attacks, killings of land defenders surged in 2017
07-Feb-2018
The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) said that more than 120 activists working to shield their environmental, land, and labour rights from corporate interests were killed in 2017, according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. This figure was nearly 50% higher than the same figure in 2016, according to BHRRC. BHRRC’s spokeswoman said that the…
Deaths of migrants near US-Mexico border rose in 2017, while crossings dropped
07-Feb-2018
According to the United Nations’ migration body, the number of migrants who died near the United States-Mexico border increased last year, while the number of those trying to cross the border decreased. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that 412 migrants died on either side of the border in 2017, compared to the 398 deaths…
Israel begins deportation plan for African migrants
07-Feb-2018
Israel has begun issuing notices to 20,000 male African migrants, requiring them to leave the country within two months or face imprisonment, Reuters reported. Israel’s government is giving the migrants $3,500 and plane ticket to what it says is a safe destination in a country in sub-Saharan Africa, though the destination has not been identified. According to rights…
Violence compels returning Afghan refugees to escape again: NRC
31-Jan-2018
The Guardian reported that, according to a study commissioned by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 72% of those who went back to Afghanistan after having escaped there and lived as refugees have been displaced at least two times. More than one million people have been newly displaced from Afghanistan because of…
Holocaust survivors call on Netanyahu not to expel African migrants in Israel
30-Jan-2018
Holocaust survivors in Israel have called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to force out 38,000 African migrants, AFP reported. “We, who know precisely what it’s like to be refugees… cannot comprehend how a Jewish government can expel refugees and asylum seekers to a journey of suffering, torment and death,” 36 survivors wrote in a…
ILO, OECD launch report on immigrants in developing countries
27-Jan-2018
The Development Centre of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) have released a joint report, titled ‘How Immigrants Contribute to Developing Countries’ Economies’. An ILO announcement of the report noted that “the perception that immigrants cost more than they yield is widespread but rarely relies on empirical evidence,” adding…