Jihadists kept off terror list by US attack UN humanitarian convoy in Syria

Militants from an Al-Qaeda-linked group, Jaysh al-Islam, have shelled a UN humanitarian convoy near Damascus, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam) is a coalition of Islamist militant groups based near the Syrian capital, Damascus. The group positions itself as “brother” fighters of the Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda that is recognized as a terrorist group by the UN and many nations, including Russia, Iran and Egypt.

Jaysh al-Islam had previously admitted to using chemical weapons against Kurdish militias in Aleppo earlier this year. It is also known to have used human shields and published ISIS-style execution videos.

Yet, Jaysh al-Islam has a delegation at the UN-backed Syria peace talks in Geneva. And in mid-May, Washington blocked a Russian proposal at the UN to delegitimize Jaysh al-Islam over their regular violations of the ceasefire. Britain, France and Ukraine sided with the US.

Washington said it would continue to back the group because they were “vetted” by the Saudis and play a role in the Syrian political process.

[RT]

Obama aims to double global refugee resettlement

The White House will on Thursday rally businesses to give jobs to refugees ahead of a September summit where U.S. President Barack Obama will urge world leaders to boost humanitarian funds by a third and double the number of refugees being resettled.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said on Wednesday that the Obama summit during the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations would also aim to get one million refugee children in school and one million more refugees access to legal work in the neighboring countries they fled to.

“The summit is by no means a panacea; even if we hit every target, our response will still not match the scale of the crisis,” Power told the United States Institute of Peace, adding that it would boost the number of countries trying to help.

She said the United States intended to meet its goal of taking in 10,000 Syrian refugees, out of a total 85,000 refugees this year and slammed calls by some Americans to halt the refugee program following attacks in Paris and Orlando. “Ignorance and prejudice make for bad advisors,” Power said.

[Reuters]

Child refugees pay the highest price

It is estimated that approximately half of the 19.5 million registered refugees at the global level are children or youths. They are the most vulnerable victims of these conflicts.

Years of conflict have turned Syria into one of the most dangerous places to be a child, according to UNICEF. It is estimated that 5.5 million children are affected by the conflict, a number that is almost double from the year before. More than 4.29 million children inside Syria are poor, displaced or caught in the line of fire.

As a result of the fall in immunization rates — from 99 percent before the war to less than 50 percent now — polio has re-emerged in Syria after a 14-year absence. At the same time, doctors report an increase in the number and severity of cases of measles, pneumonia and diarrhea.

The capacity of the country’s health care system to provide assistance to the population has been seriously affected. Many doctors and health personnel have either been killed or have left the country. Sixty percent of the public hospitals have been damaged or are out of service.

Syrian refugee children are at very high risk for mental illness and have poor access to education. In the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, for example, one-third of all children displayed aggressive and self-harm behavior. According to Europol, Europe’s policy agency, thousands of unaccompanied refugee and migrant children have disappeared, raising fears they are being exploited and used for sex.

The post-traumatic stress disorder rate among Syrian refugee children is comparable to that observed among other children who have experienced war. A study by the Migration Policy Institute shows that refugee children who are not formally educated are more likely to feel marginalized and hopeless, making them probable targets for radicalization.

[Japan Times]

Tens of thousands of child refugees that left for Europe are missing

UNICEF has released two reports on the tragic situation of refugee children who are fleeing areas of conflict and poverty. Between January 1 and May 31 of this year, the International Organization of Migration and others counted 7567 children amongst the desperate refugees who crossed the Mediterranean Sea into Italy. Of them, startlingly, 92 per cent came without an adult.

The International Organization for Migration has estimated that 80 per cent of them are victims of trafficking. What data Italian social workers have been able to accumulate shows that both boys and girls have been sexually assaulted on their journey–some girls even arrive pregnant.

And asylum in Europe is elusive. Children sit in refugee centers or prisons for months on end as their paperwork stutters through the system. Laws in many European states only allow children to be unified with their parents, not their extended families. This means that children cannot be turned over to aunts and uncles, cousins and siblings.

UNICEF finds that 96,000 children cannot be accounted for in the system. The children have vanished into Europe, “some may have fallen prey to criminal gangs.”

On 27 May, UNICEF signed an agreement with the Italian government to monitor the reception of refugees–particularly unaccompanied minors–into Italy.

[Vijay Prashad, professor of international studies at Trinity College]

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]