Myanmar and Bangladesh will start a fresh attempt next week to repatriate thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state, officials said on Thursday, nearly a year after a major attempt failed. More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine for neighboring Bangladesh after ...
Miyavi is on a mission to change Japan's tune on refugees
In his lesser-known role as a refugee advocate, Miyavi, aka the samurai guitarist, asks that people look beyond the headline numbers before declaring Japan unwelcoming to asylum-seekers. Despite Japan taking in only 42 refugees in 2018 — accepting less than 1 percent of applicants — ...
As Peru tightens its border, desperate Venezuelans cling to asylum lifeline
Thousands of Venezuelans crossed into Peru despite a crackdown on migrants without passports or visas meant to stem the flood of immigration from their crisis-stricken nation, as many lacking those documents filed asylum requests instead. Venezuela's economic collapse under President Nicolas Maduro has unleashed the ...
Contemporary Japanese artist Nara wants to raise awareness on struggles faced by refugees
Contemporary Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara urged visitors to an international aid symposium in Tokyo to try to "imagine" being in the shoes of displaced persons during a speech where he shared his experience of visiting refugee camps in Jordan. At the event held Saturday at ...
149 African refugees airlifted from Libya to Italy but more help needed, U.N. says
A total of 149 Africans in Libya were evacuated to Italy on Thursday, but more states must help people escape deteriorating conditions in Tripoli after two months of fighting, the United Nations refugee agency said. Libyan eastern commander Khalifa Hifter's Libyan National Army began an ...
U.N. evacuates 325 detained African migrants as war reaches Tripoli
The United Nations refugee agency evacuated 325 African refugees on Wednesday from Qasr Ben Gashir detention center in southern Tripoli because of deteriorating security and escalating violence. The refugees — mainly Eritrean, Sudanese and Nigerian — were taken to a detention center in Zawiya, a ...
UNHCR warns of false rumors as migrants gather near Greece's northern border, seeking to cross
Dozens of refugees and migrants stuck in Greece gathered in a field near the country's northern border on Thursday, seeking to travel onward to Northern Europe. Small groups of people including children arrived at the field next to the migrant camp of Diavata near the ...
Five arrested after Maltese military seizes tanker hijacked by migrants refusing to return to Libya
Five men were arrested Thursday after Maltese armed forces took control of a tanker that was hijacked by migrants off Libya and the ship docked in Malta. The Palau-flagged tanker Elhiblu I had picked up 108 migrants including women and children on Tuesday evening and ...
Kenya plans to close massive Dadaab refugee camp, home to 230,000: U.N. document
Kenya plans to shut a refugee camp that is home to nearly a quarter of a million people, mostly Somalis, in the next few months, according to an internal U.N. document seen by AFP Tuesday, The three-decade-old Dadaab camp in eastern Kenya would be closed ...
Sadako Ogata: Waging peace on war
A 1993 photograph of a diminutive, sexagenarian woman surveying the front lines of conflict has left an indelible mark on the international community as a true example of commitment to humanitarian aid.
Thousands of Nigerians have fled across Lake Chad since Boko Haram launched attacks in and around the fishing town of Baga last month, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday. "An estimated 6,000 refugees have fled Nigeria's restive Borno state since December 26, when ...
Human rights activists call on Australia to accept Saudi woman fleeing alleged abusive family
Human Rights Watch has called on the Australian government to allow entry to a Saudi Arabian woman who is being processed by U.N. refugee authorities in Thailand after fleeing her homeland. Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun was detained after arriving in Bangkok on Sunday, and is now ...
