Sustainable Development Goals

A devastating fire has ripped through a COVID-19 treatment centre for Myanmar refugees sheltering in Bangladesh, UN migration agency (IOM) said on Tuesday. In a tweet, IOM said that no-one was hurt at the health facility, part of the vast Cox’s Bazar camp complex, after the blaze began suddenly on Sunday evening. Parts of the hospital were badly damaged, but health services are expected to “resume soon”, the agency said. Response Field teams have been working around the clock to...

UN humanitarians warned on Tuesday that a harsh winter in Afghanistan is aggravating already severe conditions faced by millions across the country. In the past 24 hours, heavy snowfall and rain have impacted a number of areas, disrupting flights to and from Kabul Airport, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). “Further snow and low temperatures are forecast in the coming days”, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at the daily briefing...

Teams from UN migration agency IOM were mobilized on Sunday after fire swept through a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, home to thousands of Rohingya who have fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar. The blaze was first reported just before 5 pm local time and caused considerable damage to sections of the largest camp of its kind in the world, affecting both refugees and members of the host community. Response teams were deployed to protect refugees and bring the situation back...

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) called on Friday for concerted international action to end armed conflict in Africa’s central Sahel region, which has forced more than 2.5 million people to flee their homes in the last decade. Speaking to journalists in Geneva, the agency’s spokesperson, Boris Cheshirkov, informed that internal displacement has increased tenfold since 2013, going from 217,000 to a staggering 2.1 million by late last year. The number of refugees in Burkina Faso, Mali, and...

A new bill being debated by lawmakers in the United Kingdom increases the risk of discrimination and “serious human rights violations” and breaches the country’s obligations under international law, five independent UN human rights experts said on Friday. If adopted, the Nationality and Borders Bill would “seriously undermine the protection of the human rights of trafficked persons, including children; increase risks of exploitation faced by all migrants and asylum seekers; and lead to...

For the first time in weeks, aid teams have reached refugee camps in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, only to find that some Eritrean nationals living there have likely died of preventable diseases, while others are “scared and struggling to get enough to eat”, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said on Friday. More than 25,000 refugees live in in Mai Aini and Adi Harush refugee camps in Tigray, where UNHCR has urged all parties to the conflict to guarantee safe passage, so that they can be relocated...

Around 1.5 million Ukrainians have been forced from their homes since fighting in the far east of the country began in 2014. The UN and other humanitarian organizations are supporting those who have been displaced, as they try to adjust to their new lives. When the conflict broke out between Government forces and mostly pro-Russian separatists, Yuri Zykov and his family were forced to leave their home in Horlivka, a town in the eastern Donbas region which came under heavy fire, and was...

For the last three years, a retired cook in northern Burkina Faso has been providing shelter for people displaced by armed attacks in the country, where the security situation continues to deteriorate. Recent unrest in the capital Ouagadougou surrounding the military coup, is just the latest example of instability in Burkina Faso, whose citizens have been facing turmoil for over a decade. By the end of 2021, there were over 1.5 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in the land-locked...

Following the death of a baby during an interception at sea off the southeast coast of the island of Trinidad on Sunday, UN agencies have expressed their deep sadness and called for stronger measures to protects refugees and migrants. The vessel carrying Venezuelans was intercepted by the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard when it entered its maritime territory. According to the Coast Guard, a mother and her infant were injured during the incident. The woman was taken to a health facility...

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...