Tuk-tuk project drives Somali IDPs in search of self-sufficiency

Source: UNHCR

A fleet of tuk-tuks do business in Galkayo, bringing the promise of better times for the small teams of displaced people who maintain and drive them. (Photo: UNHCR)

Mohamed Issa Hussein, a budding entrepreneur in Galkayo’s Halabokhad settlement for forcibly displaced people, has seen better days. Forced to flee his home along the Somali-Ethiopian border with his wife and seven children three years ago, it has been a tough journey rebuilding his life far from home.

After arriving in Halabokhad in northern Somalia’s autonomous Puntland region, Mohamed, desperate to give his children a healthy present and a better future, tried his hand at all sorts of jobs – from shoe-shining in Galkayo to running a small shop.

South Sudan: UNHCR tackles a health crisis

Source: UNHCR

A Sudanese refugee mother treats her severely malnourished child, who is also suffering from diarrhoea, in the stabilization center of Bunj Hospital, Maban County, South Sudan this month. (Photo: B. Sokol/ UNHCR)

Haram Yakub, 25, sits on a hospital bed holding her infant daughter to her breast. After more than a week of being unable to keep anything down due to diarrhoea, 11-month-old Nancy begins to feed.

Watching Nancy rally in South Sudan’s Yusif Batil camp is a relief. But Yakub’s trauma remains. It is a fear so powerful that she can only remember little things; that she was once a farmer in her hometown of Jam in Sudan’s Blue Nile state. She remembers that Nancy has been receiving treatment for eight days in the hospital’s stabilization centre.

World Refugee Day 2012

Source: Refugees United

These sisters found each other via the Refugees United family tracing platform after 16 years of separation.

Today is World Refugee Day, where we pause and reflect upon the fact that there are 43 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, struggling to survive, make a living, or resettle within the country that they’ve had to flee to.

Of the millions of refugees that have fled their country or hometown within their own country, many thousands remain separated from their family members, with whom they lost all contact during flight.

Refugees United: World Refugee Day 2012

Source: The Huffington Post

Today, the world is marking World Refugee Day in honor of the 43 million refugees living across our planet. In honor of the millions of women, men and children who have been forced from their homes and had their future thrust into a state of uncertainty.

In reality, what we’re recognising is the resilience of human nature, the undefeatable spirit of those who push through unimaginable terrors just for the chance to live. Not to conquer the world, not to build lavish lifestyles, but simply just to unpack their lives from tattered plastic bags into a footprint of dignity over which they can build a roof and settle in to live.

UNHCR at Rio+20

Source: UNHCR

Climate change and displacement

Climate change, global warming and the resulting environmental pressures are among the defining challenges of our times. Climate change interacts with other global mega-trends that are conditioning the future of our planet, including population growth, urbanization, water scarcity, food and energy insecurity, and volatile commodity prices. This is adding to the scale and complexity of human mobility and displacement, and changing their patterns

Owing to this interaction, conflict and competition over scarcer natural resources will push more and more people to flee their homes or relocate to other areas. They will become displaced within their countries or across national borders. Environmentally induced migration and displacement could reach epic dimensions: predictions about the scale of such movements range from 25 million to one billion people by 2050.

100,000 refugees registered on family tracing platform via web and mobile phones

Refugees United, a non-profit that has developed the world’s first mobile phone based refugee family tracing service to help reconnect families separated by war or natural disaster, announces that it has now registered 100,000 refugees on the online platform.

The service, developed by Refugees United in partnership with telecommunications company Ericsson, has registered users from all across the globe, but at the moment primarily sees its surge in numbers from African countries like Somalia, Congo, and Sudan.  With the current conflict between Sudan and South Sudan, numbers from this specific refugee group are also expected to increase, as families flee the regions and end up in separate places and refugee camps.

Congolese nun helps vulnerable female victims of LRA violence

Source: UNHCR

Sister Angelique in Dungu, where she helps vulnerable women, including those abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army. (Photo: M. Hofer/ UNHCR)

Sister Angelique is a familiar sight as she bicycles around the dusty town of Dungu on her way to meet women who really do see her as a blessing.

That’s because she’s been helping them recover from the trauma of being abducted and abused by the feared Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a brutal Ugandan rebel group that has been terrorizing people in this corner of north-east Democratic Republic of the Congo for years.

More than 1,000 Syrian refugees flee to Turkey in single day

Source: Al Arabiya

Turkish officials have contingency plans in the event of a larger-scale incursion as Syrian regime forces storm opposition towns near the Turkish border. (Reuters)

More than 1,000 Syrian refugees fled to Turkey in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of people currently staying in Turkey to nearly 21,000, a Turkish official told AFP on Thursday.

“A total of 1,043 Syrians made their way to Turkey in a single day, marking the highest figure in recent times,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Mali clashes force 195,000 to flee their homes: UN

Source: AFP

Security forces stand in front of relatives and supporters of soldiers fighting Tuareg rebels during a protest (Photo: AFP/File)

Clashes between the army and Tuareg rebels in northern Mali have forced 195,000 people to flee their homes since mid-January, the United Nations humanitarian office OCHA said Thursday.

“The number of people displaced by the conflict continues to increase and is approaching 195,000, including nearly 100,000 who have fled abroad,” read a statement from the agency.

The Syrian refugee crisis is aggravating old tensions in Lebanon

Source: The Guardian

By Chris Doyle

Once a sanctuary for refugees, Lebanon is now divided down sectarian lines in how it reacts to those fleeing Syria

The refugees were all crammed into a school. They were Lebanese. The children slept on threadbare mattresses in classrooms. Generous locals were bringing in supplies. This was Homs in 2006 and the families had been fleeing the Israeli bombing in Lebanon. Homs was once again playing host to Lebanese refugees, as it had done during much of the 15-year Lebanese civil war.