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Hello Jammu News at 1:16:00 PM 0


United Nations, Jan 11: A little more than a week into the New Year, close to 200 migrants or refugees have reportedly died or gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea – with up to 100 unaccounted for since Saturday, the United Nations migration agency has said.
“It's very distressing that during the first 10 days of 2018 we have seen close to 800 migrants rescued or intercepted off the Libyan coast, with more lives lost at sea,” said Othman Belbeisi, Chief of the International Organisation for Migration's (IOM) Libya Mission on Wednesday.
“More has to be done to reduce irregular unsafe movements of people along the Central Mediterranean route,” he added.
By contrast, at a time when Mediterranean migrants' death dropped sharply, IOM recorded only 26 on the Mediterranean Sea lanes in December.
While January 2017 had witnessed some 254 deaths, this week's reports suggest that the start of 2018 may be even deadlier.
IOM reported on Tuesday that 81 Mediterranean Sea deaths of migrants or refugees were recorded in the first eight days of the year – five in Western Mediterranean waters off Spain and Morocco, the rest between Italy and Libya.
In the latest, and third deadliest, shipwreck in the Mediterranean since Saturday, the Libyan Coast Guard rescued three rubber boats with 279 migrants – 19 women, 243 men, 13 boys and four girls – in an operation lasting at least 12 hours.
According to survivors, and a press release by Libya's Coast Guard, about 100 people on board remained missing.
IOM was present at the disembarkation point in Tripoli and provided the survivors with food and water.
IOM's Christine Petré reported that the boats departed from the coastal towns of Azzawiyah and Al Khums – with most of the survivors hailing from African countries, including Senegal, Mali and Nigeria. The Libyan Cost Guard reported that eight are from Bangladesh while two are from Pakistan.
The UN migration agency continues to provide support and direct humanitarian assistance to the survivors of this latest tragedy, many of whom now are at Libya's Tajoura detention centre. UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 7:30:00 PM 0


Dhaka, Jan 8: Rohingya people were still arriving here in Cox's Bazar - the New Year bringing no end to the reports of violence and fears, which forced them to flee their homes in Myanmar, says the IOM on Monday.
Over 2,400 Rohingyas are estimated to have arrived in Bangladesh during December 2017, with more people continuing to arrive each day as 2018 begins, according to the UN Migration Agency.
A major upsurge of violence in Northern Rakhine State of Myanmar, in late August 2017 forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.
While the number of daily arrivals has dropped significantly since the height of the influx, many of those now reaching Bangladesh say they faced additional challenges, which delayed their escape.
We couldn't leave before now because our village was surrounded. A month ago my two sons were slaughtered. They went out fishing and they were killed," said 50-year-old Ahmed, who was one of the first to arrive in Bangladesh in 2018, along with his two daughters, aged 20 and 18, and his 15-year-old son.
He said that the family had endured weeks of fear in their village in Rathedaung, Rakhine, unable to leave their house even to collect firewood.
Ahmed said that they had to pay a bribe of 150,000 kyat (c.USD $112) to the neighbours, who had been threatening them, to be allowed to leave.
On arrival at the Balukhali settlement in Cox's Bazar, Ahmed and his remaining family received medical check-ups and shelter kits of ropes, tarpaulins and basic household goods to enable them to create a place to live in the sprawling camps where 655,000 other refugees have sought safety since August.
I feel safe here, said Ahmed's 18-year-old daughter Raysuana, who said her mother had died years ago and her father had worked hard to bring up his family alone as a widower.
As they waited at the arrival point in Balukhali, a puddle of water fell through a section of the tarpaulin roof. The unexpected noise left Ahmed badly shaken.
We continue to see a great deal of distress among Rohingya survivors arriving in Bangladesh," said Olga Rebolledo, IOM's mental health and psycho-social support coordinator in Cox's Bazar.
They have faced a lot of adversity and many are in need of psycho-social support to help restore a sense of safety and further strengthen the resilience they've already shown, added Rebolledo.
As an indication of why some of the new arrivals have reached Bangladesh so many weeks after the main influx, out of the 17 families waiting to be led to their new shelter sites by IOM, the UN Migration Agency, on January 4, ten were declared "extremely vulnerable" cases: mostly single mothers, widows or people with disabilities, who will struggle to build their own shelters or even survive without the additional support, which will be provided by IOM and partner organisations.
IOM guided the "extremely vulnerable" new arrivals to the less congested part of the site, where they will live, helping carrying their shelter kits. Once they got to the new site, help was given to construct their shelters.
The houses on both sides of ours [in Buthidaung, Rakhine] were burned. Only my house was left," said one of the new arrivals, Asama Begum, 35 years old.
Her husband died before the violence, leaving her with a new baby and a son now 15 years old. She said the teenager was attacked a few months earlier leaving him with a badly cut leg, which became infected and swollen, rendering him unable to escape when others fled their village.
I stayed because my son was sick. We were really scared to be alone in the house, but tried just to find the mental strength to stay. But then [people] started burning down the [remaining] empty houses around ours and we could not stay any longer," said Asama.
She said, she paid someone to carry her son to safety.
After moving from one country to another, at least, we are getting this shelter. It is so peaceful here. We weren't even allowed to stand freely in our own country so getting this means a lot, she said as she stood looking out at the shelter where she was about to move in.
Nearby, Ahmed was about to become her new neighbour. Initially anxious about how he would clear the ground on which he would build his shelter, he relaxed after IOM partner's site management volunteers put him in touch with the maji camp leader who was able to lend him tools.
It will be peaceful here. No one is chasing or torturing us. No fear of death here. I witnessed my daughter was tortured and my sons were slaughtered. I will never go back. I'd rather die here, said Ahmed. UNI 
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Hello Jammu News at 6:10:00 PM 0


United Nations, Nov 29: Almost half of identified child trafficking cases has begun with a family member’s involvement, new data from the United Nations migration agency has revealed.
Statistics on human trafficking prevention efforts and identifying and protecting survivors –based on data released by The Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative (CTDC), the world’s first human trafficking data portal to include such data contributed by multiple agencies – revealed that family involvement is up to four times higher than in cases of adult trafficking.
“Our Organisation is taking a leading role in increasing the access to this critical information in order to strengthen counter-trafficking interventions,” said William Lacy Swing, Director General of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on Tuesday.
According to the new data, children are most commonly trafficked into forced sexual exploitation, begging and domestic work. It also revealed that children are most likely to be coerced into trafficking through physical, sexual and psychological abuse, suggesting the need for more prevention efforts specifically targeting children and their families.
Additionally, boys are more likely to be recruited by a family member than girls.
Meanwhile, adults are more likely to be controlled by having their documents confiscated or their irregular status in a foreign country exploited.
Initiated by IOM, in partnership with non-governmental organization (NGO) Polaris, the new CTDC data portal combats and prevents modern-day slavery by hosting the world’s largest open-access, multi-stakeholder repository of human trafficking data.
The CTDC continues to build partnerships with other counter-trafficking actors and currently hosts nearly 80,000 human trafficking victim cases consisting of 180 nationalities exploited in 117 countries. Forthcoming data, which will be contributed by counter-trafficking partner organisations around the world is expected to have a large counter-trafficking impact.
The statistics related to child trafficking cases with family involvement are based on nearly 12,000 trafficking survivors for which the recruitment process information is known.
In response to these statistics, IOM is calling for governments and other development and humanitarian partners to step-up counter-trafficking interventions aimed at children by helping household heads to make long-term plans for themselves and their family; helping children identify potentially dangerous or exploitative situations and know how to get support; and ensuring that protection and systems are accessible to all children, regardless of their migration status.
Child protection systems should act in the best interests of the child in all circumstances, including by providing solutions to bring sustainable resolutions.
IOM has underscored that more research is needed to better understand the specific risk and protective factors that make children vulnerable to human trafficking, saying that children’s voices should be heard in the design, implementation and evaluation of services, policies and interventions, that the legitimacy of their aspirations should be recognised. UNI
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Hello Jammu News at 2:34:00 PM 0

Bonn, Nov 9: As the number of people displaced worldwide due to climate change-related events continues to grow, the United Nations and its partners are focusing on regional approaches, framed by existing practice, to respond to the issue of ‘climate refugees.’
The number of disaster displacements on annual average between 2008 and 2016 amounted to 25.3 million, according to figures released by the Norwegian Refugee Council. The five countries globally that have the highest proportion of their population affected by displacements are all island States: Cuba, Fiji, Philippines, Tonga and Sri Lanka. “During this hurricane season alone for example, we saw the displacement of 1.7 million people in Cuba – that’s the equivalent of 15 per cent of its population,” said Camila Minerva, Humanitarian Programme Manager with Oxfam in the Dominican Republic, during a press conference on ‘human mobility and climate change’ at the UN Climate Conference (COP23), in Bonn, Germany, The UN News said. “The poorest and the most marginalised are five times more likely to be displaced and to remain so for longer time than people in higher income countries, and [this number] is increasing with climate change,” she added. Mariam Traore, Migration, Environment and Climate Change Specialist with the UN International Organisaton for Migration (IOM), said that it is also important to remember that the slow onset effect of climate change makes people move and migrate, sometimes in a forced way. “In a country like Bangladesh, we did a survey last year and 40 per cent of the households we interviewed told us that climate change contributed directly to their decision to migrate,” she explained. In this context, some have suggested the creation of a 'climate refugee' status, protecting those forced to leave their country because of the impacts of climate change. “The legals status for refugees is provided by the 1951 Refugee Convention, which is very clear on what [basis such status is conferred], which is basically persecution,” said Marine Franck, Programme Officer (climate change), Division of International Protection, in the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “In the context of climate change displacement, there might be cases where there is persecution involved where this refugee status could apply but in most cases, it doesn’t,” she added. She recalled that in 2011, States had suggested that UNHCR create a new status of refugee for people displaced because of climate change. “But some States were not at all ready for that,” she stated. Ms Franck stressed that this issue of broadening the scope of refugee protection “is not necessarily desirable, because there is a risk of undermining the refugees fleeing persecution and violent conflict.” Moreover, she explained: “We would need also to renegotiate the Convention and there is no appetite for that from States and it might not be the most effective protection tool.” UNHCR thinks it is better to look at what exists at the regional level and try to have a bottom-up approach with broadening at the regional level using practices that are effective. She mentioned humanitarian protection visas, temporary protection and stay arrangements, as well as migration laws that can provide real protection. “It is much more effective because States are going to look at what their neighbours are doing and may adopt the same kind of procedures, rather than if we adopt a global convention or a new category […] it might not be easy to negotiate and it is not also sure that States will then implement it properly,” Ms Franck said. UNI
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