Increased number of widows globally

Millions of widows worldwide suffer crushing poverty and persecution. Many are left destitute after being robbed of their inheritance, while others are enslaved by their in-laws, accused of witchcraft or forced into abusive sexual rituals.

International Widows’ Day on June 23 was created to raise awareness of the often hidden injustices faced by widows. Here are some facts:

*There are an estimated 258.5 million widows globally with 584.6 million children (including adult children).
*Deaths through conflict and disease have contributed to a 9 percent rise in the number of widows since 2010.
*The biggest jump has been in the Middle East and North Africa where the estimated number of widows rose 24 percent between 2010 and 2015, partly due to the Syrian war and other conflicts.
*One in seven widows globally is living in extreme poverty.
*One in 10 women of marital age is widowed. The proportion is around one in five in Afghanistan and Ukraine.
*A third of widows worldwide live in India or China. India, with an estimated 46 million widows, has overtaken China (44.6 million) to become the country with the largest number of widows.
*A significant number of girls are widowed in childhood–a reflection of the prevalence of child marriage in developing countries and the custom of marrying off young girls to much older men.

[Reuters]

Sweden toughens rules for refugees seeking asylum

Sweden, once one of the most welcoming countries for refugees, has introduced tough new restrictions on asylum seekers, including rules that would limit the number of people granted permanent residency and make it more difficult for parents to reunite with their children.

The government said the legislation, proposed by the Social Democrat minority government and enacted by a vote of 240 to 45, was necessary to prevent the country from becoming overstretched by the surge of migration to Europe that began last year.

The country, which has a population of 9.5 million, took in 160,000 asylum-seekers last year.

As elsewhere in Europe, the far right in Sweden has been railing against immigration, a stance that is increasingly resonating with voters. Wealthy countries across northern Europe, including Denmark, Finland and Britain, are increasingly pushing back against calls to accept more refugees amid fears that it could undermine stretched welfare systems, national integration and quality of life.

[New York Times]

Credibility of international community at risk over Syria

With the conflict in Syria now well into its fifth year, senior United Nations officials emphasized that the international community must not lose momentum in attaining a comprehensive and concrete political solution.

Stephen O’Brien, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, underscored that while the UN remains committed and ready to deliver humanitarian aid for civilians in need, such action cannot be a substitute for political action.

“We must show the people of Syria that the world has not forgotten them or their plight and indeed of their country. Not through more words of solidarity, but through immediate and concrete political action that brings an end to this futile cycle of violence and misery. And hard cash for meeting immediate needs – humanitarian needs – is now needed,” he said.

“The future of this and coming generations is on the line. The credibility of the international community is at stake,” he added.

Highlighting that aid agencies are doing all they can to assist millions of Syrians affected by the conflict, Mr. O’Brien said that up to 5.8 million people had been reached with food assistance per month during this year alone.

[UN News Centre]

24 people displaced every minute of every day in 2015

The UN refugee agency says persecution and conflict raised the total number of refugees and internally displaced people worldwide to a record 65.3 million at the end of last year.

“I hope that the message carried by those forcibly displaced reaches the leadership: We need action, political action, to stop conflicts,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees. “The message that they have carried is: ‘If you don’t solve problems, problems will come to you’.”

With stark detail, UNHCR said that on average, 24 people had been displaced every minute of every day last year, or 34,000 people a day, up from six every minute in 2005.

Global displacement has roughly doubled since 1997, and risen by 50 percent since 2011 alone – when the Syria war began.

“There is no plan B for Europe in the long run,” Grandi said. “Europe will continue to receive people seeking asylum. Their numbers may vary … but it is inevitable.”

[Aliajeera]

Over half of all refugees come from Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia

A total of 54% of all refugees come from just three countries:
Syria has the highest number of externally displaced people, with 4.9 million fleeing outside the country’s borders.
Afghanistan has 2.7 million and
Somalia 1.1 million.

And a staggering 98,400 of filed asylum applications are by unaccompanied or separated children — mainly Afghans, Eritreans, Syrians and Somalis.

[CNN]

More displaced people now than after WWII

The U.N.’s refugee agency reports that the number of displaced people is at its highest ever — surpassing even post-World War II numbers.

The total at the end of 2015 reached 65.3 million — or one out of every 113 people on Earth.

A little under 1% of the earth’s population is either “an asylum-seeker, internally displaced or a refugee” according to the UNHCR report, which was released Monday.

The global population of forcibly displaced people today is larger than the entire population of the United Kingdom. If they were a country, the forcibly displaced would be the 21st largest in the world.

The report was released on World Refugee Day, which is observed by the agency annually to commemorate “the strength, courage and perseverance of millions of refugees.

[CNN]

Addressing the multibillion food waste problem

American businesses could save nearly $2bn a year by cutting the amount of half-eaten entrees, unsold milk and other foods that get tossed into trash bins across the US by 20% over the next decade, according to a new report. The report, Roadmap to Reduce US Food Waste, lays out strategies that companies, along with governments, consumers and foundations, can implement to reduce the amount of discarded food in the country.

The report claims that strategies in the report, if implemented, would create 15,000 more jobs and provide 1.8bn meals of recovered food donations to nonprofits a year–double the current amount–as well as save 1.6tn gallons of fresh water, and cut carbon emissions by 18m tons per year.

The US Department of Agriculture estimates that cutting waste by just 15% would provide enough food for more than 25 million people each year.

Every year, the US spends $218bn growing and selling food that gets uneaten and tossed away. That food waste amounts to 63 million tons per year and could serve 1.8 billion meals if it were donated to nonprofits.

The US isn’t alone in trying to eliminate the streams of throwaway food.

The European Commission is considering proposals to slash the 100 million tons of food waste generated annually in the European Union.

 [The Guardian]

US, UK, China, France and Russia called out for not attending UN Humanitarian Summit

Irish President Michael D Higgins has hit out at the leaders of the UK, US, China, France and Russia for not attending a United Nations humanitarian summit.

In an address on the migrant and refugee crisis, Mr Higgins warned some countries are not living up to their pledges for aid and funding for war-ravaged regions such as Syria. But he singled out the five countries who have permanent positions on the UN Security Council, for not attending a conference in Istanbul last month organized by secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

“When one considers the wider context of the stalled peace process in Syria, and the daunting challenges of resolving conflicts, restricting the flow of arms to war zones, and building peace in the long term, the absence of senior leaders from any of the permanent members of the Security Council was more than disappointing,” he said.

“The responsibility of the prosperous – especially those who have historically prospered through colonialism and domination – cannot be traded away,” he said.

Mr Higgins added: “We are at a critical moment in our history. The refugee and migration crisis is great in scale and is likely to remain at the center of the EU and international agenda for several decades to come.

[Belfast Telegraph]

Refugee statistics

Nearly 60 million people around the globe are displaced from their homes due to war, conflict, and persecution.

That’s the highest number ever on record– one in every 122 humans on this planet.

And the responsibility of sheltering refugees disproportionately falls upon poor countries. The UN’s Refugee Agency estimates that 86% of the world’s refugees are sheltered by developing countries such as Turkey, Pakistan, and Lebanon.

Lebanon alone is single-handedly hosting around the same number of refugees who took shelter in all of Europe in 2015.

It is a complex and difficult situation: refugees arrive in countries already stricken by economic challenges, and the systems in place to process and integrate them are not equipped to handle so many people. There are legitimate security and integration challenges host countries must grapple with to ensure safe resettlement. And the resettlement process is made more complicated by widespread misinformation, racism, and apathy.

I have followed the “refugee crisis” in Europe from my safe and distant harbor in Los Angeles for the past year. I’ve wondered about the humans behind the numbers, the circumstances that lead them to leave behind home and kin, and what life is like in the camps. It was with these questions in mind that I decided to volunteer at two refugee camps in Europe. Read more