Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

Iraqi military planes dropped leaflets on Sunday on Ramadi, asking residents to leave within 72 hours the western city which is under the control of Islamic State militants, an army spokesman said."It is an indication that a major military operation to retake the city center will start soon," one officer said on condition of anonymity.

The leaflets indicated safe routes for civilians to exit the city and asked them to carry proper identification documents, joint operations spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told Reuters by phone. "All security forces were instructed on how to deal with civilian approaching them."

Last week Iraqi security forces said they had made advances on two fronts in Ramadi, clearing Islamic State militants from a military command base and the sprawling neighborhood of al-Taamim on the western rim of the city that they captured in May. Iraqi intelligence estimates the number of Islamic State fighters that are entrenched in the centre of Ramadi, capital of the Sunni Anbar province, at between 250 and 300.

(Reporting by Saif Hameed and Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Gareth Jones and David Holmes)
 

AMMAN — Efforts of international agencies and Sudanese refugees who resisted deportation did not work out, as Jordanian authorities on Friday morning and Saturday deported 585 of the 800 Sudanese nationals seeking international help.

Reports said they already arrived home.

The deportees and those on the waiting list had protested for a month in front of the UNHCR calling on the agency to expedite the processing of their applications.

Ali Qandil, who is registered as an asylum seeker" with the UN agency, told The Jordan Times that he did not want to return home as all his dreams of starting a new life in one of the Western countries would be shattered.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement last week that these people are in danger back home.

Qandil and his fellow citizens resisted deportation until last minute.

But for the government, the 800 Sudanese did not meet the criteria of refugees, noting that they had entered Jordan under the pretext of seeking medical treatment, then they started demanding to be recognised as refugees".

Mohammad Hawari, a senior mass information and communication associate at UNHCR, told The Jordan Times that the agency has requested Jordanian authorities to provide us with list of names for those who have been deported".

He explained that some of those who were deported are covered by the international protection as refugees or asylum seekers, and they remain under this protection".

Asked if the agency will follow up on cases of those registered as refugees or asylum seekers even after deportation, the UNHCR official said this is the first time that such an incident has happened, and the issue would further be examined.

Meanwhile, Hawari expressed the agency's concern about those who were deported and registered as refugees as they might be in danger once they are deported.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said the world community had a "huge debt" to Jordan but also made reference to the incident involving the Sudanese, The Associated Press reported on Friday.

"We have been in close contact with the Jordanian government on the Sudanese question," said Guterres, adding that UNHCR's position was that the Sudanese are in need of protection should not be deported.

According to AP, Guterres expressed concern about growing wariness worldwide about refugees and noted a trend towards a more restrictive approach to refugee policies". He cited contributing factors such as public reaction to the large number of refugees pouring into Europe and concerns about security in the wake of terror attacks in Paris and elsewhere recently.

We need to understand that refugees are the first victims of terror, and they are refugees exactly because they are fleeing areas where terrorism, violence and other forms of persecution have been proliferating more strongly," he said.
 

AMMAN, Jordan – The Jordanian authorities on Friday deported hundreds of Sudanese asylum seekers, most of them from the war-afflicted Darfur region, according to the United Nations and human rights groups.

The decision comes one month after the Sudanese began camping in front of the United Nations refugee agency building in Amman, demanding more aid from the United Nations and an acceleration of the process to resettle them in other countries.

''We have appealed and we continue to appeal to the government to stop the deportations from Jordan of Sudanese nationals who are registered with U.N.H.C.R. as refugees and asylum seekers,'' Ariane Rummery, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, said by telephone on Friday.

According to the United Nations, more than 3,500 Sudanese had registered with the agency and as such had international protection. Ms. Rummery said 70 percent of those registered were from the Darfur region of Sudan, and their return there might put them at risk.

Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, said, ''Jordan should not punish these Sudanese merely because they protested for better conditions and for resettlement considerations.''

A government spokesman, Mohammad Momani, confirmed on Friday that deportations were underway, saying that ''430 of them have traveled to Sudan and the rest will follow.'' He added that the asylum seekers initially entered the country for medical treatment, ''but then asked for refugee status.''

At 4 a.m. on Wednesday, the police rounded up about 800 Sudanese from the encampment they had set up in front of the refugee agency and told them to board 14 buses to Queen Alia International Airport, according to Human Rights Watch.

Jordan hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees. More than 750,000 are registered with the United Nations refugee agency, and the vast majority are Syrians. Although Jordan has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, it is bound by the international principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits governments from returning people to places where they risk persecution, torture or exposure to inhumane treatment or punishment.

''The majority of these Sudanese have protection needs,'' Ms. Rummery said. ''They could possibly be sent back where they could face danger or persecution.'' Around the world, the United Nations refugee agency has registered about 700,000 Sudanese; more than half of those are in the Middle East.

In a statement issued Friday, Amnesty International appealed to the Jordanian government to halt the forcible return of the Sudanese and said the deportation of the ''Darfuris to Sudan is an absolute disgrace.''

The Sudanese are part of a global flow of people seeking a haven from violence. The number of people forced to flee war is expected to far surpass 60 million in 2015, the United Nations said on Friday, warning that violence is likely to push a record number of asylum seekers even higher in the coming year.

At least five million people were forcibly displaced from their homes in the first half of the year, adding to the 59.5 million displaced people the United Nations refugee agency had recorded by the end of 2014.

Most of the people on the move in 2015 were displaced within their own country, but as many as 839,000 fled across international borders in the first half of the year, more than a third of them trying to escape the war in Syria.

To make matters worse, the money available to help the increasing number of people fleeing conflict has fallen far below the level of need, António Guterres, the departing United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said in Geneva. ''It's clear humanitarian actors are no longer able to provide the minimum support both in relation to core protection and lifesaving activities,'' he said.
 

AMMAN — Although the number of refugees from different nationalities in the Kingdom varies from one estimate to other and is difficult to identify, a World Bank official last week said, in Jordan one in every three persons [is] being a refugee".

Colin Bruce, senior adviser to the World Bank Group's president, made this statement at a press conference last week to launch a World Bank new report, without elaborating on numbers of refugees or their nationalities.

The government did not reject or confirm this percentage but noted that figures are difficult to estimate.

Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Mohammad Momani, who is also government's spokesperson, told The Jordan Times it is difficult to identify the total number of refugees in the country, especially if we want to include Palestinians in these estimates".

According to UNHCR, Jordan is the second largest host of refugees per capita in the world following Pakistan.

Still, the agency has only some 700,000 persons from 41 nationalities registered as refugees in the Kingdom, said Mohammad Hawari, senior mass information and communication associate at UNHCR.

Hawari, however, added that the number differs when adding number of Palestinians who are registered with UNRWA.

An infograph that was recently published on the World Bank Twitter account states that there are 2.7 million registered refugees in Jordan, which stands for 41.2 per cent of the total population.

Data included in the infograph will be published in the World Bank's migration and remittances report for the year 2015 and is based on figures from both UNHCR and UNRWA.

According to the UNRWA website, there are 2.1 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan; with only 140,000 of whom non-holders of Jordanian nationality.

As for refugees from other nations, Syrians come on top, with more than 600,000 registered with the UNHCR. However, the government says there are 1.5 million Syrians in Jordan, stressing that more than 80 per cent of Syrian refugees dwell in host communities rather than in designated camps.

Iraqis come second with more than 30,000 registered refugees in Jordan.
 

Existing measures deal with immediate problems but fail to promote long-term independence, condemning hundreds of thousand to poverty, claims joint study

The World Bank and the UN refugee agency have called for a "paradigm shift" in the way the world responds to refugee crises such as the Syrian emergency, warning that the current approach is nearsighted, unsustainable and is consigning hundreds of thousands of exiled people to poverty.

A new joint report from the bank and the UNHCR claims that 90% of the 1.7 million Syrian refugees registered in Jordan and Lebanon are living in poverty, according to local estimates. The majority of them are women and children.

The refugees hosted in the two countries are particularly vulnerable as they cannot work formally and tend to be younger, less educated and have larger households. The vast majority live in informal settlements rather than refugee camps, have few legal rights, and struggle to get access to public services because of the strains the unprecedented demand has put on the infrastructures of host countries.

Although the report notes that current refugee assistance initiatives – such as the UNHCR cash assistance programme and the World Food Programme (WFP) voucher scheme – are "very effective", it says that they are not a solution in themselves.

"These programmes are not sustainable and cannot foster a transition from dependence to self-reliance," say the study's authors.

"They rely entirely on voluntary contributions and, when funding declines, fewer of the most vulnerable refugees are able to benefit. Moreover, social protection on its own does not foster a transition to work and self-reliance if access to labour markets is not available."

If refugees are to escape poverty, adds the report, they need to be economically integrated into local communities rather than merely offered short-term assistance.

"These findings suggest that the current approach to managing refugee crises in the medium- and long-term is not sustainable," it says.

"Focus must shift beyond social protection for refugees to include economic growth in the areas hosting them, so that refugees and local communities can share in economic progress. This paradigm shift requires continued close collaboration between humanitarian and development partners, in order to transform a humanitarian crisis into a development opportunity for all."

Since war broke out in Syria almost five years ago, 6.5 million people have been internally displaced, almost 4.4 million forced to flee as refugees, and more than 250,000 killed. One in every five displaced persons worldwide last year was Syrian.

Colin Bruce, senior adviser to the World Bank Group president, said that the shortfall in international humanitarian funding and the escalating conflicts in some countries meant the problems facing refugees and the nations hosting them would only get worse.

He called for a concerted global effort similar to the one that resulted in an agreement on tackling climate change at the recent Paris conference.

In addition to working together on conflict prevention and resolution, said Bruce, the international community also needed to get past what he termed "the camp mentality; having people in camps unable to work, unable to live dignified lives, unable to use their skills".

He also warned that the refugee issue could no longer be ignored by those who liked to imagine it as someone else's problem.

"Even though displacement is concentrated in developing countries – especially in Africa, in the Middle East, in south Asia – there are spillover effects to developed countries in other parts of the world," he said.

"I need not tell you about that; I think we all have seen the evidence of it ... The logic of that is that since the problem is truly global, the solution has to be global as well."

The number of displaced people – which, at almost 60 million, is now at its highest since the second world war – has put humanitarian agencies under immense pressure.

In September, the UN high commissioner for refugees, António Guterres, told the Guardian that humanitarian budgets were not sufficient to cover the demands.

"The global humanitarian community is not broken – as a whole they are more effective than ever before," he said. "But we are financially broke."

A year ago, a $64m (£42m) funding shortfall temporarily forced the WFP to suspend its food vouchers to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. The programme was reinstated a week later after an emergency appeal raised $88m in days.

In July this year, the WFP announced that it would have to halve the value of food vouchers given to Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
 

The huge Azraq refugee camp appears over the horizon like an alien version of a music festival. Thousands of white metal huts are scattered around the rocky landscape and ringed by barbed-wire fences. Closer up, near the guarded entrance, a huge sign reads 'Thank You' to Britain, the European Union and ten other nations for providing the £100 million it cost to build and run the place.

This desolate encampment is in the Jordanian desert, 55 miles from the Syrian border. It opened in April last year, intended to be the world's second-biggest and best refugee camp – an instant city designed to house up to 130,000 Syrians fleeing their nation's devastating civil war.

In Britain, Ministers assured Parliament that this camp shows taxpayers should have no concerns over Britain's response to Europe's worst refugee crisis since the Second World War. Yet their complacent reassurances are wrong. For although millions of Syrians have been displaced by the cruellest of conflicts, the showcase unit holds about 15,000 people – a fraction of the number it was designed to take.

Indeed, Azraq stands as a damning riposte to British claims that such projects stem the flow of refugees to Europe – and raises alarming new doubts over the efficacy of the Government's lavish aid spending. Britain each year sends £12 billion abroad to hit the target of giving away 0.7 per cent of our national income – some of which has been spent on Azraq.

Furthermore, David Cameron argues that if Britain did not fund such camps in countries around Syria, 'the numbers attempting the dangerous journey to Europe would be far, far higher'. But the truth is Azraq is so grim that few Syrians wish to stay there. Thousands would rather risk their lives crossing the sea to Europe, while some even prefer a return to their war-torn nation.

And now a big white elephant sits largely empty on the road to Saudi Arabia. So what has gone wrong? For a start, there is the isolation – it's 60 miles from the Jordanian capital with no other population centres for miles around. Yet it is built for people often fleeing prosperous and well-educated urban communities.

The camp is filled with rows of simple zinc and steel huts. Each cost £1,300 since they are specially made to cope with searing heat in summer and strong winds in winter; last year, there was even snow. Yet two of the four completed 'villages' – each intended to host 15,000 refugees – are empty. As I wandered past bored children jumping in puddles after a storm, it was clear many shelters are not being used even in the villages that are open. Although the camp opened 20 months ago, the village markets, built for 50 shops each, remain empty. There is one supermarket, a long walk from many huts, while the Red Cross hospital has closed already due to budget constraints.

The result is a nine-square-mile site that lacks street life or any real sense of community. Syrians complain of boredom, high supermarket prices, being banned from work, isolation and a lack of freedom.

'I was brought here after crossing the border,' said one student, who left Syria after being arrested and tortured by government goons. 'But this is like being back in jail.'

More than 100 aid agencies helped create this ghost city in the sand. But families said they spent their days stuck inside the stark metal containers, with different generations and genders squashed together in one-room sheds that lack power for fridges and fans. 'We just sit here all day and there is nothing to do,' said Abid Ali Hamada, 40, who used all his savings to escape Islamic State's reign of terror in his home town of Raqqa. 'We need jobs and want to work to support our families.' The former farmer also complained of being made to wait two months before he was allowed to take his blind son for urgent treatment in a hospital outside the compound.

Families live on monthly food vouchers worth £19 that they say run out after two weeks, plus four pieces of bread a day. One woman told me children's shoes cost four times as much in the camp as at outside markets, while toilets and taps for water are communal. Azraq is operated with Jordan by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which claims it holds 26,820 registered 'persons of concern'. But many Syrians have fled, using 'vacation' passes to escape.

The UN body that distributes the food vouchers says it issued just 12,364 in October, with some going to people who left after obtaining them to spend outside. A well-placed source told me they estimated the camp's real population was 11,000 people at most. Since then the number of food vouchers has risen to 15,300 this month as black-economy work in fields and on building sites dries up during mid-winter, but the numbers are expected to fall back again in the new year.

Yet just weeks ago Foreign Office Minister Tobias Ellwood used the camp to boast in the House of Commons of British benevolence. 'I am pleased to say that we are seeing how well British money is spent,' he told MPs after returning from a trip to inspect camps in Jordan. 'It is clear refugees want to stay in the region.' But even the UNHCR admits Azraq is a failure, despite decent security. 'It has not filled, that's our biggest problem,' said Paul Stromberg, deputy representative for Jordan. 'It's in a harsh climate and we've not been able to build the lives there we wanted.'

Stromberg said they created the camp when higher numbers were arriving from Syria. Since then, the flood slowed after Jordan started vetting refugees to stop militants; I spoke to one student who waited 75 days to gain entry, and 12,000 refugees are reported trapped on the border. Britain has spent £1.1 billion from its soaring foreign-aid budget on the Syrian crisis. Ministers call other European nations 'minnows' for failing to match such donations and claim they should help refugees remain in the region rather than offer homes to huge numbers.

Officials defend donations to Azraq, saying they help Jordan cope with an unprecedented crisis as part of a wider strategy. A Government spokesman said: 'This funding saves lives and is in Britain's interests – less than five per cent of all Syrians forced from their homes have come to Europe to seek asylum, and without it this number would undoubtedly be far higher.'

But it seems strange to have this mighty new edifice sitting there loathed and largely empty when there is such desperation all around. Fifty miles away near the Syrian border I met young mother Nahle Barghas, who told her horror story. First her home in Homs was destroyed, forcing her to move four times around the battle-scarred country as she sought a place of safety for her five young children.

She saw savagery and slaughter, with five family members killed by government forces. Little wonder that this weary-looking woman told me she is 30 – 'but I feel more like 100 after these past years'. Even after she fled into Jordan, the nightmare continued. Her husband was caught by police without the correct papers and the family was dispatched to Azraq. It was so dispiriting that recently they fled like many more before them, abandoning almost all their few remaining possessions to escape. 'It was like being in a prison,' says Nahle. 'There was no money, no work, no electricity and it is far from anywhere. How are you expected to live a decent life in such a place?' Now her family lives in fear of being sent back to Syria.

'The camps are never part of the solution,' a World Food Programme (WFP) source said. 'People want as normal a life as possible as close to how they used to live. It is wrong to give so much attention to camps.'

The vast majority of the 633,000 Syrians in Jordan struggle outside in the black economy. But almost a quarter of funding given to the Refugee Response Plan last year went on camps. Meanwhile, small donations to help vulnerable Syrians survive elsewhere in Jordan were slashed, then temporarily suspended in September, due to funding shortfalls.

Britain's Department for International Development says it cannot break down how much it spent on Azraq. But it has handed £115 million to UNHCR since the start of the Syrian crisis and £227 million to WFP, along with many millions to charities active inside camps. Some aid chiefs criticise the focus on camps. 'The conditions are so bad people prefer to live in extreme poverty or risk their lives on boats to Europe,' one senior official said. Nigel Pont, Mercy Corps' regional director for the Middle East, told a House of Commons inquiry last year 'disproportionate' sums were spent providing help in camps since it was 'easier'. One Government Minister even agreed with him. But when Azraq opened on a site selected by Jordan, UN officials boasted it had been planned carefully after studying shortcomings of other refugee camps and Britain insisted this would 'enhance the delivery of services'.

Perhaps these aid apostles should listen to Ahmad Mustafa, 44, a man desperate to provide a future for his family and determined not to join the exodus to Europe. He used to be the successful owner of a furniture store in Homs with a big house for his wife and seven children. Now they live in a three-room flat with paint peeling from damp walls in a poor part of Amman. He spends 14 hours a day, seven days a week in a bakery, paid less than half the wage of a Jordanian as a refugee not officially permitted to work.

Although this proud man has a bullet hole from the war in his stomach, he lives in fear of one thing. 'If I am caught working I will be sent to Azraq. But I can't live there. I would even go back to Syria and take my chances rather than stay in that camp,' he said.

I have visited refugee camps on three continents. They are always chaotic, often unappealing and tend towards unplanned permanence.

But what a damning indictment that a camp backed by British aid, and proclaimed as a brave new model of sanctuary, ends up scaring Syrians more than the bloody carnage of that terrible civil war.
 

KUWAIT, Dec 20 (KUNA) – United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Kuwait launched on Sunday (Warm their Hearts) campaign, which is a regional campaign aiming to help Syrian refugee families in Lebanon and neighboring countries.

The head of the UNHCR office in Kuwait Dr. Hanan Hamdan said during a press conference that more than 20,000 Syrian families are in desperate need for help to face the harsh winter.

She said: "Lebanon is home to more than one million Syrian refugees, more than half of them are living in desolated, sub-standard shelters such as tents, unfinished buildings, garages and shops".

Hamdan stressed Kuwait's great role as one of the biggest regional donors for Syrian people, as it had donated USD 31 million last winter to support Syrian refugees in Lebanon, serving 46,000 families there.

She noted that the campaign is aiming to corporate with individuals in the region, who are able to contribute to helping the most vulnerable Syrian families through the campaign's online donation program (lb.unhcr.org).

She thanked His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, and the Kuwaiti citizens for their generous contributions to help the needy all over the world.
 

JERUSALEM – There is a risk that Middle Eastern refugees entering the U.​S​.​ could be infected with a flesh-eating disease that is sweeping across Syria.

Health agencies confirmed that Syrian refugees have transported leishmaniasis to Lebanon and Turkey, where it has been difficult to manage and treat.

Compounding the problem, ​patients can be infected with ​the parasitic disease ​without showing symptoms for weeks, months, or even years, ​and ​an asymptomatic patient most likely doesn't know that he or she is a carrier.

​​This means the health screening process for refugees could miss the disease entirely​.

Breitbart Jerusalem spoke with healthcare experts, including an epidemiologist from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC's Immigrant, Refugee, and Migrant Health Branch, which is responsible for guiding the medical screening of the Syrian refugees seeking to enter the U.S.

Volcano-like ulcers

Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by protozoan parasites. It is spread almost entirely by sandflies, including those present in the U.S.

There are three main types of the disease: cutaneous, mucocutaneous, and visceral leishmaniasis.

Cutaneous is the most common form among Syrians. It manifests in skin sores ​that typically develop within a few weeks or months of a sand fly bite. The sores can initially appear as bumps or nodules and may evolve into volcano-like ulcers.

Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis causes skin ulcers like the cutaneous form​, ​​as well as mucosal ulcers ​that usually damage the nose and mouth.

Visceral leishmaniasis, which has also been found among Syrian refugees, is the most serious form and can be fatal. It damages internal organs, usually the spleen and liver, and also affects bone marrow.

Refugees transmit to Lebanon, Turkey; threat to Europe, U.S.

​L​ast year, the CDC published a study of a September 2012 outbreak among Syrian refugees. The investigation found:

Fifty-nine percent of patients had more than one of the following: disease compromising the function of vital sensory organs (eye, ear, nose, and mouth) (27%); lesions of greater than 5 cm in diameter (49%); disfiguring facial lesions (37%); special forms, such as sporotrichoid or lymphangietic with satellite lesions (9%); and lesions present for more than 12 months' duration.

Earlier this month, the news media hyped a story that the Islamic State was causing the spread of leishmaniasis, because – ​ as the U​.​K​.​'s Mirror newspaper put it​ -​ militants were "slaughtering innocent people and dumping their bodies in the street."

​L​eishmaniasis has been spreading like wildfire in Syria since the health system collapsed in rebel-held territories in 2011. By 2012, there were already 52,982 documented cases of the disease in Syria

Also in 2012, the CDC documented that "migration patterns of refugees with cutaneous leishmanias is were identified in Lebanon," with the health agency producing a helpful illustration showing the disease's "movement from cities in Syria to regions in Lebanon."

The peer-reviewed medical journal Pathogens noted that ​Lebanon had no cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis prior to 2008 and only "sporadic cases in the following years."

​After the arrival of refugees, 1,033 cases were confirmed by 2012, "96.6% (998) of which were among Syrian refugees." Writing at AHC Media, a publication for healthcare professionals, Dr. Philip R. Fischer, Professor of Pediatrics at the Mayo Clinic, documented the spread to Turkey as well:
As Syrians leave their homeland, they sometimes carry their germs with them. There have been dramatic increases in the number of cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis in southeastern Turkey. In Turkey, 69% of cutaneous leishmaniasis patients are Syrians living in tent cities.

Fischer also noted a significant risk of the disease spreading to Europe with the arrival of Syrian refugees.

As recent news reports have shown​, ​many ​Syrian refuges don't stay in Turkey and Lebanon. There is a significant risk that cutaneous leishmaniasis will reemerge in southern Europe, ​where the natural vector of​ the ​L. tropica parasite​already exists.

Leishmaniasis has been endemic to Syria for centuries. Fischer noted that in 1756 a British physician "referred to the illness as Aleppo boil and Aleppo evil." However, it was minimized over time due to the advent of insecticides.

Medical screening

Refugees who enter the U.S. must undergo medical screening according to protocols established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. Each refugee must submit to a physical examination, ​including a skin test and possibly a chest x-ray ​to check for tuberculosis,​as well as a blood test for syphilis.

The blood tests do not currently look for leishmani​a​sis. Clearly, ​an attending doctor ​could easily spot a patient with obvious skin ulcers. However, leishmani​a​sis cannot be detected upon physical examination if the patient is asymptomatic, as can be the case for years.

Dr. Heather Burke, an epidemiologist from the CDC's Immigrant, Refugee, and Migrant Health Branch, explained to Breitbart News that there is generally a window of three to six months from the initial physical examination until a refugee departs for the U.S.

She said a medical examination is valid for six months, and ​explained that patients undergo a second examination just prior to departure -​ a quicker "fitness to fly" screening. While she conceded ​that this final examination is not thorough, she said it would pick up any visible skin lesions. Burke told Brei​tbart Jerusalem that she is not aware of a single case of leishmaniasis entering the U.S. via Syrian refugees.

Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the ​Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, warned that "most doctors in the U.S. know nothing about leishmaniasis."

"We'd all need to refer patients to tropical diseases specialists," she told Breitbart Jerusalem. "The treatments are toxic and expensive, and some are not widely available."

For Orient, the only sensible public health policy is "for all refugees to pass through a quarantined place like Ellis Island."

"Officials need to know where they've been and what diseases occur there. We need sophisticated, reliable screening methods and excellent vector control in any areas where refugees stay."

With research by Brenda J. Elliott.

Aaron Klein is Breitbart's Jerusalem bureau chief. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio."
 

The U.N. Security Council unanimously endorsed a political roadmap for Syria on Friday, and in the world of fantasy diplomacy that the Obama Administration inhabits this apparently counts as a victory. Syria is to have a comprehensive cease-fire, a negotiated political transition, "inclusive and non-sectarian" governance, free and fair elections and a new constitution – all within 18 months. As for how these goals will be achieved, those are "modalities" to be worked out.

Good luck. The U.N. spent the early years of the Syrian civil war attempting to arrange cease-fires and political settlements, all of which collapsed in the zero-sum struggle between the Assad regime and its opponents. Two rounds of talks in Geneva between the warring sides collapsed in acrimony – and that was before Islamic State (ISIS) became a major player on the Sunni side.

Today no country is volunteering ground troops to monitor and enforce a prospective cease-fire, and a U.N. peacekeeping mission would be too dangerous. No country is about to make even an indirect approach to ISIS, not that the group is amenable to a negotiated outcome. Bashar Assad is now gloating that he won't have to leave office, and with Russia, Iran and Hezbollah fighting his battle he has every reason to believe he'll be able to hold on to power in his rump state.

Why then the new diplomatic push? Secretary of State John Kerry boasts that the U.N. agreement was the result of three-months of diplomatic "force-feeding," and the Administration seems especially pleased that it worked with Russia to get a unanimous resolution. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was more realistic when he said after Friday's vote that "I'm not too optimistic about what has been achieved today."

Mr. Lavrov can still take satisfaction in the concessions he extracted from the U.S. Mr. Kerry has effectively given up the Administration's longstanding insistence that Mr. Assad leave office, saying after a Kremlin meeting with Vladimir Putin last week that "the United States and our partners are not seeking so-called regime change as it is known in Syria."

The current U.S. position is that Mr. Assad is not a fit leader for Syria, but that's now a political opinion more than a demand. In theory the Syrian people – including its refugees – will get to decide the matter in an election, as if the Alawite Mr. Assad would honor the result if the Sunni majority won.

Mr. Lavrov must also be pleased that Russia's intervention in Syria is producing this noticeable thaw in relations with the West. The European Union voted last week to extend its sanctions on Russia for an additional six months for its invasion of Ukraine, but nobody should expect the sanctions to last.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is reluctant to extend the sanctions in part because of ties between Italian energy giant Eni and Russia's Gazprom. France's conservatives are also backing away from sanctions, with one Republican parliamentarian asking, "How can we ask help from a country against terrorism and at the same time punish it with sanctions?"

All of which means that Russia's intervention in Syria is aiding its strategic purposes, never mind President Obama's assurances that the Kremlin was entering a quagmire. For the U.S., the U.N. vote is another triumph of wishes over facts, much like this month's climate deal in Paris. At best it gives Mr. Obama a talking point that lets him say the Administration is pressing for a diplomatic solution in Syria.

As for the Syrian people, the U.N. vote is another token symbol of international concern that will do nothing to end the slaughter or defeat their killers in ISIS and the Assad regime. They deserve better, but their deliverance will have to await an American President who believes that foreign policy should be something more than diplomatic misdirection and political vanity.
 

UNITED NATIONS |

The United Nations Security Council on Friday unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international road map for a Syria peace process, a rare show of unity among major powers on a conflict that has claimed more than a quarter million lives.

The resolution gives a U.N. blessing to a plan negotiated previously in Vienna that calls for a ceasefire, talks between the Syrian government and opposition, and a roughly two-year timeline to create a unity government and hold elections.

But the obstacles to ending the nearly five-year civil war remain daunting, with no side in the conflict able to secure a clear military victory. Despite their agreement, the major powers are bitterly divided on who may represent the opposition as well as on the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"This council is sending a clear message to all concerned that the time is now to stop the killing in Syria and lay the groundwork for a government that the long-suffering people of that battered land can support," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told the 15-nation council after the vote.

The resolution also calls for the U.N. to present the council with options for monitoring a ceasefire within one month.

Talks between Syria's government and opposition should begin in early January, the resolution said, though Kerry said mid-to-late January was more likely. It also endorsed the continued battle to defeat Islamic State militants who have seized large swaths of both Syria and neighboring Iraq.

It was one of the strongest appeals for peace by the council, divided for years on the issue of Syria's war, since Russia and China began vetoing a series of Western-drafted resolutions on the conflict in October 2011.

The resolution came after Moscow and Washington clinched a deal on a text. The two powers have had very different views on what should happen in Syria, where Islamic State militants control considerable territory that Western governments suspect has been a launch pad for attacks on Western nations and Russia.

Kerry made clear that there were still differences on the future of Assad, a close ally of Russia and Iran who Western countries want ousted, as well as on the question of which Syrian opposition groups will have a seat at the table in talks with the government.

"We are under no illusions about the obstacles that exist," Kerry said. "There obviously remain sharp differences within the international community, especially about the future of President Assad."

The resolution does not address Assad's fate.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said of the resolution: "This is a clear response to attempts to impose a solution from the outside on Syrians on any issues, including those regarding its president."

"CHAMPIONS OF DEMOCRACY"

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the talks between the Syrian government and opposition would only succeed if there were credible guarantees on the departure of Assad.

"How could this man unite a people that he has in part massacred?" Fabius said. "The idea that he could once again stand for elections is unacceptable to us."

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said Assad's government was prepared to take part in the talks in good faith.

"I reiterate the readiness of the Syrian government to participate effectively on any sincere effort where the Syrians will determine their choices through dialogue under Syrian leadership and not foreign intervention," he said, adding that all countries should coordinate with his government.

Agreement on a resolution came after a meeting of the so-called International Syria Support Group at New York's Palace Hotel.

Foreign ministers from 17 countries, including Lavrov, Kerry and other European and Middle Eastern ministers, as well as top diplomats from regional rivals Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, were in New York for the meetings.

During a break in Friday's talks, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said he had presented a document compiling the groups each country attending considered to be a "terrorist" organization.

Kerry said other countries would help Jordan draw up a final list.

As with the question of Assad's fate, diplomats say it will be extremely difficult to reach consensus on a list of terrorist groups to be excluded and legitimate members of an opposition who would participate in the negotiations.

The Syria road map, which also calls for a nationwide ceasefire that would not apply to Islamic State, Nusra Front and some other militant groups, was previously worked out in two rounds of ministerial talks in Vienna.

Diplomats said the main problem in the negotiations on the resolution involved Russian and Iranian concerns about how to refer to a bloc of opposition groups that would join U.N.-led peace talks with the Syrian government.

Western officials say a recent meeting in Saudi Arabia of opposition figures made significant headway in coming up with an opposition bloc, though Russia and Iran have questioned the legitimacy of the Saudi-hosted discussions.

In a dig at Saudi Arabia, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote in The Guardian on Friday that it was "utterly absurd that those who have denied their own population the most rudimentary tenets of democracy ... are now self-declared champions of democracy in Syria."

The Riyadh conference agreed to set up a 34-member secretariat to supervise peace talks, and that committee will also select the opposition's negotiating team.

Earlier this week, diplomats said some progress had been made on the most difficult sticking point in the talks: Assad's fate.

They said Russia had indicated it had no problem with the eventual ouster of Assad at the end of a transition period, though it would not admit that publicly.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau, Parisa Hafezi, Parisa Hafezi, Arshad Mohammed and Michelle Nichols; Writing by Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Tom Brown, James Dalgleish and Leslie Adler)
 

BERN |

Yemen's warring parties have agreed on a broad framework for ending their war at talks in Switzerland but they first have to agree a permanent ceasefire, after a week-long truce was widely violated, the United Nations said on Sunday.

U.N. Yemen envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the two sides would meet again on Jan. 14. The location had yet to be set, although both Switzerland and Ethiopia were possible.

"The participants to these talks have unanimously agreed that the ultimate objective that we all have is the end of this war and therefore to have a permanent ceasefire," Ould Cheikh Ahmed told a news conference in the Swiss capital.

"In the next few days all my efforts will focus on that – a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire."

Yemen's foreign minister Abdel Malek al-Mekhlafi later told reporters a ceasefire which was due to end later this week had been extended for another seven days on condition that Houthi fighters adhere to the truce.

A military alliance of mostly Gulf Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia began bombing Yemen's Houthi movement, an ally of Iran, in March to try to restore the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The conflict has killed nearly 6,000 people and plunged the impoverished country into a humanitarian crisis.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the two sides were still far from a ceasefire, describing the trust between them as "nil".

"It's very clear that in some cases the ceasefire was not respected and was violated from the first hours even of these talks," he said.

The participants agreed that at some point both sides would release prisoners, and that they would put forward proposals on how to manage the withdrawal of forces and heavy weaponry. Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he was optimistic.

"We have had very senior military from both sides sitting together in the same room, discussing, looking at the map, contacting their operation room to stop – this is incredible progress in my view. These people were just at the front, battling against each other."

(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Andrew Bolton)