REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Alessandra Vellucci, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by Spokespersons for and Representatives of the World Health Organization, the Secretariat of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Organization for Migration.

Situation in the Horn of Africa

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that WFP condemned in the strongest possible terms any action that would take even the smallest amount of food from starving and vulnerable Somalis, and WFP would rigorously investigate any allegation of theft of humanitarian food. WFP underscored the strong controls it had in place, and also the inevitable risks as it sought to deliver life-saving food to millions of starving Somalis in a dangerous, lawless, and conflict-ridden environment. WFP was confident that the vast majority of humanitarian food was reaching starving people in Mogadishu and saving lives every day. The “thousands of bags” which would have been looted or stolen, according to an Associated Press story, would equal less than one percent of one month's food distribution in Somalia.

All of the humanitarian agencies in Somalia recognized that this was one of the riskiest operating environments in the world, Ms. Berthiaume went on to say. Donor Governments were also aware of the risk of working in Somalia. WFP had developed systems to monitor humanitarian operations because it wanted to ensure food reached those in need. Food assistance from WFP and other humanitarian agencies was providing a vital lifeline to the people of Somalia. WFP was currently targeting food at some 1.5 million people in central and northern Somalia, and was ready to scale up to 3.7 million if it could regain access to areas in the South of the country that were currently inaccessible. WFP was nevertheless committed to investigating all alleged incidents of theft and diversion and would suspend any parties found responsible.

In response to a question, Ms. Berthiaume said that WFP disputed the scale of the diversion alleged in the story. The reported scale of “perhaps up to half of aid deliveries” was implausible. WFP brought 5,000 tons of food into Mogadishu every month. If 50 per cent were diverted, that would equal 2,500 tons of food. That was a lot and would require a huge logistical organization.

Responding to a question, Lauren Landis, the newly-appointed Director of the WFP Geneva Liaison Office, said WFP had worked very hard to make sure it had a strong control system in place because of the very difficult operating environment in Somalia. One of its monitoring systems consisted of “third party monitors”, that is, WFP-hired organizations looking into WFP programmes. These third party monitors reported back to WFP, which initiated immediate investigations if needed, as in the case of Somalia.

Adrian Edwards of the United Nations Refugee Agency said that an assessment of mortality in one of four refugee camps at the Dollo Ado complex in Ethiopia found that death rates had reached alarming levels among new arrivals. Since the Kobe refugee camp had opened in June, an average of 10 children under the age of five had been dying every day. (The Kobe camp currently hosted 250,000 people, said Mr. Edwards in response to a question.) While malnutrition was the leading cause of the high mortality, suspected measles was compounding the problem. Across all Dollo Ado sites UNHCR had seen 150 cases of suspected measles and 11 related deaths. The combination of disease and malnutrition was what had caused similar death rates in previous famine crises in the region.

UNHCR and its partners were working to respond to the emergency and control the outbreak. A mass vaccination campaign against measles had been completed in Kobe camp on Monday, targeting all children between the ages of six months and 15 years. It would continue in the other camps in the coming days.

Most of the refugees arriving from Somalia were from rural areas and, in many instances, may be in contact with formal health facilities for the first time in the camps in Ethiopia. A key priority for all partners working in the camps was to promote awareness of the health and nutrition programmes available for refugees, many of whom had not been accessing those services. There was a need to encourage parents to return with their children to health centres for continued treatment for malnutrition, and to actively identify children who were sick to ensure they receive immediate help. UNHCR was already working with refugee leaders and outreach workers to raise awareness of measles symptoms and hygiene promotion. Together with the Ethiopian Government and its partners, UNHCR was addressing other, underlying causes of the high mortality rate by improving nutrition, water supply and sanitation, amongst others.

In Kenya, UNHCR teams continued with their emergency work of increasing the capacity of the Ifo Extension at the Dadaab refugee complex. There has been some incorrect reporting of what has been happening in Dadaab. Refugees were moving into the Ifo area of the camp and there had been no hold-up to this other than the fact that UNHCR needed to provide additional water piping and other capacities. There was no problem with the Kenyan authorities, contrary to what some media had reported.

Assessment Mission Finds Migrants in Remote Libyan Town of Al-Kufrah in Need of Help

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said that an inter-agency assessment to the south-eastern Libyan town of Al-Kufrah involving IOM had found around 3,000 to 4,000 African migrants in a camp on the southern outskirts of the town living under basic shelter and without access to running water, sanitation, electricity or security.

The camp had been established many years ago for the many African migrants transiting the area en route to Benghazi or to Europe in search of work but had limited oversight. Prior to the outbreak of the conflict in Libya, an estimated 15,000 migrants had lived there, mainly Chadians and Sudanese. Now the camp population fluctuated on a daily basis, as migrants arrived or left for Benghazi some 600 kilometres away. Accommodation consisted largely of whatever material migrants could find to act as a cover over wooden branches and straw roofs and is flimsy.

Migrants had expressed their concern to IOM about security issues and the lack of electricity and health care facilities in the camp. With no surrounding fence or wall around the area, the migrants said that they suffered much from theft, physical assault and sometimes murder, as people entered the camp at night and stole their belongings at gunpoint.

The temporary and flimsy nature of their shelters, combined with the camp's exposed position near the desert, meant migrants were constantly being bitten by scorpions, with the nearest health facility 10 kilometres away by road. If they returned home at night, they were prey to attacks. A representative for the Chadian migrants at the camp told IOM that about 1,000 of his compatriots wanted to return home, but had no money to pay for transport, with many Sudanese migrants also in a similar position.

The assessment team, which had included representatives from UNHCR and the non-governmental organizations ACTED and Mercy Corps, found other migrants from various nationalities living elsewhere in Al-Kufrah, working as casual labourers, agricultural or farm workers or carrying out menial tasks.

The team, whose mission had been to assess the humanitarian situation in this remote town near the Sudanese border, found the lack of healthcare to be the main issue with only one or two surgeons left at the hospital. Most of the doctors and nurses had been Egyptian migrants who returned home at the start of the crisis. Some North Koreans and Pakistani healthcare workers have nevertheless remained in the healthcare sector in the town. IOM was now looking to see how it can best help the migrants in Al-Kufrah.

Hundreds of new arrivals in Italy from Libya and Tunisia

Mr. Edwards said that almost 2,000 people had arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa over the weekend from Libya and Tunisia. The majority, about 1,800, set sail from Janzour, 12 kilometers west of Tripoli, Libya, where they had waited for a week for calm sea conditions to depart. Of this number, around 200 were women and 30 children.

From interviews with some of the new arrivals, it was apparent that people were continuing to leave for a variety of reasons. A group of Sudanese men told UNHCR that they had been rounded up in Tripoli and forced onto a boat. Others said they had lost jobs in Libya and were hoping for work in Europe.

Of the 52,000 people who had arrived in Italy as part of this year’s North Africa outflow, 27,000 had departed from Libya and the rest from Tunisia. All those arriving from Tunisia had been Tunisian. From Libya, UNHCR had seen some 134 arrivals with Libyan nationality, as well as significant numbers of Nigerians, Ghanaians, and Malians. Of the approximately 2,000 Eritreans and Somalis, many had previously registered with UNHCR in Libya. UNHCR supported initiatives by the Italian Government for voluntary assisted repatriation of people found not to be in need of international protection.

To date 1,500 people have lost their lives attempting to reach Italy’s shores, often because of unseaworthy vessels and an absence of qualified skippers onboard. UNHCR is particularly concerned by an ongoing trend of refugees awaiting resettlement interviews in Tunisia crossing back into Libya to board boats for Europe. A mass information campaign in the camps was underway, highlighting the perils of this journey, said Mr. Edwards.



Private Companies Working in Iraq Obliged to Take Care of Hired Foreign Labour

Ms. Pandya said that, as IOM provided humanitarian assistance to a group of 35 Ukrainian and Bulgarian workers left in desperate straits by their employer in Iraq, the Organization appealed to private companies to honour their obligations to take care of their workers and follow national immigration, labour and human rights norms. The call came as IOM staff carried out several visits a day to a construction site where the migrants were living in crowded, dark, dirty and unventilated conditions, bringing food, water and medical assistance.

The Ukrainians and Bulgarians being assisted by IOM were part of an original group of 217 migrants recruited to work on a construction project inside the international zone in Baghdad in December 2010.

The men, who had been promised salaries of USD 2,500 when hired, had so far only received a few hundred dollars despite having worked very long hours for months. When a sub-contractor had absconded, work on the construction site stopped, leaving the migrants without money or clean water and infrequent access to food. With their employer also having failed to get them the necessary residency permits as promised, the migrants had become undocumented workers.

Some of the 217 migrants have been moved to work on another site, while others have succumbed to pressure by the employer to leave the country for a one-time payment of USD 1,000. However, after being forced to pay their transport home and charges for overstaying a 10-day visa, the migrants were left with little money.

The 35 migrants still at the site were living in unsanitary conditions and without electricity. Some of the migrants suffered from health problems related to poor food intake and drinking unsafe water. Having borrowed money to pay recruitment agents to get the job in Iraq in the first place, the migrants were in debt which they were unlikely to pay off unless they were paid their salaries.

IOM was liaising with Government counterparts and parliamentarians on this case, who hade been supportive of the need to pay the workers their salaries and protect them against arbitrary removal from the country. However, the case highlighted yet again the need for more long-term responses to foreign labour exploitation in Iraq as contractors, many of them foreign, took advantage of reconstruction efforts.

Over the years, IOM had assisted many labour migrants who had been exploited in Iraq to work in the construction, domestic and service industries, each with horrific stories to tell. Many if not most of the foreign workers in Iraq were undocumented through no fault of their own. What was needed to stop this kind of exploitation was a comprehensive labour migration policy in Iraq and for the new counter-trafficking law to be passed by parliament, combined with an effective system that protected trafficked or stranded migrants.


Destruction of buildings housing non-governmental organizations in Baku, Azerbaijan

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that OHCHR was concerned by the 11 August destruction in Baku of the building housing the Institute of Peace and Democracy, as well as of two other important NGOs, the Azerbaijan Campaign to Ban Landmines and the Women's Crisis Center. The latter had been the only shelter available to women in crisis, including victims of violence, in the Azerbaijan capital.

Bulldozers, said to have been dispatched by the Baku Mayor’s office without prior notice, had carried out the demolition despite a ruling in May of this year by the Baku court prohibiting the destruction of the building, which had been owned by the family of the Director of Institute of Peace and Democracy. City officials had allegedly refused to allow the occupants to remove any of their belongings from the inside of the building, including valuable office equipment and files.

Given an increase of worrying reports of forced evictions and destruction of property in Baku, as well as of harassment of human rights defenders, OHCHR called on the authorities of Azerbaijan to thoroughly investigate this case and, if necessary, provide adequate compensation and restitution. The Office also called on the Government of Azerbaijan to guarantee safe working conditions for the Institute for Peace and Democracy, as well as for other human rights defenders in Azerbaijan.

New psychological first aid guide to strengthen humanitarian relief

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that humanitarian emergencies such as earthquakes or war affected not only people’s physical health, but also their psychological and social health and well-being.

On the occasion of World Humanitarian Day, to be celebrated on 19 August, WHO, the War Trauma Foundation and World Vision International announced the release of a “Psychological First Aid Guide for Fieldworkers”. Psychological first aid covered both social and psychological support and involved the provision of humane, supportive and practical help to people suffering from serious crisis events.

This guide, which could be taught to humanitarian workers within one day for immediate use, had been developed in order to offer widely agreed-upon psychological first aid materials for use in low- and middle-income countries. It reflected the emerging science and the international consensus on how to provide basic support to people in the immediate aftermath of extremely stressful events. The guide would help humanitarian aid workers to offer support in ways that respected the culture, dignity, abilities and rights of survivors wherever they were in the world.

The guide would be available from the internet in different languages, and details of contact persons were provided in the note at the back of the room.


World Humanitarian Day ceremony on 19 August

Ms. Vellucci said that World Humanitarian Day 2011 would be marked on Friday, 19 August with a march starting at 5.30 p.m. at Plainpalais, to be followed by remarks by the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva and a roundtable discussion in the Parc des Bastions.

The full programme was available at the back of the room. Journalists were invited to participate in the ceremony and buy the t-shirts, which were on sale at SAFI from today, as well as in front of the Cafeteria from noon to 2 p.m. today.

Spokesperson changes

Brigitte Léoni of the Secretariat of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) said she would be leaving Geneva for Bangkok, where she would take up a new position with UNISDR on 1 September for a period of two years. David Singh would be taking over for the time being, and the contact details of the new UNISDR Communications Director would be sent to journalists as they became available.

Ms. Vellucci said that Christiane Berthiaume would take over as temporary spokesperson for the World Food Programme in Geneva. Ms. Berthiaume said she could be reached at Emilia Casella’s old contact details (landline 022 917 85 64, cell phone 079 285 73 04).

Other subjects

Ms. Vellucci said that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was concluding its review of the report of Kenya this morning. In the afternoon, it would start to examine the report of Georgia, before reviewing the report of the Ukraine tomorrow and that of the Czech Republic on Thursday.

Ms. Vellucci said that the Conference on Disarmament would reconvene in public on Thursday morning.

Ms. Vellucci said that Mr. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, would meet with Mr. Rashid Meredov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, at noon today.

Ms. Vellucci said that at the back of the room was a press release on a General Assembly high-level meeting which would be convened on 22 September at United Nations Headquarters to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. French and English press releases were available at the back of the room.

Mr. Colville said that the report of the Fact-Finding Mission on Syria, which had been set up by the Human Rights Council, should be made public later this week. A media advisory would be issued shortly and Mr. Colville would take questions on Friday.