Articles

Rokaya needed time to recover after illness forced her to quit as a live-in maid in Malaysia and return home to Indramayu, West Java. However, under pressure from her agent who claimed two million Rupiah for her initial placement, she accepted an offer of work in Erbil, Iraq. There, Ms. Rokaya found herself responsible for taking care of a family’s sprawling compound—working from 6 a.m. until after midnight, seven days per week. As exhaustion worsened the headaches and vision problems that...

28 March 2024Migrants and Refugees The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and partners on Thursday appealed for $1.4 billion this year to support more than two million South Sudanese refugees in five African countries and local communities hosting them. Since the start of the conflict in South Sudan over 10 years ago, growing humanitarian needs compounded by dire food shortages, continued insecurity, and the impacts of climate change, have kept refugees in exile and prompted new displacement...

26 March 2024Migrants and Refugees One in three migrant deaths happens while people flee conflict, the UN migration agency, IOM, said on Tuesday. More than two in three migrants whose deaths have been documented remain unidentified. Last year was the deadliest on record, with 8,541 migrant victims. Nearly 60 per cent of deaths were linked to drowning. So far in 2024, the trends are just as alarming. Along the Mediterranean sea route alone – while arrivals this year are significantly...

Global perspective Human stories A group of displaced people hosted in a school in the centre of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. 13 March 2024Humanitarian Aid The number of internally displaced people around the world is at a record high – well over 70 million – it’s a global crisis that needs collaborative solutions from the humanitarian community, the UN’s emergency relief chief said on Wednesday. Martin Griffiths was speaking at a review of humanitarian efforts to help people...

Nearly 8,600 people on the move died in 2023, a 20 per cent increase from 2022, according to the UN agency’s Missing Migrants Project online platform. It details the global movement of people risking their lives to escape conflict, economic crisis and natural disasters, including drought and flooding linked to climate change. IOM says the findings clearly show that there are far too few legal pathways for migrants. Hundreds of thousands of people are continuing to embark on dangerous and...

“The agency will no longer have funding as of the end of February, so that means our operations would come to a halt during March,” said Dorothee Klaus, UNRWA Director in Lebanon, describing the “severe impact” of fresh budget cuts. The funding crisis stemmed from Israel’s allegations that a dozen agency staff were involved in the 7 October attacks that left 1,200 Israelis dead and 250 taken hostage, events that triggered the ongoing devastating war in Gaza. Several major donors, the...

31 January 2024Migrants and Refugees Yul Brynner was a charismatic and engaging star of stage and screen, and in 1959, the United Nations asked him to lend his talents to support efforts to aid the world’s refugees. The Russian-born actor, filmmaker and photographer was appointed a special consultant to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in connection with World Refugee Year. Ahead of the International Human Fraternity Day, marked annually on 4...

1 February 2024Migrants and Refugees Yul Brynner was a charismatic and engaging star of stage and screen, and in 1959, the United Nations asked him to lend his talents to support efforts to aid the world’s refugees. The Russian-born actor, filmmaker and photographer was appointed a special consultant to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in connection with World Refugee Year. Ahead of the International Human Fraternity Day, marked annually on 4...

IOM underscored the need for regular migration pathways at a one-day summit in Rome hosted by Italy to boost development in Africa and curb migration flows. The A Bridge for Common Life conference represented a critical opportunity to examine “unified and sustainable mechanisms to stop further needless loss of human life on treacherous routes,” said Amy Pope, the agency’s Director General, who was at the summit. ‘A stark reminder’ “Even one death is one too many,” she added, calling the...

That’s according to Juliette Touma, Director of Communications for UNRWA, the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, who spoke in depth to UN News’s Conor Lennon on Monday about her most recent visit to the Strip. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. “This was my second trip since the war began. I try to go whenever it’s possible, to express solidarity with the people there who are severely impacted by this brutal war, and also to see our colleagues, who continue to serve the...