United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees News

Indonesia will allow a boat packed with Rohingya which had become stranded off its coast to dock in the Southeast Asian country, its security ministry said on Wednesday, after calls from aid organizations to allow the vessel to seek refuge.Local officials in Aceh, a province on the western island of Sumatra said on Tuesday that they would provide the roughly 120 passengers on board with food, medicine and water, but would not allow them to seek refuge in Indonesia, despite international pleas to do so."Today…

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has sent an appeal to the European governments to allow 507 people recently rescued from the Mediterranean and now stranded at sea to leave the vessels.Many are reportedly survivors of appalling abuses in Libya and are from refugee-producing countries. They are in need of humanitarian assistance and some have already expressed an intention to seek international protection.“This is a race against time,” said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean. “Storms are coming and conditions are only going to get worse. To leave people who have fled war and violence in Libya on the high seas in this weather would be to inflict suffering upon suffering.

The UN refugee organization UNHCR on Thursday (World Refugee Day) called on European countries to include the migrants currently trapped on the rescue vessel Sea-Watch 3.The 43 migrants, including three unaccompanied minors, urgently need a "safe haven", according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) .UNHCR urged European States to call forth their principles of humanity and compassion, and to allow the group to disembark. Ten refugees and migrants were previously evacuated to Lampedusa last weekend on medical grounds.“Europe played an intrinsic role in creating the legal architecture that underpins modern day international refugee law,” said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy of the Central Mediterranean.

Six people died each day attempting to cross Mediterranean in 2018, the latest ‘Desperate Journeys’ report, released by the UN Refugee Agency said.According to the report by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an estimated 2,275 died or went missing crossing the Mediterranean in 2018, despite a major drop in the number of arrivals reaching European shores.In total, 139,300 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe, the lowest number in five years, it said.“Saving lives at sea is not a choice, nor a matter of politics, but an age-old obligation,” said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “We can put an end to these tragedies by having the courage and vision to look beyond the next boat…

The global trade association for ship operators – the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) – is increasingly concerned about the new policy of the Italian Government to close its ports to migrants rescued by ships at sea. In the interest of protecting safety of life at sea, ICS is calling on all EU heads of government, at their summit later this week on 28 June, to urgently address the concerns raised by the Italian Government about the large number of rescued persons arriving in Italy, in order that the policy of prompt and predictable disembarkation – consistent with UNHCR principles – can be fully maintained. Having previously refused access to vessels operated by humanitarian NGOs…

International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) is deeply concerned about the apparent new policy of the Italian Government to close its ports to migrants rescued by vessels operated by humanitarian NGOs. The refusal by Italy to allow rescued persons to be disembarked could have serious implications for the safety and welfare of these distressed people, including children and pregnant women. To its great credit, the government of Italy has consistently permitted prompt and predictable disembarkation of people rescued by merchant ships as well as by vessels operated by humanitarian NGOs. But following the election of the new Italian Government, the crisis now seems to be taking an ever more political direction.

Nearly 9,000 mainly African migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean this past long weekend after being put by smugglers in Libya onto unseaworthy boats heading toward Italy, U.N. aid agencies said on Tuesday. The migrants, many from Nigeria and Senegal with some from Bangladesh, are among an estimated 20,000 held by criminal gangs in irregular detention centres in Libya, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said. On release, they pay to board the overcrowded boats, often just inflated rubber vessels that could not cross the Mediterranean, in the hope of starting a new life in Europe. "It is obvious that better spring weather has encouraged smugglers to take people from their detention centres," IOM spokesman Leonard Doyle told a news briefing in Geneva.

Three passenger boats return migrants from Lesbos, Chios; desperate migrants continue to cross despite deal. The first migrants deported from Greek islands under a disputed EU-Turkey deal were shipped back to Turkey on Monday in a drive to shut down the main route by which a million people fleeing war and poverty crossed the Aegean Sea in the last year. Under the pact criticised by refugee agencies and human rights campaigners, Ankara will take back all migrants and refugees who enter Greece illegally, including Syrians. In return, the European Union will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and reward it with more money, early visa-free travel and progress in its EU membership negotiations.

The International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) is to strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of the Hellenic Rescue Team (HRT), an IMRF member organization which is constantly rescuing migrants in the Aegean Sea. The IMRF will do this with the support of European maritime search and rescue (SAR) organizations who are also IMRF members. Following a temporary drop in the number of people trying to reach the Greek islands by sea in November, figures from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) are showing an increase again.

More than one million refugees and migrants braved the seas in 2015 seeking sanctuary in Europe, nearly five times more than in the previous year, the United Nations' refugee agency said on Wednesday. About half of the 1,000,573 men, women and children who made the perilous journey came from war-torn Syria, while Afghans accounted for roughly a fifth, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees agency said in a statement. Most people who took to the water for Europe made their way on the Aegean Sea to Greece's islands from Turkey, it said. From Greece, many travel to wealthier western Europe. A photograph of a 3-year-old Syrian boy who drowned trying to reach Greece with his family in September appeared around the world, prompting sympathy and outrage over the refugee crisis.

More than 700 migrants found packed aboard an overcrowded boat in the Andaman Sea were still being held offshore by Myanmar's navy on Monday, more than three days after the converted fishing vessel was intercepted off the country's coast. "The government is checking their identity, asking what they want to do and where they want to go," government spokesman Ye Htut told Reuters, without providing further details of the boat's location. Government officials have been tight-lipped about the identities of 727 migrants on the overcrowded fishing boat, found drifting and taking on water early Friday, as well as their eventual destination.

More than 900 migrants were rescued in one day from three overcrowded boats en route to Europe from North Africa, an Italian coast guard official said on Thursday. One body was recovered. All the rescues were carried out on Wednesday, the official said, with no details about the one death or the migrants' nationalities. No boats had yet been spotted on Thursday as sea conditions worsened, he said. With Libya engulfed in strife, people smugglers are increasingly free to pack migrants onto unsafe boats, and they are expected to push total arrivals in Italy for 2015 to 200,000, an increase of 30,000 on last year, according to an Interior Ministry projection.

A migrant boat pushed back to sea by Southeast Asian nations over the weekend has not been heard from for two days, raising concerns about what has happened to the 300 people on board, rights groups said on Monday. The boat was pushed backwards and forward between Malaysian and Thai waters last week in what the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has described as "maritime ping-pong". It is one of many vessels adrift in the Andaman Sea after human traffickers jumped ship when a crackdown by Thailand's junta made it difficult for the criminals that prey on Bangladeshis and stateless Rohingya from western Myanmar to land on Thai shores.

Thousands of migrants from Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar Myanmar are still stranded at sea in south-east Asia in desperate need of food and water. Like Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, the Philippines will push back to sea undocumented Asian “boat people” despite a United Nations appeal to Southeast Asian countries to open their ports to the migrants from impoverished Myanmar and Bangladesh. Earlier, United Nations has called on Southeast Asian nations not to push back the boatloads of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and Bangladeshis - men, women and children who fled persecution and poverty at home, and now face sickness and starvation at sea.

Hundreds of people desperate to be rescued from a packed migrant boat in the Mediterranean pushed to one side when they saw a ship approach, capsizing the craft and pitching everyone into the sea where hundreds died, an official said on Wednesday. Survivors' accounts suggested at least 500 people were on the boat when it sank on Monday evening, some 120 km (75 miles) off the Italian island of Lampedusa. With 145 people rescued that leaves at least 350 unaccounted for, probably drowned. Joel Millman, spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said: "According to testimonies, at least one-third of the passengers were women and children. At the time of the shipwreck, they were staying in the hull of the boat to be better protected from the cold.

Several United Nations (UN) agencies have agreed to establish a mechanism to enhance existing inter-agency communication with respect to the maritime aspects of mixed migration by sea. Agencies concerned about the loss of life, injury, trauma and serious human rights violations affecting migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees traveling by sea met in London last week (March 4-5) at the headquarters of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Building on the Joint Statement on Protection at Sea in the Twenty-First Century…

The humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean Sea is spiralling out of control. EU Member States must act urgently to prevent the loss of thousands more lives, as hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees seek to escape to Europe in boats that are unfit for purpose and which are largely operated by people smugglers. This is the key message which the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the principal global trade association for ship operators, will deliver to a high-level United Nations inter-agency meeting on the crisis, being hosted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London on 4 March. Merchant ships rescued around 40,000 people during 2014, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) says EU Member States must act urgently to prevent the loss of thousands more lives, as the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean Sea is spiralling out of control as hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees seek to escape to Europe in boats that are unfit for purpose and which are largely operated by people smugglers. This is the key message which the ICS, the principal global trade association for ship operators, will deliver to a high-level United Nations inter-agency meeting on the crisis…

ROME, Feb 11 (Reuters) - More than 300 people probably died this week after attempting to reach Italy from Libya on four separate boats in stormy weather, the U.N. refugee agency said on Wednesday after speaking to a handful of survivors. The sharp increase in the number of migrants dying while trying to cross the Mediterranean has reignited criticism of Italy's decision last year to end a full-scale search-and-rescue mission, known as Mare Nostrum, in order to save costs. Mare Nostrum was replaced by a European Union border-control mission called Triton, which employs fewer ships and has a much smaller area of operation. Among the latest incidents…

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has joined with other UN agencies in calling for concerted action from the international community to address the problem of the loss of life, injury, trauma and serious human rights violations affecting migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees traveling by sea. In a joint statement, IMO, along with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)…

Speaking at a high level Dialogue on Protection at Sea, hosted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has called on governments to address the growing refugee and migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. ICS Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe, remarked: “The shipping industry fully accepts its humanitarian obligation to assist anyone at sea whose vessel is in distress. ICS, the global trade association for shipowners…

The updated and revised “Rescue at Sea:  A guide to principles and practice as applied to refugees and migrants” is now available for download.   The guidelines, jointly prepared by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is intended for Masters, ship owners, Government authorities, insurance companies and other interested parties involved in rescue-at-sea situations. It provides guidance on relevant legal provisions, on practical procedures to ensure the prompt disembarkation of rescued persons, and on measures to meet their specific needs, particularly in the case of refugees and asylum-seekers.

Port facilities need to further strengthen their capacities for surveillance and access control, in order to reduce the incidence of stowaways, participants at a regional seminar on stowaways in West and Central Africa agreed. The IMO Regional Seminar on Stowaways in West and Central Africa: Analysis of the current situation and measures to reduce their number was held in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, from March 25-27, 2014, hosted by the Ministry of Transport of Côte d’Ivoire in the premises of the Port of Abidjan. More than 50 participants, 31 of which were funded by IMO’s Technical Cooperation program attended the seminar, including security and immigration officials from the 12 most frequent ports of embarkation of stowaways (major ports of Benin…