By Kristy Siegfried | 27 June, 2019

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

NGO rescue boat defies decree and enters Italian waters.The NGO rescue vessel Sea-Watch 3 entered Italian waters near the island of Lampedusa on Wednesday night. After two weeks at sea, the ship’s captain, Carola Rackete, said the situation for 42 rescued refugees and migrants on board had become desperate and she made the decision to dock in Italy. “I know what I’m risking,” she tweeted. “But the 42 survivors I have on board are exhausted. I’m taking them to safety.” Under a decree adopted by Italy earlier this month, boats entering Italian waters without authorization can be fined up to €50,000. UNHCR has urged Italy to reconsider the decree, describing sea rescue as a “long-standing humanitarian imperative” and an obligation under international law.

ICC prosecutor seeks full investigation into crimes against Rohingya. The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor on Wednesday said she wants to open a full investigation into Myanmar’s alleged crimes against the Rohingya during a military crackdown in August 2017 that saw more than 700,000 people flee into neighbouring Bangladesh. Fatou Bensouda’s move comes after she launched a preliminary investigation last September. She will now submit a request to ICC judges for permission to begin a full-scale probe. Speaking at a global conference on statelessness in the Hague on Wednesday, senior UN investigator Radhika Coomaraswamy said statelessness was at the root of the “horrific” Rohingya crisis. She urged the international community to ensure those behind the violence were brought to justice.

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Diseases and food shortages plague makeshift migrant camp in Bosnia. Reuters reports that over the past 10 days, authorities in Bihac, near Bosnia and Herzegovina’s border with Croatia, have moved some 700 refugees and migrants who had been sleeping rough in the town to an improvised tent settlement at a former landfill site which the UN has described as “unsuitable for human habitation”. The International Federation of the Red Cross, which is providing hot meals and hygiene items at the site, said on Wednesday that the health situation was “alarming” and that food supplies were running out. The EU said on Tuesday it would provide €14.8 million to address the needs of refugees and migrants in Bosnia and to strengthen management of the country’s borders and the functioning of its asylum system.

Former Manus Island detainee delivers plea to Human Rights Council. Sudanese refugee Abdul Aziz Muhamat, who was recently granted asylum in Switzerland, delivered a speech at the 41st session of the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday describing the situation for refugees who remain on Manus Island under Australia’s offshore asylum policy as a “humanitarian crisis that requires urgent action”. He said that around 100 people had attempted suicide or self-harmed in the last month alone and that he feared for the lives of those who remained on Manus and Nauru. His statement followed another call from the UN’s special rapporteurs on migrant rights, torture and mental health for the Australian government to provide immediate health care to refugees and asylum-seekers on Manus and Nauru, and to transfer those requiring urgent care to Australia.

Hundreds of children in UK wait years for asylum decision. The BBC reports that almost 1,400 child asylum-seekers in the UK have waited more than five years for an initial decision on their asylum claims. Home Office figures showed that delays had almost tripled in the past five years. In September 2018, there were 6,214 children who had been waiting more than six months for an initial decision – an almost 47 per cent rise in four years compared with January 2014. The Home Office said cases involving children “can take longer to resolve”. Rupinder Parhar, policy officer at The Children’s Society, said the lives of “vulnerable young people are being unfairly put on hold” by the delays.

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For five days earlier this year, 21 young Venezuelans living in temporary shelters in northern Brazil had a chance to share their experiences of forced displacement through photography. Some of the images they captured are featured here.

DID YOU KNOW?

Some 3.9 million people worldwide are reported to be stateless, but fewer than half of all countries have official statistics on statelessness, so the actual figure is thought to be much higher.

By Kristy Siegfried | 26 June, 2019 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Image of drowned father and child must propel prevention measures, says UNHCR. The photo of Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his 23-month-old daughter, Valeria, lying face down in shallow water on the banks...

By Kristy Siegfried | 25 June, 2019 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Ugandan refugee facilities “overwhelmed” as thousands flee Congo. Fresh fighting in north-eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has driven some 7,500 people across the border into Uganda...

By Kristy Siegfried | 24 June, 2019 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW “Medically catastrophic” conditions in two Libyan detention centres. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Friday that conditions in two detention centres in Libya are “medically catastrophic” and consistent...

By Kristy Siegfried | 21 June, 2019 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW UNHCR calls on Europe to allow Sea Watch passengers ashore. In a statement on Thursday, UNHCR urged European States to allow a group of 43 people, including three unaccompanied children, to disembark from the...

By Kristy Siegfried | 20 June, 2019 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Calls for greater solidarity on World Refugee Day. In a video address to mark World Refugee Day, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi offered a message of hope, pledging to do all he could to help...

By Kristy Siegfried | 19 June, 2019 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Worldwide displacement tops 70 million. Data from UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report, released today, shows that a record 70.8 million people were forcibly displaced by the end of 2018 – double the number 20...

By Kristy Siegfried | 18 June, 2019 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Massive new displacement in north-eastern DRC. Inter-ethnic violence between Hema herder and Lendu farming communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s north-eastern Ituri province has displaced more...

By Kristy Siegfried | 17 June, 2019 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Venezuelans rush to enter Peru before new rules imposed. A record number of Venezuelans crossed the border into Peru from Ecuador ahead of a new requirement that they must have passports and visas to enter the...

By Kristy Siegfried | 14 June, 2019 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Family returned to DR Congo after two die of Ebola in Uganda. Reuters reports that Ugandan authorities on Thursday returned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo the relatives of two people who died of Ebola...