Overwhelming needs, unbearable anguish ─ Refugee Day misery made in USA

Syrian refugees
in Lebanon

Syria emptied of its people self-destructs

Editing, comment by
Carolyn Bennett

“Humanitarian” wars maintain misery 

Discarded

Afghans under threat
by foreigners and
lethal weaponry

Afghanistan is the world’s “top ‘producer’ of refugees and has been for the past 32 years. One in every four refugees worldwide is Afghan; 95 percent of these are located in Pakistan or Iran.

The world’s second largest refugee-producing nation during 2012 is Somalia, land of another protracted conflict. The third largest refugees (746,700 people) are Iraqis; the fourth largest refugees are Syrians (471,400 people).

Somalis attacked
by  drones

M

ore than 45 million people, to the extent that records are kept or registrations filed, are refugees and internally displaced people. This figure, the United Nations says, is “the highest level in nearly 20 years.

Chaos of war, occupation
Iraqi displaced

“Every four seconds” during last year, alone, an individual “was forced to abandon” his or her home. “At the end of 2012,” says this week’s release of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) Global Trends report, “more than 45.2 million people were in situations of displacement.” The figure in 2011 was “42.5 million.”

Syrians
Forced displacement
Kurdistan camps
People should not have to
live this way

The spike in refugees, internal and external displacements, nearly half of all refuges below the age of 18, is attributed to the Syrian conflict.

June 20 

annual commemoration

World Refugee Day

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in what might be considered understatement, said the situation, even if only glimpsed, is an “enormous human tragedy,” conflict-caused misery that is tearing apart the lives of thousands of families: people separated by the “chaos of war,” millions forced to leave loved ones.

C

ompounding the misery suffered by individual people and families are whole countries and regions deeply affected, now and into the future. Countries taking in refugees and other displaced people suffer significant economic, social and political consequences. And developing countries are taking the brunt: they have taken in 81 percent of the world’s refugees; and more than half of the world’s refugees have fled five war-torn countries: Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Sudan.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres pointed to an estimated 1.6 million Syrians who have been displaced since the crisis started over two years ago, March 2011.

“The needs of the people,” Guterres said, “are overwhelming [and] their anguish is unbearable.” An entire nation with no clear political resolution in sight is left to self-destruct as it empties of its people and civil war slides into regional conflict.

Foreigners' hostilities: war, occupation, provocation  

Syrian refugees
New born
in Turkey

Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Somalia, et al

2011-2012 going forward

H

ardly a town or a city in Jordan has not been overwhelmed by people escaping Syria, says the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Much the same is happening in “Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.”

Since March of 2011, the conflict and foreign interference in Syrian Arab Republic have led to the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians.

By June of 2012

More than 78,000 people were estimated to have fled into neighboring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq, putting increasing strain on the governments and local communities.

Jordan: some 21,400 Syrians had registered with UNHCR as of June 2012.

Lebanon: many refugees are in a precarious situation, with little or no financial resources.  Some 27,500 refugee Syrians are at various states of registration with UNHCR. In the port city of Tripoli on the Mediterranean in northwestern Lebanon and in Bekaa in central Lebanon are thousands of refugees awaiting registration.

Turkey: 24,300 estimated refugee Syrians

Iraq: 4,400 estimated and growing numbers of refugee Syrians

Syrian government: assisting 110,000 refugees.

Refugees
North Africa

By September 2012:

1.5 - 2.5 million Syrians had fled their homes for safer areas of the country and the UNHCR, even then, was facing “security constraints” causing its staff to “adjust and curtail some activities.”

Refuges

, 

, the homeless and uprooted, the displaced internally and externally, the stateless, destabilized and traumatized, are forced migrants, wanderers ─ phenomena resulting directly from wars, relentless foreign cruelty perpetrated against peoples and nations, institutions and infrastructures of Asia and Africa. This is a crying shame the causes of which must be stopped, not the effect commemorated or given photo ops for NGOs, politicians or movie stars.

Sources and notes

“UN spotlights plight of refugees as number of globally displaced hits 18-year high,” June 20, 2013, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45225&Cr=refugee&Cr1=&Kw1=syria&Kw2=&Kw3=

  

UNHCR 2013 planning figures for the Syrian Arab Republic
TYPE OF POPULATION	ORIGIN	JAN 2013		DEC 2013
		TOTAL IN COUNTRY	OF WHOM ASSISTED BY UNHCR	TOTAL IN COUNTRY	OF WHOM ASSISTED BY UNHCR
Total		3,138,710	760,010	2,968,710	1,048,010
1. Refugee figure for Iraqis is a Government estimate.
Refugees	Afghanistan	1,750	1,750	1,750	1,750
	Somalia	2,400	2,400	2,400	2,400
	Iraq[1]	480,000	51,300	310,000	39,300
	Various	2,750	2,750	2,750	2,750
Asylum-seekers	Iraq	700	700	700	700
	Afghanistan	190	190	190	190
	Somalia	180	180	180	180
	Various	740	740	740	740
IDPs	Syrian Arab Rep.	2,500,000	700,000	2,500,000	1,000,000
Stateless people	Stateless	150,000	-	150,000	-

http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e486a76&submit=GO

“UNHCR chief visits Syrian border, calls for international support,” News Stories, June 20, 2013

http://www.unhcr.org/51c303656.html

http://www.unhcr.org/51c303656.html

http://www.unhcr.org/pages/4f86c2426.html

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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War, conflict cause migration, disease

Migrants in
war-torn Misrata, Libya 

Violence has far-reaching and long-term consequences

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) along with other organizations pitch in to assist with migration crises and aid forced migrants around the world. At the start of the unrest in Libya, IOM began assisting with the evacuation of thousands of stranded migrants within Libya and principally at the border with Egypt, Tunisia and Niger.This is some of their findings. 

IOM data as of October 7, 2011— IOM recorded 721,772 people leaving Libya

TCNs (Third Country Nationals)

*Cross-border movement statistics only refer to migrants leaving Libya.

As of October 7 —

721,772 migrants crossed Libya’s borders. This figure includes 311,770 Third Country Nationals or TCNs (43 percent of total crossings).

Movements continued with another 11,584 migrants (553 TCNs) crossing the borders to Tunisia, Egypt, Chad and Niger between September 30 and October 6.

IOM Cross Border Movements Map as of October 7, 2011

EGYPT

Between September 30 and October 6 — 2,253 migrants (210 were TCNs) crossed the Egyptian border bringing the cumulative total of arrivals to 229,514 migrants.

TUNISIA

Between September 30 and October 6 — 9,287 migrants (335 were TCNs) crossed the border between bringing the cumulative total of arrivals to 313,414 migrants.

 

War never ends when politicians and war makers announce its ending. 

Flood victims in war-torn Pakistan

Cholera in Haiti

Child migrants in Pakistan

Disease

SCABIES

October 11, 2011, Libya/Egypt — In early September, migrants and refugees who had fled Libya and were temporarily at Salloum transit center awaiting onward transportation complained of skin infections, allergy and rashes.

When they detected the infection, IOM dispatched a team of 11 health volunteers to reinforce their health team.

Egypt Britannica map

Internally Displaced in Somalia

Four hundred people had scabies. In a precautionary measure, IOM gave treatment to all migrants and refugees (1,400). A team of IOM specialists in collaboration with the Egyptian ministry of health and the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] treated for a scabies infection 1,000 migrants and refugees at the Salloum border crossing between Libya and Egypt.

Scabies is an itchy, highly contagious skin disease caused by an infestation by the itch mite.  It transmits by close personal contact with an infected individual  and spreads rapidly. Scabies causes skin rashes and severe, relentless itching. Small children and babies are particularly prone to scabies infections.

Bangladeshi workers
forced to flee Libya

CHOLERA

Every year there are an estimated 3-5 million cholera cases worldwide and 100,000-120,000 deaths from the disease whose short incubation period of two hours to five days enhances the potentially explosive pattern of outbreaks, according to the World Health Organization.

A 2010 mid-year UNICEF report said, “The good performance of recent rains [had] initiated a process of recovery for drought-affected women and children in Kenya’s pastoral and marginal agricultural areas. However, this recovery [was] uneven and moderated by persistently high food prices and the cumulative impact of previous poor rainy seasons, which have diminished resilience at the household level.

Kenya Britannica map

“Levels of acute malnutrition still remain unacceptably high in the Arid and Semi Arid areas, with more than 43,000 children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

“While availability of water has improved in recent months, cholera outbreaks continue, despite scaled-up prevention efforts. Rains have also caused localized flooding and landslides in many parts of the country affecting up to 130,000 people, heightening their vulnerability to disease and limiting access to basic services. An upsurge in cases of malaria is anticipated due to the wet conditions that have prevailed over the previous months.

“The political environment in Kenya remains fragile, with the potential for inter-communal violence and population displacement to be triggered by political reform processes..

“Flooding and poor sanitation among displaced people leads to cholera outbreaks and acute watery diarrhea in a number of countries in eastern and southern Africa. Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia have reported cumulatively more than 3,200 cholera cases and over 25 deaths between January and April 2010. Highest numbers of cases were recorded in Zambia with 4,421 cases of cholera and 72 deaths (case fatality rate of 1.6 per cent).

“The impact of natural disasters and political crisis in countries in the Southern Africa region were complicated by the high levels of HIV/AIDS prevalence. The situation of armed conflict presented an acute threat to children and women in Southern Somalia. The food security situation in the Greater Horn of Africa sub-region remains unchanged with 12 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.”

Chad Britannica map

In this year’s report, UNICEF raised concern that many outbreaks of cholera begun outside the typical cholera season now affect countries where the disease was not endemic. The children’s fund feared further spread in coastal areas of central Africa where higher than normal rainfall is expected through the end of this year.

UNICEF identified three major cross-border cholera outbreaks: the Lake Chad Basin (Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger), the West Congo Basin (Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic) and Lake Tanganyika (Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi).

Uganda Britannica map

“The virulent diarrheal disease is spreading quickly along waterways between and within countries, causing an ‘unacceptably high’ rate of fatalities.”
Sweeping through west and Central Africa, one of the biggest epidemics in the vast region’s history, cholera has infected more than 85,000 people and killed at least 2,466 so far this year.

Cholera is a bacterial infection of the intestines that is spread by water contaminated with human excrement. In many parts of the world, the lack of safe drinking water and proper waste disposal can be a deadly combination.  

Despite efforts to improve the situation, the number of cholera cases – and deaths – keeps rising. In Uganda, for example, this is particularly true during the rainy season, when waste is often carried into rivers and lakes. Lacking other options, people continue to collect drinking water and often fall ill. It is common to see men, women and children filling water containers in rivers and lakes, despite the very real threat of cholera.

Sources and notes

IOM

IOM works in the four broad areas of migration management: migration and development, facilitating migration, regulating migration, and addressing forced migration. Cross-cutting activities include the promotion of international migration law, policy debate and guidance, protection of migrants’ rights, migration health and the gender dimension of migration. IOM works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners.

IOM INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ON MIGRATION

IN RESPONSE TO LIBYAN CRISIS

External Situation Report October 10, 2011

http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/shared/shared/mainsite/media/docs/reports/IOM-sitrep-MENA.pdf

Africa and Middle East — “IOM Tackles the Spread of Scabies among Migrants and Refugees at Salloum Border Crossing,” http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/media/press-briefing-notes/pbnAF/cache/offonce/lang/en?entryId=30769

IOM Headquarters: 17 route des Morillons • C.P. 71 • CH-1211 Geneva 19, Switzerland, www.iom.int

ICRC

For those stranded on the border between Libya and Egypt, Salloum is the main crossing point between Libya and Egypt. Operating at Salloum Land Port since March 2011, the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Roses) has helped these displaced people by providing breakfasts, telephone facilities and travel documents, http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/field-newsletter/egypt-libya-newsletter-2011-09-20.htm

Egypt

Egypt (officially Arab Republic of Egypt) is located in the northeastern corner of Africa. Its land frontiers border Libya in the west; the Sudan in the south, and Palestine in the northeast. (Israeli forces occupied the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip in eastern Egypt after the Arab–Israeli War of 1967. In 1982, the Sinai was returned to Egypt.) In the north its Mediterranean coastline is about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers), and in the east its coastline on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba is about 1,200 miles. The capital is Cairo.

Egypt was the home of one of the principal civilizations of the ancient Middle East and, like Mesopotamia, it was one of the very earliest urban and literate societies.

Libya

Libya (officially Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, formerly  Libyan Arab Republic or  People’s Socialist Libyan Arab Republic) is in North Africa; bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the north; Egypt on the east; the Sudan on the southeast; Niger and Chad on the south; and Tunisia and Algeria on the west. Libya is largely composed of the Sahara, and the population is concentrated along the coast, where the de facto capital, Tripoli (Ṭarābulus), and Banghāzī (Benghazi), the de jure capital, are located. 

“Cholera epidemic spreads in west, central Africa: UN — The virulent diarrheal disease is spreading quickly along waterways between and within countries, causing an ‘unacceptably high’ rate of fatalities, the U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF said,” October 11, 2011, http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=80093

UNICEF, http://www.unicef.org/health/uganda_53862.html

UNICEF Humanitarian Action Mid Year 2010 Review, http://www.unicef.org/files/HAR_Mid-Year_Review_2010.pdf

IOM PHOTOS

http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/media/photo-stories/lang/en

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire

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