Tag: refugees

Refugees flee to Zambia, accusing DR Congo troops of killings

by Obert Simwanza Agence France-Presse NCHELENGE, Zambia (AFP) — Recounting horrific stories of rape and murder allegedly by government soldiers, thousands of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo have sought safety on the Zambian side of Lake Mweru. About 6,000 Congolese residents have fled across the border since late August, triggering an emergency response from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) which has struggled to provide basic food rations and shelter. DR Congo’s huge eastern region has […]

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PNG says won’t force out refugees in Australia camp stand-off

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) – Papua New Guinea will not force out the hundreds of refugees refusing to leave an Australian detention camp, a senior military official said Thursday, as the tense standoff entered the third day. The Manus Island detention center, established to hold and process asylum-seekers under Canberra’s strict immigration policy, was officially handed over to PNG’s navy on Wednesday. Authorities were due to close the camp Tuesday after it was declared unconstitutional by […]

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Rohingya faces tell the agony of Myanmar exodus

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AFP) – The lines on their foreheads tell more than the forced smiles on the faces of the Rohingya refugees photographed by AFP for a special series. All are among nearly one million of the stateless Muslim group now crowded into camps in Bangladesh after fleeing a military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar. More than 600,000 have arrived in the past two months alone. Many are emaciated. Some carry the trauma of attacks […]

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Ai Weiwei on art, exile and refugee documentary film ‘Human Flow’

by Frankie Taggart Agence France-Presse LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — In the most tender moments of “Human Flow,” Ai Weiwei’s epic documentary on the worldwide migrant crisis, he is seen hugging, cooking with and cutting the hair of refugees. An ordinary filmmaker might be accused of getting too close to his subject but, as far as the Chinese dissident and internationally renowned artist is concerned, he is the subject. “When I look at people […]

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Amnesty condemns ‘forced’ returns of Afghan asylum seekers

KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) – A surge of failed Afghan asylum seekers “forcibly” returned from Europe are at risk of torture, kidnapping and death in war-torn Afghanistan, Amnesty International said Thursday. Almost 9,500 Afghans went back to their homeland in 2016 after their applications for asylum in Europe were rejected, compared with nearly 3,300 a year earlier, the human rights group said. The figure covers asylum seekers who were detained and then deported from European countries, and those […]

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UN says 87,000 refugees arrive in Bangladesh from Myanmar

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AFP) – A total of 87,000 mostly Rohingya refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since violence erupted in neighboring Myanmar on August 25, the United Nations said Monday. Thousands of the stateless Muslim minority have fled the mainly Buddhist nation and poured over the border since the latest round of fighting broke out, piling pressure on the already overcrowded camps in Bangladesh. Around 20,000 more were massed on the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar’s […]

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Boat refugees to leave PNG despite US uncertainty: Australia

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Hundreds of refugees being held at a remote Papua New Guinea detention camp will be moved by October despite uncertainty over a resettlement deal with the United States, Australia’s immigration minister said Thursday. Canberra sends asylum-seekers who try to enter the country by boat to camps on Nauru and PNG’s Manus Island, with those found to be refugees barred from resettling in Australia. They are instead relocated to third countries, or resettled elsewhere in PNG. But the sudden withdrawal from PNG […]

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South Sudan’s refugees see little chance of peace

PAGIRINYA, Uganda (Reuters) – When government soldiers came to Pajok, a town in South Sudan close to the Uganda border in April this year, Maria Lalum was caught in crossfire as the soldiers pursued fought rebel forces allied to ousted vice president Riek Machar. She survived by hiding in the forest for five days before crossing into neighboring Uganda. Lalum, a 72-year-old grandmother says this is the third time she has had to flee the […]

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IS attack kills dozens at Syria camp

by Maya Gebeily Agence France-Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon -A jihadist assault led by suicide bombers killed dozens Tuesday at a camp for the displaced near Syria’s border with Iraq, as pressure grows on the Islamic State group in both countries. The violence left at least 38 people dead and came as another surprise IS attack on Tuesday killed 10 soldiers in Iraq, to the south along the border. The jihadist group appears to be lashing out […]

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Scared Syrian evacuees stuck at site of deadly bombing

by Omar Haj Kadour Agence France-Presse RACHIDINE, Syria  – Hundreds of frightened Syrians being evacuated from besieged towns were stuck Thursday at a rebel-held transit point where dozens of their fellow townspeople were killed in a weekend bombing. The 3,000 evacuees left their homes in the government-controlled towns of Fuaa and Kafraya at dawn on Wednesday as part of a deal under which residents and fighters are also to be evacuated from several rebel areas surrounded […]

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Syria evacuations resume after deadly bombing that killed dozens, including 70 children

  by Omar Haj Kadour Agence France Presse RACHIDINE, Syria (AFP) — The evacuation of four besieged Syrian towns resumed Wednesday, with tight security in place for those leaving government-held areas after a weekend bombing against evacuees killed dozens including nearly 70 children. A large convoy of buses set out from the government-held towns of Fuaa and Kafraya in Syria’s Idlib province, carrying 3,000 people to the rebel-held transit point of Rashidin near Aleppo city, […]

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Decried as Muslim ban, will Trump decree pass legal muster?

by James MANNION Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The American Civil Liberties Union and others are already lining up to challenge President Donald Trump’s revised ban on refugees and travelers from six mainly Muslim countries. But can they succeed in overturning a measure that was deliberately crafted to remove the red flags raised by US courts? That may be more difficult. This time there is unlikely to be a backdrop of airport chaos […]

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