UNHCR

Russia War Crimes Mount, Refugees Top 6 Million

Russia faced mounting accusations of war crimes in Ukraine Friday including forcing thousands of people into interrogation camps, as the number of refugees reported to have fled the conflict surpassed six million.The Russian invasion has also led to a seismic policy change by Finland, whose leaders said Thursday the previously neutral nation must apply to join NATO "without delay" – triggering a blunt warning of retaliation from the Kremlin.Throughout the 11-week conflict, Russian f

13 May 2022
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More Than 4.1 Million Ukrainian Refugees Flee War

Nearly 4.14 million Ukrainians have fled their country since Russia's full-scale invasion began on 24 February, with tens of thousands continuing to flood into neighbouring countries each day, United Nations (UN) numbers show.The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said Saturday that 4,137,842 Ukrainians had fled in just over five weeks, an increase of 34,966 on the figure given Friday.Women and children account for 90 percent of those who have left Ukraine, with men aged 18 to 60 eligible for mil

3 April 2022
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More Than 1.5M People Flee Ukraine War

More than 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, according to the latest UN data on Sunday.1,534,792The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had recorded 1,534,792 refugees on its dedicated website by 1335 GMT, almost 166,000 more than the previous count on Saturday.Authorities and the UN expect the flow to intensify as the Russian army continues to advance into Ukraine, particularly as it approaches the capital, Kyiv."More than 1.5

7 March 2022
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Race To Stop COVID 'Nightmare' In Rohingya Camps

Emergency teams raced Friday to prevent a coronavirus "nightmare" in the world's largest refugee settlement after the first confirmed cases in a sprawling city of shacks housing nearly a million Rohingya.There have long been warnings the virus could race like wildfire through the cramped, sometimes sewage-soaked alleys of the network of 34 camps in southeast Bangladesh.Most of the refugees have been there since around 750,000 of the Muslim minority fled a 2017 military offensiv

16 May 2020
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Indonesia’s abandoned children in Syria

The notion of repatriation for the 689 Indonesians associated with terrorists and violent-extremist groups in Syria has led to controversy in Indonesia. Public debate is not only divided on whether the government should repatriate them or not, but also whether or not their nationality should be revoked. In responding to that, the Indonesian government has just declared its decision to not repatriate them.

23 February 2020
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Transforming refugee policies in Indonesia

The Indonesian government has strong reason to draw policy lessons from the international community in order to deal with over 14,000 transiting refugees and asylum seekers, before the situation deteriorates further.While the refugee issue is not a political priority in Indonesia, it seems to garner much traction for Australian politicians – where refugee issues dominate their agenda. Over the years, the Australian government has implemented an increasingly restrictive immigration policy.

2 February 2020
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UN issues ID cards for Rohingya refugees

The United Nations (UN) said Friday it has registered more than 250,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, providing many with their first ever identification cards and proof of their right to return to Myanmar in the future.The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) also said the registration could serve as a tool for law enforcement to help counter human trafficking."Over a quarter of a million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have now been jointly registered and provided with identity cards by Banglad

19 May 2019
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Thailand needs to protect its refugees

Thailand made international headlines recently for detaining refugee footballer Hakeem Al-Araibi. Hakeem was a former Bahraini national youth player who was granted refugee status in Australia after fleeing charges in Bahrain connected to the Arab Spring protests. He was arrested at Bangkok’s main airport at Bahrain’s request in November last year when he arrived in Thailand for his honeymoon.

15 February 2019
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Non-interference and the Rohingya crisis

As Muslims worldwide celebrate the end of fasting for the holy month of Ramadan, a growing diaspora of Rohingya face the prospect of observing their faith under squalid, cramped conditions in refugee camps such as Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.Dubbed the most persecuted peoples in the world, the Rohingya are an Indo-Aryan speaking people from the Rakhine state in Myanmar, with Islamic influences tracing from intermarriage and conversion by Arab traders in the eighth and ninth centuries.The Rohing

30 June 2018
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UN chief meets Suu Kyi on Rohingya crisis

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi faced rising global pressure Tuesday to solve the crisis for her nation's displaced Rohingya Muslim minority, meeting the UN chief and America's top diplomat in the Philippines.UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the Nobel laureate that hundreds of thousands of displaced Muslims who had fled to Bangladesh should be allowed to return to their homes in Myanmar."The Secretary-General highlighted that strengthened efforts to ensure humanitaria

14 November 2017
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No progress made in UN-Myanmar talks

A senior UN official on Tuesday returned empty-handed from five days of talks in Myanmar where he appealed for the safe return of Muslim Rohingyas sheltering in Bangladesh and access for aid workers.Jeffrey Feltman, the UN under-secretary-general for political affairs, discussed the plight of the 582,000 Rohingyas who have fled an army campaign in Myanmar's Rakhine state since late August.Feltman met with Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and military commander-in-chief Gen

18 October 2017
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Is South Asia the new Middle East?

The Middle East is often viewed as a region waylaid by feelings of collective humiliation and violent rivalries, both between and within countries. But South Asia is beset by some of the same forces, reflected in a surge of Buddhist nationalism in Myanmar, where the Muslim Rohingya are being driven from the country, and Hindu nationalism in India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.The good news for South Asia is that a “Middle Eastern” future is not inevitable.

6 October 2017
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