Refugees

A UN Envoy Tries Something New in Syria

• September 27, 2015

Four working groups formed to dissect and discuss the Syrian crisis in concrete terms are being set up by the United Nations in a plan conceived by Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy in Syria since July 2014. The working groups and their Syrian interlocutors will discuss safety and protection; political and legal topics; …

Middle East, Refugees

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Desperate Escape: Why Syrian and Other Refugees Are Rushing to Europe

Shazia Z. Rafi

• September 18, 2015

As a relentless remake of the Middle East and North Africa has been taking place, mass displacements of populations have also been occurring. And more chaos is ahead, says the United States Defense Intelligence chief, Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, in his assessment that Iraq and Syria may have been permanently torn asunder by war …

Middle East, Migration, Refugees, UN Agencies

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Ban Ki-moon Shuffles Up to Buffalo, but Why?

Laura E. Kirkpatrick

• August 21, 2015

BUFFALO — Last Friday, Aug. 14, the United Nations secretary-general took a “summer Friday” and spent the afternoon in Buffalo. Robert G. Wilmer, chief executive officer of M&T Bank, the nation’s 17th-largest, had invited the secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, to the city. The two met while Wilmer was traveling in South Korea, where Ban is from. …

Refugees, Secretary-General, US-UN Relations

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In Italy, a Patchwork of Services for Migrants Arriving at Its Shores [Video]

Maria Luisa Gambale

• August 5, 2015

ROME — Italy is a slender peninsula ringed by 4,722 miles of coastline, a blessing that brings thousands of Italians to the sea each August for Ferragosto, the country’s summer vacation period. The coastline — one of the longest in the world — has also been attracting boats full of refugees and migrants, in …

Africa, Libya, Migration, Refugees

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At a Hotel Run by Refugees in Vienna, a Breath of Sanity

Dulcie Leimbach

• June 24, 2015

VIENNA — Not far from the palatial city center that symbolizes so much of old and modern Vienna, the Magdas Hotel presents an altogether different scene for visitors to this capital. At Magdas — which opened this year and means, in German, “Like that!” — the hotel is managed mostly by refugees: 20 people …

Migration, Refugees

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Europe Forges Ahead to ‘Disrupt’ Human Smuggling at Sea From Libya

Dulcie Leimbach

• June 22, 2015

After a month of near silence in Europe on a proposal to stop human smuggling across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to European shores, European foreign ministers are moving ahead this week on a plan to “disrupt” smugglers’ vessels in international or European waters. The plan, introduced on June 22, was noted in the …

Africa, Libya, Migration, Refugees

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Starting From Scratch as a Non-Western Immigrant in Canada

Divya Kaeley

• June 10, 2015

WINNIPEG, Canada — Every new immigrant to Canada has to live through the three stages of acculturation, which for most people is not easy. First comes the thrill and joy of exploring a new land, then feelings of marginalization and hostility toward the host country and, finally, acceptance. The numbers of non-European immigrant women …

Health and Population, Migration, Refugees, Women

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The Controversial Cambodian-Australian Refugee Deal Hits Snags

Clothilde Le Coz

• April 21, 2015

PHNOM PENH — A controversial $40 million deal signed between the Australian and Cambodian governments last September to resettle about 1,000 refugees from detention centers on the South Pacific island nation of Nauru to Cambodia was the first time two ratifying states of the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees agreed to transfer their …

Asia, Human Rights, Myanmar, Refugees, UN Agencies

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Mostly, Sahrawi Women Just Want to Go Home

Johanna Higgs

• March 5, 2015

NEAR TINDOUF, Algeria — Our goal was to understand the dynamics of women who live in the refugee camps here in the Sahara Desert, where tens of thousands of Sahrawi people reside in tents and mud-brick buildings, having fled their homeland up to decades ago. The camps originated in 1975-1976, when the Sahrawis first …

Africa, Refugees, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping, Women

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Asylum Seekers Knocking at Sweden’s Door Test Its History of Warm Welcome

Alexander Brotman

• October 10, 2014

Far from the first point of entry into Europe for asylum seekers, Sweden has emerged as one of the most generous nations in the European Union, offering to take in high numbers of migrants when other nations have been reluctant to do so. Sweden, with a population of just under 10 million, received 54,300 …

Migration, Refugees

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Women Refugees in Germany Demand Better Conditions, and the Government Responds

Yermi Brenner

• October 2, 2014

BERLIN, Germany — António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, recently praised Germany’s asylum policy, calling it a “positive example for other European states to follow.” In the streets of Berlin, however, the situation appears to be far from positive. In the last few months, the German capital has experienced several high-profile demonstrations …

Migration, Refugees, Women

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As Africa’s Population Growth Explodes, Its Children Lose Out

Barbara Crossette

• September 9, 2014

Among a clutch of new studies surveying the fate of children globally in 2014, a year that may be remembered as the most violent and catastrophic in more than half a century, Unicef has looked into the future of Africa and found that an unexpectedly persistent population boom is not only robbing children of …

Governance, Health and Population, Refugees

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The Syrian Refugee Crisis Poses Ethical Questions for the UN and Others

Alexander Brotman

• July 28, 2014

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, 2.9 million people have fled the country to refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and beyond. This has not only destabilized many Middle Eastern countries, but it has also caused continuous public debates inside nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations over what the …

Middle East, Refugees

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What Good Can a Film Do?

Maria Luisa Gambale

• June 30, 2014

ISTANBUL — In 2013, Daniela Kon founded the Social Impact Media Awards to give a boost to a certain kind of documentary film. Documentaries don’t usually make a lot of money. Except for a few lucky theatrical or television releases each year that manage to do more than break even, most documentary films are …

Asia, Human Rights, Poverty, Refugees

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Children Trapped in Syria Suffering From the War

Lorraine Boissoneault

• May 8, 2013

As the Syrian government increasingly resorts to using heavy armaments and long-distance aircraft — and possibly chemical weapons — to attack the opposition movement and other enemies, the risk of children being killed or maimed in the fighting has risen sharply, says the United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for …