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You are here: Home / Archives for Refugees

Austria: Arrests after 71 dead refugees found in truck

August 28, 2015 by Nasheman

Austrian police confirm final death toll, saying the refugees included eight women and four children.

Initial investigations revealed the truck had left Budapest on Wednesday morning, before being sighted near the Austrian border overnight [Reuters]

Initial investigations revealed the truck had left Budapest on Wednesday morning, before being sighted near the Austrian border overnight [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Austrian authorities say three people have been arrested in Hungary after the bodies of 71 refugees were found in a truck abandoned on a motorway.

Police had originally put the death toll at between 20 and 50 after the truck was found on Thursday, but Austrian officials revised the figure upwards on Friday.

Speaking at a press conference in Eisenstadt, Austrian police official Hans Peter Doskozil said the dead comprised 59 men, 8 women and four children, including a young infant.

He said it was likely that those in the truck suffocated.

Of the three arrested, one is a Bulgarian who is believed to have owned the vehicle. The others, a Bulgarian and another with Hungarian documents, are “pretty certain to be those who drove the vehicle,” Doskozil said.

Officials said they hoped the three would lead them to others responsible for trafficking the dead across Europe.

The truck, found on Thursday, had travelled to Austria from Hungary. The partly decomposed bodies were piled on top of each other in a cargo container in the vehicle, parked off the highway in Burgenland state.

The shocking discovery cast a shadow over talks in Vienna, where Europe’s leaders had gathered on Thursday to discuss the mounting refugee crisis on the continent.

“We were all shaken by the horrible news that up to 50 people died … these were people coming to seek safety,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday, prior to the new toll being released.

“This is a warning to work to resolve this problem and show solidarity.”

The conference held a minute of silence to commemorate the dead.

This year has seen record numbers of people trying to reach the EU by sea and land as they flee conflicts in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

In Austria, the number of asylum requests rose above 28,300 between January and June alone – as many as for the whole of 2014 – and officials expect the total to reach 80,000 this year.

The Western Balkans conference was called to find a common European answer to the refugee crisis that is overwhelming some countries while leaving others relatively unaffected.

Austrian plan

At the summit, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz floated elements of a five-point plan that foresees establishing safe havens in the refugees’ home countries where those seeking asylum in the EU could be processed and – if they qualify – be given safe passage to Europe.

Beyond safe havens, possibly protected by troops acting under a UN mandate, the Austrian plan to be submitted to EU decision-makers foresees increased controls on Europe’s outer borders and coordinated action against human smuggling.

It also calls for refugee quotas for each of the EU’s 28 members – something that many countries have opposed.

 

EU members Greece and Italy, and non-EU Balkan countries such as Macedonia and Serbia – whose leaders attended the summit – are dealing with the initial refugee burden through sea and land routes. But many of these refugees are only in transit to western European countries.

Nearly 300,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean this year with at least 2,373 “migrants and refugees” dying in a bid to reach Europe, nearly 300 more than the same period last year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Austria, Europe, Refugees

Record number of refugees enter Hungary from Serbia

August 25, 2015 by Nasheman

More than 2,000 refugees crossed frontier on Monday, just days before Hungary completes a border fence.

After crossing Serbia, refugees enter Hungary to continue their journey to western and northern EU countries [EPA]

After crossing Serbia, refugees enter Hungary to continue their journey to western and northern EU countries [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

A record number of refugees streamed into EU member Hungary from Serbia, police said, just days before Hungary completes a border fence.

A total of 2,093 potential asylum seekers, the highest ever daily total, crossed the border near the Hungarian town of Roszke, a police statement said on Monday.

They were part of a wave of around 8,000 refugees whose journey to the European Union had been blocked last week when Macedonia declared a state of emergency and closed its borders after being overwhelmed by the huge influx of people, amid Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II.

Many refugees said they had passed through Serbia after travelling through Macedonia’s border with Greece.

“We were stopped in Macedonia for two days, the riots were terrible, police used guns and tear gas, I saw an old woman beaten, her money and papers taken,” a 29-year-old IT engineer from Mosul in Iraq told the AFP news agency.

Al Jazeera’s Djordge Kostic, reporting near the border with Hungary, said an estimated 1,500 refugees are currently staying at 28 shelters set up by the UN and Russian-Serbian aid organisation in the city of Kanjiza.

He said the refugee situation at Kanjiza is “better organised” than in other parts of Serbia.

“There water, food, toilet and shower stalls provided to them. They even have Wi-Fi,” he said.

From there, the refugees can proceed to Horgos, about 12-km away, where they can take the train to Hungary, our correspondent said.

Meanwhile,Al Jazeera’s Aljosa Milenkovic, reporting from Presevo on the Serbia-Macedonia border, said more refugees were likely to come, “putting to test the region’s ability to cope with the large number of people transiting through”.

The latest movements came as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Fracois Hollande called for a unified system for the right to asylum, and the setting up of reception centres in Greece and Italy.

The issue is set to top the agenda at a summit of Balkan leaders on Thursday, which Merkel will attend.

Razor-wire fence

Hungary has registered more than 100,000 asylum seekers so far in 2015, over double the total for all of last year. In 2012, the figure was just 2,000.

The numbers have sharply increased to around 1,500 a day in August, after Hungary’s conservative government announced it would build a razor-wire fence along its southern border with Serbia.

In recent days, refugees have entered Hungary alongside a cross-border train track near Roszke, one of the few sections of the border with Serbia not yet blocked by three rolls of razor-wire, which the government says will completely seal off the border by August 31.

The fence is one of several measures making it more difficult for refugees to enter and stay in Hungary. The government is also tightening asylum laws, introducing penalties for illegal border-crossing, and the planned closure of permanent refugee camps.

About 102,000 “migrants” entered the EU via Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Montenegro or Kosovo between January and July this year, versus just 8,000 for the same period in 2014, according to EU border agency Frontex.

The number of refugees now making their way from Greece towards the EU is worrying many EU politicians and has left the Balkan countries struggling to cope with the humanitarian crisis.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Europe, Hungary, Refugees, Serbia

Thousands stuck in limbo at Macedonia border bottleneck

August 22, 2015 by Nasheman

Rain-soaked refugees brave elements in no man’s land as Macedonian police continue to block border crossing from Greece.

A Syrian refugee woman cries on her husbands arms as they wait to cross into Macedonia at the Greek-Macedonian border [Reuters]

A Syrian refugee woman cries on her husbands arms as they wait to cross into Macedonia at the Greek-Macedonian border [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Thousands of rain-soaked refugees remain trapped in a no man’s land between Greece and Macedonia as Macedonian police continue to block the frontier, preventing them from heading north to other nations within the European Union.

Police let small groups of families with children cross the border overnight on Friday by walking to a railway station in the Macedonian town of Gevgelija, where most take trains to the border with Serbia before heading towards EU-member Hungary.

Those who could not cross, including many women and children, spent the rainy and chilly night in the open, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from Idomeni on the Greek side of the border, said people were continuing to arrive at the border crossing, where a “bottleneck” had formed on Saturday morning.

“This is now a bottleneck of people, there are hundreds, thousands even, and they’ll keep coming throughout the day,” he said.

Our correspondent said large numbers of Syrians had moved back from the point of crossing to separate themselves from other nationalities.

“They want to separate themselves from the other nationalities; the Pakistanis, the Afghans, the Iraqis…what they say is that all these other nationalities claim to be Syrians as well, because it is the Syrians who have the most valid claim to asylum.

“They are refugees, they are fleeing civil war. Many of the others, they say, are economic migrants.”

Violent clashes

Police fired stun grenades and clashed with the migrants who tried to rush over the border on Friday, a day after Macedonia’s government declared a state of emergency on the frontier to deal with the issue.

Ivo Kotevsky, a spokesman for the interior ministry, told Al Jazeera that the officers had not used violence against the refugees but had been forced to take measures to protect themselves and the border.

Kotevsky said Macedonia was trying to do its best in protecting the refugees, who had been “practically expelled from Greece”.

The refugees hope that by crossing to Macedonia they would be able to take trains through Serbia to Hungary, an EU member, which has begun erecting a fence to try to keep the distraught refugees out.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) urged the Macedonian government to do more, saying it should allocate a site to accommodate people fleeing war.

UNHCR spokesman Petros Mastakas told Al Jazeera that the refugees included “hundreds of vulnerable persons, children, babies and those with extreme vulnerabilities including medical needs.

“Most of them stay rough in the open air,” he said.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Europe, Macedonia, Refugees

World Food Program to cut funding for Syrian refugees in Lebanon

August 7, 2015 by Nasheman

Lebanon is home to some 1.2 million Syrian refugees. (AFP/File)

Lebanon is home to some 1.2 million Syrian refugees. (AFP/File)

by Press TV

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has been forced to cut in half its assistance to Syrian refugees in Lebanon over a budget shortfall.

The agency slashed its economic funds for Syrian refugees, leaving them with a monthly salary of only $13.50, due to a lack of funds.

“Starting January this year, we had to reduce the value of the assistance we give by 30 percent to make funds stretch over a longer period of time. But in July, the funding shortfall became so severe that we had to decrease the value of the assistance we give by 50 percent,” World Food Program spokesperson Dina el-Kassaby told Press TV.

The WFP, which was forced to briefly halt its assistance to Syrians in Lebanon last December, said it was able to keep the program operating after receiving new funds.

“We do need to continue to have help because basically until a political solution is found and refugees can safely go back home, they will continue to need our assistance,” Kassaby added.

The UN agency provides the refugees with an electronic voucher which allows them to purchase food products at various stores in Lebanon.

Syrian refugees, many living in tents and unable to legally work, say the recent cut in assistance has made their situation worsen significantly.

Lebanon, which has a population of nearly 4.5 million, is currently home to almost 1.2 million refugees.

Millions of Syrians have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the ongoing unrest in their country, fueled by ISIL militants.

More than 240,000 people have lost their lives since the unrest in Syria started in 2011.

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Refugees, Syrian refugees

One in every 122 humans forcibly displaced by war and persecution: UN

June 20, 2015 by Nasheman

New report exposes ‘unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of global forced displacement as well as the response required is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before.’

Refugees and migrants on a fishing boat pictured before making contact with the Italian navy. (Photo: Italian Coastguard/Massimo Sestini)

Refugees and migrants on a fishing boat pictured before making contact with the Italian navy. (Photo: Italian Coastguard/Massimo Sestini)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

As wars and persecution escalate worldwide, one out of every 122 people on the planet is a refugee, seeking asylum, or internally displaced, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported Thursday.

Taken together, this population of humans wrenched from their homes by violence would constitute the 24th largest country in the world.

The agency’s new report, Global Trends: World at War, chronicles what UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres calls “an age of unprecedented mass displacement.” Based on data gathered in 2014, the study documents the harrowing human toll of new wars, resurgent conflicts, and long-term violent displacement.

At least 59.5 million people were violently displaced during 2014, roughly half of them children. This is a dramatic jump from the 51.2 million people displaced in 2013. And these numbers do not include the many people who are displaced by poverty and global economic inequality—meaning that the actual number of people uprooted is far higher.

Displacement has increased four-fold over the past four years, with the conflict in Syria acting as the largest driver of this rise and surging conflicts from the Central African Republic to Yemen to Ukraine also fueling these grim numbers. The uprooted also include the long-term displaced, including people from Afghanistan and Palestine.

Despite the role of rich nations in driving this crisis through increasing militarism, the UN report notes that “the global distribution of refugees remains heavily skewed away from wealthier nations and towards the less wealthy,” with countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, and Lebanon taking in far more refugees than European nations and the United States.

“Far too many of the world’s richest and most peaceful countries are ignoring their global responsibility to provide assistance and protection,” said secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland, in a press statement responding to the UN’s findings. “They are hiding behind closed borders.”

Western countries are not just closing their borders, however—they are also militarizing them.

As migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Europe face the rising danger of death at sea, the European Union is rolling back its humanitarian rescue response and replacing it with a militarized one by targeting and attacking alleged networks of smugglers.

In a letter released last month, over 300 slavery and migration scholars asked, “Where is the moral justification for some of the world’s richest nations employing their naval and technological might in a manner that leads to the death of men, women and children from some of the world’s poorest and most war torn regions?”

Speaking to this crisis, Guterres said in a press statement: “We are witnessing a paradigm change, an unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of global forced displacement as well as the response required is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before.”

“For an age of unprecedented mass displacement,” Guterres continued, “we need an unprecedented humanitarian response and a renewed global commitment to tolerance and protection for people fleeing conflict and persecution.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Human rights, Immigration, Refugees, United Nations

Refugee crises 'reflect world in chaos'

June 20, 2015 by Nasheman

Political will to stop conflicts missing, with old ones festering and new ones constantly erupting, UN official says.

A Somali refugee child carries her sibling at the Ifo camp in Dadaab near the Kenya-Somalia border [Reuters]

A Somali refugee child carries her sibling at the Ifo camp in Dadaab near the Kenya-Somalia border [Reuters]

by Diana Al Rifai, Al Jazeera

Doha: The UN refugee agency has said that the record number of refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people globally is “a reflection of a world in chaos”.

On the eve of World Refugee Day, the UN released a new report showing that the number of people forcibly displaced at the end of 2014 had risen to 59.5 million, compared with 51.2 million a year earlier and 37.5 million a decade ago.

June 20 has been marked by the UN as World Refugee Day since 2000 to honour those who are forced to flee their home countries under the threat of persecution, conflict and violence.

Globally, one out of every 122 people is now either a refugee, internally displaced or seeking asylum.

Melissa Fleming, UNHCR spokesperson, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that not nearly enough is being done globally to combat the unprecedented crisis.

“Displacement numbers at this scale are a reflection of a world in chaos, where the political leadership to stop and prevent conflicts is missing in action,” she said.

“The old conflicts continue to fester unresolved and new conflicts continuously erupt. And humanitarian organisations are acutely underfunded.

“We fear that in 2015, at current forecasts, will have to make do with as much as $200m-$300m less than in 2015 because of currency fluctuations.

“This means we cannot meet even the basic needs of the millions of forcibly displaced people in desperate situations.”

The large increase in displaced persons has primarily been driven by the war in Syria. Almost four million Syrians are now refugees, while a further 7.6 million are internally displaced, the UN says.

“The level of displacement and suffering is growing by the day [in Syria] and we fear it will get much worse before it gets better,” Fleming said.

Afghanistan (2.59 million) and Somalia (1.1 million) are the next biggest refugee source countries.

Major new displacements have also been witnessed in Africa – mostly in the Central African Republic and South Sudan.

Overall, the largest refugee populations under UNHCR care are Afghans, Syrians and Somalis – together accounting for more than half of the global refugee total.Meanwhile, Pakistan, Iran, and Lebanon are hosting more refugees than other countries.

Internal displacement – people forced to flee to other parts of their country – now amounts to a record 33.3 million people, accounting for the largest increase of any group in the new UN report.

Among all those displaced globally, Fleming told Al Jazeera, more than half are children.

“We are particularly worried about a lost generation of Syrian children,” she said.

“Inside Syria, their schools have been bombed or, living in displacement, they have no access to education. And refugee children face similar limitations. In Lebanon, for instance, only 20 percent of Syrian refugee children are in school.”

The UN’s new report also indicates growth in the numbers of refugees seeking safety through dangerous sea journeys, from the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and the seas of Southeast Asia.

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Conflict, Refugees

Indonesia to 'turn back every boat carrying Rohingyas'

May 12, 2015 by Nasheman

Military says it would not allow boats as nearly 2,000 migrants arrive in Indonesia and Malaysia in past two days.

Indonesian paramedic assists a migrant child at a clinic after being rescued from a boat in Indonesia's Aceh province [Reuters]

Indonesian paramedic assists a migrant child at a clinic after being rescued from a boat in Indonesia’s Aceh province [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Indonesian military has told Al Jazeera that they will send back any boat with Rohingya migrants entering its waters as a vessel carrying hundreds of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh was turned away towards Malaysia.

Fuad Basya, Indonesian military spokesman, said that they pulled back a boat “full of people in dire conditions, smelling bad, some were screaming”, adding that they provided the migrants with water, food, medicine and fuel.

AFP news agency reported that the boat carrying an estimated 400 migrants was intercepted on the coast of northwestern Aceh region on Monday.

Meanwhile, rights groups have urged regional governments to save thousands of migrants believed to be stranded at sea in Southeast Asia and at the risk of death.

An estimated 6,000 to 8,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar remain trapped in crowded, wooden boats, officials and activists said on Tuesday.

Nearly 2,000 people have reached Malaysia and Indonesia in the past two days after Thailand announced a crackdown on smuggling routes. They were rescued from overcrowded boats after being stranded at sea.

Myanmar shirks responsibility

Even as a large number of migrants originated from Myanmar, its government said that they will not take responsibility for migrants who are not their own citizens.

“If it is true and proven that they are from Myanmar, we will take responsibility for them. But not the Bangladeshis,” Zaw Htay, the director of Myanmar’s president’s office told Al Jazeera.

“Some of the Rohingya people may have come from Bangladesh. We can’t be responsible for them. But we do not accept the name Rohingya. They are Bengali,” Htay added referring to Myanmar’s long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim community.

The Rohingya, who are Muslim, have for decades suffered from state-sanctioned discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which considers them illegal settlers from Bangladesh even though their families have lived there for generations.

Those comments come a day after more than a 1,000 migrants, including children from both countries, were detained in Malaysia after they arrived in the popular Malaysian resort island of Langkawi.

The police chief in Langkawi told Al Jazeera’s Karishma Vyas that 1,158 people were being held on the island. At least 672 are Bangladeshi, and around 486 of them are Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar.

At least 100 women and 60 children were among them. The migrants were in a very poor state, suffering from dehydration as well as hunger.

The police say they believe the captain as well as the other traffickers on the three boats had escaped in another vessel and left the migrants to their own devices.

Regional problem

The Arakan Project, a group advocating for the rights of Rohingya, has said as many as 8,000 people may be adrift.

Chris Lewa, the director of Arakan Project, told Al Jazeera that “there were at least three other boats near Langkawi island in Malaysia – one of them in distress” on Monday night.

She said that a big concern is where these migrants could go, and despite this being a regional problem, if there was any country willing to deal with them.

Earlier, the International Organisation for Migration called on Southeast Asian governments to find and rescue the migrants trapped at sea.

Joe Lowry, a spokesman for the organisation, told Al Jazeera that some of the migrants may have been at sea since early March.

He said that from what they’ve seen so far, many of the migrants who make it to the shore are in poor health, with some suffering from vitamin B deficiency and acute malnutrition.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said 25,000 people are believed to have embarked from January to March, double the previous year’s pace, and that an estimated 300 had died.

Nearly 2,000 people have reached Malaysia and Indonesia in the past two days [Reuters]

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Burma, Indonesia, Myanmar, Refugees, Rohingya, Rohingya Muslims

Malaysia detains hundreds of Rohingya Muslim migrants arriving on boats

May 11, 2015 by Nasheman

At least 1,000 migrants, including many Rohingya Muslims, sent to detention centres after landing on island of Langkawi.

Rohingya Muslims

by Al Jazeera

Malaysian police say more than 1,000 migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been found “illegally” trying to enter the country at the popular resort island of Langkawi.

The 1,018 migrants, many thought to be members of Myanmar’s long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim community, landed on Langkawi late on Sunday night.

“The first capture by the police was made when a boat with the illegal immigrants was stranded at the beach in Langkawi, [and] the second capture was at Tanjung Biawak, Kuala Temonyong,” said Mohd Yusof Abdullah, commander of the Langkawi marine police.

“All the illegal immigrants that have been arrested will be sent to detention centres,” he added in a statement.

Police told the AP news agency that officers received a tip-off from a local fisherman that the boats were coming ashore.

Al Jazeera’s Karishma Vyas, reporting from Kuala Lumpur, said that the migrants were found in “very poor condition,” suffering from severe thirst and hunger.

The migrants were found a day after boats carrying about 500 members of Myanmar’s long-persecuted Rohingya community washed ashore in western Indonesia.

The men, women and children arrived on two separate boats, one carrying around 430 people and the other 70, said Steve Hamilton, deputy chief of mission at the International Organisation for Migration in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital.

Last week, the UN’s refugee agency said in a statement that an estimated 25,000 Rohingyas and Bangladeshis boarded people smugglers’ boats in the first three months of 2015, twice as many in the same months of 2014.

“Based on survivor accounts, we estimate that 300 people died at sea in the first quarter of 2015 as a result of starvation, dehydration and abuse by boat crews,” the statement said.

In the past weeks dozens of corpses , believed to be of Rohingya, were found in Thai jungles bordering Malaysia.

Rohingya Muslims have for decades suffered from state-sanctioned discrimination in Myanmar.

Attacks on the religious minority by Buddhist mobs in the last three years have sparked one of the biggest exoduses of boat people since the Vietnam War, sending 100,000 people fleeing, according to Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, which has monitored the movements of Rohingya for more than a decade.

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Bangladesh, Burma, Malaysia, Myanmar, Refugees, Rohingya, Rohingya Muslims

Report: 38 million people are internally displaced throughout the world, Iraq hardest hit

May 6, 2015 by Nasheman

A photo taken on April 5, 2015 shows an internally displaced Iraqi girl at a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in the northern city of Sammara. (AFP/Mohammed Sawaf)

A photo taken on April 5, 2015 shows an internally displaced Iraqi girl at a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in the northern city of Sammara. (AFP/Mohammed Sawaf)

by Press TV

A record 38 million people across the globe are displaced inside their own homelands due to conflicts and violence, with Iraq being the hardest-hit nation, a watchdog group reveals.

The Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) released the data in a report titled Global Overview 2015 on Wednesday.

The report said nearly one third of the internally displaced persons (IDPs), or 11 million people, were forced from their homes last year alone, with an average of 30,000 people fleeing every day.

The IDMC said the total number of those displaced around the globe in 2014 increased by 14 percent compared to the figure reported in the year before.

“These are the worst figures for forced displacement in a generation, signaling our complete failure to protect innocent civilians,” said Jan Egeland (pictured above), the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which oversees the IDMC.

“This report should be a tremendous wake-up call,” said Egeland, adding, “We must break this trend where millions of men, women and children are becoming trapped in conflict zones around the world.”

The data also showed that a staggering 60 percent of the newly displaced people last year were in just five countries, namely Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Iraqi people have been the hardest hit, with 2.2 million people forced to flee their homes to other parts of the country due to the violence by Daesh.

In Syria, some one million more people were forced from their homes last year, bringing the total number of the IDPs in the Middle Eastern countries to 7.6 million, or 40 percent of the population.

Ukraine also appeared in the IDMC’s report for the first time, with some 646,500 people internally displaced there in 2014 amid fighting between Kiev government troops and pro-Russia forces in the country’s eastern regions.

The watchdog group said the data also showed that there currently are nearly twice as many people who are internally displaced than refugees – those who flee their homeland – without giving an exact number of the refugees.

According to statistics from the United Nations, some 16.7 million people across the globe were living as refugees at the end of 2013.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, Iraq, Refugees

'Forty migrants drown in Mediterranean': Save the Children

May 5, 2015 by Nasheman

Migrants wait to disembark from military ship "Bettica" following a rescue operation at sea on May 5, 2015 in the port of Salerno, southern Italy. (AFP/Mario Laporta)

Migrants wait to disembark from military ship “Bettica” following a rescue operation at sea on May 5, 2015 in the port of Salerno, southern Italy. (AFP/Mario Laporta)

by Al Bawaba

Forty migrants drowned off the coast of Italy when a boat trying to reach Europe either deflated or burst from the heat, survivors told the organization Save the Children.

According to Reuters, some of the 194 survivors told the activist group the deaths occurred on Sunday. The survivors came from several African countries including Gambia, Senegal, Ghana, Mali and the Ivory Coast. AFP said there were 137 people on board.

Human traffickers have increased their attempts to smuggle people out of conflict-torn countries to try to reach Europe as spring weather has calmed seas and provided good weather. The UN has estimated more than 1,700 migrants have died in the Mediterranean so far this year.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Europe, Refugees, Save the Children

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