Sustainable Development Goals

Lack of opportunities, gangs, organized crime, the ravages of the pandemic and climate change, have triggered the displacement of nearly one million people in Mexico and Central America in recent years. To deal with the problem more effectively, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees called on Thursday for a new mechanism that could operate across the whole region, to deal with what is now an unprecedented displacement crisis. At the end of a 10-day fact-finding to Mexico, El Salvador...

There was a dramatic increase in internal displacement due to disasters, conflict and violence in 2020, but global mobility overall, ground to a halt due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. That is the main finding of the World Migration Report 2022, launched on Wednesday by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). For IOM‘s Director General, António Vitorino, the world is “witnessing a paradox not seen before in human history.” “While billions of people have been effectively...

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and partners, are scaling up aid along the border between the European Union and Belarus, amid worsening winter weather, which is leading to rising deaths due to hypothermia among asylum seekers stranded there. It is estimated that there are up to 2,000 migrants and refugees at the border with Poland, predominantly Kurds from Iraq, but also Syrians, Iranians, Afghans, Yemenis, Cameroonians and others. There are large numbers of women and...

One meal a day, no shelter, and no drinking water are only some of the difficult living conditions that indigenous Warao families from Venezuela are facing in remote locations across Guyana, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has warned. More humanitarian presence and support from the international community is needed, said on Friday Philippa Candler, UNHCR’s Multi-Country Office Representative in Panama, speaking to journalists in Geneva. An estimated 24,500 refugees and migrants from...

One in five refugee or internally displaced women have faced sexual violence, and the situation continues to worsen globally, the UN refugee agency, (UNHCR), said on Thursday. On the 30th anniversary of the campaign for 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the UN agency said that there’s been a global surge in domestic violence, child marriages, trafficking, sexual exploitation and abuse since March. “A lethal mix of confinement, deepening poverty and economic duress is...

Urgent action is needed to avoid a repeat of tragedies like this week’s drowning of at least 27 people in the English Channel, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday. The incident amounted to the largest single loss of life in the English Channel since the UN migration agency, IOM, started recording data in 2014.  Another 106 migrants were rescued in French waters on Wednesday alone.  Risking everything Ever-increasing numbers of people are attempting the journey...

For the past five years, poverty, food insecurity, climate shocks and violence have pushed, on average, some 378,000 Central Americans a year into the United States, according to a new report launched on Tuesday by the UN food relief agency. A joint report published by the World Food Programme (WFP), Migration Policy Institute (MPI), and Civic Data Design Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) also showed that a high price was paid in human and economic costs, including an...

Amid growing concerns about the plight of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers at the Poland-Belarus border, the UN rights office and UN refugee agency on Friday urged all parties to respect human rights and refrain from using them for political ends. Following weeks of rising tension, the development follows news footage earlier in the week showing migrants located between the countries, attempting to avoid teargas and make their way through barbed wire fences. “It is a terrible...

As more people flee violence, insecurity and the effects of climate change, the number forcibly displaced now exceeds 84 million globally, according to new data released on Thursday by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. UNHCR’s Mid-Year Trends report, covering the first six months of this year, revealed a surge from 82.4 million since December – largely due to internal displacement – with more people fleeing multiple active conflicts around the world, especially in Africa. It also noted...

The UN Human Rights High Commissioner has urged Belarus and Poland to urgently resolve the burgeoning migrant crisis on their mutual border, where thousands of people have gathered in an attempt to enter the European Union (EU). In a statement on Wednesday, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said she was appalled that large numbers of migrants and refugees continue to be left in a desperate situation in near-freezing temperatures. “I urge the States involved to take immediate steps to...