REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Alessandra Vellucci, Director, United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing attended by the spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Refugee Agency, and the World Trade Organization.

Syria

Ms. Vellucci said that the intra-Syrian talks were continuing today and the press would be briefed as soon as possible. Asked about timing, Ms. Vellucci said that Mr. de Mistura would possibly speak to the press today and timing would have to be confirmed.

In response to questions, Ms. Vellucci said that Mr. de Mistura’s mandate was not expiring today. Recently, several expressions of support have come from the Secretary-General and his Spokesperson in the form of statements and tweets. Beyond that, several USG positions have been advertised and those positions are posted on a UN webpage, so none of those changes come as a surprise.

Asked about the type and duration of Mr. de Mistura’s mandate, Ms. Vellucci said that it was a mandate given by the Secretary-General. Mr. de Mistura had been designated as Special Envoy for Syria by the previous Secretary-General. The current Secretary-General had confirmed his mandate, and the Security Council had also recently expressed its support to his action. The Secretary-General’s office, or Mr. de Mistura himself, would be best placed to provide more information about the type of mandate.

Asked about the lack of a briefing to the press on 30 March following the humanitarian access task force meeting, and about Stephen O’Brien’s briefing on the humanitarian situation in Syria to the Security Council on 30 March, Ms. Vellucci said that OCHA’s Jens Laerke had circulated the transcript of USG O’Brien’s remarks to the Security Council on 30 March and that he was available for questions on that.

Venezuela

Asked about the UN’s reaction to the situation in Venezuela, Ms. Vellucci said that she would share any reaction from the UN with the press as soon as she would receive it.

Somalia

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that as the spectre of famine hung once again over Somalia, early numbers showed an increasing number of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and cholera or acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) — a combination that had killed many children in the famine of 2011.

More than 35,400 children suffering from SAM had been treated with life-saving therapeutic food at hundreds of nutrition centres across Somalia in January and February, a 58 percent increase over the same period in 2016. As of 28 March, more than 18,400 cases of cholera / AWD had been reported since the beginning of 2017, far surpassing the 15,600 cases reported in all of 2016. The majority of the cases were among young children.

During the 2011 famine, the biggest killers had been diarrhoea and measles. There were no precise figures currently available for the number of children who had died due to hunger or malnutrition, in part because many succumbed to disease and infection. Six years since famine had been declared in parts of south-central Somalia, the country was once again on the brink of catastrophe. This time the drought was more widespread, affecting Somaliland, Puntland and pastoral areas of Somalia, in addition to the centre and southern parts of the country, which had been hardest hit in 2011.

In February, UNICEF had projected that 944,000 children would be acutely malnourished in 2017, including 185,000 children suffering from SAM who would need urgent, lifesaving support. That number could shoot up, even if the next rains due to start in April came on time, and in full.

The combination of malnutrition, water and sanitation issues, and disease, put children at an extremely high level of risk in Somalia. There was a window of opportunity to act, and that was UNICEF’s call.

In response to a question about a potential increase in US bombings of areas in Somalia with Al-Shabab presence, Mr. Boulierac said that obviously, if another factor such as the possible intensification of violence was to be added, that would be a supplementary difficulty for the children of Somalia. When violence intensified, it made the work of humanitarian actors more difficult and might aggravate the level of threat to children.

Iraq

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that Mosul topped IOM’s 2017 funding appeal for Iraq. As the Mosul battle to retake Iraq’s northern city approached its seventh month, responding to the needs of affected people had become IOM’s top priority, according to IOM’s Iraq Crisis Funding Appeal. To meet the urgent needs of nearly a million beneficiaries throughout the country, IOM-Iraq’s 2017 Funding Appeal needed USD 76.3 million, of which 38 per cent (USD 28.8 million) were allocated for the Mosul Crisis Response for the first six months of 2017.

As of 30 March, more than 367,000 individuals in total had been displaced from Mosul and surrounding areas, and 287,000 were currently displaced, since the operation to retake the city from ISIL had launched in October 2016. It could thus be extrapolated that approximately 80,000 had returned to safe places to live, or to their homes, over the past six months.

In response to questions, Mr. Millman said that since January 2017 there had been a constant expansion of the emergency sites and conversion of the emergency sites into emergency camps, which had more services. In a briefing on 30 March on Ukraine, Mr. Millman said that it had been stated that it was very common for adult men to go back to their homes in order to secure them, and that had been happening in Iraq as well, as new areas became liberated. In general, the return phenomenon had been quite robust and the camps had not been overwhelmed because there had been this outflow. Mr. Millman also referred the press to reporting by IOM’s Hala Jaber on the situation and could put the press in touch with her.

Ms. Vellucci added that on 30 March, the UN Secretary-General had given a joint press conference with the Iraqi Prime Minister. He had expressed the UN’s support to the Iraqi Government in humanitarian aid, and had appealed to the international community to support Iraq both in relation to the relief to the victims but also in relation to stabilization and reconstruction and the build-up of the national Iraqi institutions.

Ms. Vellucci also shared with the press remarks from the Secretary-General today at Hassan Sham camp in northern Iraq. He had said, “These people have suffered enormously and they go on suffering. We need more solidarity from the international community. There is a huge effort by the regional government a huge effort by the NGOs, a huge effort by UN agencies but we don’t have the resources that are necessary to support these people. […]

This is the moment the international community needs to express deep solidarity with Iraq and unfortunately our programme here is funded at only 8 percent. That shows how limited our resources are compared to the tragedy these people are facing. […] Everything requires a much larger commitment from the international community and that commitment is not just being generous. No, it is in the enlightened self-interest of everybody because the terrorist threats we see in Mosul are the same as the terrorist threat we see everywhere in the world.” The declaration, which had just been issued, would be shared with the press in full after the briefing.

In response to a question about the 8 per cent figure mentioned by the Secretary-General, Ms. Vellucci said that this would probably refer to the humanitarian support to the victims of the current conflict in Iraq.

Cécile Pouilly, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), added that UNHCR had asked for USD 211 million for the Mosul emergency and USD 578 million for the IDPs and Iraqi refugees in the region for 2017, and that appeal was only 4 per cent funded.

Mediterranean update

Mr. Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that there was an updated report on Mediterranean arrivals and fatalities. The number of deaths through the first three months of the year was close to 700, but it was not a record – in 2016, that number had been 749. IOM Libya on 30 March had reported seven cases of remains found on the beach. But it was unlikely that the 2016 level for the first three months of the year would be surpassed.

Two very large incidents in the past ten days had received much press attention, and neither had proved to be exactly what had been initially believed. The information that 146 people may have died on a dinghy, based on the testimony of a 16-year-old Gambian who had been not in good health and possibly in a state of shock. On 30 March IOM had been able to show his picture to 140 rescued survivors, who had confirmed that they had been on the same boat as him. That tragedy had not occurred as initially reported. Over 100 news clippings on 30 March had reported that those people had died or were feared dead, including with some details on the nationality of the alleged victims, which IOM had not released. That indicated how quickly those stories went viral, which was why IOM tried to be as conservative as possible and only report what was known. In another case, where two dinghy sinkings had been reported by the NGO Proactiva OpenArms, IOM was only aware of one sinking.

IOM had also received a report from Libya on 30 March that up to 171 confirmed remains had been found in Libyan waters or on Libyan beaches just in 2017. Since the cooperation with the Libyan coast guard was relatively new, that prompted the question about how common this had been in years past and how many hundreds had not been counted.

In response to questions, Mr. Millman said that IOM had never put out a formal press release about the shipwreck involving the 146 people. IOM’s spokesperson in Rome, Flavio Di Giacomo, had tweeted about the incident, saying that a single witness had said that 140 people were unaccounted for, which was correct. Agencies all wanted their people in the field to share what they learned, and that was exactly what the spokesperson had learned from the Gambian witness.

Regarding the NGO Proactiva OpenArms, Mr. Millman said that he had not worked with them before this week and was finding that they were very committed, but that their information gathering did not meet the standards that IOM would rely on from Government authorities for instance. The cases showed how a tweet could turn into dozens of stories all over the world.

Asked about whether NGOs rescuing migrants were aiding smugglers as far, Mr. Millman said that his experience as an immigration reporter over many years indicated that they were not. In his experience covering the US – Mexico border, Mr. Millman had seen smugglers turn to a religious order in Tijuana when their “customers” were being taken by the border patrol. The smugglers knew which levers to activate so that they could complete their “contracts”. People in distress on the high seas should always be rescued. Migration should be safe, secure and legal for all parties, and the way to achieve that was to have Governments and NGOs collaborate on a managed policy involving vetting people in a safe place, ensuring that their transit was over safe routes, and not enriching criminals, which was what erecting barriers tended to do. The answer was to make it regulated, legal and documented. However, most of the world had not come to that conclusion yet.

Cécile Pouilly, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that UNHCR had indeed reported that 146 people had died or gone missing in that shipwreck, based on the account of the Gambian survivor. UNHCR’s team had met twice with the survivor, who had said that he remembered that there had been 147 passengers. Later on, UNHCR had understood that the 140 people had been rescued by a German NGO, they had arrived later on and had recognized the witness’ picture. UNHCR was relieved to know that those people were now safe. One person had been found dead and there were still between four and six people missing from that shipwreck. In a new update from UNHCR staff, six boats had arrived on 30 March in Augusta, including the boat which had rescued the 140 people. Together, around 7,000 people had arrived on 30 March in Augusta, including five boats that had come from Sabratha, Libya. Some 425 other people had also been rescued by an NGO and had arrived in Pozzalo. NGOs had been crucial in saving lives in those shipwrecks. In 2016, a quarter of all rescues at sea in the Central Mediterranean had been performed by NGOs.

Geneva Events and Announcements

Jessica Hermosa, for the World Trade Organization (WTO), said that on 6 April there will be a first issue-specific discussion on fisheries subsidies prohibition, intended to deepen negotiations on the topic. The Chair had posed questions such as what types of fishery subsidies to prohibit, how to define overfishing, and what exceptions WTO members may have in mind. A briefing note on this was to be expected on 6 April after the meeting.

On 6 April as well, there would be a meeting of the Council on Trade in Goods. E-commerce would be on the agenda, with four discussion papers mentioned, and there would be member statements and interventions. The US was expected to raise concerns about trade-distorting practices in China during this meeting, and the EU would raise its concerns about trade restrictions in Russia. Another briefing note would be sent.

On 3 April there would be a special meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body during which a panel would be established when China would request again an investigation on the EU’s methods of calculating whether China’s exports were fairly priced. There might be a briefing at 5 p.m. that day after the end of the meeting.

Also expected next week were updates from the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements and the trade policy review of Mexico. Ms. Hermosa could send to the press the names of representatives scheduled to attend.

WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo would meet with Grete Faremo, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Office for Project Services on 4 April. The full agenda was available and would be emailed to the press today.

In response to a question regarding US President Trump’s announcement that he would review the country’s trade relations and international agreements, Ms. Hermosa said that the WTO Director-General would wait for the appointment of the new US Trade Representative. Donald Trump’s appointee was still waiting for confirmation by the US Congress. The WTO was open to talk about the issues that the US might have, but that it was waiting for the formal appointment of the USTR. There had not been a specific reaction to the latest announcement but there was contact between the WTO and the US delegation here. Ms. Hermosa also said that she had no information on any plans for the WTO Director-General to meet with President Trump or members of his administration.

The Committee on Migrant Workers would open on 3 April at 10 a.m. its 26^th session, which would run until 13 April at the Palais Wilson, during which it would review the initial reports of Bangladesh, Jamaica and Nigeria.

The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog310317