Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

Refugee

noun — A person seeking refuge in a foreign country to escape from the threat of war or persecution; often accused of being an economic migrant

The year 2015 was when the turmoil in the Middle East arrived on the EU's doorstep — in the form of more than 1m refugees.

A Syrian refugee crisis has been building ever since the onset of the civil war in 2011. By the start of 2015, there were said to be 4m Syrians living outside their country, with the largest group, 2m strong, resident in Turkey.

This year, however, large numbers of Syrians and other nationalities began to arrive in the EU.

By late April more than 1,700 would-be refugees, from all over the world, were thought to have drowned in the Mediterranean, including about 800 who died in a single incident when their boat capsized crossing from Libya to Italy.

By the summer, it was the "Balkan route" — involving a shorter sea-crossing from Turkey to Greece, and then through the Balkans to Germany or Sweden — that was making the news.

In the summer of 2015, as flows of refugees across the Balkans built up amid scenes of chaos and violence in Hungary, the German government announced that it would welcome all Syrian refugees.
Football crowds reinforced the message by holding up banners saying "refugees welcome". However, as the flows hit 10,000 a day, unease in the country mounted.

Unease was accompanied by scepticism and fear. Many of the would-be refugees, it became apparent, were not Syrians — but Afghans, Pakistanis, Iraqis, Iranians, Eritreans and citizens of Balkan countries. These people, it was argued, were often "economic migrants" and so not entitled to claim refugee status.
 

Groups call for remembrance with thousands of refugees having died this year during perilous journeys.

Rights groups, charities and global organisations have marked International Migrants Day by remembering the thousands of refugees and migrants who have died during perilous journeys this year.

In a message posted on the United Nations website on Friday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: "2015 will be remembered as a year of human suffering and migrant tragedies."

He added that in total, more than 5,000 women, men and children had lost their lives this year "in search of protection and a better life".

"Tens of thousands more have been exploited and abused by human traffickers. And millions have been made into scapegoats and become the targets of xenophobic policies and alarmist rhetoric," said Ban, as he called for safer channels for migration.

Unprecedented numbers of refugees have travelled to Europe in 2015. By mid-November, more than 800,000 had reached Italy and Greece, with smaller numbers arriving in Spain and Malta, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

While International Migrants Day does increase the visibility of those in vulnerable situations, "it shouldn't just be on one day that people care or that decision-makers think about the right kind of policy to implement", Judith Sutherland, associate Europe and Central Asia director at HRW, told Al Jazeera.

She added that greater recognition for the right to seek asylum, safer and legal channels for people to be able to reach the continent without resorting to smugglers, better resettlement programmes, humanitarian visas, and increased family reunification would help to stop people from dying on their way to Europe.

Improved treatment and policies should also be put in place for economic migrants, said Sutherland.

"People who take journeys to improve their lives and pursue economic opportunities are fleeing things like bad governance, corruption and poverty," she said. "There needs to be a much more rational debate and steps taken towards improving legal migration for work."

Dead and missing

The remembrance came as 3,695 people were reported to have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean from January 1 to December 18, 2015, according to the International Organisation of Migrants (IOM).

The IOM called on the international community to "come together and remember the refugees and migrants who have tragically lost their lives this year" as it promoted a worldwide candelight vigil.

The group also launched a campaign, 'I am a Migrant', which tells the stories of individual refugees and migrants "to remind the world" of their value.

One of those refugees whose story of migration has been shared is Zina, an Iraqi who fled to Jordan to escape war and violence.

She left her country of origin in 2010 after a car bomb targeted a television station next to her house.

"I had just left my house to go to work when I heard a huge explosion. All I could think about was my son, still asleep in the house. He was only 13 at the time. He got injured and was unable to move for weeks. I decided I had to take my children out of the country," she said.

"In my spare time, my friends and I help the Iraqi migrants who are less established here. I will never forget how hard it was to be new in the country and I want to do everything in my power to help others in this situation."

'Compassion needed'

According to the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, 84 percent of refugees have come to Europe from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia, and Iraq.

The group said on Friday that the record for forced displacement is likely to break records in 2015.

The global refugee total, which a year ago was 19.5 million, had as of mid-2015 passed the 20 million threshold for the first time since 1992, it said. Asylum applications, meanwhile, were up 78 percent at 993,600 over the same period in 2014.

"Forced displacement is now profoundly affecting our times. It touches the lives of millions of our fellow human beings – both those forced to flee and those who provide them with shelter and protection," High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said.

"Never has there been a greater need for tolerance, compassion and solidarity with people who have lost everything," he added.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), meanwhile, celebrated the 40th anniversary of a convention to protect migrants from abusive conditions and promote the equality of opportunity, adopted in 1975.

"The vast majority of migrants migrate in search of better job opportunities," said Manuela Tomei, director of the ILO's conditions of work and equality department.
 

Ten years ago, when Antonio Guterres assumed his post as U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, there were 38 million refugees and internally displaced people in the world. Now, as he prepares to step down, that number has grown to more than 60 million.

The high commissioner just presided over a two-day conference looking at the root causes of displacement and possible solutions. Guterres said ending the conflicts that force people to flee would, of course, resolve the problem, but that seems unlikely.

He noted that humanitarian actors are no longer able to provide the minimum support needed to provide refugees with protection and lifesaving aid. The reason, he said, is that countries are closing their doors and are unwilling to provide enough financial support to take care of the burgeoning numbers.

Though peace remains elusive, Guterres said what is needed now more than ever is a surge of diplomacy for peace. He said progress in reducing the displacement crisis would depend greatly on the outcome of several crucial peace negotiations currently underway.

"We have, as you know, three very important processes – one related to Syria with the Vienna talks, one related to Yemen and one related to Libya," he said. "I think that the results of these three diplomatic initiatives will be vital. ... We had this year a degradation. The result next year depends largely on what will be the progress achieved by these peace negotiations."

Guterres said one telling statistic in his agency's newly released study on forcible displacement was the 78 percent increase in asylum claims in the first six months of this year.

He said the study revealed most of those seeking asylum in Europe were not from countries of conflict, such as Syria. He said they were coming from host countries, such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

He said Syrians were leaving these countries of asylum because their minimum needs were not being met and they saw no future. He said one way to lessen the displacement crisis would be for governments to provide the resources to allow refugees to live in a safe and dignified manner in their countries of refuge.
 

2015 is likely to exceed all previous records of global displacement with at least five million people forced to flee their homes in the first half of the year, a new UN report warned today.

The global refugee total crossed the 20 million threshold for the first time since 1992 and the number of internally displaced people spiked by 2 million taking the number to 34 million, according to the UNHCR's Mid-Year Trends 2015 report covering the period from January to end June.

The worldwide displacement was at the highest level ever recorded, the report said, adding the number of people forcibly displaced at the end of 2014 had risen to a staggering 59.5 million compared to 51.2 million a year earlier and 37.5 million a decade ago.

The increase represents the biggest leap ever seen in a single year. Moreover, the report said the situation was likely to worsen still further.

2015 is on track to see worldwide forced displacement – which includes refugees, asylum seekers, and IDPs who are also beyond UNHCR's mandate-- exceeding 60 million for the first time.

Globally, one in every 122 humans is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum. If this were the population of a country, it would be the world's 24th biggest, the report said.

"More dramatic and more clear than that is the number of individual asylum requests increased by 78 per cent which means we are witnessing more and more people that are refugees in host countries but that the living conditions that they have and the situation they endure is so difficult that they have no other chance but to move onwards," said Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

In the first six months of 2015, Germany was the world's biggest recipient of new asylum claims with 159,000 applications, close to the total for all of 2014.

Combined with that voluntary return rates are at the lowest in the last 30 years having fallen by 20 per cent from last year.

"It is more and more difficult to have conditions for people to be able to exercise what is a basic right of a refugee the right of return, the possibility to go back to their lives," Guterres added.

New refugee numbers have gone up considerably with 839,000 refugees in just six months who have crossed international borders.

This is an average of 4,600 people forced to flee their homes everyday with Syria being the biggest generator of such refugees.

Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan were the top five refugee generating countries in the first half of 2015 while Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran and Ethiopia were the top five refugee hosting countries in the first half of 2015.

"My belief is that we will have figures for 2016 that will very probably be worse than the ones for 2015," the UN Refugee Agency chief, who retires at the end of this year, warned.
 

One in 122 people around the world is a displaced person or refugee, according to a United Nations High Commission for Refugees report released Friday.

The report, which looked at the period from January to June 2015, examined the three main categories of displacement: those displaced within their own countries, refugees, and asylum-seekers.

As of mid-2015, the worldwide total of refugees had passed the 20 million threshold for the first time since 1992, and now stands at 20.2 million. Applications for asylum have also increased 78 percent over the same period in 2014, and the number of people who are internally displaced has increased by 2 million to approximately 34 million people.

The number of new refugees is also rising: 839,000 people left their countries in the first six months of 2015, equivalent to 4,600 people fleeing every day.

"Forced displacement is now profoundly affecting our times. It touches the lives of millions of our fellow human beings – both those forced to flee and those who provide them with shelter and protection," High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

"Never has there been a greater need for tolerance, compassion and solidarity with people who have lost everything," he added.

Some of the largest contributors to these numbers are the ongoing crisis in Syria and the recent crisis in Mali, although they are by no means the only contributing factors; conflicts in Yemen and South Sudan, among other areas, have also given rise to a record high number of refugees. Scroll through the photo reel above for the faces and stories of refugees and displaced people from other nations beyond Syria.

Amnesty International estimates that there are currently approximately 4 million Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war there, a number that continues to grow. In Mali, thousands of people fled the country following the 2012 military coup, but returned after relative stability resumed in 2013. But the political and military situation in the country remains complex and fraught, and UNHCR estimates that nearly 100,000 Malians are still internally displaced.

Another significant trend: fewer refugees are voluntarily choosing to go home than ever before. UNHCR estimates that only 84,000 people have or are choosing to do so in 2015, compared to 107,000 in the same period a year ago.

This rise in the number of people who are fleeing conflict and choosing to stay in their new chosen homeland puts more pressure on the countries that host them. Turkey is the world's biggest host, with 1.8 million refugees, but Germany is not far behind, having pledged to take in 35,000 refugees, or 75 percent, of the total for the European Union. And Lebanon has the most refugees relative to its population size: 209 refugees for every 1,000 people.

Some 839,000 people left their countries in the first six months of 2015, equivalent to 4,600 people fleeing every day.
 

UNHCR says wars in Syria and elsewhere lifted migration as thousands who died during perilous journeys are remembered.

The number of people fleeing war and violence in 2015 is likely to break all previous records, with almost a million people having crossed the Mediterranean escaping conflict in Syria and elsewhere, the UN refugee agency has said.

In a report released on Friday, the UNHCR said that the global refugee total, which a year ago was 19.5 million, had as of mid-2015 passed the 20 million threshold for the first time since 1992.

Asylum applications, meanwhile, were up 78 percent at 993,600 over the same period in 2014.

"Forced displacement is now profoundly affecting our times. It touches the lives of millions of our fellow human beings – both those forced to flee and those who provide them with shelter and protection," Antonio Guterres, the high commissioner for refugees, said.

"Never has there been a greater need for tolerance, compassion and solidarity with people who have lost everything," he added.

Unprecedented numbers of refugees travelled to Europe this year. Some 84 percent came to Europe from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia, and Iraq, according to UNHCR figures.

The report came as rights groups, charities and global organisations marked International Migrants Day by remembering the thousands of refugees and migrants who have died during perilous journeys this year.

In a message posted on the United Nations website on Friday, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said: "2015 will be remembered as a year of human suffering and migrant tragedies."

He added that in total, more than 5,000 women, men and children had lost their lives this year "in search of protection and a better life".

"Tens of thousands more have been exploited and abused by human traffickers. And millions have been made into scapegoats and become the targets of xenophobic policies and alarmist rhetoric," said Ban, as he called for safer channels for migration.

By mid-November, more than 800,000 refugees had reached Italy and Greece, with smaller numbers arriving in Spain and Malta, according to Human Rights Watch.

While International Migrants Day increases the visibility of those in vulnerable situations, "it shouldn't just be on one day that people care or that decision-makers think about the right kind of policy to implement", Judith Sutherland, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera.

She added that greater recognition for the right to seek asylum, safer and legal channels for people to be able to reach the continent without resorting to smugglers, better resettlement programmes, humanitarian visas, and increased family reunification would help to stop people from dying on their way to Europe.

Improved treatment and policies should also be put in place for economic migrants, said Sutherland.

"People who take journeys to improve their lives and pursue economic opportunities are fleeing things like bad governance, corruption and poverty," she said. "There needs to be a much more rational debate and steps taken towards improving legal migration for work."

Dead and missing

At least 3,695 people were reported to have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean between January 1 and December 18, 2015, according to the International Organisation of Migrants.

The IOM called on the international community to "come together and remember the refugees and migrants who have tragically lost their lives this year" as it promoted a worldwide candelight vigil.

The group also launched a campaign, 'I am a Migrant', which tells the stories of individual refugees and migrants "to remind the world" of their value.

One of those refugees whose story of migration has been shared is Zina, an Iraqi who fled to Jordan to escape war and violence.

She left her country of origin in 2010 after a car bomb targeted a television station next to her house.

"I had just left my house to go to work when I heard a huge explosion. All I could think about was my son, still asleep in the house. He was only 13 at the time. He got injured and was unable to move for weeks. I decided I had to take my children out of the country," she said.

"In my spare time, my friends and I help the Iraqi migrants who are less established here. I will never forget how hard it was to be new in the country and I want to do everything in my power to help others in this situation."

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), meanwhile, celebrated the 40th anniversary of a convention to protect migrants from abusive conditions and promote the equality of opportunity, adopted in 1975.

"The vast majority of migrants migrate in search of better job opportunities," said Manuela Tomei, director of the ILO's conditions of work and equality department.
 

The number of people forcibly displaced worldwide is likely to have "far surpassed" a record 60m this year, mainly driven by the Syrian war and other protracted conflicts, the UNsaid.

The estimated figure includes 20.2m refugees fleeing wars and persecution, the most since 1992, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a report.

Nearly 2.5m asylum seekers have requests pending, with Germany, Russia and the United States receiving the highest numbers of the nearly 1m new claims lodged in the first half of the year, it said.

"2015 is on track to see worldwide forced displacement exceeding 60m for the first time — one in every 122 humans is today someone who has been forced to flee their homes," it said. The total figure at the end of 2014 was 59.5m.

An estimated 34m people were internally displaced as of mid-year, about 2m more than the same time in 2014. Yemen, where civil war erupted in March, reported the highest number of uprooted people at 933,500.

"Never has there been a greater need for tolerance, compassion and solidarity with people who have lost everything," said Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Developing countries bordering conflict zones still host the lion's share of the refugees, the report said, warning about growing "resentment" and "politicisation of refugees".

The report, which is based on official figures as of mid-year before the influx of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe peaked in October, extrapolates from trends to estimate the global total.

Syria's civil war that began in 2011 has been the main driver of mass displacement, with more than 4.2m Syrian refugees having fled abroad and 7.6m uprooted as of mid-year, UNHCR said.

Together, nationals of Syria and Ukraine, where a separatist rebellion in the east erupted in April 2014, accounted for half of the 839,000 people who became refugees in the first half of 2015, it said.

Violence in Afghanistan, Somalia, and South Sudan sparked large movements of refugee , as well as fighting in Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Iraq.

Voluntary returns — a measure of how many refugees can safely go back home — are at their lowest levels in more than three decades, with only 84,000 people returning by mid-year against 107,000 at the same time a year before, the UNHCR said.

Many refugees will live in exile for years to come, it said. "In effect, if you become a refugee today your chances of going home are lower than at any time in more than 30 years."
 

LONDON, Dec 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – From Bulgaria to Brazil, journalists reporting on the global migration and refugee crisis often fail to tell the full story, and regularly perpetuate negative stereotyping used by politicians looking to score points, research shows.

A study of media coverage in 14 countries said a lack of resources and journalists able to provide indepth and sensitive reporting contributed to a distorted picture of the refugee crisis – one of the biggest global stories of the year.

The report by the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN), issued to coincide with International Migrants Day on Friday, also highlighted confusion in the media over the correct use of terms migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

"Around the world media coverage is often politically led with journalists following an agenda dominated by loose language and talk of invasion and swarms," said Aidan White, director of EJN, which groups more than 40 media organisations.

"But at other moments the story is laced with humanity, empathy and a focus on the suffering of those involved," he said in a statement.

The number of people forcibly displaced worldwide is likely to have "far surpassed" a record 60 million this year, mainly driven by the war in Syria and other long-term conflicts, the United Nations said on Friday.

The estimated figure includes 20.2 million refugees fleeing wars and persecution, the most since 1992, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

While much of the international coverage has focused on European countries struggling to deal with the arrival by land and sea of almost 1 million people so far this year, mainstream media has ignored stories of mass migration elsewhere, EJN said.

For example, internal migration in China, Brazil and India involves millions and dwarfs international migration numbers, with the biggest movement of people in history taking place in China over the last 35 years, it said.

In Africa, the headlines have focused on people leaving the continent for Europe. Their plight, alongside thousands fleeing violence in the Middle East, stirred international alarm this year, with hundreds dying as they crossed the Mediterranean in boats and dinghies.

But the majority of Africans who emigrate remain within Africa.

The study found that in Nepal and Gambia reporting on the migration of large numbers of young people was limited and stories about the hardships they suffer were rare, partly because journalists were afraid of offending the government.

EJN said journalists often fail to reflect evidence showing that migration is "invariably beneficial" for economic and cultural development in the long run.

"How would California's agricultural industry or the Texan oil fields survive without the presence of hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and Central American workers, often labouring on minimal wages?," the report said.

"How could the health service in the UK continue without the thousands of migrant nurses and doctors from the developing world?"

It also said "outrageous" anti-migrant or anti-Muslim statements by political figures such as U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump – who has called for the mass deportation of illegal immigrants and a ban on Muslims entering the United States – had "hijacked" media coverage.

"(In Europe) media struggle to provide balanced coverage when political leaders respond with a mix of bigotry and panic – some announcing they will only take in Christian migrants while others plans to establish walls and razor wire fences," the report added. (Writing by Katie Nguyen; Editing Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change.
 

NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The number of international migrants soared to 244 million this year, an increase of more than 40 percent from the year 2000, as economic need, global markets and a desire for better lives put more people on the move, the United Nations said on Friday.

Nearly half of the world's migrants were born in Asia, which has provided the most migrants – 1.7 million people per year – over the last 15 years, followed by Europe, according to a report by the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Europe has seen nearly 900,000 refugees and migrants so far this year, about half of them Syrians fleeing war in their homeland, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said earlier this month.

The number of migrants around the world will no doubt rise, fueled by economic disparities, globalized markets and people seeking better lives, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said presenting the report.

He called for stronger efforts to protect people undertaking dangerous journeys as they flee their homes, and efforts to fight migrant smuggling and human trafficking.

He also said migrants should not be victimized nor made into scapegoats.

"The many stories of their resilience, strength and heroism are too often eclipsed by xenophobia and pervasive anti-migrant sentiments," Eliasson said.

Two thirds of all international migrants live in just 20 countries, the report said.

The largest number, 47 million, live in the United States, followed by 12 million in Germany, 12 million in Russia and 10 million in Saudi Arabia, it said.

India had the largest diaspora, with 16 million people who had been born there living elsewhere, followed by Mexico, Russia and China, it said.

(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, additional reporting by Sebastien Malo. Editing by Katie Nguyen; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)
 

GENEVA, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) – The UN Refugees Agency (UNHCR) on Friday released guidance aimed at helping states deal with security concerns while maintaining vital standards of refugee protection.

The recommendations are contained in a paper presented at an inter-governmental meeting by UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Volker Turk.

The paper argued that national security and international protection for refugees are not mutually exclusive, and calls for an integrated approach that ensures both goals are being met.

Currently, with growing polarization of political debate concerning refugees in some countries, the concern is that asylum-seekers and refugees could be victimized, and refugee protection, which has saved the lives of millions of people since World War II, could be endangered.

With border controls, UNHCR understands the need of states to identify security concerns at the point of entry, for example through increased checks, including the use of biometrics such as fingerprints and iris scans.

Its recommendations include practical guidance on ensuring that these and other measures are carried out properly and proportionately and subject to judicial control, and avoiding discrimination, for example based on nationality, race, ethnicity, or religion. Applications for asylum must be looked at individually.

With cases involving the exclusion of people for serious criminal or terrorist acts, UNHCR recommended that a factual and legal assessment be done, if needed, by specialized exclusion units.

Registration is a crucial part of the refugee protection process, and UNHCR believes that proper systems for this, plus identity and security screening are essential.

In addition, as refugees are people at risk of their lives, information-sharing between states has to be done in line with established principles and standards on data protection.