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The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Myanmar has doubled since February of last year, now crossing the 800,000 mark, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) announced on Friday. Speaking to journalists in Geneva, UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh said the agency was stepping up aid for the displaced as conflict intensifies. “Security is deteriorating rapidly across the country as fighting and armed conflict intensifies with no sign of abating”, Mr. Saltmarsh said. In total...

Independent UN experts expressed deep concern on Tuesday over allegations that human rights defenders have been threatened at the Polish-Belarusian border, including media workers and interpreters. “I am receiving several reports of harassments from human rights defenders who assist migrants and document human rights violations against them, at the Polish-Belarusian border, and I am deeply concerned at this practice”, said Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights...

“Migration is a fact of life” and a “positive phenomenon” that enriches societies and economies, Secretary-General António Guterres said. However, if poorly managed, it generates huge challenges, he added, “from tragic loss of life, to rights abuses and social tensions”, which is why effectively managing migration and protecting their rights, requires “strengthened international cooperation”. Make migration work for all “The Global Compact reflects the commitment of the international...

He said in a statement that violence, ill-treatment, and pushbacks continue to be regularly reported at multiple entry points at land and sea borders. The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, expressed deep concern over an increasing number of incidents of violence and serious human rights violations against refugees and migrants at various European borders, several of which have resulted in tragic deaths. Despite repeated calls by UNHCR, other UN agencies, intergovernmental organizations and...

Over the past two weeks, at least 70 migrants have gone missing at sea and are presumed dead off the coast of Libya, the UN migration agency said on Thursday. “I am appalled by the continuing loss of life in the Central Mediterranean and the lack of action to tackle this ongoing tragedy,” said Federico Soda, Libya Chief of Mission for the International Organization for Migration (IOM). On 12 March, a boat reportedly carrying 25 migrants capsized near the Libyan coast of Tobruk and while...

The head of UN refugee agency UNHCR, spoke out on Monday against the “ugly reality” that some refugees fleeing across the Ukraine border, and Third Country Nationals, have been subjected to racism and discrimination. In a statement issued marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Filippo Grandi said that although he had been “humbled” by the outpouring of support seen by communities welcoming well over three million Ukrainian refugees since the Russian...

The UN has helped tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees to cross into Poland and other neighbouring countries. Chris Melzer, spokesperson for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Germany, told UN News that he has witnessed many traumatic scenes, of families ripped apart by the crisis. “I have witnessed many difficult things since this conflict began. I saw tens of thousands of refugees and around 90 per cent of them were women and children. Their tales are very similar, of being woken up by...

One year after brutal attacks by suspected Al Shabab militants began in northern Mozambique, thousands continue to flee ongoing violence in Cabo Delgado province, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday. “According to partners in the region, a series of attacks by non-State armed groups between January and mid-March displaced some 24,000 people within Nangade district,” UNHCR spokesperson Boris Cheshirkov told journalists at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. With hundreds of...

“The war has caused one of the fastest large-scale displacements of children since World War Two,” said UNICEF chief Catherine Russell. This includes more than 1.8 million who have crossed into neighbouring countries as refugees and 2.5 million who are now internally displaced. Grim milestone According to UN human rights office, OHCHR, 78 children have been killed, and 105 have been injured in Ukraine since the war began on 24 February. But these figures represent only those casualties...

Around three per cent of Costa Rica’s population is now made up of Nicaraguan refugees and asylum seekers, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday. Doubling in number over the last eight months, the agency now estimates that there are more than 150,000 Nicaraguans who have crossed over the southern border, seeking refuge in Costa Rica. “These figures, as of February 2022, confirm more Nicaraguans are currently seeking protection in Costa Rica than all the refugees and asylum seekers...