Gang violence in Central America source of humanitarian crisis

Central America’s Northern Triangle – encompassing El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras – is one of the most violent regions in the world outside of a warzone. Transnational gangs or maras have proliferated in the wake of decades of civil war and are largely responsible for a per capita death rate that rivals that in Syria.

The humanitarian impacts have become increasingly obvious over the last two years as more and more people, many of them unaccompanied children, have fled the violence and sought protection, mostly in the United States. An estimated 10 percent of the Northern Triangle’s population of 30 million has already left. For those forced to remain, weak and corrupt state institutions have failed to improve their access to health, education, and justice in city neighborhoods that have been carved up into “territories” by rival gangs, and where schools have become places of recruitment and kidnapping.

Gangs in the Northern Triangle are financed by a range of organized criminal activities, from more localized extortion and smuggling rackets to the trans-regional trade in narcotics, much of it bound for the United States.

Robert Muggah, director of the Igarapé Institute, a Brazil-based think tank that focuses on security issues, noted there has been a general decline in aid to Latin America in the last five to 10 years and that many donors view the situation in the Northern Triangle as in “the US’s backyard” and therefore something American donors should be addressing. The Igarapé Institute’s projections suggest that homicide rates in the Northern Triangle will continue to rise over the next 20 years, even as they fall in other parts of the world.

[IRIN]

10,000 people rescued in the Mediterranean over 36 hours

More than 10,000 people have been rescued from the western Mediterranean in just 36 hours, 40 rubber and wooden boats with close to 7,000 people on Monday. And then on Tuesday, an additional 3,000 people were rescued by the Italian navy and vessels operated by aid groups including MSF.

The International Organization for Migration, or IOM, tells NPR it might be the largest concentration of people to arrive in Italy since the beginning of the European migrant crisis.

Estimates it will take up to three days to bring all the rescued people to land. Most of them will land first on Italian islands such as Sicily and Lampedusa.

“About 600 to 1,200 people arrive in each landing,” he says. “Everyone is fingerprinted, there are security and medical checks. The system is very efficient, because Italy has been doing this for many months now.” He says he expects the emergency situation, as he calls it, will be over by the end of the week, assuming the pace of rescues slows.

Still, even after all the rescued people are on land and initially identified, it is just the beginning of a months- or years-long process to seek asylum in Europe. Even if a person is not granted asylum, it can take up to three years before the appeals process ends and the person is actually ordered to leave Italy. And Di Giacomo stresses that it is difficult to repatriate people who arrive without official documents from their home country, as many of the people rescued this week do.

[NPR]

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]