REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by spokespersons of the World Meteorological Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children's Fund, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Food Programme and the World Trade Organization.

Côte d'Ivoire

Marixie Mercado of the United Nations Children's Fund said that UNICEF was very concerned about the security of its staff in Côte d’Ivoire. UNICEF activities had been curtailed yesterday, including an emergency immunization campaign in the west of the country. This was regrettable but a necessity. UNICEF still had senior staff in Abidjan and teams in the field as the needs across the country were huge, and UNICEF was reviewing on a day-to-day and hour-to-hour basis what it could do to meet these needs. It was most important that UNICEF was still in Côte d’Ivoire at this period of extreme vulnerability for children and women, so that it could watch for threats to children and ensure help was provided as quickly as possible.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said that IOM was increasingly concerned about the untenable situation of tens of thousands of people in western Côte d’Ivoire. An estimated 40,000 people were seeking refuge at a Catholic mission in the western town of Duékoué without access to food, water and shelter. A priest at the mission had informed IOM that the majority of the displaced haven’t eaten for two days and that 80,000 food rations were urgently needed as were kitchen sets. He had also highlighted to IOM the urgent need to remove bodies lying in the streets in the town and close to the mission. Medical supplies were among priority needs, particularly as there were a number of displaced, including women hit by stray bullets, requiring medical care and attention. There were no medical facilities available in Duékoué. The water situation had, nevertheless, improved with the resumption of electricity supplies powering a water pump. There was, however, growing concern over pregnant women at the site who needed to be urgently relocated to safer areas. With massive overcrowding at the mission, an alternative site for housing most of the displaced was being proposed though shelter and other humanitarian assistance would be necessary. An undetermined number of people had also sought refuge at another site close to the United Nations Mission to Côte d’Ivoire’s camp in the town.

Ms. Pandya said that IOM had also learnt that thousands of people who had fled Duékoué in the past few days towards Guiglo were now stranded along the route, in fear for their lives and wanting to return to Duékoué. With the priests at the Catholic mission and others in Duékoué demanding urgent help from the humanitarian world, an inter-agency evaluation mission that included the governor of Man as well as IOM, was due to head to Duékoué today security conditions permitting. The governor, accompanied by a community elder among the displaced, had already gone to assess the needs of thousands of people grouped around Péhé, including several hundred pregnant women. Among them was a group of 2,000 internally displaced persons who had reportedly been attacked last weekend by mercenaries. During the attack, three of the displaced had allegedly been killed, women raped and belongings stolen. Elsewhere, in Abidjan, heavy fighting had meant IOM had been unable to evacuate a third group of up to 600 more Mauritanians this week as planned. They would be assisted once security conditions permitted. IOM had been asked to evacuate more than 50,000 stranded migrants from Côte d’Ivoire to Mauritania, Guinea, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Mali. The Organization was also continuing to assist those crossing borders into neighbouring countries to flee the violence in Côte d’Ivoire and planned to assist up to 100,000 migrants in the next six months.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that Valerie Amos, the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, would undertake a visit to Liberia from 1 to 2 April to see the situation for herself. On 2 April, Ms. Amos would travel to the eastern county of Grand Geddeh to meet refugees before planned trips to the Abidjan and Duékoué regions in Côte d’Ivoire. A detailed note was at the back of the room.

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that surging violence in Côte d’Ivoire was pushing more refugees eastwards into Ghana. Some 1,300 Ivorians had entered Ghana this week after fleeing fresh fighting in Côte d’Ivoire’s west (Duékoué), centre (Daloa) and north-east (Bondoukou). Another 250 had arrived from Abidjan, where security conditions were precarious due to current fighting. Until now, Ivorian refugees had been fleeing mainly from Abidjan and entering south-western Ghana via the Elubo border point. But with this
week’s clashes, UNHCR was seeing more people crossing through border points further north. UNHCR was not present in the region, but had sent a team to assess their needs and provide assistance. Most refugees were women and children. They reached Ghana by bus with few belongings. Some said that they had traveled eight hours or more to the south-western border town in Elubo, while others had spent as many as four days reaching the border point in Sampa, at the midpoint of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire’s shared border.

Mr. Mahecic said that several of the refugee families had told UNHCR they fled due to fear of violence while some had witnessed or experienced violence themselves. One 11-year old girl, who UNHCR staff came across in Elubo, had recounted being abducted and raped. Her mother had later discovered her unconscious on a roadside in the outskirts of Abidjan. UNHCR was providing her with medical assistance and counseling. Most refugees in Ghana were currently accommodated in host communities. Some 1,700 of them were also staying in a new camp set up by UNHCR and the Ghanaian authorities in Ampain, 55 kilometres from the Elubo border point. In anticipation of further arrivals into Ghana, the government had expressed readiness to allocate sites in the coastal and mid-western areas of the country to build further camps.

Mr. Mahecic said that this week’s wave of arrivals brought to over 5,000 the estimated number of Ivorian refugees now in Ghana. The number of Ivorian refugees also continued to sharply rise in Liberia, particularly in Grand Geddeh County in the southeast, where some 30,000 had been registered. As of Thursday, there were a total of 122,958 refugees registered in both Nimba, Maryland and Grand Geddeh counties since the post-election crisis had started in late November. Most new arrivals in Grand Geddeh were in dire need of food, shelter and clothing. One family said the father had died of hunger on the way to Liberia. In some locations, refugees survived by doing daily-wage labour for the local population, making about USD 1.50 per day by brushing farms or fetching wood.

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that OHCHR had received unconfirmed but worrying reports that the pro-President Ouattara group, known as the Forces Républicaines de Côte d'Ivoire, had been committing human rights violations during their advance towards Abidjan, especially in the Guiglo and Daloa areas in western Côte d’Ivoire. Reports suggested they had engaged in looting and extortion, as well as serious human rights violations such as abductions, arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of civilians. The Invisible Commando group, which had been fighting against the forces loyal to former President Laurent Gbagbo, was also reported to have continued to commit abuses inside Abidjan.

Mr. Colville said that, echoing yesterday's call from the Secretary-General, OHCHR urged the pro-Oattara forces to show restraint and not to commit human rights violations, or engage in acts of revenge. They should bear in mind that the United Nations Human Rights Council had already established a Commission of Inquiry for Côte d'Ivoire, which would examine abuses by all sides, and the International Criminal Court was also engaged in Côte d'Ivoire.

Responding to a question, Mr. Colville said that Pro-Gbagbo forces had also continued to commit violations on a daily basis -- including, for example, the killing of two civilians, who had reportedly been burnt alive by pro-Gbagbo militiamen in Gagnoa. There had been other incidents of killing civilians, including one reportedly involving FDS elements firing mortars into the Abobo district in Abidjan, which resulted in the deaths of at least three civilians, including a three-year-old boy.

Libya

Ms. Byrs said that the Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya, Rashid Khalikov, who was based in Cairo, had started a three-day assessment visit to Tunisia to review the humanitarian conditions and interact with Government and humanitarian actors. Ms. Byrs added that the USD 160 million Flash Appeal for Libya was 70 per cent funded at USD 111.8 million and would be updated in the coming days.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said there was an operational update at the back of the room which outlined some of the food distributions that WFP had carried out or was planning to carry out in the coming days and weeks, security permitting. WFP had so far reached more than 7,000 people displaced from Ajdabiya with more than 62 metric tons of food, and another 20,000 persons displaced from Ajdabiya would start to receive food assistance over the next few days. WFP was also preparing to provide food to 85,000 of the most vulnerable people over the next two weeks in Benghazi and surrounding areas. WFP’s food distributions inside Libya had started on 9 March with the distribution of food to hospitals. WFP hoped to get more access and food into Libya in the coming days amid concerns about access to food inside Libya, especially in areas heavily affected by the fighting.

Ms. Pandya said that today IOM was urgently appealing for nearly USD 160 million to allow it to continue providing critical humanitarian and evacuation assistance. Nearly 410,000 people had already fled the violence in Libya since the crisis had begun in late February, the majority of them migrants in need of evacuation assistance. IOM, with the support of UNHCR and various governments, had already evacuated nearly 84,000 migrants to their home countries. In addition, IOM had safely evacuated at least 2,300 people from Benghazi to Egypt by road or sea. The appeal to the international community today would allow the Organization to evacuate an additional 75,000 people who had managed to escape the violence in Libya, as well as those groups inside the country where possible. It would also enable the continued provision of humanitarian assistance such as food and medical attention at the border areas, travel health checks for all those being evacuated and health referrals for particularly vulnerable people, in addition to providing reintegration assistance to some of the returning Tunisian and Egyptian migrants.

Ms. Pandya said that this was the third IOM appeal since the beginning of the Libyan crisis. So far, the Organization had either been pledged or received USD 44 million, far short of what was required. As a result, funding for IOM operations had now dried up. IOM had been forced to dramatically reduce the number of people it could evacuate on a daily basis from more than 6,000 a day at the height of its operations to a bare minimum. This was despite the fact that at least 6,000 people were fleeing Libya each day towards Egypt and Tunisia alone and thousands more towards Chad and Niger. More than 12,000 migrants still remained stranded on Libya’s border with Tunisia and Egypt with more migrants in need of help in Niger, Algeria and Chad. Those waiting for help in Tunisia and Egypt had become increasingly impatient to return home and were now looking to alternatives out of their situation. IOM staff on the ground had reported that long evacuation delays caused by a lack of funds was forcing some migrants to turn to human smugglers to take them to Europe. On Wednesday 30 March, 150 migrants had been apprehended by the Tunisian police at Sfax port, 150 km from the Choucha camp on the Tunisian-Libyan border, attempting to escape by sea to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Ms. Pandya said that meanwhile the situation on the Libyan-Nigerien border continued to be critical as more migrants continued to arrive at Dirkou, a border town with a population of 4,000 people. IOM staff at Dirkou had reported that 30 lorries carrying migrants that had been between Madama and Dirkou were now arriving in the town, at a rate of about 8-10 a day. Although they were mostly Nigerien, there were several hundred migrants of other nationalities, including a Palestinian family of 10 that asked IOM for food assistance. The consul of Sabha, the main town in central Libya, had told IOM that 34,000 migrants were stuck in the town with laissez passer documents, but had no means of transport to get out of the country and needed food and water. More than 20,000 fleeing migrants had crossed the Libyan border into Niger so far, more than half of them in the past two weeks.

Fadéla Chaib of the World Health Organization said that the Government of Norway had yesterday given USD 1.4 million to WHO to ensure that urgent medical supplies were purchased for Libya. WHO, in coordination with United Nations agencies and other partners, would buy this equipment and medication and transport it to Libya as soon as access was provided. These were mostly basic medical equipment and chirurgical equipment, as well as equipment for blood transfusions, tents for mobile clinics, and water and sanitation equipment. The funds from Norway were welcome as WHO, as the health cluster lead, had requested some USD 11.4 million for Libya for the next three months as part of the Flash appeal. These funds were not the first to be received, but followed previous ones from Italy and Norway, used for the medical supplies sent to Libya some weeks ago.

Namibia Floods

Ms. Byrs said that the Namibian President had declared a national state of emergency on 29 March to respond to the large-scale flooding in the northern parts of the country. There was no information as yet on the number of people affected, but Namibia had requested international assistance to respond to this flooding, which had already killed 62 people and submerged or rendered inaccessible an estimated 22 health clinics.

Ms. Byrs said a new flood wave in the Cuvelai Basin was expected to hit northern Namibia this weekend, coinciding with predicted heavy rainfall. Preliminary information suggested that the main needs were food, shelter, transport and education. An estimated 324 schools were affected by the floods and 163 closed, while over 100,000 children were affected.

The Namibian Government had allocated USD 4.4 million to respond to the floods and international organizations had also mobilized. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies had notably launched a USD 328,000 appeal to support the Namibian Red Cross, while the United Nations team was mobilizing to respond to the floods.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees wraps up mission to Egypt, presses on to Kenya

Mr. Mahecic said that the High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, had wrapped-up yesterday evening a two day mission to Egypt looking into UNHCR’s humanitarian response to the displacement crisis triggered by the fighting in Libya.

The critical humanitarian situation inside Libya remained a concern for UNHCR as thousands of people could be trapped in areas where fighting was taking place. UNHCR hoped it would be able, as part of the overall United Nations humanitarian response, to gain full humanitarian access to people inside eastern Libya in the coming days.

High Commissioner Guterres was in Kenya this morning before visiting the Dadaab refugee camps complex in northeastern Kenya this weekend, the largest refugee settlement in the world with more than 320,000 refugees currently living there. The complex, consisting of three camps, had been set up in 1991 and 1992 following the collapse of the government of Siad Barre in Somalia and had initially been designed to accommodate some 90,000 refugees. Acute overcrowding of the three existing camps continued to be a major concern to the Government of Kenya and UNHCR, said Mr. Mahecic.

Living conditions in these camps had been deteriorating as the refugee population grew and the capacities of the existing facilities and services were stretched to limits. With some 2,500 new arrivals registered in Dadaab every week, this year alone Dadaab had received more than 30,000 new arrivals from Somalia. A camp extension at Ifo had been constructed and it was envisaged that the relocation of some 40,000 refugees would begin in November last year. However, the scheduled relocation and further development of infrastructure had been suspended due to security concerns on the part of the Kenyan authorities. UNHCR was continuing discussions with the Kenyan Government and was hoping for a positive outcome.

During his mission to Kenya the High Commissioner would also look into the protection of Somali refugees and UNHCR’s support to the Government of Kenya and local communities hosting refugees.

UNHCR calls on Austrian parliament to modify draft asylum bill

Mr. Mahecic said that UNHCR was concerned about new draft changes to the Austrian Asylum Act that further restrict asylum seeker rights and could, if implemented, be harmful to the interests of children in particular. The changes under discussion were the fourth set of revisions since the Asylum Act had entered into force in 2006. The draft was set to be discussed in Parliament next week and was scheduled to be adopted in April 2011.

Of particular concern to UNHCR were provisions that would require all new asylum seekers to stay in a reception centre for up to seven days, with detention for anyone who broke rule. In UNHCR's view, this would constitute an unjustified restriction on freedom of movement. A further problematic aspect of the bill concerned detention of children. While children below the age of 14 were not affected by this, those between the ages of 14 and 18 could be subject to being detained.

Mr. Mahecic said that UNHCR appealed to the Members of the Austrian Parliament to restrict detention of all minors and to give priority to the best interests of the child in order to ensure compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights.

New IOM/UNICEF survey explores the impact of migration on children and adolescents in Guatemala

Ms. Pandya said the briefing note at the back of the room contained information on a new IOM/UNICEF survey which had reached findings in relation to children and adolescents whose parents had gone abroad and left their children behind.

Japan

Gregory Härtl of World Health Organization said WHO would provide updated questions and answers on food safety issues on its website later today.

Agenda

Corinne Momal-Vanian said that the Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers would meet next week. On Monday afternoon it would examine the second periodic report of Mexico, the only country scheduled for consideration during this session.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said WHO would give a press briefing on the First Meeting of the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research & Development Financing and Coordination. The briefing would take place today at 3 p.m. in Press Room I with Marie-Paule Kieny, Assistant Director-General, Innovation, Information, Evidence and Research, and Zafar Mirza, Coordinator of the Department of Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said an international workshop would be held in Cambodia on 4 and 5 April to take stock of demining and victim assistance progress. Hosted by the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority in partnership with UNDP, the workshop was the first of a series of events highlighting the role of Cambodia, which would host and preside over the 11th Meeting of the States Parties, to be held in Phnom Penh from 28 November to 2 December 2011.

Clare Nullis of the World Meteorological Organization said that on Tuesday WMO would be issuing a press release about the current state of the ozone layer as there were currently very high levels of ozone depletion.

Mr. Mahecic said United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, would be meeting with journalists sometime early next week. There would be a chance to talk to him about his missions to Liberia, Egypt and Kenya.

Ankai Xu of the World Trade Organization said the trade policy review for Australia would take place next Tuesday and Thursday. On Thursday 7, April journalists were also invited to come to Room D at WTO headquarters where they would be given a press release to read for one hour before hearing a press conference by WTO’s Director General, WTO's Chief Economist and WTO's Chief Statisticians at 11 a.m. Videos and comments by the Director General would also be distributed with the press conference.