Tag Archives: refugees

Kenya: Refugees facing ‘lowest ever’ emergency food rations amid funding crisis

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Over the past five years, the refugee population in Kenya has surged by more than 70 per cent – from approximately 500,000 to 843,000 – driven largely by conflict and drought in neighbouring Sudan and Somalia. Of these, around 720,000 people are sheltering in the Dadaab and Kakuma camps, as well as the Kalobeyei settlement.

In Sudan, the civil war that erupted in April 2023 has killed over 18,000 people, displaced 13 million, and left 30.4 million in need of assistance, according to the UN.

WFP provides emergency food and nutrition support to 2.3 million Sudanese as violence and the collapse of essential infrastructure deepen the crisis. 

In Somalia, severe drought has placed 3.4 million people – including 1.7 million children – at risk of acute malnutrition.

At the weekend, Secretary-General António Guterres recommended that the Security Council ensure financing for the African Union’s Support and Stabilisation Mission there (UNSOM), as the country continues to battle insecurity and attacks from Al-Shabaab militants.

Shrinking rations, rising need 

Previously, a monthly WFP ration for a refugee in the camps included 8.1 kilogrammes of rice, 1.5 kg of lentils, 1.1 litres of oil, and cash for purchasing essentials. That support has now been halved, and cash payments have stopped entirely.

Without emergency funding, food rations could drop to just 28 per cent of their original level. WFP is appealing for $44 million to restore full food and cash assistance through August.

Cuts compound existing crises

Although cuts to foreign aid by many developed nations this year has further constrained operations, WFP began reducing services for Kenya’s refugee population in 2024.

Many of the families arriving are already food insecure, and Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates among children and pregnant or breastfeeding women exceed 13 per cent – three percent above the emergency threshold. Targeted nutrition programmes ended in late 2024 due to lack of resources.

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World News in Brief: Sudan refugees, aid for Syrian returnees, MERS alert in Saudi Arabia, Venezuela urged to end secret detentions

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The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Wednesday that most of the new arrivals are women and children.

Many have come from Zamzam camp and the city of El Fasher, locations targeted by paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who’ve been fighting forces of the military government for more than two years.

In Chad, the high numbers of those arriving are putting significant strain on overwhelmed resources.

Exhausted and victimised

Aid teams say that many refugees arrive exhausted after walking for days because they are unable to afford transport.

They report being victims of targeted attacks, looting and sexual violence.

Numerous children have been injured, families separated, and others remain missing, the refugee agency said.

Immediate needs in Chad include shelter, food, medical care and psychological support but the $409 million refugee response appeal is only 20 per cent funded.

Syria’s returnees desperately need help to start over

Syrians trying to rebuild their lives in their war-torn country urgently need the support of the rest of the world to help them start again, UN aid agencies said on Wednesday.

Hopes rose this week in Damascus following Donald Trump’s move to end punitive sanctions – but after more than 13 years of civil war that ended with the fall of the Assad regime last December, many communities today face a range of basic problems.

These include unreliable access to electricity, clean water and healthcare.

Records destroyed

The destruction of public records is also preventing returnees from accessing essential services or claiming housing and land rights, according to the UN migration agency, IOM.

Its Director-General, Amy Pope, insisted Syrians were resilient and innovative but that they needed help, now. “Enabling (them) to return to a country that is on the path to stability and progress is critical for the country’s future,” she insisted.

A new IOM report from more than 1,100 communities across Syria found that work is scarce, partly because farming and markets are still struggling to recover.

Shelter reconstruction is also needed urgently, while unresolved property issues continue to prevent people from rejoining their communities.

Since January 2024, the UN agency has recorded more than 1.3 million returnees previously displaced within Syria, in addition to nearly 730,000 arrivals from abroad.

WHO issues warning over deadly MERS outbreak in Saudi Arabia

A recent outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in Saudi Arabia has raised concerns after two people died from the disease between March and April.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released updated guidelines to help contain the outbreak, which has seen nine confirmed cases – seven of them in the capital, Riyadh. Several of those infected were healthcare workers who caught the virus from a patient.

MERS is caused by a zoonotic coronavirus, from the same family of viruses as COVID-19. While WHO estimates the fatality rate to be around 36 per cent, the true figure may be lower, as mild cases often go undiagnosed.

Despite the recent cases, the risk of wider spread remains moderate at both the regional and global levels, according to WHO.

MERS is primarily carried by dromedary camels and can be passed to humans through direct or indirect contact with infected animals.

Human-to-human transmission usually happens in healthcare settings, through respiratory droplets or close contact.

No vaccine, no cure

Much like COVID-19, MERS can range from no symptoms at all to severe respiratory illness, including acute respiratory distress — and in some cases, death. There’s currently no vaccine or specific treatment.

To stop the virus from spreading, WHO urges hospitals and clinics to step up infection prevention and control measures, especially where suspected cases are being treated.

Since MERS was first identified in 2012, it has caused 858 deaths across 27 countries in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

Call for Venezuela to end secret detention of political opponents

Top independent human rights experts have urged the Venezuelan authorities to stop the reported practice of holding political opponents incommunicado.

In an alert on Wednesday, they insisted that these “targeted detentions” were illegal and amounted to enforced disappearance, a major human rights violation if proved and potentially an international crime.

They maintained that using secret detention was a deliberate strategy by the State “to silence opposition figures…and to instill fear among the population”.

Lack of legal protection

The mission pointed to a widespread lack of “effective judicial protection” for civil society in Venezuela and accused State security forces of colluding with the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The services allegedly responsible for detentions include the national intelligence service, the national guard and military counterintelligence.

The mission’s independent rights experts also maintained that criminal courts and the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice were also “complicit” by ensuring that the alleged crimes went unpunished.

The Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela was created by the Human Rights Council in 2019; its members are not UN staff and they work in an independent capacity.

World News in Brief: ‘Massive’ needs in Sudan, DR Congo aid shortfall, support for Congolese refugees and Angola cholera relief

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The UN estimates that in the past few weeks, over 330,000 people have fled into Tawila after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched violent attacks in the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps and in El Fasher, the regional capital. 

Over 100,000 people also remain trapped in El Fasher. 

‘Massive’ humanitarian needs

Since the beginning of the civil war in Sudan in April 2023, over 18,000 civilians have been killed and over 13 million have been forced from their homes. 

According to UN estimates, over 30.4 million Sudanese are in desperate need of humanitarian aid. 

The World Food Programme (WFP) has provided food assistance to over 300,000 people from the Zamzam displacement camp. Yet, UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator Tom Fletcher noted on Thursday that needs remain “massive” in the region. 

“Our humanitarian colleagues also underscore the urgent need for stepped-up, flexible funding to sustain and expand life-saving support for people in need in North Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan,” said UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq, briefing reporters on Friday. 

However, with ongoing drone strikes in Port Sudan, the main entry point for humanitarian supplies, and increasing violence in North Darfur, providing life-saving assistance has become increasingly difficult. 

“We call once again on all parties to facilitate safe, unhindered and sustained access to the area, via all necessary routes,” Mr. Haq said. 

© UNICEF/Jospin Benekire

A displaced family sit in front of their makeshift shelter in Goma, North Kivu province, DR Congo.

DR Congo: Dire impact of funding cuts amidst cholera outbreak   

Funding shortfalls have forced the humanitarian community to re-prioritise its response plan to alleviate the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN aid coordination office OCHA said on Friday. 

Nearly seven million people have already been forcibly displaced by violence since advances by M23 rebels earlier this year.

While the 2025 UN humanitarian plan aims to provide life-saving interventions to 11 million people across the DRC at a cost of $2.5 billion, only $233 million has been received so far. 

Despite escalating needs in the wake of the crisis in the east of the country, “that’s only half the amount we had secured by this time last year,” Farhan Haq told journalists in New York.

Congolese health authorities are facing shortages of medical supplies as the DRC is now facing a cholera outbreak in six provinces.

OCHA is calling for greater protection of civilians in conflict-affected areas, and more support to prevent the collapse of essential services and address the root causes of the crisis.

UN fund allocates over $4 million to support Congolese refugees, Angola cholera outbreak

Two new allocations from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) will support Congolese refugees in Uganda and efforts to combat a deadly cholera outbreak in Angola. 

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher released the funding on Friday.

More than 60,000 people have fled violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for neighbouring Uganda since January.

The first allocation, for $2.5 million, will allow the UN and partners to provide life-saving assistance to over 40,000 refugees, including clean drinking water, food, healthcare and nutrition support.

The $1.8 million CERF contribution in Angola will support the urgent response to the country’s worst cholera outbreak in two decades.

Since the beginning of the year, the outbreak has spread to 17 out of 21 provinces, with more than 18,000 cases and 586 deaths reported as of 7 May. 

The funding will go towards scaling up the response and helping to prevent further spread of the disease. 

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Funding crisis increases danger and risks for refugees

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With humanitarian resources running dry, critical support for millions of forcibly displaced people is under threat.

UNHCR said that two-thirds of countries hosting refugees are already severely overstretched and urgently need support to continue providing education, healthcare and shelter.

Global solidarity with those fleeing conflict and violence is weakening, the agency added.

‘No one wants to be a refugee for life’

“The safety that refugees seek in neighbouring countries is at risk,” said Elizabeth Tan, Director of International Protection at UNHCR.

“Without international solidarity and burden-sharing, the institution of asylum is under threat.”

Ms Tan noted that some 12,000 Central African refugees in Chad and Cameroon have expressed a desire to return home but cannot do so safely without transport and reintegration assistance.

“No one wants to be a refugee for life,” she said.

Lifesaving services

Marking the agency’s 75th anniversary, Ms Tan reminded journalists that refugees – unlike migrants – have lost the protection of their home countries.

“They arrive across borders traumatised, often after experiencing torture or persecution, and they need specialised support – including mental health care,” she said.

Children separated from their families face especially grave risks, including recruitment by armed groups, exploitation and trafficking.

Protecting them, Ms Tan stressed, “is not a luxury – it is lifesaving.”

© UNHCR/Andrew McConnell

Refugees from Sudan arrive in Adre on the border with Chad.

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From border control to belonging: How host communities gain from empowering refugees

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In 2024, 122 million people were forcibly displaced — a number expected to rise in the coming years, according to Bob Rae, President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), addressing a meeting on the pressing issue in New York on Thursday.

As population movements become much more complex due to wars disproportionately impacting civilians, climate disasters, hunger and poverty, 70 per cent of refugees live in low to middle-income countries.

Refugee rights

International responses to refugee flows are becoming increasingly politicised, especially as aid is decreasing.

Rather than focusing on addressing the root causes of such crises, the Global North has focused on border management and the control of refugee flows, “often at the expense of the rights of people on the move,” Filippo Grandi, Head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) told the ECOSOC gathering.

According to Mr. Grandi, although border management is an important aspect of national government response to the refugee crisis, the emphasis should rather be on making refugees feel more integrated within host communities.

Inclusion of refugees translates to freedom of movement, access to basic services such as healthcare, education, work opportunities, and valid documentation that allows them to work and contribute.

Representatives from Colombia and Mauritania joined a meeting convened by Mr. Rae to talk about better ways to help refugees and the communities that host them, while also finding long-term solutions to the forced displacement crisis.

Both Colombia and Mauritania have welcomed thousands of refugees into their countries, and outlined the positive impact refugees have had on their countries.

Temporary Protection Status in Colombia

In 2021, Colombia adopted a Temporary Protection Status (TPS) programme for Venezuelan refugees.

Today, 2.5 million Venezuelans in Colombia have valid documentation, which provides them access to public services, legal employment, and education.

TPS has not only allowed them to regain dignity and security, but it has also helped Colombia regulate refugee flows.

Human rights at the fore in Mauritania

For over a decade, Mauritania has been hosting large numbers of refugees, most of them from neighbouring Mali.

Committed to upholding the human rights of both refugees and host communities, Mauritania recognises refugees as citizens, providing them with the right to education, healthcare, employment, and legal protection.

Mauritania is working to improve refugee livelihoods while simultaneously enhancing the capacity of host communities by emphasising the role refugees have in local development.

By investing in the resilience of host communities and social cohesion, Mauritania ensures both refugees and host communities live in dignity.

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DR Congo crisis forces refugees to swim for their lives to Burundi

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“We’re pushed to our limits,” said Ayaki Ito, Director for Emergencies for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

One mother was so desperate to reach safety she crossed the 100-metre wide Rusizi river separating DRC and Burundi with her three small children and their belongings, Mr. Ito told journalists in Geneva:

“I saw this plastic sheeting ball – it’s one mother and three small children – she put her belongings and wrapped it with a plastic sheet, to make it float…It’s a very perilous journey and I was told it’s full of crocodile and hippos.”

Overstretched resources

Since January, more than 71,000 people have crossed into Burundi, fleeing ongoing violence in eastern DRC, UNHCR data shows. Since then, more than 12,300 have been relocated to Musenyi refugee site, while others live with host communities in border areas.

Living conditions in Musenyi – five hours’ drive from the DRC border – are becoming unsustainable.

The site today houses 16,000 people although it was designed for 3,000, adding to tensions. “Food rations are already cut to half of what they’re supposed to be,” Mr. Ito explained, warning that even these rations will run out by the end of June without additional funding.

Food is far from the only concern, however, as emergency tents set up on lowland farming areas have now flooded during the onset of the rainy season.

Aid teams are already bracing themselves for diseases to spike.

People who fled violence in DR Congo to Burundi use a water point at a refugee camp in Cibitoke Province.

“Schools, clinics, basic sanitation systems are either non-existent or overwhelmed” and the UN agency has no more dignity kits, leaving nearly 11,000 women and girls with access to basic hygiene items, Mr. Ito said.

Funding crisis cutbacks

UNHCR’s funding crisis has also “severely reduced” support for family tracing, making it increasingly difficult to identify, locate, and reunite separated children with their families.

There are currently no child-friendly or women-friendly spaces where groups can gather for services and peer support in key hosting areas, Mr. Ito added.

Confronted with the catastrophic living conditions in Burundi and ongoing violent clashes in eastern DRC between Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and government forces, refugees often move back and forth between the two countries. “Nearly half of last week’s registered 700 arriving refugees have been previously registered in Burundi,” the UN official said, pointing out that Congolese refugees are among the most vulnerable in the world.

Citing reduced resources and operational challenges, the UN agency insisted that the delivery of lifesaving aid and protection services remains a priority. This includes additional support amid a 60 per cent increase in reported sexual violence cases, most involving rape in the DRC.

“This balancing act is becoming increasingly impossible, with teams on the ground running a full-scale emergency response, responding to the needs of existing refugees in the country and preparing for future arrivals while also facing pressure to reduce their operations because of funding shortages,” Mr. Ito said.

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Slovenia to Resettle 60 Syrian Refugees from Turkey

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Slovenia will implement its first ever refugee resettlement programme with the support of IOM, the UN Migration Agency, by resettling 60 Syrian refugees from Turkey to Slovenia in 2018. The new programme officially came into effect after the signing of a Framework Agreement between IOM and the Slovenian government on Thursday (12/04).

“The resettlement agreement marks a new milestone in the cooperation between Slovenia and IOM,” said Iva Perhavec, IOM Slovenia Head of Office.

“Through the programme, we will support the Slovenian Government in meeting its commitments to providing a safe and legal pathway for vulnerable Syrian refugees in Turkey, and sharing responsibility with Turkey as a host country for refugee protection,” Perhavec continued.

In 2017, Turkey was the top departure country for resettlement globally, with 10,162 vulnerable refugees resettled to European countries alone.

Resettlement from Turkey is implemented through a close partnership between EU Member States, the Turkish Directorate General of Migration Management (DGMM), UNHCR and IOM.

The resettlement process from Turkey begins with the DGMM and UNHCR, which identify, assess and submit refugee files to countries for resettlement consideration. Following the selection missions undertaken by EU Member States in Turkey, selected refugees are assisted by IOM with case processing, including assistance with obtaining visas and travel documents, pre-departure health assessments, pre-departure orientation sessions and movement management.

When the refugees are travel-ready, IOM facilitates their transfer from Turkey, including by providing operational and/or medical escorts to particularly vulnerable persons with special needs to resettlement states in the EU, where representatives of the local IOM office meet and greet them at arrival.

Following the arrival of refugees in Slovenia, local non-governmental organizations and other service providers will provide them with integration assistance to support their smooth and successful start to integration in their new home.

Resettlement of refugees has continued to be one of the fundamental purposes and priorities of IOM. Founded in 1951 to assist in the resettlement of Europeans displaced in the aftermath of World War II, IOM has been working closely with governments, UNHCR, non-governmental organizations and other partners to provide a durable solution for vulnerable refugees through resettlement for over 65 years.

In 2017, some 93,216 refugees were resettled worldwide by IOM, of which 26,673 beneficiaries were assisted with resettlement to and humanitarian admission in European countries, an increase of 49 per cent compared to the previous year. A total of 23 European countries implemented resettlement or humanitarian admission programmes in 2017, two more than in 2016.