January 15, 2021 No comments
Pandemic curbs trend towards ever-increasing migration
INTERNATIONAL, 15 January 2021, Migrants and Refugees - Travel restrictions and other curbs to movement put in place in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, have put a significant dent in migration figures, but the overall trend shows 100 million more people living outside their countries of origin in 2020, compared to the year 2000, a new UN report revealed on Friday. ‘Migration is part of today’s world’ International Migration 2020 Highlights, published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), shows that the pandemic may have slowed migration flows by around two million people last year, cutting the annual growth expected since mid-2019 by around 27 per cent. Since the year 2000, however, there has been a major increase in migration. That...
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January 15, 2021 No comments
Deadly earthquake hits Indonesia: Dozens killed, hundreds injured
INTERNATIONAL, 15 January 2021, Humanitarian Aid - At least 35 people have been killed and hundreds of others injured after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck the West Sulawesi Province of Indonesia on Friday morning, according to the UN humanitarian coordination office (OCHA). The earthquake unleashed dozens of aftershocks, some six kilometres northeast of the city of Majene, causing heavy damage across the city, including to the five-story Mitra Manakarra Hospital where eight people were reportedly trapped inside. “The Governor’s office, two hotels, a mall, a community health centre, and over 300 houses also sustained damage”, said the spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Jens Laerke. Rippling effects Local authorities have reported that 638 people have been injured and more than...
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January 15, 2021 No comments
UN steps up support for thousands left homeless after fire at Rohingya refugee camp
INTERNATIONAL, 15 January 2021, Migrants and Refugees - UN agencies have stepped up efforts to help thousands of Rohingya refugees left without shelter after a devastating fire tore through a crowded refugee camp in south-eastern Bangladesh on Thursday. The fire erupted shortly after midnight on Thursday (local time) in the Nayapara refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, gutting about 550 shelters and 150 shops. A community centre is also said to have been destroyed. About 3,500 Rohingya refugees, including children, lost their homes and belongings in the blaze, in the middle of winter and the coronavirus pandemic, UN agencies said. No lives were lost, and the fire was brought under control in a few hours by firefighters, volunteers and refugees. The Nayapara camp hosts about 22,500 refugees, of whom about 17,800...
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January 15, 2021 No comments
Central African Republic: Displacement reaches 120,000 amid worsening election violence
INTERNATIONAL, 15 January 2021, Migrants and Refugees - “Worsening” election violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) has forced 120,000 people from their homes, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday. In an appeal for an immediate end to all bloodshed - which has included deadly clashes with UN peacekeepers - UNHCR also said that mass displacement has continued outside the country since the 27 December Presidential poll, reversing a trend of people returning to CAR in recent years. “What is clear is the situation has evolved, it has worsened, we have seen that the number of refugees has doubled in just one week”, said spokesperson Boris Cheshirkov, during a scheduled press briefing in Geneva. Despite attempts by rebel groups to obstruct presidential and legislative elections, on 27 December,...
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January 14, 2021 No comments
Health experts arrive in Wuhan to investigate COVID-19 origins
INTERNATIONAL, 14 January 2021, Health - Members of an international team studying the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19 arrived in Wuhan, China, on Thursday, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced during an expert meeting on the disease. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General, was addressing the latest session of the Emergency Committee on COVID-19 established under the International Health Regulations (IHR), a treaty that guides global response to public health risks. The new coronavirus that sparked the pandemic first emerged in Wuhan in December 2019. Tedros reported that most of the 15 members of the delayed mission are now in the city, although two people are still in Singapore awaiting COVID-19 test results. “All members of the team had multiple negative PCR and antibody tests in their homes...
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