REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the High Commissioner for Refugees, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the International Organization for Migration
Mali
Elisabeth Byrs for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said refugees fleeing violence in northern Mali continued to seek refuge in Niger with ten thousand people crossing the border since January 26.
The majority (two thirds) of the displaced had moved into the locality of Sinegodar, which normally had a population of 1,500 people and was now seeing 7,000 residents. In total, these border areas had seen a mixture of some 12,000 people from Niger and Mali arrive as of yesterday, she said.
Sinegodar had already felt the impact of the recent drought, she added, and the availability of food was very low and this influx of refugees would certainly create extra pressures, with the village cereal bank holding just three tons of supplies. Access to water and latrines was also scarce, and the majority of the new arrivals were camped on an open site under makeshift shelters which protect from the sun during the day but do little to protect from the cold at night, she added. The urgent needs identified were therefore for shelter, food, hygiene, water and sanitation, health and nutrition.
A coordination meeting together with groups such as Oxfam and MSF-Switzerland who are already on the ground was scheduled this Tuesday (February 7) at the offices of OCHA Niamey.
Adrian Edwards for the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said UNHCR had deployed emergency teams to countries surrounding Mali to help meet the needs of some 20,000 people who have been forced to flee fighting in northern Mali. Most of the displaced were in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, he said.
Fighting between rebel Tuareg groups and governmental forces in the Azawad region of northern Mali began in mid-January and in the past three weeks, at least 10,000 people were reported to have crossed to Niger, 9,000 had found refuge in Mauritania and 3,000 in Burkina Faso.
While most of those who recently fled Mali were Malians, recent arrivals in Niger also included nationals of Niger who had been living in Mali for decades. Many had been crossing the border between the two countries regularly to find grazing land for their cattle.
In addition to this the UNHCR office in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso had also reported the arrival of some 3,000 Malian Tuaregs following attacks on their homes and businesses in the Malian capital Bamako and in the nearby town of Kati last week, he explained, with many of the new arrivals staying with host families in Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso, 320 kilometres south-west of the capital.
Other influxes have been reported in the north west of the country, especially near Djibo, in Soum province. An inter-agency mission, including UNHCR, was scheduled to go there by the end of the week to assess the needs of the people.
Ms. Momal-Vanian added that the Security Council would consider the situation in the entire Sahel region and West Africa later this month (21 February) following a UN inter-agency assessment mission sent to the region which had already reported on the dangerous situation created by the food crisis and the aftermath of the Libyan transition from Gadaffi, among other factors.
Jean Philippe Chauzy for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said migrants that had returned to Mali, Niger and Chad from Libya had returned empty-handed and were facing food insecurity. He also agreed that the impact of turmoil in Libya on surrounding countries should not be underestimated, though there was no official confirmation of Libyan returnee involvement in recent violence.
Syria
Marixie Mercado for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that nearly eleven months of violence in Syria had led to the deaths and injuries of hundreds of children. This was in addition to reports of children being arbitrarily arrested, tortured and sexually abused while in detention, she said. Furthermore, reported heavy shelling by government forces of civilian neighbourhoods in the city of Homs was undoubtedly causing further suffering.
She continued by saying that UNICEF did not have access to the affected areas of Homs and could not confirm the impact of the attacks there, but there were credible reports, including from international media inside Homs, that children were caught in the violence and those injured must be given immediate and unconditional access to specialized medical care.
Answering questions she said this was not the first statement that UNICEF had put out on the situation in Syria but that this most recent comment was prompted by the worsening situation. On another point she said that UNICEF was in constant dialogue with the Syrian authorities and had reminded them of their responsibilities under the Convention of the Rights of the Child, to which they are signatories. Finally, she said that according to Syrian human rights organizations over 400 children had been killed, and 400 were in custody as at the end of January.
Also answering a question, Ms. Momal-Vanian added that in a statement issued yesterday the Secretary-General had said he was appalled by the escalating violence in Syria, particularly at the mounting death toll and continued onslaught on the city of Homs involving the use of heavy artillery and the shelling of civilian areas.
She also replied to a question saying the United Nations was not in a position at this stage to define whether Syria was in a state of civil war or whether this was an uprising, but that the important point was that the violence was appalling and must stop immediately. She also noted that the Secretary-General had reminded the Government of Syria that it was accountable under international human rights law for all acts of violence perpetrated by its security forces against civilian populations.
Answering a question on Iraqi refugees in Syria, Adrian Edwards said he did not think the impact on this group was any greater than that on the general population. He also explained that registration and other facilities were still available for Iraqi refugees in Syria though the situation remained challenging. Citing some figures on Syrian refugees he said 2,466 had fled to Jordan since March 2011, 6,290 in Lebanon and 9,270 in Turkey.
Refugees in Africa
Adrian Edwards for the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said UNHCR was implementing a set of comprehensive strategies aimed at closing three of Africa's longstanding refugee situations, namely those involving Angolan, Liberian and Rwandan refugees.
These solutions included scaled up voluntary repatriation together with assistance packages to help former refugees reintegrate, he explained, or securing an alternative legal status that would allow them to continue to reside in the country of asylum. This was particularly relevant as after decades in exile, many Angolan, Liberian and Rwandan refugees had established strong ties with their host communities, including through marriage. UNHCR therefore hoped that countries of asylum would convert refugee status into residency permits for such persons, including ultimately citizenship when domestic legislation allows.
Explaining the background to the push he said that cessation clauses were built into the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1969 Organization of African Unity Refugee Convention which allowed refugee status to end once fundamental and durable changes had taken place in the country of origin and the circumstances that led to refugee flight no longer exist. However, he added cessation would not apply to refugees who still had well-founded fear of persecution, nor to refugees who had compelling reasons for not wanting to go back home because of past persecution.
UNHCR had recommended that cessation apply for Angolan refugees who fled the country as a result of the conflicts between 1961 and 2002; for Liberian refugees who fled the civil wars from 1989 and 2003; and for Rwandan refugees who fled between 1959 and 1998. This did not mean that all Angolan, Liberian and Rwandan refugees automatically lost their refugee status or that the countries of origin no longer produced any refugees, he said.
Iraq
Jean Philippe Chauzy for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM's latest report on the displacement of Christians in Northern Iraq showed that while internal displacement was declining, with some families returning to their places of origin or deciding to integrate into their new communities, others were choosing to emigrate to neighbouring countries.
In fact, he said, data from IOM teams, which had monitored Christian displacement since the October 2010 attack on the Saidat al-Najat church in Baghdad in which 58 people were killed, showed a marked decrease in the number of these displaced families in the north of the country, from over 1,350 a year ago to under 500 at the end of last month.
Explaining these numbers he said families faced challenges such as persisting violence, high rent prices and lack of employment, as well as many being unable to send their children to school due to language barriers or because they were not able to transfer their registration. As a result Christian families had been forced to choose between remaining in the northern governorates, or returning to even more insecure places of origin in the rest of the country, or emigrating to Turkey, Jordan or, in some cases, Syria, he said.
In terms of the work being done with these groups by IOM he explained that in addition to monitoring the situation of displaced Christian families the organization had also delivered essential non-food relief items to some 600 families in the four northern governorates in 2010 and 2011.
Haiti
Jean Philippe Chauzy for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said some of the most visible internally displaced person camps in Port-au-Prince had closed, or were about to close, under a strategy developed by the Government of Haiti and the humanitarian community through its newly created housing authority: L'Unite de Construction de Logements et de Batiments Publics (UCLBP).
Under this programme, a week from today, the first 150 families would be assisted by IOM to leave the overcrowded tent camp in Champ de Mars in the heart of Port-au-Prince and be relocated to more suitable accommodation, he said. There was still an onus on the international community to provide funding for reconstruction in Haiti, he said, and IOM's 2012 Migration Initiatives global overview of the organization's funding requirements for the coming year points to a need for $10 million for facilitiating housing solutions for internally displaced households, which in turn will help them return to economic productivity.
Geneva activities
Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Conference on Disarmament met this morning.
She then announced the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) would hold a press conference on Tuesday (7 February) at 11:45 in Room III where the UNCTAD Secretary-General was to present his report prepared for the UNCTAD XIII conference, entitled, “Development-led globalization: towards sustainable and inclusive development paths.”