http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbWed, 11 Nov 2009 12:34:10 GMTHARADH Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - Hundreds of civilians have been fleeing their villages along the border with Saudi Arabia following clashes between Yemen’s Houthi-led Shia insurgents and the Saudi armed forces, according to a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) official.HARADH Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - Hundreds of civilians have been fleeing their villages along the border with Saudi Arabia following clashes between Yemen’s Houthi-led Shia insurgents and the Saudi armed forces, according to a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) official.

“Over the past three days we had over 100 families arriving in the [al-Mazraq] camp every day - more than 300 families [2,100 people],” UNHCR team leader Mai Barazi told IRIN on 10 November.

The camp, which is about 40 minutes drive from Haradh, in the northwestern province of Hajjah, currently has an estimated 8,700 internally displaced persons (IDPs). “Another 11,000 IDPs are sheltered by host families and communities in this part of Yemen,” Marie Marullaz, UNHCR associate external relations officer in Sanaa, told IRIN on 11 November.

“Some came from Saudi Arabia, to where they had fled before escaping fighting in the Malahaid area [west of Saada],” Barazi said.

“The elderly, single mothers and children represent a significant proportion of the new arrivals. Most are coming from Khuba area where they had taken refuge after having fled the fighting in Saada Governorate [between the government and Houthi rebels]. It is thus their second or third displacement,” Marullaz said.

Cousins Ahmed Makhdari and Ahmed Jabar, who arrived in the camp last week, said they fled fighting in the Malahaid area a month ago. “We ran away to Saudi Arabia, but they sent us back to Yemen and we came here,” Mahkdari said.

“Many of these IDPs report continued deportations by Saudi authorities during the last few days… They claim to have been deported without any of their personal belongings, including their ID cards, which might in turn delay their registration. At the same time, UNHCR is working with local authorities to ensure that legitimate new IDP arrivals are all allowed to register,” Marullaz said.

“The camp is full”

The most recent UNHCR figures on arrivals show a marked increase on last week when on average 10-20 families (70-140 people) were arriving in al-Mazraq each day.

“The camp is full, but we are doing all we can to accommodate the new arrivals. We’ve put up at least 100 new tents for the newcomers and at least nobody is out in the open - they have some shelter. More than 100 families have been accommodated at the camp’s transition centre, where newcomers stay initially before moving to a tent within the camp,” Barazi said.

As more IDPs arrive, aid workers say congestion at the camp is becoming a serious problem. “We are 15 people in one tent and it is very crowded,” Makhdari said.

Barazi said it was very important to set up a second IDP camp in the area as soon as possible.

“Al-Mazraq 2 is under construction and will allow the accommodation of IDPs in about one month. The government has accepted the offer of the UAE [United Arab Emirates] Red Crescent to take over complete responsibility for the construction and management of Al Mazraq 2 Camp,” Marullaz said.

Saudi aid route

UNHCR launched a cross-border aid operation [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86536] in October through Saudi Arabia to meet the needs of IDPs trapped in and around Saada city. Whether the Saudi aid route remains open following the reported incursions by Houthi rebels into Saudi territory is unclear, though on 6 November Andrej Mahecic told a news briefing [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/FBUO-7XJHAS?OpenDocument&cc=yem] in Geneva that UNHCR hoped an aid convoy carrying shelter supplies would be able to enter northern Yemen from Saudi Arabia “in the next few days”.

On 10 November the UNHCR office in Riyadh was informed by the Saudi authorities that the situation at the Alp border crossing with Yemen was stable, allowing UNHCR to continue its cross-border activities, said Marullaz.

“We are hopeful that we will receive the security clearances from the Saudi authorities for the next aid convoy in the coming days,” she added.

Sporadic clashes since 2004 between Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government, which escalated in August 2009, have forced some 175,000 IDPs to flee their homes, according to UNHCR. In response to a border skirmish that killed at least one Saudi soldier, Saudi air strikes on 5 November reportedly hit strongholds of the Shia rebel group.

The Houthis complain that they have been politically, economically and religiously marginalized by the government, and want a return to the autonomous rule they enjoyed before 1962.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86977KIGALI Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - The group refugee status of tens of thousands of Rwandans who fled their country in the wake of the 1994 genocide could be lifted by the end of 2011, according to UN and Rwandan officials. KIGALI Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - The group refugee status of tens of thousands of Rwandans who fled their country in the wake of the 1994 genocide could be lifted by the end of 2011, according to UN and Rwandan officials.

Since 2002, Kigali has been keen to see invoked a clause in the 1951 refugee convention which allows for refugee status to be lifted if the conditions in a country that led to mass exodus are deemed to have changed in a fundamental, durable and effective way. This "ceased circumstances" clause is one of the convention’s cessation clauses.

Of the several million, mostly Hutu Rwandans who fled their country after the genocide, around 60,000 still live as refugees in neighbouring states. The government in Kigali has been unable to allay their fears that it is not safe to return home.

"There is no reason why Rwandan citizens should stay in the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC], Uganda or Burundi as refugees, when their country is stable. We are pleased that we have reached common ground with UNHCR [UN Refugee Agency] over the cessation clause," Rwanda’s local government minister, Christophe Bizivamo, said recently.

According to UNHCR spokesman Yusuf Hassan, this common ground consists of a commitment "to work on a road map of activities and benchmarks which, if met, would allow the invocation of the cessation clause for Rwandan refugees by 31 December 2011."

Key points of this roadmap include:

- Actively enhancing voluntary repatriation of Rwandan refugees
- Implementing effective reintegration projects to make returns sustainable
- Securing rights for Rwandan refugees who are unable or unwilling to return, through regularizing their stay in their current country of residence, or confirming their need for continued international protection.

Once the cessation clause is invoked and blanket international protection is lifted, some individual Rwandans who are still unwilling to return home could retain refugee status by invoking "compelling reasons arising out of previous persecution".

"This exception is intended to cover instances where a person who - or whose family - has suffered under atrocious forms of persecution, should not be expected to repatriate," said the UNHCR’s Hassan.

"Even though there may have been a change of regime in his country, this may not always produce a complete change in the attitude of the population, nor, in view of his past experiences, in the mind of the refugee. Whether or not the Rwandans in DRC and Burundi fall under that category will have to be determined," he added.

nb/am/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86982MASINDI Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Forced repatriation of displaced persons in Uganda to their original homes in the north is "inhuman and against the government policy of voluntary return", local officials have said.MASINDI Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Forced repatriation of displaced persons in Uganda to their original homes in the north is "inhuman and against the government policy of voluntary return", local officials have said.

Hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled clashes between the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and government forces in the 1990s, and sought refuge in the central district of Masindi, were recently rounded up by local authorities and sent back on trucks to northern districts.

"We hear that these IDPs are being rounded [up] and loaded into trucks and brought back to their districts in northern Uganda; this is against the principle of the voluntary return of formerly displaced persons to their homes," Kitgum District [northern Uganda] chairman John Ogwok Komakech said.

Sources in Masindi said 2,492 IDPs living in Kihura A village, 1,300 in Kihura B, 1,511 in Kasubi and 1,843 in Nyamiringa were to be repatriated.

The Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Coordinator for the Office of the Prime Minister in Amuru, northern Uganda, Lilly Adong, said the government had intervened.

"The whole exercise was stopped because it was done in total violation of IDP rights… IDPs being repatriated have expressed concern over their security and dignity," she told IRIN. "These people were loaded into a truck and dumped in Amuru at a police station without our notice."

Joseph Otto, who fled Mucwini village in Kitgum District in 1996, said he would remain in Kitgum town because he could not go back to the village with nothing to start a life.

Other IDPs said they were born in Masindi and did not know where to go, while some had vegetable gardens or children at school in Masindi.

"I was forced onto the truck by one of the law enforcement officers in Nyamiringa village where I was living," Harriet Achayo, who fled Guru-Guru village in Amuru District in 1997, told IRIN at Ociti return site in Amuru. "They said they were taking us back because the land we are occupying will be planted with sugar cane."

Achayo and 122 other IDPs were dumped at Amuru police station, local officials said. Another 93 were taken to Pader District.

Relative peace returned to northern Uganda after the signing of a cessation of hostilities agreement between the LRA and the government in 2006. Since then, most IDPs have returned to their original villages.

Observers, however, say services at places of return are failing to meet the demands of returning populations. These include schools which lack housing for teachers, classrooms, latrines and water points.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86958JERUSALEM Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid groups and several members of parliament (MPs) are outraged by what seems to be the toughening of Israeli policy towards asylum-seekers illegally entering the country.JERUSALEM Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid groups and several members of parliament (MPs) are outraged by what seems to be the toughening of Israeli policy towards asylum-seekers illegally entering the country.

An “infiltration” law, the first draft of which has passed through parliament, is up for approval in the coming weeks despite efforts by NGOs to stop it. If approved, the law will regard anyone illegally entering the country as a criminal, and will allow a sentence of up to seven years for any asylum-seeker from an “enemy” country.

"Enemy" countries are Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Libya. However, very few if any asylum-seekers try to enter Israel from all but the first three of these countries. Almost all enter via Egypt.

The law would also incriminate NGOs and volunteers assisting such people and would allow for the detention of illegal minors.

Oded Diner of Amnesty International has urged immediate action to stop approval of the law but was dismayed when MPs Danny Danon (Likud party), Dov Khanin (Hadash) and Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) had their proposal to exclude the detention of illegal minors and children rejected on 3 November by parliament’s legislation committee.

Amnesty International has called on parliament [http://www.amnesty.org.il/blog/?page_id=1305] to “reject the draft law and to ensure that any immigration or national security provisions that are introduced into law fully respect Israel’s international human rights obligations by ensuring that individuals within their jurisdiction are protected, regardless of their immigration status, and that individuals are not returned to a state where they could be at risk of serious human rights violations”.

Exasperated aid workers told IRIN they were fed up and uncertain of their future. One, who did not want to be named, said she worked with asylum-seekers near the Egypt border and that she would be forced to become a criminal if the law is passed.

Work camps planned

The Israeli army’s Radio Galgalatz on 4 November said the Ministry of Finance had come up with a plan to “deter illegal infiltrators from coming to Israel”.

Under the plan, basic accommodation would be provided for asylum-seekers in camps in Israel’s southern Negev desert and the Arava region. They would be given food, shelter and basic medical care in return for unpaid work, mainly in agriculture.

Asylum-seekers would be forced to stay in the camps until their status is determined, though it is unclear what would happen to those not granted refugee status. Israel does not allow Southern Sudanese and Eritreans (the bulk of asylum-seekers) access to refugee status determination.

“This will deter those so-called asylum-seekers from coming here,” a member of the Israeli government told IRIN on condition of anonymity. “They are not refugees, they are simply migrant workers using the refugee story to get work, medical care and free education for their children in Israel. We believe that over 80 percent are not refugees.”

There are some 7,500 Eritrean and 6,000 Sudanese asylum-seekers in Israel, according to the Refugee Rights Forum [http://www.hotline.org.il/english/refugees_rights_forum.htm], an umbrella group representing eight human rights organizations in Israel. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) puts the total figure of asylum-seekers at around 18,000.

However, Israel’s immigration authority says there are over 24,000, mainly from Sudan and Eritrea, have “infiltrated” Israel over the past five years. Only about 450 from Darfur have received legal residency in Israel as a “humanitarian gesture”.

According to sources in the Israeli army, 400-600 African asylum-seekers illegally enter Israel every month. While many are able to find work in Israel, some rely on aid from NGOs. About 2,000 are detained at any given time in various detention facilities.

"The migrant workers and refugees will bring diseases and other problems to Israel, including AIDS, tuberculosis and drug abuse," Eli Yishay, Israel's interior minister, said in an interview on 2 November on Israel's Channel 2 TV.

For and against the plan

While many in the government are in favour of the deterrence plan, some MPs are horrified. Khanin told IRIN: "The war waged by Israel against the refugees is rolling the state of Israel down the morality slope. This agenda is anti-humanitarian and anti-Judaism. It has no place in a state that was erected by refugees."

Other MPs told IRIN they found the plan so offensive they would not credit it with a response.

NGOs working with refugees in Israel have also expressed their concerns. "These work camps will not deter people escaping horrors from coming here," said one aid worker who did not want to be named. "It will only take away the meagre living they were able to make up until now and provide, in fact, slaves in work camps."

When asked about the plan, the spokesperson’s office at the Ministry of Finance refused to discuss the draft law in detail.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86964JALALABAD Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Military operations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of northwestern Pakistan have forced hundreds of households to abandon their homes and seek refuge in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Kunar, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). JALALABAD Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Military operations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of northwestern Pakistan have forced hundreds of households to abandon their homes and seek refuge in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Kunar, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
 
A joint assessment by the UNHCR and the Afghan government in October indicated that 440 families - mostly from the FATA’s Bajaur Agency - are living in two districts in Kunar Province, but no formal settlement or camp has been set up for them; almost all have been accommodated by local Afghan communities.
 
“They are primarily being hosted and supported by their relatives and Afghan families and communities,” Nader Farhad, a UNHCR spokesman in Kabul, told IRIN.
 
UNHCR said it had distributed tents, blankets, jerry cans, plastic sheets, warm clothes, soap and sleeping mats to 289 displaced families, and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) was planning to deliver food to 290 families in the near future.
 
A mobile health clinic had also been supplied by Kunar health department with the help of UN agencies.
 
“UNHCR stands ready to assist the vulnerable displaced as has been the case for the remaining population [in Afghanistan] whose assessment has just been completed,” said Farhad.
 
Government officials said food and non-food assistance had also been distributed to the displaced families by the NATO-led Provincial Reconstruction Team.
 
Not refugees
 
Over the past few months up to 3,000 Pakistani households have sought temporary settlement in the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, local officials said.
 
“Most of them have returned to Pakistan but hundreds of these families are still living here,” Mohammad Idrees Gharwal, a spokesman for the governor of Kunar, told IRIN.
 
UNHCR does not consider the Pakistani displaced families conventional refugees: “In view of historical, socio-economic, and geographic factors, it is expected that most displaced families would return home when fighting subsides,” said UNHCR’s Farhad.
 
According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, a refugee is someone who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country."
 
The conflict in Pakistan’s South Waziristan and FATA has displaced tens of thousands over the past few months, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86938MUNTINLUPA Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Seventy-two year-old grandmother Jovita Ramos's arthritic hands could hardly stop shaking as she stood in line for assistance. MUNTINLUPA Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Seventy-two year-old grandmother Jovita Ramos's arthritic hands could hardly stop shaking as she stood in line for assistance.
 
Her home in Muntinlupa District - just an hour's drive south of Manila in Luzon island, the worst-affected of all the islands - is still flooded six weeks after the first of four typhoons hammered the Philippines.
 
Like many of her neighbours, Ramos, her two children and four grandchildren were evacuated to a temporary shelter after tropical storm Ketsana. The ensuing flooding washed away entire communities in Manila and outlying areas, including Muntinlupa, a city of 500,000 on the banks of Laguna de Bay.
 
Now they have begun returning, but face new challenges.
 
"It was so difficult living in the evacuation centre. Food and water were difficult, and my grandchildren who are still little often got sick," Ramos said, clutching a crude staff to keep her balance.
 
"So we decided to return here, but our house is still under water," she said.
 
Ramos's close friend, 70-year-old Armando Anciaga, said many of his relatives in the lake-shore slum of Putatan in Muntinlupa also had no choice but to return.
 
Most of the families traditionally relied on fishing in Laguna de Bay, a heavily silted 90,000-hectare body of water around which developers erected poorly-planned housing estates in recent years.
 
"We may have angered the lake, and it is now reclaiming land that in the past it once owned," Anciaga shrugged, adding that the last major flooding to have hit the area was in 1972, but on a much smaller scale.
 
"Now we have to rely on donations and help from the outside. But one day, they will also tire of giving, and what will happen to us then?" Anciaga said.
 
His two adult sons and their wives have gone to Manila in search of work, leaving him to care for four young children whom he said had not eaten a proper meal in two weeks.
 
Exactly a week after Ketsana, Typhoon Parma battered northern Luzon Island, causing heavy damage to agriculture and dumping more rain on already flooded areas.
 
A third Typhoon, Lupit, spared the country in late October, but days later, Typhoon Mirinae caused additional havoc.
 
Nine million affected
 
More than 1,125 people died from the typhoons, including 167 who succumbed to leptospirosis, a flood-borne disease caused by exposure to water contaminated with rat and other animal urine.
 
According to the country’s National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC),  more than nine million people were affected by the back-to-back storms.
 
The UN launched a flash appeal for US$74 million for one million people in immediate need of assistance, but as of 9 November, only 36 percent of the total had been pledged or received.
 
President Arroyo has set up a special reconstruction committee to find ways of draining flooded areas, which experts have warned would probably remain flooded well into next year, directly affecting over one million people living near the lake.
 
"Transitional communities"
 
Ida Mae Fernandez, project officer for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the agency was now looking at setting up "transitional communities" to provide semi-permanent shelters in devastated areas.
 
"Through the camp coordination/camp management and emergency shelter clusters of government, the IOM continues to discuss the exact feasibility of this strategy, applied in the current situation, because setting up of transitional communities means constructing transitional shelters - which may take more time than what we have, in terms of immediately and urgently alleviating the situation of communities still under water," Fernandez told IRIN.
 
"While it was not an inherent concern in the affected communities before Ketsana, now after Mirinae, the longer the water stays, the higher the risk," she warned.
 
"The cumulative effects of weekly rains and floods have increasingly and seriously impacted communities' and families' capacities to recover quickly," she said, adding that the current scenario posed "real challenges to the disaster planning continuum".
 
As of 9 November, more than 130,000 storm-displaced continue to live in more than 400 evacuation centres in Manila and outlying areas as well as elsewhere in Luzon, the NDCC reported.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86942SANAA Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Nearly 100,000 people displaced over five years of fighting between government troops and Houthi-led Shia rebels have been receiving food aid in the governorates of Saada, Hajja, Amran and Al-Jawf since mid-August, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).SANAA Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Nearly 100,000 people displaced over five years of fighting between government troops and Houthi-led Shia rebels have been receiving food aid in the governorates of Saada, Hajja, Amran and Al-Jawf since mid-August, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).

Since the outbreak of renewed clashes on 12 August, WFP and its implementing partners have provided regular food assistance to 53,956 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Saada Governorate, 25,543 in Hajjah, 5,831 in Amran and 3,346 in al-Jawf, according to Maria Santamarina, a WFP reports and advocacy official in Yemen.

The overall figure includes those assisted by a cross-border operation from Saudi Arabia. "WFP began a cross-border operation from Sanaa to Saudi Arabia and back down into the Mandaba area near the Saudi border where more than 9,450 IDPs trapped by the conflict have received food assistance since 1 November," Santamarina said.

She told IRIN that only 13,447 (less than 14 percent) of the total 98,126 IDPs assisted by WFP were living in camps. “We coordinate with our partner NGOs, local councils and the UN Refugee Agency [UNHCR] to register and verify displaced families in and outside camps.”

Yassir Khairi, an emergency officer at UK-based NGO Islamic Relief, one of WFP’s implementing partners, said that in October they distributed 4,318 metric tons of food to some 7,303 families living in schools, empty poultry farms, scattered tents, in the open, or with host families.

“All members of these families receiving food assistance in October are new IDPs registered by a joint committee made up of NGOs and local authorities,” he told IRIN.

Khairi said each family (with an average of seven members) receives two 50kg sacks of wheat, six cans of beans, 2kg of dates, three litres of vegetable oil, 10kg of sugar and 1kg of salt per month.

Access still problematic

Access to war-afflicted civilians, particularly those inside Saada town, still remains a challenge for aid workers.

"Sometimes, it takes weeks to coordinate safe corridors for passing food aid to the affected families because communication networks in the war-ridden areas are down," said Abdullah Dhahban, a Saada local councillor engaged in the aid distribution effort.

WFP representative in Yemen Giancarlo Cirri said that while the agency had seen some improvements in access “WFP and partners continue to struggle to reach families who have been trapped by the conflict for three months".

He added that WFP is seeing increasing IDP movement towards areas where assistance is being provided. “This suggests that the humanitarian situation of families out of reach of agencies is deteriorating and earlier coping mechanisms of families are exhausted.”

Cirri told IRIN that WFP was continuing to use a planning figure of 150,000 IDPs for assistance, but that this could be increased quickly and easily. He also said WFP was short of US$2.7 million for its Saada operations until the end of 2009, and short of US$14.4 million until June 2010.

A recent report by UNHCR estimates the total number of IDPs in northern Yemen to have increased to 175,000 due to ongoing clashes.

ay/ed/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86943COLOMBO Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) are a key obstacle to the return of thousands of conflict-displaced to their homes in northern Sri Lanka, say government and UN officials.COLOMBO Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) are a key obstacle to the return of thousands of conflict-displaced to their homes in northern Sri Lanka, say government and UN officials.

The government estimates over 1.5 million landmines and UXO contaminate more than 400sqkm in the north.

“Humanitarian demining and the removal of UXO are prerequisites for the delivery of humanitarian assistance, early recovery and development in conflict-affected areas,” Andrej Mahecic, a spokesman for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said in Geneva on 6 November.

“Demining also enables infrastructure development and the resumption of social services and livelihoods,” he said.

Nearly 300,000 people fled fighting in the northeast in the final months of the 26-year civil war between government forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and were placed in a string of government-run camps in the north.

Of these, more than 108,000 have been resettled thus far, according to government figures, with tens of thousand waiting to be resettled in the coming weeks.

Most of the returns have been to Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara districts, with smaller numbers to Polonnaruwa District, UNHCR said.

“While our concern was to ensure the speedy resettlement of the IDPs, their safety was also of paramount importance to the government,” Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told diplomats one day earlier.

Delays

According to the UN, the need for re-establishing basic infrastructure and demining means that a significant number of the displaced - mainly from Kilinochi and Mullaitivu districts - would be unable to return home for several months.

“This is a huge challenge. The intensity of contamination depends on the intensity of the fighting,” Neil Buhne, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Sri Lanka, told IRIN.

“In some areas there is no clear idea about the number of mines or other ordnance. Sometimes you can’t give a clean bill to areas that have been demined.”

In the past, the UN has expressed frustration over the possibility that many of the war-displaced would remain in government camps indefinitely, and warned of donor lethargy.

“I think donors would be happier to help the civilians returning to their villages than help them remain at welfare camps indefinitely,” Buhne said.

Colombo has recently imported new equipment to accelerate the demining effort. According to Bogollagama, equipment worth US$4 million has been imported from Slovakia and Croatia which is capable of clearing 5,000 square metres per day.

On 7 November, UNHCR also handed over five demining machines to the Sri Lankan government.

“The equipment will be immediately dispatched to the return areas in Sri Lanka’s north, where demining is being carried out by the Sri Lankan government together with UNDP [UN Development Programme] and other international and local demining actors,” said Mahecic.

Buhne also noted that sustained assistance would be needed to help the returnees: “There is a lot more to be done to improve the socio-economic standards of these people… Some of these people have been on the run [for] over a year and displaced multiple times. We need to help them regain their livelihoods and a sense of normalcy.”

“Now that a significant number of the IDPs have been resettled, we have to focus on their livelihood development, provide them with employment opportunities or help [them] return to their previous occupations and trade,” said Bogollagama.

World Vision in funding plea

Meanwhile, other relief agencies like World Vision said urgent funds were needed to support the accelerated return process.

In a statement on 6 November, the agency said it urgently needed US$2 million to help the current wave of returns: "We have been advocating for returns to happen as soon as possible and now that it is finally taking place, it is time for those who pledged to support the return to honour those commitments," World Vision Sri Lanka director Suresh Bartlett said.

At least, 2,000 people were returning to their villages daily, the NGO said.

"We all have a moral responsibility to assist these fractured communities… We should not allow the situation to ever return to the era of bitter mistrust and conflict," Bartlett said.

Following recent returns, some 163,000 displaced people are still in camps where conditions are deteriorating, UNHCR said on 6 November.

contributor/ds/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86944ISLAMABAD Sunday, November 08, 2009 (IRIN) - As concern over the lack of access to internally displaced persons (IDPs) from South Waziristan grows among humanitarian workers, UN agencies have called for measures to ensure the security of all civilians caught in the conflict, including relief workers.ISLAMABAD Sunday, November 08, 2009 (IRIN) - As concern over the lack of access to internally displaced persons (IDPs) from South Waziristan grows among humanitarian workers, UN agencies have called for measures to ensure the security of all civilians caught in the conflict, including relief workers.

“All those who are involved in the military operation in one way or the other should ensure human safety and security to aid organizations to reach out to the affected population,” Martin Mogwanja, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan, said in a joint press conference with the UN Refugee Agency and the World Food Programme on 5 November.

Authorities have reassured international agencies about the welfare of IDPs and have said it is still too dangerous to allow relief workers access to the area.

“The Pakistan military is meeting the needs of displaced people,” Lt-Gen Nadeem Ahmed of the army’s Special Support Group told the media.

Mogwanja said assistance would continue to IDPs whether they were from Malakand Division or South Waziristan. International agencies, including UN organizations, are currently working with local partners to assist the displaced.

“We are providing assistance of all kinds despite the lack of access,” Billi Bierling, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told IRIN.

Mogwanja said it was “the responsibility of the government to ensure security”. He said so far no camps had been set up for IDPs, but “if the government of Pakistan decided to establish camps, the humanitarian community would assist with tents, site preparation, water and sanitation and other services”.

Authorities have cited security concerns as a reason for not setting up camps. Most of the 240,000 displaced from South Waziristan are staying with host families. Others have rented accommodation. While some of the displaced are stuck in South Waziristan, most have fled to the neighbouring Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts of North West Frontier Province, which are considered too insecure for aid workers.

kh/edhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86929DAKAR Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - Even when Guinea is not facing political crisis and reeling from a massacre, daily life is gruelling for many and instability is never far away. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in a September 2009 report says Guinea is “volatile” due to a combination of sharp economic decline; widespread and chronic poverty; limited access to basic services like health, water and sanitation; and persistent political instability.DAKAR Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - Even when Guinea is not facing political crisis and reeling from a massacre, daily life is gruelling for many and instability is never far away.

In this country that holds 30 percent of the world’s reserves of bauxite, the primary ore in aluminium, most people live hand-to-mouth; only about 19 percent of the population has access to proper sanitation facilities; malnutrition is widespread.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in a September 2009 report says Guinea is “volatile” due to a combination of sharp economic decline; widespread and chronic poverty; limited access to basic services like health, water and sanitation; and persistent political instability.

Some facts about Guinea:

-At the peak of regional conflicts in the 1990s Guinea housed some 800,000 refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia; today some 25,000 refugees remain in Guinea, including from Côte d’Ivoire

-Guinea has borders with Côte d’Ivoire (instability and political impasse since a 2002 rebellion), Guinea-Bissau (narcotics-trafficking hub struggling to emerge from a history of coups, counter-coups, civil war and political assassinations), Liberia (civil war 1989-2003), Mali, Senegal (attacks by armed groups on civilians and sporadic fighting in southern Casamance region) and Sierra Leone (civil war 1991-2002)

-Since independence in 1958 Guinea has not had a peaceful transition of power

-Population: 9.8 million; average population growth rate 2.6 percent from 1990 to 2007

-70 percent of population living under the poverty threshold of US$1.25 per day, as of 2005

-Chronic malnutrition has increased by 50 percent in the past five years

-Polio-free from 2004 to 2008, Guinea recorded at least 16 cases of polio in 2009

-Known as “the water tower of West Africa”, Guinea is the source of the 4,180-kilometre Niger River and a number of other major rivers

-Nearly half the population has no access to safe drinking water

-Cholera, yellow fever and seasonal flooding regularly spark humanitarian emergencies, straining already limited national capacity to cope

-In the UN Human Development Index Guinea ranks 170 of 182 countries

-150 in 1,000 children are likely to die before fifth birthday

-93 in 1,000 infants are likely to die before age one

-980 women die annually from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 births

-An estimated 1.6 percent of the population infected with HIV

-0.1 physicians per 1,000 people as of 2004

-Illiteracy rate (age 15 and above) 70.5 percent

-Life expectancy 55 years

Sources: UN Children’s Fund, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, World Bank, UN Human Development Index 2009 report

np/cihttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86924KINSHASA Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - At least 16,000 civilians have fled deadly clashes in western Democratic Republic of Congo and are now languishing, many without food or shelter, in neighbouring Republic of Congo, according to the UN and local officials.KINSHASA Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - At least 16,000 civilians have fled deadly clashes in western Democratic Republic of Congo and are now languishing, many without food or shelter, in neighbouring Republic of Congo, according to the UN and local officials.

“These villagers fled interethnic fighting [in Dungu, Equateur Province] which has already claimed 47 lives and caused many injuries,” said Francesca Fontanini, a spokeswoman for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Equateur’s police chief, Col Joly Limengo, told IRIN that clashes had broken out last week between members of the Lobala and Boba communities over access to fishing ponds.

Those who fled are having problems with nutrition, medical supplies and shelter, according to Fontanini, citing the findings of an inter-agency mission made up of officials from UNHCR, other UN agencies, the Interior Ministry and local NGOs.

“Villagers are still crossing [the Ubangi river] to Republic of Congo. By yesterday [4 November], more than 16,000 had done so. Most did not take any provisions at all, or only very few. They are housed in municipal buildings or in the open. There is either no health centre, or insufficient medical supplies where they are,” she said.

Officials in Equateur Province said they had initiated dialogue between the warring inhabitants of the villages of Iyele and Muzala.

Government spokesman Lambert Mende said there was more to the unrest than an old dispute about fish.

“It’s an insurrection. A certain Edo Bokoto, who has been suspended from his post of sector chief, has mobilized about 10 men from his community to wanted to take control of these fish ponds which belong to people from these villages. They started to attack people from outside their community,” he said, adding that seven policemen who intervened in the fighting had been killed.

Equateur is the home province of erstwhile rebel leader and former vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba, now awaiting trial for alleged war crimes at the International Criminal Court.


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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86898GOMA Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - While medical and psychological care are being provided to survivors of sexual violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where 7,000 women and girls have been raped this year alone, UN and aid workers on the ground say the funding response has been too narrow, leaving key issues inadequately addressed.GOMA Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - While medical and psychological care are being provided to survivors of sexual violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where 7,000 women and girls have been raped this year alone, UN and aid workers on the ground say the funding response has been too narrow, leaving key issues inadequately addressed.

"Increased international attention to sexual violence in DRC has led to a substantial increase of funding, accompanied by a disproportionate lack of evaluations of the real needs on the ground and lack of understanding of the complexity of the issues," notes the Comprehensive Strategy on Combating Sexual Violence in the DRC,
[http://www.stoprapenow.org/pdf/SVStratExecSummaryFinal18March09.pdf] released in 2009 by the Office of the Senior Adviser and Coordinator for Sexual Violence in the DRC.

"Efforts are unevenly distributed [...] The programmatic focus is essentially on two sectors: medical and judicial support to sexual violence survivors, while the remaining sectors show very few interventions," according to the strategy.

The sectors receiving proportionally less funding and attention include prevention and reintegration.

"Just treating the results of sexual violence is a catastrophe. No one is really treating the root or the entirety of the situation. If you just care for the raped women, you will be caring for them up until infinity," said Butros Kalere of Women for Women. [http://www.womenforwomen.org]

Among those feeling the funding pinch is Heal Africa [http://www.healafrica.org/cms/], a Goma-based NGO that provides medical and social care in the region.

"Sexual violence is not just a physical problem, but we often don't have enough funding and thus, we are limited to real work only for the immediate victims," the organization's community health coordinator, Jean Robert Likofata Esanga, told IRIN, adding that its programmes that focus on prevention, rehabilitation and re-integration continually suffer under-funding.

Effective prevention programming, according to Tasha Gill, child protection officer with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the DRC, "employs advocacy and awareness to mobilize the communities through community leaders, identifying the issues and working towards longer-term changes within local social norms, while alternately working towards protecting those who are most vulnerable".

Gill also noted that the UN planned over the next few years to better direct funding so that "funding for this sort of prevention programming no longer falls through the cracks".

Even organizations that specialize in protection are feeling the pinch. "We usually try to reduce vulnerability and protect 1,000 women in the communities on the outskirts of Goma by providing them with skills training, literacy and financing a portion of their activities," explained an employee of one such NGO. "Now that our donor wants us to work more in an 'emergency' setting and we are confined to working in the IDP camps, it is very difficult as the population is always in flux. It's hard to keep track of them and be consistent with the training."

Reintegration

The UN's goals for re-integration include "ensuring victims' satisfaction and guaranteeing non-recurrence of sexual violence" as well as ongoing psycho-social care. However, the services are fragmented due to minimal funding, complicated coordination and the distances to be covered for transportation and service provision. Even in Goma's Kibati I IDP camp in July, women were returning without access to further counselling, education or skills-building.

As Constance, a Heal Africa counsellor, said: "We would like to help each victim reintegrate smoothly and carry on with counselling sessions, but we are limited to having a clinic or a skill centre nearby. We do not have the funds to help every woman through her return."

The UN's ideal plan for re-integration also includes a "survivor-centred skill approach". While some NGOs have funding to provide women with the opportunity to learn skills during their hospital stays, their use of those skills upon their return can be restricted by location and availability of material. For example, women are restricted in practising their sewing skills by lack of access to a sewing machine, while literacy skills are restricted by the lack of schools.

"Medical, protection, and legal/justice services and psycho-social care are part of treating sexual violence, but these services also need to include enabling women to be able to provide for their families... for them to feel like they can move on and take care of their children," Mendy Marsh, an independent expert on sexual violence, told IRIN.

Until funding for programmes addressing sexual violence in the DRC makes this a priority, prevention and rehabilitation funding and programming will continue to have to make do with a small percentage of current funding.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86865DAMASCUS Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - A new pilot project by the World Food Programme (WFP) in Syria has come up with a novel way of getting food aid to Iraqi refugees. WFP claims the project is a world first.DAMASCUS Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - A new pilot project by the World Food Programme (WFP) in Syria has come up with a novel way of getting food aid to Iraqi refugees. WFP claims the project is a world first.
 
Under the pilot scheme, 1,000 Iraqi families (3,500 beneficiaries) living in Damascus are to receive vouchers worth US$22 per person sent to their mobile phones every two months. These vouchers are redeemable against certain goods in government stores in Jaramana and Saida Zeinab, areas with high Iraqi populations.
 
Beneficiaries continue to receive 50 percent of their rations under the usual handout system. However, if successful, the pilot could replace the traditional food handouts from distribution centres for all refugees.
 
How do SMS vouchers work? WFP distributed new SIM cards to the Iraqi refugees. The new number is registered to the refugee and their $22 voucher is sent with a personalized code to the phone every two months, coinciding with the normal food distribution cycle. If they need to buy something, they take the phone with its voucher number to a designated shop, where it is verified by the shopkeeper and purchases can be made.

The phone
 
Any make or model of phone capable of receiving text messages works for the scheme, according to WFP. SIM cards for the pilot were donated by MTN in Syria, which also provides the text messages for free. According to Selly Muzammil, spokesperson for WFP Syria, without the donation the scheme would still cost less than 1.03 SYP [$.02] per head to run per food distribution.
 
Beneficiaries do not have to spend their $22 voucher all in one go. Everything is computerized, so once a transaction is made in the shop, the system automatically updates and beneficiaries receive a text message with their updated balance.
 
Beneficiaries were given two days training on how to redeem their vouchers. The voucher can be used by persons other than the beneficiary but WFP says there is little risk of fraud owing to a system of double verification of the voucher code and value by the shopkeeper.
 
The shops
 
Under the pilot only two government-run shops are participating in the scheme, but WFP says in future the number of shops could increase, and include private shops. When beneficiaries make purchases, the shop sends the electronic invoice to WFP. This is then verified and the shop is reimbursed. The shops are not paid extra for their services and the food is not subsidized.
 
The food
 
The foodstuffs included in the scheme are: rice, wheat flour, lentils, chickpeas, vegetable oil, cheese, eggs and canned fish. The list is more extensive than for handouts: It allows the purchase of certain fresh foods which cannot be stored for food distributions.
 
Non-food items distributed by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) which are not redeemable with a voucher include nappies and sanitary towels. Currently, tea, dates and sugar are still physically distributed to beneficiaries on the pilot, but potentially they could be included in the voucher scheme.
 
Advantages
 
There are advantages of the scheme for both refugees and WFP.
 
“The main goal of the scheme is to allow for a more diversified diet based on personal choices and the preferences of the beneficiaries,” said Muzammil.
 
Refugees interviewed by IRIN at the food distribution centres frequently complained about the lack of fresh food. They said they often sold rice under market value in order to afford to buy products such as cheese. The choice given by the new scheme, albeit limited, is likely to alleviate this complaint.
 
Another advantage is the ease of access. “People will no longer need to queue at food distribution points or travel long distances to distribution centres,” Muhannad Hadi, WFP’s country director for Syria, said.
 
Development experts say this new simpler process gives refugees more independence and dignity.
 
For WFP, the advantages are a more efficient system.
 
“Agencies benefit from lower delivery costs from schemes such as this,” food aid expert Chris Barrett of Cornell University told IRIN. WFP has no figures on the costs but says it expects the service to be more efficient.
 
Disadvantages
 
Distorting local markets, not reaching the most vulnerable and the potential for fraud are the biggest issues facing the scheme.
 
“If local availability is limited, then vouchers merely fuel local inflation and cause real harm,” Barrett told IRIN. This could be more of an issue with the pilot scheme because there are limited shops involved and limited items eligible for voucher use. “It will be important to monitor the price effects, if any, of this scheme,” he said.

If those most in need do not have secure access to mobile phones, then phone-based voucher transfers will miss those who most need assistance.

Measures are already in place to prevent misuse of the SIM cards but Abeer Etefa, WFP’s regional public information officer for the Middle East, stressed that this is a pilot programme, in which the agency is attempting to discover whether the system is vulnerable to abuse.

There are more than 1.2 million Iraqi refugees in Syria, according to government figures. About 130,000 regularly receive food aid from WFP and get complementary food and non-food assistance from UNHCR. Experts say WFP’s pilot project would be easy to upscale to this number. The technology could also be transferred to comparable situations.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86872JAKARTA Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of survivors of an earthquake that devastated Indonesia's West Sumatra Province are still grappling with a lack of clean water and adequate sanitation more than a month after the disaster, relief workers say.JAKARTA Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of survivors of an earthquake that devastated Indonesia's West Sumatra Province are still grappling with a lack of clean water and adequate sanitation more than a month after the disaster, relief workers say.

Aid agencies are delivering clean water to survivors by truck, but it is insufficient unless water sources damaged by the earthquake on 30 September are restored, said Endang Trisna, programme coordinator for Mercy Corps [see: http://indonesia.mercycorps.org/].

"Water pumps in many houses have been damaged and wells are contaminated with sand and dirt. Some residents have no access at all to clean water," Trisna told IRIN.

Trisna said Mercy Corps was helping villagers fix their water sources and providing treatment facilities, as well as building latrines and distributing hygiene kits in Padang Pariaman and Agam districts, among the worst hit by the earthquake.

"Our staff are also providing training on hygiene. Our target is to help 10,000 households," she said.

The magnitude 7.6 quake left 1,117 people dead and more than 119,000 houses severely damaged or destroyed, according to the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).

IDP camps

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its 3 November report that funding for transitional shelter, water and sanitation, and agriculture activities was still urgently needed to bridge the gap into the recovery phase.

According to the report, 600,000 people in Padang, the provincial capital, will be reliant on water trucks until year-end.

There are also 4,000 displaced people in three camps in Agam and about 4,000 in six camps in Padang Pariaman who are being supported with water and sanitation activities.

The government declared a recovery phase from 1 November in all but Padang Pariaman and Agam, home to the camps, where the emergency phase continues because sanitation is particularly poor. The camps are providing shelter for some of the thousands of people displaced by landslides triggered by the earthquake, said Tanty Pranawisanty, Mercy Corps emergency response team leader.

"The tents are not up to standard. They are close to each other, causing overcrowding," she said.

The government is expected to announce its rehabilitation and reconstruction action plan on 15 November, the OCHA report stated.

Ade Edward, head of West Sumatra's disaster coordinating agency, said piped water had been restored in 60 percent of households in Padang, while about 1,000 temporary shelters had been built by aid groups.

But he admitted that living conditions for people displaced in Agam and Padang Pariaman were still far from normal.

"They live in makeshift shelters and there's a lack of water and toilets," Edward told IRIN. "There are problems with sanitation, but it's being handled by authorities."

Funding gap

The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said aid groups have complained they lacked funds to deliver water but stressed that the situation would not threaten the emergency relief effort.

"Aid agencies have been helping with the supply of water bladders and other equipment, but the operational cost is being paid by the local tap water company," said Lely Djuhari, a spokeswoman for UNICEF Indonesia.

"We're confident the government will come up with the cost for water trucking for the next three months, or even beyond," she said.

Meanwhile, the government estimates that reconstruction in West Sumatra will cost more than US$700 million, while the BNPB says more than $315 million will be needed for rebuilding damaged houses.

"We are still awaiting the release of the funds by the central government. However, some reconstruction work has begun, even though money from the government has not come," said BNPB spokesman Priyadi Kardono.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86873CAIRO Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - I come from the Gash Barka region of Eritrea, near the Sudanese border. I escaped from prison and left my country on 1 January 2004 to come to Sudan and then Egypt, where I was jailed again.CAIRO Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Officially, there were 1,638 Eritrean refugees registered with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Cairo in September, the fourth largest group after the Sudanese, [http://www.irinnews.org/HOVReport.aspx?ReportId=86639] Iraqis, [http://www.irinnews.org/HOVReport.aspx?ReportId=86670] and Somalis. [http://www.irinnews.org/HOVReport.aspx?ReportId=86734]

UNHCR said Eritreans arriving in Egypt must undergo comprehensive refugee status determination interviews to assess whether they can be registered or not.

IRIN spoke to Dabbas Haile (not his real name), 35, about why he left Eritrea, and the prospects he has in this host country.

“I come from the Gash Barka region of Eritrea, near the Sudanese border. I escaped from prison and left my country on 1 January 2004 to come to Sudan and then Egypt, where I was jailed again.

“I used to work for the Ministry of Defence in Eritrea, although I hate politics. Because my mother is Ethiopian, I had fewer rights than other full Eritreans. My father was Eritrean but died long ago.

“When the war was going on between Ethiopia and Eritrea [1998-2000], the authorities kicked my mother out of the country and sent her to Sudan. Later on I went to visit her there but didn’t get the required permit to leave the country. On my return they put me in jail in Omhajer, near the Ethiopia-Sudan border.

“I managed to escape from jail with an Ethiopian friend and cross the border illegally into Sudan. I stayed there one year and two months. It was a very difficult time because there were bad relations between Ethiopians, Eritreans and Sudanese.

“I decided to go to Egypt and crossed the border alone on foot, illegally. The Egyptian police caught me in Aswan and jailed me for being illegal in the country. I spent 14 months in prisons in Aswan and Cairo. It was pretty rough, but when life is hard, you have to be tough. The good thing was that I learned to speak Arabic fluently.

“While I was in jail, I did a UNHCR application and interview for refugee status, because I was being persecuted in my own country. I was successful and so released. I get assistance from UNHCR and CARITAS [a Catholic NGO and UNHCR implementing partner in Egypt], who I do some work for as an interpreter because I know Arabic.

“I live in the Mohandiseen area of the capital with a few other Eritreans. There is no organized community here for us so we organize ourselves and help each other out. No one depends on the embassy to help them. Most Eritreans and Ethiopians don’t speak Arabic, so it’s very difficult for us to integrate or get work in Cairo. Many do not even speak English. Some of us have relatives in other countries who send us money. But for the rest, we just pray to God for better times.

“Some don’t have money for food or a house and must borrow from those who do. And they would never sleep in the street as it’s considered shameful. For those who are not registered refugees or had their applications turned down, there is always the risk of being arrested and thrown in jail.

“I can’t go back to Eritrea until the government changes. Who knows when that will be? And resettlement to third countries is just for families or single mothers or health cases. So for single guys like me, it looks like I’ll be in Cairo for a while.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86855PESHAWAR Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Around 240,000 people have fled South Waziristan since early October, according to UN agencies, and those that have escaped say little is being done for the civilians trapped there.PESHAWAR Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Around 240,000 people have fled South Waziristan since early October, according to UN agencies, and those that have escaped say little is being done for the civilians trapped there.

“My sister is there, in Wana [the principal town in South Waziristan] and there are people who are sick or injured but they have received no help,” Shaheena Bibi, 40, who left the tribal territory a month ago with her family, told IRIN. “No one is doing anything about the people who have lost everything in South Waziristan,” she said, comparing their treatment unfavourably with those displaced from Swat Valley earlier in the year.

“We can’t understand why more of these Western agencies and NGOs are not helping the people of Waziristan,” she said.

Despite the readiness of aid agencies to help internally displaced persons (IDPs) - and even people in their homes in South Waziristan - access has been consistently denied by the military.

“We want to go to aid people and have even tried to do so, but the military guards the entry points and turns us back,” Ronnie Palomar, deputy head of mission of the Paris-based Médecins Sans Frontières told IRIN, adding: “South Waziristan is a very highly militarized zone. People coming out of it are going into other areas guarded by the military.”

MSF, like other international organizations has been denied access to either IDPs or people in South Waziristan. “The only people offering humanitarian aid are the military,” said Palomar.

While some local NGOs have been allowed to work with IDPs based in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank, the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) districts that border South Waziristan, staff say military control is tight.

“Sometimes it is very hard to talk freely to people about their situation, because of the heavy police and military presence,” said a female NGO worker who asked not to be named. She said security personnel often “tried to help” but “their uniforms intimidate people.”

“The government is not encouraging foreign NGOs to directly assist IDPs from South Waziristan due to security concerns,” Lt-Gen Nadeem Ahmed of the military’s Special Support Group told a press conference in Islamabad on 1 November. He also said it was “possible” militants were mingling with IDPs.

Bombings

A spate of recent bombings across Pakistan has prompted the UN Secretary-General to announce heightened security measures in NWFP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas for its staff.

According to a UN press release, [http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=124b38f1368f4f0c&mt=application%2Fpdf&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2Fmail%2F%3Fui%3D2%26ik%3Dbcb2e461d2%26view%3Datt%26th%3D124b38f1368f4f0c%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dattd%26zw&sig=AHBy-haphFf_YvCx9i5V8AAPqMzikusOWA] the new security measures will mean: “reduced international UN staff members in NWFP and FATA, with [the] presence of only those vital for emergency, humanitarian relief, security operations or any other essential operations as advised by the Secretary-General.”

“They seem to fear we may be kidnapped or something,” Sebastien Brack, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told IRIN.

He said access was being denied and security cited as the reason for this, despite the fact that the ICRC “has received guarantees of safety from all groups involved in South Waziristan and has conveyed to [the] authorities [that] we are in a unique position to help.”

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for help for civilians trapped in the zone of fighting. [http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/10/28/pakistan-get-aid-civilians-caught-fighting] “If aid agencies can’t reach these people, it could be a catastrophe,” Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher for HRW, said.

Those who have fled the conflict-hit areas are worried about those left behind. “People are getting hurt in the aerial bombardment. They have no medicines. Children are sick and frightened and things will only get worse once winter sets in,” said Dilawar Khan, who lives in Peshawar but has family in South Waziristan.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86856PADER/NAIROBI Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Most Ugandans displaced by two decades of conflict in the north have returned to their villages but a significant number are still stuck in camps and should be helped to leave, observers say. PADER/NAIROBI Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Most Ugandans displaced by two decades of conflict in the north have returned to their villages but a significant number are still stuck in camps and should be helped to leave, observers say.

"Significant numbers of those who remain in the camps are there not out of choice but because they are unable to return to their home areas," the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) states in an August report.

"Some IDPs [internally displaced persons] cannot return because land disputes prevent them from accessing land, while IDPs with special needs and vulnerabilities are unable to support themselves in the return areas."

Years of conflict between the government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) forced two million people from their homes, but according to the government fewer than 500,000 remain in camps.

"Sustaining returns remains a challenge that must be addressed by quick impact recovery and development activities, which requires stronger action by development agencies and support of donors," Walter Kälin, Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of IDPs, said in a 26 October statement to the General Assembly.

"Despite the huge progress made thus far, the fate of a considerable number of particularly vulnerable individuals left behind in camps or living in transit sites as well as a general lack of synchronicity between the phasing out of humanitarian assistance and the increase of development activities in returnee areas continue to be a source of concern," he added.

Testimonials

At Geregere camp in Pader, the IDPs say age and disability have prevented them from building shelters or farming. They also cite illness and disease, and disputes over land rights and ownership.

Richard Opio, 62, said he had depended entirely on food donations since arriving at Geregere in 2003. To supplement these rations, he had tried planting some crops, supported by two of his eight children.

He was, however, unable to leave after being disabled by a long convalescence following a beating by the LRA. His knee hurt and he was waiting for some oxen to help him with the planting.

Before the war, he said, he had farmed his 15ha about 2km from the camp, rotating sorghum, maize, groundnuts and millet. He also had seven cows, 11 goats and nine sheep.

Asked what he would do if there was no help forthcoming, he said he would still return next year when the grass was long.

Josephine Ladwong, 73, came to Geregere from Lateling village, about 5km away. Initially, she spent time in Patongo camp, then was moved to Geregere in 2005 as part of a resettlement plan for overcrowded camps.

She had 12 children, 10 of whom had died - two killed by the LRA. She said she had stayed at Geregere because she was not strong enough to build a hut on her land, and was waiting for someone to help.

Theophilo Ongwec inherited the land on which Geregere IDP camp is built from his father. When the government established the camp in 2005, they did not compensate him.

Asked whether there had been any offer to assist him to restore the land as people went home, he said there had been the promise of a tractor, but this had yet to arrive.

The returns followed the signing of a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement between the government and the LRA in 2006.

"Most of the 15 percent remaining in camps are particularly vulnerable – widows, the elderly and disabled, child-headed households and those suffering from HIV/AIDS," the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said during a 21 October visit to the camp.

Basics lacking

According to the IDMC, returnee communities needed assistance to reintegrate these vulnerable IDPs. At the same time, much work remains to be done to ensure that returns are sustainable.

For example, basic infrastructure and services in the return areas are inadequate or non-existent. Lack of access to clean water poses a risk of epidemics, and clinics and schools struggle with insufficient facilities and qualified personnel.

While returnees have begun to grow their own food, the situation is still fragile, particularly as low rainfall since April 2009 means harvests are predicted to be more than 60 percent lower than normal.

"The old, the orphans and the terminally ill are stuck in camps and as other people have ventured out to go back home, they cannot return and their rights over many issues are compromised," Norbert Mao, Gulu district council chairman, told IRIN in July.

Calling them Uganda’s "invisible war victims", he sought urgent help to enable them to move from IDP camps to a normal existence.

Ugandan authorities began closing down the camps in the north in October.

"We must do more to help them too regain an independent life outside the camp," Holmes said after his visit, describing the IDPs still in camps as a "residual caseload".

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86841SANAA Sunday, November 01, 2009 (IRIN) - The past 10 months saw the highest number of Africans reaching Yemeni shores over figures for the same period in 2008 and 2007, when large numbers began travelling to Yemen by boat, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).SANAA Sunday, November 01, 2009 (IRIN) - The past 10 months saw the highest number of Africans reaching Yemeni shores over figures for the same period in 2008 and 2007, when large numbers began travelling to Yemen by boat, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

More than 56,600 people arrived on 1,100 boats to Yemen from the Horn of Africa so far this year, already exceeding the total for all 2008, when 50,091 people crossed, Rocco Nuri, an external relations officer at UNHCR, told IRIN on 31 October.

“This is a stunning 40 percent increase in comparison with the same 10-month period last year when 40,540 boat-carried people arrived… [This year], 281 people drowned and another 152 have been missing and presumed dead after their boats capsized in the Gulf of Aden," Nuri said.

Santiago Perez, country representative for NGO the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), said there were several factors causing this growing influx of Africans to Yemen. "We’re detecting an increasing number of displaced people who say they are coming to Yemen fleeing climate disasters like drought, untimely and torrential rains, as well as conflict and poverty," he said.

He added that rapid population growth in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, was also "responsible for the phenomenon”.

Because of this greater demand for the trip across the Gulf of Aden, smugglers have doubled their fees. "The money paid for smuggling by boat has jumped from US$50 to $100 per person these days," Ahmad Akam, a Yemeni coast guard official, said.

The total number of new arrivals by the end of this year is likely to hit 70,000 as sea conditions are becoming milder, according to Akam.

Response

UN agencies in Yemen and their implementing partners have developed contingency plans to provide assistance to 20,000 extra arrivals – on top of the 50,000 already planned for in 2009.

"UNHCR has improved the capacity and conditions of its reception centres in Mayfaa and Ahwar, on Yemen's southern coastline, and established a presence through its implementing partners in Bab al-Mandab on the Red Sea," Nuri said.

He added that in order to provide a dignified burial for those who do not survive the boat journey - due to rough sea conditions, drowning and mistreatment by smugglers – UNHCR had secured three cemetery plots in Hadhramout, Shabwa and Abyan governorates to bury bodies washed ashore.

A September report by UNHCR said there were 162,362 registered refugees in Yemen, 153,080 of whom were Somalis.

ay/edhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86830NAIROBI Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Flash floods caused by four days of torrential rains have displaced more than 15,000 people in the southwestern town of El-Waq near the Kenyan border and submerged most homes and businesses, say localsNAIROBI Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Flash floods caused by four days of torrential rains have displaced more than 15,000 people in the southwestern town of El-Waq near the Kenyan border and submerged most homes and businesses, say locals.

"Most of the town is under water, with people moving to higher ground around the town," Alaso Gurhan, a resident of El-Waq, in Gedo region of southwestern Somalia, told IRIN on 28 October.

The local administration and civil society groups have been able to move many people to safer ground, she said.

She said mothers with small children and the elderly were being given priority in the provision of shelter material. "We are all in the open now with very little help. We don’t have much so we have to give first to the weakest."

A lot of livestock have reportedly died due to the ongoing rains. "Hundreds of goats and sheep weakened by the drought have succumbed to the rains and the cold weather," said Ali Hassan, a civil society activist.

He said El-Waq, like the rest of Somalia, was waiting for the rain but it was "too much in too short a time. If the rain continues the way it has for the last four days we will be in serious trouble."

He said most of the residents, about 18,000 with some 900 displaced families (5,400 people) from Mogadishu, had been affected. "We are no better than the displaced today," he added. He said the population was concentrating on the hills around the town. "Any higher ground in the area is now occupied."

Hassan Hussein, an engineer with Development Frontier International, an NGO, told IRIN they were now trying to dig trenches to allow the water to drain from the town.

He said there was still a danger of more flooding since the rains were ongoing. He said his group was organizing the population to alert them to any more danger. "We are using the loud-speakers in mosques to tell people to help the weak and to get to higher ground."

People who are still in low-lying areas were also being told to move to higher ground, he said.

He said shelter material was urgently needed. "There are many people who are too weak to stay in the open or in the flimsy shelters we have. We need help in the provision of tents and other shelter material if we are to avert a serious health situation."

There are fears that with the rains mosquitoes and waterborne diseases will not be far behind, he warned.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86791DATU PIANG Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Security is the principal concern for thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Mindanao when considering whether to return home.DATU PIANG Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Security is the principal concern for thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Mindanao when considering whether to return home.

"I can't return now," Ampino Lapinig said outside her one-room hut at the Notre Dame Dulawan evacuation centre in Datu Piang, where some 300 families or 1,500 people are sheltering. "It's just not safe."

A resident of the camp for more than a year, she and her family have no plans to return, despite the otherwise dire living conditions inside the camp.

According to aid agencies, water and sanitation conditions are poor [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86451], levels of malnutrition are high, and shelters are pitifully inadequate.

"Although my home is close, it's just too dangerous," said Musib Parashan, whose home in Lintukan District is just 2km from the camp.

"If the government can prove to me there is no danger I will go back. Otherwise, we will stay here," the 32-year-old said. "What guarantee is there that the fighting won't start up again?" A question heard time and again from the IDPs.

More than 250,000 displaced

In the past 16 months, some 750,000 residents have fled their homes on the southern Philippine island following an upsurge in fighting between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who have been fighting for an independent Islamic state since 1978.

And while most have returned, more than 250,000 remain in evacuation shelters or are staying with relatives, even though military operations were suspended in July, and both parties agreed to talks, hosted by Malaysia.

"At this point, it's just talk. Until I see something more concrete, I'm staying," Ampino Lapinig, 45, said, recalling how her family fled indiscriminate fighting in her village.

Further challenges

"Even if I returned, what would I be returning to?" asked Musib, who once earned US$80 per month as a day labourer. "We lost everything. We are now totally dependent on outside assistance."

Decades of conflict in Mindanao, particularly in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, have undermined the basic economic, social and human rights of most of the population.

Nearly half the people are food-insecure, and levels of malnutrition are significantly higher than in other regions of the country, the UN World Food Programme says.

Access to clean water and sanitation facilities, as well as social services such as education and healthcare, are generally limited; particularly so in remote areas, aid agencies report.

Moreover, most humanitarian indicators show that the conditions of those displaced have further deteriorated as fighting and military restrictions have reduced humanitarian access and the delivery of aid.

New accord

Joe Patrick Amara, field coordinator for the Nonviolent Peaceforce [http://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/] NGO, which is working closely with those affected, says people are willing to return, but will not be able to without security and assistance.

"Many of their homes were burnt and many lost their livestock and other means of livelihood," he said. "People understand the difference between a suspension of operations and a ceasefire. If there were a ceasefire, people would be more comfortable, but we're not there yet," he said. "With a suspension, people fear things could flare up again."

Meanwhile, a new accord signed on 27 October between the 11,000 strong MILF and Manila aimed at protecting civilians gives ground for hope.

According to the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue [http://www.hdcentre.org/], the Agreement on the Civilian Protection Component of the International Monitoring Team commits both parties to "take all necessary precautions to avoid incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and danger to civilian objects and to take all necessary actions to facilitate the provision of relief supplies".

The parties also agreed to expand the mandate of the international monitoring team to include civilian protection, allowing them to now monitor, verify and report on compliance by both parties.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86794SHEBERGHAN Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Several thousand people returning to their homes in the northern Afghan provinces of Sar-i-Pul and Jowzjan need help before winter, according to aid agencies and local officials.SHEBERGHAN Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Several thousand people returning to their homes in the northern Afghan provinces of Sar-i-Pul and Jowzjan need help before winter, according to aid agencies and local officials.

Aid agencies say most are returnees from Iran and from a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in southern Afghanistan.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said it had set up a tented camp in an arid area in Sozma Qala District, Sar-i-Pul Province, to accommodate hundreds of returnees from Iran. Some aid had been distributed to them, it said.

About 300 families had returned to Jowzjan Province from Zhari IDP camp in Kandahar Province, provincial governor Mohammad Hashim Zaray told IRIN.

“Some people have gone to their homes but some have set up tents and temporary settlements in the outskirts of Sheberghan [capital of Jowzjan Province] and other areas,” said Zaray, adding that insecurity, land disputes and lack of jobs were the main problems facing returnees.

Intensifying insurgency-related violence, the lack of aid and difficult living conditions forced over 2,000 IDP households in Zhari camp to sign up for a UNHCR-assisted voluntary return programme in 2009, according to relevant officials in Kandahar.

“About 850 families have left the camp so far this year but hundreds of families still live in Zhari,” Mohammad Azam Nawabi, director of the refugees department in Kandahar, told IRIN.

Shelter

As winter approaches, the need for decent shelter is becoming more important. “Our children will die from cold,” said one man outside his tent in Sar-i-Pul Province.

“This winter will devastate my family because we have no home, no warm clothes, no food and nothing to resist the cold,” said another man.

Central and northern parts of Afghanistan normally get snow in early November.

Aurvasi Patel, head of UNHCR's office in the northern province of Balkh, said efforts were under way to assist 5,000 families in the north and northeast of the country before winter.

She said the aid for returnees would include food and non-food items such as warm clothes and charcoal - supported by UNHCR, the UN World Food Programme and the UN Children’s Fund.

UNHCR has earmarked US$14 million for its shelter programme in 2009: Some 10,000 returnee families will be given help to rebuild their houses in different parts of the country.

Longstanding problem

Hundreds of thousands of people - mostly ethnic Pashtuns - fled their homes in the north and sought refuge in IDP camps in the south of the country in 2001-2002 because of insecurity and ethnic tensions.

UN agencies delivered basic aid to about one million IDPs for a while but ended its operation in March 2006 in a bid to encourage people to return to their home areas.

Over five million Afghan refugees have returned to Afghanistan - mostly from Pakistan and Iran - over the past eight years, according to UNHCR.

Hundreds of thousands of IDPs have also returned to their original homes in the past four years, it said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86795DERA ISMAIL KHAN Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Fear and a growing wariness on the part of potential IDP hosts means some South Waziristan internally displaced persons (IDPs) are finding it hard to get accommodation in the neighbouring districts of Dera Ismail Khan and Tank.DERA ISMAIL KHAN Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Fear and a growing wariness on the part of potential IDP hosts means some South Waziristan internally displaced persons (IDPs) are finding it hard to get accommodation in the neighbouring districts of Dera Ismail Khan and Tank.

"No one is ready to take us, because they think we are sympathetic to the militants battling government forces," said Wazirullah Mehsud, 60.

He also believes that because those fleeing the battle zone are Mehsuds - from the same tribe as the leaders of the Taliban based in South Waziristan - hosts are sometimes reluctant to take them in.

"The thing is that some of the people coming from South Waziristan could be militants. Dera Ismail Khan has seen many bomb attacks and other violent incidents in recent years. We are scared to keep people from South Waziristan in our homes, especially when many of them are men, because they could have links to the militants," said Salim Khan, a local shopkeeper.

Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, a spokesman for the Pakistan military, told the media: "Militants are shaving their beards and mingling with ordinary people to try and flee."

Continuing attacks are adding to people's apprehensions. A car bomb in a crowded market area in Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, killed at least 100 people on 28 October.

Fear

"Such news makes us afraid, even though we want to help people in trouble," said Aleem Ahmed, an electrician based in Dera Ismail Khan. He said he was "thinking about" a request from a friend to host an IDP family.

The Mehsud and Wazir tribes make up most of the 500,000 population of South Waziristan, one of seven tribal territories adjacent to Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. The current leader of the Taliban, Hakeemullah Mehsud, like his predecessor, the late Baitullah Mehsud, belongs to the larger Mehsud tribe.

"I have had many problems even finding a room to rent. Because I am on my own, with my two sons, people think we may be militants," said Asad Mehsud, 60. His wife and daughters-in-law have moved to Peshawar, where the family has relatives.

Other IDPs, particularly those who have close relatives in Dera Ismail Khan, face fewer problems. "We have been well looked after by my cousin and his family. Even though they have five children themselves, and it has been hard to add seven more to their household, they have been kind and have taken us in," said Saifullah Mehsud.

"As far as we know the IDPs are still staying with host families," Billi Bierling, public information officer for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Islamabad, told IRIN. She said the overall registration figure of IDP families from South Waziristan had reached 33,371. In Dera Ismail Khan and Tank 1,689 IDP families were registered on 28 October, as the influx from conflict-hit areas continues. No formal IDP camps have been set up as yet.

Culture shock

For some IDPs, especially women who have in many cases never left their villages, the experience is a bewildering one. "I had never seen water flow from taps inside homes, or used a toilet that flushes," said Waseefa Bibi, 25, a mother of two. She is also delighted with the nappies donated to her for her three-month-old baby, saying, "now I know how to put one on."

However, Waseefa and other displaced women, have problems too: "We live in a house belonging to our hosts, with 13 people in four rooms. Our hosts are not close relatives, and it is hard for me and my sister-in-law to maintain 'purdah' [seclusion from men who are not blood relatives observed by some women on the basis of religious belief]. We also feel very shy going to the toilet when the men are around," Waseefa told IRIN.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86799KATHMANDU Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Bhutanese refugees in Nepal have expressed dismay at a recent decision by the World Food Programme (WFP) to cut food rations sharply.KATHMANDU Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Bhutanese refugees in Nepal have expressed dismay at a recent decision by the World Food Programme (WFP) to cut food rations sharply.
 
“We are worried about the children,” said Yam Gurung, a 33-year-old refugee at the Beldangi-2 camp in Jhapa District, nearly 500km southeast of Kathmandu. “They suffer from an insufficient diet already and this can only make things worse.”
 
Gurung, who has three children aged 5-14, said each person used to receive a monthly food ration of around 5.6kg of rice, whereas now they receive half that.
 
“We are still shocked over the news. We hope the cuts won’t last any longer,” 24-year-old refugee Prakash Dhamala said, citing health concerns for the elderly.
 
Owing to a funding shortfall, WFP on 15 October was forced to cut food rations to more than 88,000 Bhutanese refugees living in camps in Nepal.
 
WFP has been providing rice, lentils and other food to the refugees, who fled neighbouring Bhutan when ethnic tensions flared nearly two decades ago. They have lived ever since in seven camps in eastern Nepal, where they rely on WFP aid as they are not allowed to work.
 
The food ration cut effectively means the daily food intake of each individual is less by 700 kilocalories and 14 grams of protein, according to WFP.
 
WFP said this was the first time in 18 years such action had been taken, and it was working to resolve the problem by appealing to donors for US$4 million to allow continued feeding until January 2010.
 
Blocked
 
However, money is not the only problem: Rice, which is the main staple of the refugees’ diet, is generally transported via India’s Calcutta dry port, the main transportation hub for all imports and exports for landlocked Nepal, and large quantities of rice have been stuck there throughout much of Dasain (19-28 September), one of the biggest and longest Hindu festivals for both India and Nepal.
 
“By the first week of November, if everything goes well, we will deliver a full ration,” WFP country director Richard Ragan told to IRIN, expressing concern, however, over the upcoming strikes in the Terai region organized by ethnic-based political groups.
 
Ploy?
 
Some fear the WFP move is a ploy to force them to go to third countries. “Many refugees don’t want third country resettlement and worry the cuts are an attempt to pressure them into accepting it,” Jiten Subba, another refugee, said. WFP has flatly denied such a charge.
 
The refugees are divided over whether they should aim for resettlement in third countries or return to Bhutan. [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84934] More than 80,000 refugees have expressed interest in resettlement, but a sizeable minority want to return to Bhutan.
 
“We try to tell the refugees that this has nothing to do with donor fatigue or third country resettlement. We are spending US$1 million every month for the refugees and it is often a challenge to do that,” Ragan explained, adding that WFP was also feeding nearly two million impoverished Nepalese.
 
Since March 2008, some 23,000 Bhutanese refugees have resettled in Europe and the USA, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
 
Meanwhile, many refugees hope this move by WFP will stimulate the debate over jobs: “We should be allowed to generate our own resources - especially those who do not wish to resettle in Western countries,” said refugee Jiten Thapa.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86800JOHANNESBURG Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - An African international agreement has opened the door to a debate on the rights and protection of people displaced by natural disasters, with a nod to migration as a result of climate change. JOHANNESBURG Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - An African international agreement has opened the door to a debate on the rights and protection of people displaced by natural disasters, with a nod to migration as a result of climate change.

The Kampala Convention, a ground-breaking treaty adopted by the African Union (AU), promises to protect and assist millions of Africans displaced within their own countries. Significantly, the treaty recognized natural disasters as well as conflict and generalized violence as key factors in uprooting people.

Jean Ping, chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, told IRIN that "more and more people are likely to be displaced" as Africa experiences more frequent droughts and floods brought about by climate change.

He said the inclusion of displacement by natural disasters was informed by the global debate on the need to develop a framework for the rights of "climate refugees" - people uprooted from their homes and crossing international borders - because the changing climate threatened their survival.

The treaty also calls on governments to set up laws and find solutions to prevent displacement caused by natural disasters, with compensation for those who were displaced. Migration expert Etienne Piguet said with the Kampala Convention the AU had "once again" tried to push the envelope.

In 1969 the Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, adopted by the then Organization of African Unity, had gone a step further than the 1951 UN Refugee Convention by using a definition of "refugee" that included not only people fleeing persecution but also those fleeing war or events seriously disturbing public order.

Piguet described the reference to people displaced by natural disasters as an "interesting attempt" to find "adequate answers to the new concern about migration linked to environmental degradation".

In 2008 climate-related natural disasters like droughts, hurricanes and floods forced 20 million people out of their homes, while 4.6 million people were internally displaced by conflicts, according to a recent joint study by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

The Representative of the UN Secretary-General (RSG) on the Human Rights of the Internally Displaced Persons in a submission to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change noted that people uprooted from their homes by natural disasters enjoyed protection under the existing human rights law and the guiding principles on internal displacement.

However, the Kampala Convention also calls on governments to "prevent or mitigate, prohibit and eliminate root causes" of displacement, and find "durable solutions" to them.

Moussa Idriss Ndele, President of the Pan-African Parliament, the legislative body of the AU, said the debate in Kampala on the rights of people displaced by natural disasters did not "quite evolve properly - we did not address the issue of climate change" because most people still believed conflict was the biggest trigger of displacement.

Can of worms

However, it was unclear which events could be linked to climate change. "More and more people are being displaced by floods, which are becoming more and more frequent and intense," said Rachel Shebesh, chair of the African Parliamentarian Initiative for Climate Risk Reduction.

The RSG said there was a need to clarify or even develop a legal framework to help people who moved inside or outside the country because environmental degradation and slow-onset disasters - like desertification, salination of soil and groundwater - made areas uninhabitable, and if displaced persons could not return to their homes they should be considered forcibly displaced.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has projected more frequent and intense floods and droughts in Africa during the next few decades, and the debate is not only set to continue, but to intensify.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86805DAMASCUS Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (IRIN) - Iraqi refugee Leila Johanna Isho is determined to make this her last year in Syria. “Most of our family is scattered across Europe and I have a cousin in Canada so we don’t mind where we move, but we have to move because life is becoming too difficult here,” said Isho, sitting with her three children in their cramped single-room apartment in Masakin Berzeh, a working-class neighbourhood of Damascus.DAMASCUS Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (IRIN) - Iraqi refugee Leila Johanna Isho is determined to make this her last year in Syria. “Most of our family is scattered across Europe and I have a cousin in Canada so we don’t mind where we move, but we have to move because life is becoming too difficult here,” said Isho, sitting with her three children in their cramped single-room apartment in Masakin Berzeh, a working-class neighbourhood of Damascus.

With savings run dry, incomes unable to match inflation, more stringent visa requirements, and a return to Baghdad ruled too risky by most, the numbers of Iraqi families seeking resettlement from Syria [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84592] and across the Middle East to Europe and North America is rising fast.

In Geneva earlier this month, Andrej Mahecic, a spokesman for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that since 2007 the agency had recommended the resettlement of 82,500 Iraqi refugees from the Middle East to third countries: 62,000 to the USA, with the remainder to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and several other European states.

The Syrian government says it has registered 1.1 million Iraqis crossing into Syria since 2007, while as of the end of September UNHCR in Damascus had officially registered 215,429, with 27,198 registrations for 2009.

With the 25 October bombings in Baghdad which killed at least 155 people - the worst attacks for two years - UNHCR is braced for a renewed movement of refugees should security in Iraq continue to deteriorate.

A year after its launch, strikingly few Iraqis have taken up the UN’s Voluntary Repatriation Programme [http://www2.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MUMA-7QV9VX?OpenDocument]. Less than 300 families from Syria have returned to Iraq under the programme, though the number claiming resettlement has grown rapidly.

Figures from the UNHCR in Damascus show that from 1 January to early October, 28,500 Iraqi refugees living in Syria were put forward for resettlement. Since February 2007 the agency has referred a total of 34,015 resettlement cases, but of those just less than half, 15,084, have departed for a new life.

“Resettlement is only offered to a small percentage of refugees - less than 10 percent of the overall number [of those who apply for resettlement] are submitted, and from this 10 percent, a much smaller number actually get to go,” said Farah Dakhlallah, a UNHCR spokesperson in Damascus.

“Criteria are based on vulnerability. Our job is to assess who is most in need of resettlement and then deal with the relevant embassies. However, the final decisions lie with the states themselves,” she said.

No return

A Christian family from the Salhieh District of Baghdad, Leila Isho and her husband Bassam fled the Iraqi capital in November 2004 after paying kidnappers to release Bassam, who had worked as a servant in former president Saddam Hussein’s palace.

Unable to find work in Damascus, Bassam moved to Qatar last year where he found a job at a hotel. He sends most of the US$700 he earns a month back to his family.

Rising rent prices in Damascus have forced Isho and her children to move home twice, with a third move expected soon. Cuts to fuel subsidies [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=79006] last May caused the price of petrol to triple overnight, spurring already steep inflation [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=76607] which has raised living costs beyond the means of many of Damascus’s poorer inhabitants.

Yet Isho rules out return to Iraq: “We have no intention of going back to Iraq. Some other family is living in our house and we are told the whole scene has changed.” Nor is Iraq considered safe to return to by UNHCR.

“A lot [of refugees] are in touch with their family and friends in Iraq, have seen the situation and decided it wasn’t safe enough. The UNHCR does not consider the situation to be stable enough for a dignified large-scale return of Iraqi refugees,” said Dakhlallah.

Though the USA has taken in the bulk of Iraqi refugees following a policy shift three years ago (more than 30,000 Iraqis have moved to America under a resettlement programme that began in 2007), other countries have assisted only modestly: Canada has taken in 1,890 Iraqi refugees, Australia 1,757, and Sweden, 1,180, Mahecic said.

In March, the first Iraqi refugees, mainly from persecuted minorities, made their way to Germany under a scheme to resettle [http://www.unhcr.org/49c273aa2.html] 2,000 from Syria and 500 from Jordan, according to UNHCR.

UNHCR plea

Earlier this month UNHCR called on countries to “expedite where possible” their assistance to refugees.

“The UNHCR continues to encourage countries to take vulnerable Iraqis and we think potential host countries could enlarge their quotas. It would be great if more countries came on board; for example, there are no Arab countries on the list of resettlement states. There is a need and resettlement is a major issue for us,” said Dakhlallah.

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