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by Laura BONILLA CAL / Catherine TRIOMPHE Agence France Presse NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Within hours of taking office, President Joe Biden undid some of Donald Trump’s most controversial immigration policies and sparked cautious hope that millions living in the shadows could one day get legal status in the US. Scribbled signatures from his pen on Wednesday lifted an entry ban for people from many majority Muslim nations and halted construction of […]
by Christophe VOGT Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The UN refugee chief said Wednesday that he had tested positive for Covid-19 after leading the first day of the agency’s main annual meeting in person. Filippo Grandi, who kicked off UNHCR’s week-long Executive Committee meeting in Geneva on Monday, told participants via video-link that he would need to continue following the event from home. “I am engaging with UNHCR’s Executive Committee from home […]
by Diego URDANETA Agence France-Presse MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Hala and Alex learned to cook with their mothers, Yoli learnt while preparing meals for her large family. The trio, who were forced to flee Syria, Sudan and Venezuela respectively, are now the chefs at a unique Madrid restaurant that aims to change the lives of refugees and alter how people see them, at a time when the arrival of large numbers of migrants fleeing poverty […]
by Agnès PEDRERO Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — More than 70 million people were counted last year as displaced from their homes, a record that underestimates the real number of refugees and asylum seekers, the UN said Wednesday. In its annual global trends report, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) described the figure of 70.8 million at the end of 2018 as “conservative”, particularly because the number of people who fled Venezuela’s […]
Kirstjen Nielsen, the US homeland security chief whose departure was announced by Donald Trump on Sunday, was said to be a frequent target of the president’s ire despite being among the staunchest defenders of his controversial immigration policies. Last summer, as images were broadcast of wailing children being wrested from their parents under the administration’s practice of separating families, she took to the White House podium to defend the “zero tolerance” approach, becoming the face […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency needs more than $200 million to fund projects until the end of the year, with extra pledges so far unable to minimize a massive slash in donations from the United States. “Schools may not be able to open on time in August,” Miroslav Lajcak, the president of the General Assembly, told a pledging conference for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian […]
(Eagle News) — Starting April 1, residents of Marawi City will be allowed to visit their homes and retrieve their abandoned belongings, according to Housing Assistant Secretary Felix Castro Jr., field manager of Task Force Bangon Marawi. “The residents can go back and retrieve whatever possessions they have left behind,” Castro said in an interview. Castro said the move would allow the displaced residents of Marawi to visit what’s left of their homes, and retrieve […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar is building security installations on top of razed Rohingya villages, Amnesty International said Monday, casting doubt on plans to repatriate hundreds of thousands of refugees. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled northern Rakhine state to Bangladesh since Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown on insurgents six months ago that the US and UN have called ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects that term, saying it was responding to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya […]
by Célia Lebur IKOM, Nigeria (AFP) — For the first time in his life, Victor Obi believes that the only way to win freedom in Cameroon is with a gun. “I don’t want to die, but the only future is our independence, and they will not give it to us,” said the student, whose name has been changed for his own safety. The 25-year-old is camped out in a small Nigerian village just kilometres from his home […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States announced Monday it was lifting its ban on refugees from 11 “high-risk” countries, but said those seeking to enter the US would come under much tougher scrutiny than in the past. Applicants from 11 countries, unnamed but understood to include 10 Muslim-majority nations plus North Korea, will face tougher “risk-based” assessments to be accepted. “It’s critically important that we know who is entering the United States,” said Homeland Security […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Talks were held Monday to “settle issues” over the repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, Bangladeshi officials told AFP, as doubts linger over how many of the 655,000 Muslim minority who fled violence are likely to return. Under diplomatic pressure, Myanmar has vowed to repatriate refugees driven into Bangladesh by an army crackdown last year, if they can verify they belong in western Rakhine state. But aid agencies question how many […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar’s army burned down dozens of Rohingya homes within days of signing a refugee repatriation deal with Bangladesh, showing the agreement was a mere “public relations stunt,” Human Rights Watch said Monday. The rights group, citing analysis of satellite imagery, said buildings in 40 villages were destroyed in October and November, increasing the total to 354 villages that had been partially or completely razed since last August. Dozens of buildings were burned the […]
