2,600 refugees have died crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe

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The United Nations refugee agency announced that more than 300,000 refugees and migrants have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

That number does not include the 2,600 who have died on the journey.

This photo published on the cover of The Independent (UK) shows a small boy lying face down in the sand on a Turkish beach as an official stands over him. The child, who is thought to be Syrian, has drowned in an apparent attempt to flee the war ravaging his country.

Such extraordinary images serve as a stark reminder that, as European leaders increasingly try to prevent refugees and migrants from settling in the continent, more and more refugees are dying in their desperation to flee persecution and reach safety.

The Independent took the decision to publish these images because, among the often glib words about the “ongoing migrant crisis”, it is all too easy to forget the reality of the desperate situation facing many refugees.

[PBS/The Independent]

Greece and Italy swamped with refugee migrants

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A Syrian woman cries while holding her children moments after arriving on a dinghy on the Greek island of Lesbos

During July, a record 50,000 refugee migrants have landed in Greece by boat from Turkey, Reuters reported. Arrivals have exceeded 160,000 this year, exposing massive shortages in the country already mired in the worst economic crisis in generations.

Elsewhere, Italy’s Coast Guard says it coordinated the rescue of 4,400 migrants from overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean Sea on Saturday — the most in a single day — officials reported.

So far in 2015, about 110,000 migrants have been rescued off of Libya and brought to southern Italian ports.

[PBS]

International aid needed for refugees in Europe

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Angry scenes erupted outside Budapest’s main train station Tuesday morning, as crowds of angry migrants and refugees were prevented from boarding trains they hoped would take them on from Hungary to Austria and Germany, toward Western Europe.

It’s the latest crisis point to emerge as a wave of migrants — many refugees fleeing conflict in Syria or Iraq — seek to make their way by land to Western European nations where they hope to claim asylum.

Other flashpoints have emerged. Thousands were stranded last month in a no-man’s land between northern Greece and Macedonia, where Macedonian security forces used tear gas and stun grenades as some desperate people tried to rush the razor wire border fence.

In other places — including parts of Germany and Greece — there’s been a warmer welcome, with volunteers handing out food and water.

Germany’s government said last month that it expected up to 800,000 asylum seekers to come this year — four times more than in 2014.

[CNN]

Insignificant number of Calais refugees as compared to other countries

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British Prime Minister David Cameron warned of the threat posed by “a swarm of people” who were “coming across the Mediterranean … wanting to come to Britain”. His foreign secretary Philip Hammond upped the ante. The chaos at the Channel tunnel in Calais, he declared, was caused by “marauding migrants who posed an existential threat.”

In reality the French port of Calais is a sideshow, home to a few thousand migrants.

Europe’s real refugee crisis is in the Mediterranean. More than 180,000 have reached Italy and Greece by sea alone this year.  The impact on Greece, already wracked with crisis, is at tipping point.

[Despite the media circus] Britain is not a main destinations for either refugees or illegal migrants. Last year 25,870 sought asylum in the UK and only 10,050 were accepted. By contrast, Sweden accepted three times as many and Germany had more than 200,000 asylum and new asylum applicants.

[But if you are talking refugees, in sheer numbers,] nothing in Europe matches the millions who have been driven to seek refuge in Turkey, Lebanon, Pakistan or Jordan. Set against such a global drama, Calais is little more than deathly theatre.

[The Guardian]

One year after war, people of Gaza still sit among the ruins

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A year after the halt to hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Aug. 26, 2014, not a single one of the nearly 18,000 homes destroyed or severely damaged in Gaza is habitable.Those involved in the process, and advocacy groups, attribute the slow pace to Palestinian political infighting, Israel’s involvement in approving projects and participants, and a lack of funds. International donors have sent about $340 million of the $2.5 billion they pledged for Gaza’s reconstruction last fall, and much of that was spent on removing rubble, on temporary housing for 100,000 displaced residents or on minor repairs.

Palestinian civil-society groups pushed forward a petition this month calling for an end to the reconstruction mechanism, saying that Israel’s access to a database of destroyed homes and its role in reviewing applications only entrenched its control over Gaza, a position echoed in a report published this week by Gisha, an Israeli group that promotes freedom of movement for Palestinians.

Mofeed M. Al Hassaina, the Gaza-based minister of housing and public works, said 455,000 tons of rubble had been cleared; 1.5 million tons remain. According to the mechanism’s website, 115 larger projects, like schools, hospitals and roads, are in progress, 15 have been completed, and 237 are in the approval pipeline. Bashir Rayyes, the Palestinian Authority’s coordinator for Gaza reconstruction, said 95 percent of Gaza’s electric grid and water supply had been restored.

Fouad Harara has a photograph of his former and future home affixed to the tent he put up after the fighting stopped last August, where has spent virtually every day since. It shows a flourishing nut tree, which he said was felled by Israeli bombs. A few yards away, green branches sprout from the ground, some part of the tree apparently having revived itself. “We are the same–our homes and ourselves,” said Mr. Harara’s brother Abed, 53. “We will not die. Our roots are like this tree.”

[New York Times]   

Pay it forward as a humanitarian worker

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Some say humanitarian workers are heroes. They dedicate their heart and soul to save lives, may it be in a natural or a manmade disaster.

I say we humanitarian workers, like everybody else, are just human beings, doing the best we can, in the ways we know, to help those in need rebuild their lives.

It was in 2013 when I became a humanitarian worker. I entered the field just a few weeks after surviving typhoon Yolanda. An old friend offered me a job in the organization he works for, and while at first I was clueless on what to do, I knew it was all about responding to the thousands of survivors struggling to stand up after the storm took away everything they had.

There were times when I cried at night in despair, for the trauma brought by Yolanda continued to haunt me. I carried this sort of survivor’s guilt since I could not mourn fully for those who lost more than I did. I could not even talk about my feelings in an honest manner in fear of being called ungrateful.

But while it took me time to realize how blessed I was, it soon dawned upon me that being a humanitarian worker is not a cross to bear, but rather a path to learning life in its crudest, harshest forms, and that it’s up to us on how to make the best of it.

I learned that it’s okay to cry, that I am entitled to my own feelings, just like everybody else who got past Yolanda. After all, those who survived lost their sense of normalcy, no matter how first-world these seemed, mine included.

I also came to see that even if we don’t speak much about the hard times, my colleagues were there for support, not only as co-workers, but as friends, as people who have had their own share of ups and downs for us to share, to overcome, and to celebrate.

[Read more of Fae Cheska Marie Esperas’ story]

 

What’s it like to be a humanitarian worker?

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Refugees who left their homes to save their lives. Children who witnessed deaths that are numbered way more than their years. Mothers who struggled to save their children from calamity, hunger, and conflict.

These are the people Lourdes Ibarra usually meets all in a day’s work.

In times of calamity, extreme poverty, and civil conflict, humanitarian workers from around the world rise to the challenge of helping people fight hunger and insecurity. They go to places devoid of stability, security, and food assistance at the expense of their own comfort and safety.

As a humanitarian worker for 17 years, Ibarra experienced living at the remotest area in Africa and Middle East to respond to the needs of people affected by famine or natural disasters. Currently, she serves as the head of the programs of the World Food Programme‘s (WFP) operations in Damascus, Syria, assisting more than 4.5 million victims of the civil conflicts.

While Ibarra didn’t choose the profession out of convenience nor for its perks, she definitely was not prepared for the demands it required. In providing aid to those in need, Ibarra faced threats posed by nearby insurgents and even experienced settling in places with undesirable living conditions.

“Being in the deep field, a woman [like me] faces challenges in the lack of decent accommodation and basic facilities. I have experienced to be in deep, deep field when we used to live in tents with common toilets and shower in Bor, South Sudan, with the presence of snakes and teeming with mosquitoes,” Ibarra shared.

“If I am asked to define ‘humanitarian’ work in one word, for me it means ‘giving’. Because it is when you give yourself for this noble cause that you truly give,” Ibarra said.
Read more  

UN OCHA and humanitarian organizations meet

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As the world braces for stronger disasters and adverse impacts of climate change, how do we ensure the welfare of humanitarian workers and responders? How do we ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to help survivors of calamities and conflicts?

These were the questions that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), and other humanitarian groups posed on Wednesday, August 19, during the celebration of World Humanitarian Day 2015.

For UN OCHA Associate Humanitarian Affairs Officer Madoka Koide, the Philippines is an “inspiring source for other countries.” Koide cited the spirit of volunteerism which seemed to be prevalent among Filipinos especially in times of disasters. “In this country, you don’t have to actually be a humanitarian, (as) there are people who actually help,” he said.

Koide also highlighted the importance of the everyday work of humanitarian workers. “Many humanitarian workers have sacrifice time, many of them sacrifice proximity with their families. Many of them have also sacrificed their lives.”

Koide emphasized that the celebration is a prelude to the World Humanitarian Summit happening in May 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey.

[Rappler.com]

Aid group makes humanitarian plea after 65 killed in Yemen

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Doctors Without Borders made a dramatic appeal to Yemen’s warring factions to halt attacks on civilians, a day after heavy fighting in a key southern city killed more than 65 people and wounded at least 23.

“We call on the warring parties to stop attacking civilian targets, especially hospitals, ambulances and densely populated neighborhoods and allow medical personnel and humanitarian organizations to provide assistance,” the aid group, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF, said in a statement. “Patients and MSF staff are unable to reach hospitals due to the heavy fighting and airstrikes,” adding that 923 people have been wounded over the past three days, and that 133 of them died due to their severe injuries.

Only seven of Taiz’s 21 hospitals are currently open but they are “totally overwhelmed” and have run out of essential medication, MSF said.

Yemen’s fighting pits the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants and troops loyal to President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi, which are backed by a Saudi-led coalition.

[The Daily Star (Lebanon)]

Humanitarian crisis in Yemen

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The head of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), Johannes Van Der Klaauw, has warned that after almost five months of fighting, a lack of unhindered access to people who urgently need humanitarian assistance and a shortage of funding are creating the possibility of famine for millions in Yemen.

Almost 4,500 people have been killed and a further 23,000 have been wounded since the escalation in March of the conflict between forces loyal to the exiled President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and those allied to the Houthi rebel movement.

Since 26 March, when the Saudi-led coalition began bombing rebel forces, at least 1,950 civilians have been killed and 4,271 wounded in air strikes and fighting on the ground, according to the UN.

The destruction of infrastructure and restrictions on imports imposed by a Saudi-led coalition carrying out air strikes against the rebels have led to 21 million people being deprived of life-sustaining commodities and basic services, and requiring help from aid organizations.

Just under half of Yemen’s population is under 18 and almost 400 children are among those to have been killed. The UN children’s fund (Unicef) warned on 19 August that an average of eight children were being killed or maimed every day.

An estimated 12.9 million people are now considered food insecure, an increase of 20% in six months, according to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP). Six million are severely food insecure, while more than 1.2 million children are suffering from moderate acute malnutrition and half a million are severely malnourished.

[BBC]