UN Refugee Agency

Pandemic Relief: Beirut Test-Drives Mobile Medicine for Migrants

March 10, 2021

Through the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, Beirut was spared the catastrophic caseloads that brought many cities around the world to their knees throughout the spring and early summer of 2020, but the port blast on Aug. 4 changed all that. The explosion itself killed at least 200 people, left 300,000 people homeless …

Cities, Covid-19, Health and Population

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THIS WEEK @UN

India’s Reliance on Fossil Fuels, Casting Light on UN Counterterrorism Ops, US Asylum Seekers Stuck in Mexico

August 29, 2020

by Allison Lecce

US asylum seekers pushed back into Mexico in unprecedented numbers amid Covid-19; an investigation into the mysterious work of the richly financed UN counterterrorism operations; chastising India for its support of fossil fuels; and a UN envoy’s assessment of the new United Arab Emirates-Israeli pact. Greetings from This Week @UN, our summary highlighting the most …

Climate and Environment, Middle East, Refugees, Terrorism, This Week @UN, US Foreign Relations

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COVID-19

In Mexico, the UN Refugee Agency Alleviates a Crisis Created by the Trump Administration

August 26, 2020

by Maurizio Guerrero

“Yes, there’s always the fear of being kidnapped,” said Óscar, a 30-year old asylum seeker who fled political persecution in Cuba in May 2019 and landed in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, where violent crime and gang activity are common. Óscar, who used a pseudonym to protect his privacy, knew of asylum …

Covid-19, Human Rights, Refugees, US Foreign Relations

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THIS WEEK @UN

UN to the Rescue in Beirut, a Billion Children Out of School, Hiroshima Anniversary

August 7, 2020

by Allison Lecce

A major explosion rocks a Beirut port, killing at least 154 people, and the United Nations and others come to the rescue; and Secretary-General António Guterres calls for the reopening of schools worldwide, “once local transmission of Covid-19 is under control.” Facing a “global catastrophe,” more than one billion students have been physically shut …

This Week @UN

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COVID-19

Never Underestimate the Grit of Malawians to Survive the Coronavirus

May 25, 2020

by Antonio Menendez de Zubillaga

LILONGWE, Malawi — Ever since an expatriate tourism adviser labeled Malawi the “warm heart of Africa” in the 1970s, Malawians have worn the title proudly, sparing no effort to welcome visitors with open arms. My family and I felt immediately at home here in Lilongwe, the capital. We arrived in April 2018, as part …

Africa, Covid-19

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COVID-19

Quarantined and Stalked by Covid-19, UN Field Staff Live With Fear and Anxiety

May 11, 2020

by Barbara Crossette

Far from United Nations headquarters in New York and its offices in other cities around the world, many thousands of UN staff members are adjusting to new, more disturbing and dangerous realities in the era of Covid-19. Daily life is taking a psychological toll in both humanitarian and peacekeeping operations, prompting more focus on …

Africa, Covid-19

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With Trump’s Human-Rights Policies, Religious ‘Values’ Take Priority

June 7, 2018

by Barbara Crossette

For almost three centuries, through street protests, court battles and a civil war, the United States has sporadically but steadily advanced and expanded human-rights protections and commitments in domestic and foreign policies. Now Donald Trump and the most conservative, ideologically driven officials on his team want to turn back this record in fundamental ways, …

Gender-Based Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Brazil Can Lead the Way on Managing the World’s Refugee Crisis

June 5, 2018

by Adriana Erthal Abdenur and Maiara Folly

RIO DE JANEIRO — Only weeks from the start of the 2018 World Cup, soccer teams of refugees from Mali, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Angola, Burkina Faso and Gambia who had migrated to Brazil became the protagonists in a recent soccer competition: the Multicultural Cup, organized by Instituto Adus, a nongovernmental …

Migration, Refugees, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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TAKE A LOOK

Refugee Health: A Defining Issue of the Century

May 11, 2017

by Barbara Crossette

In mid-2016, the United Nations refugee agency and Ugandan officials made a horrific discovery. Cholera was being introduced in a migrant settlement by refugees from South Sudan who were fleeing the extreme violence in their imploding country. In barely six weeks, beginning last July, 80,000 South Sudanese had arrived in Uganda when the outbreak …

Health and Population, Migration, Myanmar, Refugees, Take a Look, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

The UN Should Just Say No to Returning Refugees to Danger

February 27, 2017

by Bill Frelick

Pressure is building on Afghan and Somali refugees to go home, even if they no longer have homes to return to. It is not surprising that this pressure is coming from governments that have been hosting huge numbers of refugees and want to end what seems to them like a never-ending burden. What is …

Human Rights, Migration, Refugees, WORLDVIEWS

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Fleeing Violence, Syrian Women Try to Cope in Turkey and Lebanon

April 6, 2016

by Johanna Higgs and Liga Rudzite

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Amima and Fatima Jebari are Syrian sisters who fled last year to the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, after the Free Syrian Army entered their village in the north, they said, and violence ensued between the rebel group and the government forces of Bashar al-Assad in the …

Gender-Based Violence, Human Rights, Middle East, Refugees, Syria, Women

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In UN Refugee Camps, Sports Soothe Trauma for Children

January 27, 2016

by Laura E. Kirkpatrick

“Sport is the only area of human existence that has achieved universal law,” said Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee when he announced that elite athletes who were refugees could compete in the 2016 Olympics under that flag. “Regardless of where in the world we practice sport, the rules are the …

Education, Gender-Based Violence, Health and Population, Refugees

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GOINGS-ON

Filippo Grandi of Italy to Lead the UN Refugee Agency Amid Continued Crisis

November 11, 2015

by Dulcie Leimbach

Filippo Grandi of Italy has been selected by Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, to become the 11th UN High Commissioner for Refugees, a post based in Geneva. Grandi will be officially voted into office by the UN General Assembly next week. Grandi replaces António Guterres of Portugal, 66, who has been high commissioner …

GOINGS-ON

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In New York State, a City Willing to Settle Refugees the Right Way

October 20, 2015

by Laura E. Kirkpatrick

BUFFALO — Inside this city’s West Side Bazaar, a business development incubator set up to assist refugees and immigrants here, colors dazzle and appetizing aromas waft around every corner. The bazaar is a packed mashup of a Middle Eastern souk with an outdoor market of Southern Asia. Vendors and aspiring restaurateurs from some of …

Migration, Refugees, Women

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

August 5, 2015

by Maria Luisa Gambale

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 …