Refugees – KMAUPDATES

Jun292020 by KATENDE SHARIFNo Comments

Coronavirus – Africa: Refugee athletes stay focused on countdown to delayed Olympics

Sports

NEW YORK, United States of America, June 29, 2020/ -- With the Tokyo Olympics delayed until 2021, UN News has spoken to two recipients of Refugee Athlete Scholarships, an initiative of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and UN refugee agency (UNHCR), to find out how COVID-19 lockdown measures are affecting their preparations for the games.Four years ago at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the world cheered on athletes from the first ever Refugee Olympic Team, competing under the famous five-ringed flag of the organization, in order to raise awareness of the plight of refugees worldwide.June, when World Refugee Day is celebrated, was supposed to be the month when the IOC would announce the make-up of the team travelling to compete in Tokyo, but, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the Committ...

Jun292020 by KATENDE SHARIFNo Comments

Coronavirus – Somalia: On World Refugee Day, UN calls for continued efforts to help refugees and displaced people in Somalia

AFRICA

MOGADISHU, Somalia, June 29, 2020/ -- Marking World Refugee Day, the United Nations in Somalia today called for continued efforts to alleviate the plight of refugees and displaced persons in Somalia. Despite significant efforts by the Somali authorities, there are still at least 2.6 million Somalis who are internally displaced, and the country hosts more than 30,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, mainly from Ethiopia and Yemen. “I pay tribute to the resilience and courage of refugees and displaced persons, and all those fleeing conflict or persecution. I assure them that the United Nations is committed to their protection and to helping to rebuild their livelihoods. We also support the Somali government to uphold their right to asylum and protection. This has been made more challengin...

Jun292020 by KATENDE SHARIFNo Comments

Coronavirus – Africa: International Organization for Migration (IOM) West and Central Africa Regional Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan COVID-19

AFRICA

DAKAR, Senegal, June 29, 2020/ -- SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS Progression of The Pandemic in West and Central Africa The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, which was first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province in China in December 2019, spread over the following weeks to all regions of the world, leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Download Report:https://bit.ly/3dgmDK3 While the virus was slow to reach the African continent compared to other parts of the world, the illness has grown exponentially since the first known cases and continues to spread. The WHO has warned that Africa may become the pandemic's next epicentre. As of 31 May 2020, Africa has reported 100,610 confirmed cases including 2,554 deaths, a case fatality rate of...

Jun292020 by KATENDE SHARIFNo Comments

Coronavirus – Africa: International Organization for Migration (IOM) launches USD 54 million appeal to help vulnerable migrants, mobile populations in West and Central Africa

AFRICA

DAKAR, Senegal, June 29, 2020/ -- On 17th June, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in West and Central Africa called on its partners and the donor community to support its USD 54,158,500 Regional Preparedness and Response Plan to strengthen resilience among nearly ten million migrants and other mobile populations significantly affected by COVID-19. With the severe mobility, health and socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis reverberating across West and Central Africa, rapid, targeted action is needed to prevent further spread of the pandemic. Given the region's fragile health systems, such action is crucial to mitigate the crisis' impact on migrants, displaced persons, refugees and other vulnerable populations. “The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis ...

Jun252020 by KATENDE SHARIFNo Comments

Coronavirus – Africa: COVID-19 compounds families’ painful search for missing and disappeared migrants

CORONAVIRUS

GENEVA, Switzerland, June 25, 2020/ -- Often, bereaved families have no opportunity to mourn their loved ones. However, their experiences have been paid meagre attention. With the support of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (IOM GMDAC) is carrying out qualitative research with families of missing migrants to better understand how people cope with the uncertainty and tragedy of loss and death, and what governments and other actors can do to better support them. The geographic focus of the research is the Western and Central Mediterranean routes to Europe and the findings will be published in the last quarter of 2020. COVID-19 and the mobility restrictions and border controls passed to prevent its spread affect everyone. Despite...

Jun252020 by KATENDE SHARIFNo Comments

Coronavirus – Africa: UNHCR appeals for resettlement places as record forced displacement and protection needs outstrip solutions

AFRICA

GENEVA, Switzerland, June 25, 2020/ -- Over 1.4 million refugees currently residing in 62 host countries will be in need of resettlement next year according to latest estimates released by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, at an annual resettlement forum yesterday. “With one per cent of humanity now displaced and the overwhelming majority hosted in developing regions facing their own challenges, protection needs are rising but there is a huge deficit in terms of solutions. We need countries to do more and help us find safe homes for those whose lives depend on it,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi who is attending the Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement (ATCR) this week. This year’s resettlement conference is co-hosted with the government of Ca...

Jun182020 by KATENDE SHARIFNo Comments

Coronavirus – Africa: Migration flows across West and Central Africa nearly halved by COVID-19; mobile populations economically impacted

CORONAVIRUS

DAKAR, Senegal, June 18, 2020/ -- Data collected at 35 key transit points across West and Central Africa by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) indicate regional migration has dropped by nearly 50 per cent during the first half of 2020 (compared with 2019) due to government travel restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. On International Day of Family Remittances, the data reflect the double burden low- and middle income countries bear at this time: the response to COVID-19 has caused great disruption to cross-border mobility and trade even as the World Bank is projecting remittances to sub-Saharan Africa will drop 23 per cent. One in nine people on earth are affected by remittance flows. Roughly half reside in small towns and rural villages where remitta...

Jun142020 by KATENDE SHARIFNo Comments

Coronavirus: Libya COVID-19 cases double in 14 days as violence increases, exacerbating existing threats facing vulnerable populations

AFRICA

NEW YORK, United States of America, June 14, 2020/ -- In the past two weeks alone, COVID-19 cases in Libya have more than doubled, while a change in conflict dynamics has forced 24,000 people from their homes, putting the lives of vulnerable populations at even greater risk, warns the IRC. As the conflict continues in the eastern and southern parts of the country, the organisation is warning that without all sides and their international sponsors committing efforts to secure an immediate, lasting, nationwide ceasefire, the Libyan people will continue to suffer. Since the start of the latest offensive on June 5, at least 19 civilians, including three children, have been killed. And as cases of COVID-19 increase, health services and healthcare workers are increasingly at risk. This...

Jun102020 by KATENDE SHARIFNo Comments

Coronavirus – Africa: International Organization for Migration (IOM) Ethiopia assists hundreds of returning COVID-19 affected migrants

CORONAVIRUS

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, June 10, 2020/ -- Thousands of irregular and undocumented migrants in Lebanon have lost their livelihoods due to COVID-19 and the economic crisis. Many have begun to return home to Ethiopia. Sewasew Gereme is among the returnees. She chose to return from Lebanon five months ago, at the onset of the pandemic, when she was dismissed by her employer. “We lost our jobs, we struggled. Some of our friends fell ill,” she said. “Things in Beirut are currently bad, and it was getting to a point where our lives were at risk.” Ethiopia received over 15,300 returnees since 1 April 2020: 4,440 from Sudan 3,700 from Djibouti 3,000 from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) 2,700 from Somalia 640 from Lebanon 1,000 from other co...

Jun62020 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments

Coronavirus – Africa: International Organization for Migration (IOM) Niger – Assisted Voluntary Return for Stranded Malians; Over 1,600 Remain in Transit Centers

AFRICA

NIAMEY, Niger, June 6, 2020/ -- On 4/ June 2020,, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) assisted 179 Malian nationals stranded in Niger with their voluntary return to Mali, thanks to the European Union’s financial support. The migrants had been waiting at IOM’s transit centres in Niamey and Agadez for almost three months due to the border closures decreed by the government to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The charter was the first movement by air, facilitated thanks to an agreement between the Governments of Niger and Mali. Nonetheless, currently another 1,658 migrants from several, mainly West African, countries remain in IOM transit centres, waiting for travel restrictions to lift so they, too, can return to their countries of origin. &...

May312020 by KATENDE SHARIFNo Comments

Coronavirus – Africa: International Organization for Migration (IOM), European Union (EU) Bolster Response to Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Returning Migrants Across West and Central Africa

AFRICA

DAKAR, Senegal, May 31, 2020/ -- The suspension of “non-essential activities” to limit the spread of COVID-19 in West and Central Africa has had a heavy socio-economic impact on some 34,000 returning migrants. Many already have set up microbusinesses as part of their reintegration assistance under the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration. To measure the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on returning migrants assisted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the IOM Regional Office for West and Central Africa launched a needs assessment survey in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, and Senegal – with a sample of 100 returnees in each country. The data gathered reveal that 89 per cent of beneficiaries reported their f...

May232020 by Ronald KabuubiNo Comments

Coronavirus – Libya: The International Organization for Migration (IOM), UNHCR, urge European States to disembark rescued migrants and refugees on board the Captain Morgan Vessels

AFRICA

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 23, 2020/ -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), are calling on Malta and other European States to speed efforts to bring some 160 rescued migrants and refugees, who remain at sea on board two Captain Morgan vessels, on to dry land and to safety. A separate group of 21 people, mostly families, women and children, were already evacuated and disembarked in Malta several days ago. It is important to disembark the remaining people as soon as possible, as they have been on board the vessel for some two weeks - the standard quarantine period for COVID-19 - without any clarity on disembarkation. It is unacceptable to leave people at sea longer than necessary, especially under difficult and unsuitable conditions. Me...