UN highlights challenges of humanitarian operations in Syria

A United Nations spokesperson today highlighted the challenging working environment in which UN humanitarian agencies are operating in within Syria, while noting that aid is being delivered to all those who need, regardless of their affiliation and where they live.

“We are focused on reaching all people in need by whatever means feasible, including through regular programs, cross-line, cross-border and air operations,” saids OCHA Deputy Spokesperson Jens Laerke. “This delivery is despite the dangerous security conditions; every day UN staff and our partners risk their lives to deliver this life-saving assistance,” he added.

The spokesperson addressed the UN’s work with all parties to the conflict, including relevant departments of the Government of Syria, to reach people with the life-saving support they need. “The Government determines the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that the UN agencies in Syria are permitted to work with,” the spokesperson said. “If agencies in Syria did not accept this, they would not be able to save so many lives by delivering critical supplies and services to millions of people across the country.”

In his remarks, Mr. Laerke said that the UN delivers to all areas of the country – irrespective of the status of control and using the most effective methods, including deliveries to non-government controlled areas through UN Security Council-authorized cross-border deliveries from Turkey and Jordan and deliveries from government-controlled areas across conflict lines to besieged and hard-to-reach enclaves.

“Since the beginning of 2016, the UN and partners in Syria have successfully reached 1.2 million people in besieged and hard-to-reach and other priority areas through inter-agency operations,” Laerke said.

[UN News Centre]

International Red Cross delivers humanitarian assistance to 33,500 Syrians

An international aid convoy of 19 trucks delivered humanitarian assistance to at least 33,500 people in Syria on Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Syria said.

“19-truck convoy entering AldarAlkabira [town in central Syria], rural Homs [city in western Syria], bringing aid to 33,500 people,” the organization said on its twitter account.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups. Almost 14 million Syrian people remain in deep need of receiving humanitarian aid, which cannot be delivered due to continuous fighting.

Evacuation of Damascus suburb begins

Civilians and rebel fighters have begun leaving the Syrian town of Darayya, near the Syrian capital Damascus, after a deal was reached ending a four-year government siege.

Opposition fighters are due to be given safe passage to the rebel-held city of Idlib, while civilians will go to government shelters in Damascus. Some 700 armed men and 4,000 civilians will be evacuated as part of the agreement, according to Syrian state media.

The Syrian army encircled Darayya in 2012 and just one aid delivery has reached the town since then. For years those living in Darayya have endured constant shelling, as well as suffering shortages of food, water and electricity.

The withdrawal of rebels just a few miles from Damascus is a boost for President Bashar al-Assad, analysts say.

The evacuation comes as US Secretary of State John Kerry holds talks on Syria with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva. They are meeting in a bid to broker a temporary ceasefire in the city of Aleppo, where fighting between government and rebel forces has escalated in recent weeks, leaving hundreds dead.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have agreed a deal to boost aid to Aleppo, Turkish media reported.

[BBC]

Tech companies helping with the refugee crisis

Last year, more than 1.1 million people fled to Europe from places like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. More than 163,000 refugees applied for asylum in Sweden in 2015. (In Europe, only Germany — with nearly 10 times Sweden’s population — received more requests, according to the United Nations.)

Tiny Finland, with just 5.5 million people, reported 32,000 asylum seekers in 2015 versus 3,651 applicants the year before.

Migrants are a burden on countries offering comprehensive welfare services ranging from guaranteed housing to universal health care. All services depend on taxes paid by residents with steady jobs. So it’s to everyone’s benefit when asylum seekers find work quickly.

“Dish” Eldishnawy, founder of Finnish big data company Floralytics, recently co-moderated Newcomer Bootcamp — a one-day course for refugees from Syria, Iraq and Somalia on setting up and running businesses in Finland and Western Europe. The course, held in Helsinki, was just one of a series of conferences, workshops and hackathons organized by Techfugees, a nonprofit social enterprise that describes itself as “a tech community response to the needs of refugees.”

About 250 miles away in Stockholm, Johan Engstrom founded Sync Accelerator, a private recruitment agency matching technically proficient refugees with Swedish companies that need their skills. (Think of Sync Accelerator as a sort of Swedish LinkedIn that’s focused exclusively on integrating highly educated newly arrived refugees into the Swedish labor market.)

[c/net]

Switzerland new route for EU-bound refugees

Refugees are finding new routes into the European Union. Swiss authorities have noticed a rise in border crossings from Italy.

Large numbers of refugees have appeared in the border region between Domodossola, Italy, and Brig. Most are Eritrean, followed by Gambians and Nigerians.

Miriam Behrens, director of the Swiss Refugee Council, has criticized the government’s handling of the borders. “We see a type of racial profiling,” she said. “Those with darker skin are pulled off trains and buses for questioning. The authorities have relatively wide leeway.”

Refugees can apply for asylum in Switzerland and remain there. “Many I’ve spoken to are unaware of the concept of asylum,” Behrens said.

Most refugees who reach Switzerland want to continue onto Germany or Sweden, Behrens said, because “many have relatives or acquaintances there.” Even applicants for Swiss asylum may continue northward.

[Deutsche Welle]

As US politicians shun Syrian refugees, faith-based groups embrace them

When 31 governors called for a ban on Syrian refugees coming into the U.S. after last November’s terrorist attacks in Paris, it united faith-based communities across the country. They are challenging the wave of opposition to these refugees by taking a leading role in resettling them.

“If they didn’t have the churches and synagogues providing what they do, this system would collapse,” says Jennifer Quigley, referring to the federal resettlement program that is now under attack from Congress and many governors. Quigley is a strategist for refugee protection with Human Rights First, an advocacy group that has pressed the administration to increase Syrian resettlement from the pledged goal of 10,000 in 2016 to 100,000 in fiscal year 2017.

“Refugees are facing crises every day against extremists in the world. We need to stand with refugees, especially now,” Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale in central New Jersey says. Kaper-Dale and his wife, Stephanie, serve as co-pastors at the Reformed Church of Highland Park. Their local interfaith coalition has supported 14 refugees so far this year from countries including Colombia and Syria. In addition, Kaper-Dale’s church is supporting a Syrian family applying for asylum. Their interfaith coalition is committed to resettling 50 more refugees from Africa and the Middle East, who are expected to start arriving in the fall.

Even as Congress and President Obama fight over whether to accept Syrians under the current federal program, there is a “real desire at the grass roots, stepping up to the plate in new ways,” says Shaun Casey, the State Department’s special representative for religion and global affairs.

The U.S. is committed to resettling 75,000 refugees total in 2016, with an additional 10,000 Syrians.

[NPR]

Justice elusive for slain Aid Workers

It was a massacre that shocked the world’s humanitarian community. Seventeen aid workers were killed outside their office in Sri Lanka’s northeast–executed at point-blank range with automatic weapons in one of the worst attacks on humanitarians.

A decade on, justice remains elusive for families of the victims, all Sri Lankan nationals, says Action Contra La Faim (ACF), the charity where they worked.  ACF has found evidence they were likely assassinated by Sri Lankan security forces and that their attackers must have been shielded by Sri Lankan top authorities.

As aid workers across the globe gathered on Friday to mark World Humanitarian Day, paying tribute to those killed working on front lines of crises, experts say much more needs to be done to ensure perpetrators are held accountable.

In 2015 alone, 109 aid workers were killed, 110 injured and 68 kidnapped in attacks in countries such as Afghanistan, South Sudan, Yemen, Somalia and Syria, according to consulting group Humanitarian Outcomes.

Yet experts say few, if any, of the 148 attacks, which included physical and sexual assault, bombings, shootings and kidnappings, have been independently investigated and satisfactory justice served.

[Reuters]

Two years after Gaza war, rebuilding lags behind and international donors are bailing

In the summer of 2014, the four-story building where Nashat Nawati lived with his extended family was reduced to rubble by Israeli bombs during a six-week war with Hamas. Two years later, Nawati and his six children are still stuck in temporary quarters half the size of his old apartment as they wait to get foreign aid necessary to rebuild.

Nawati is one of about 75,000 Gazans still displaced from their homes as a $3.5-billion effort to rebuild Gaza from the destruction of the war creeps along at a pace officials say has fallen years behind schedule. The biggest problem, according to the United Nations, is funding shortfalls. Only about 50% of promised donor aid was disbursed as of the end of March, according to the latest World Bank report. Among large donors, Persian Gulf countries such as Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia had transferred only 15% or less of their pledges.

Unemployment among Gaza’s youth is estimated at 60%. According to the United Nations, it will take Gaza’s economy another two years to return to the point where it was before the war. Last year, the United Nations warned that Gaza may become uninhabitable by 2020 if there is no change in the economic situation.

The rebuilding task is daunting. Gaza’s power lines and the territory’s sole power plant were hit during the war, leading to rolling power cuts of 12 to 18 hours a day on an electricity grid capable of supplying only half of the territory’s needs. The power shortage has hobbled Gaza’s sewage treatment plant, sending about 24 million gallons of raw sewage into the sea daily and creating a stifling stench along the coast. Schools, businesses, farms and medical centers also sustained tens of millions of dollars in damage.

There are multiple headwinds holding up the massive project: The Hamas-controlled territory of 1.8 million Palestinians is hemmed in by an Israeli and Egyptian blockade, and building materials like cement have been in short supply; a U.N.-run system that gives Israel oversight over the distribution of construction supplies has been criticized for slowing rebuilding with too much red tape.

 [Los Angeles Times]