REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Michele Zaccheo, Chief of the United Nations Television and Radio Section and Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by Spokespersons for the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.

Mr. Zaccheo said he was standing in for Ahmad Fawzi who was in Cairo on mission with Michael Møller, Acting Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva. For those interested in Mr. Møller’s speech at the American University in Cairo for the Nadia Younes Memorial Lecture, there were copies at the back of the room.

Mr. Zaccheo said that available were statements by the Security Council and the Secretary-General on the attack on United Nations staff in Somalia, another by the Security Council on the situation in Yarmouk and statements by the Secretary-General on the deaths in the Mediterranean and on the killing of Ethiopian nationals in Libya.

World Health Organization

Tarik Jasarevic of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, 22 April at 10.30 a.m., there would be a press briefing on World Immunization Week in press room 1 with Jean-Marie Okwo-Belé, WHO’s Director of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals. Dr. Okwo-Belé would speak about the progress, or lack of progress towards global vaccination targets for 2015.

On Thursday, 23 April from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at WHO, there would be the screening of a movie “Every last child”, in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates, and there would be a panel discussion with WHO Director-General Margaret Chan at the end of the screening. On Thursday morning, in press room 1, at 10:30 a.m., there would be a press conference on malaria, to commemorate World Malaria Day on 25 April. Speaking would be Dr. Richard Cibulskis and Dr. Peter Olumese of the WHO Global Malaria Programme, who would speak about gaps that still existed in prevention, diagnosis and treatment for malaria.

Mr. Jasarevic said that next week, on 29 April at 10:30 a.m., there would be a press conference about a new report on antimicrobial resistance. The press conference would explain and focus on reports received from countries on what they are doing to be ready to tackle the threat of antimicrobial resistance.

A journalist asked about WHO’s statement yesterday about Ebola, which mentioned better communication efforts. Did this include WHO Director-General Margaret Chan coming to UNOG to give a proper press conference at any point this year. Mr. Jasarevic said that this statement had come at the end of the Global Policy Group meeting. This group met at least twice a week and brought together Dr. Chan and regional directors. This time, they felt it was really important to stress the commitment of WHO and lessons learned about Ebola. One of the aspects that was contained in this statement was about trying to improve, especially at the national level, risk communication for the countries to be ready to better engage with communities, and for WHO to have capacity to support that effort. Dr. Chan did address journalists in Geneva in January after the Ebola special meeting of the executive board and she would hopefully address them again during the World Health Assembly.

Vanuatu

Sarah Bel of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said one month after Typhoon Pam had hit Vanuatu, they could already see the positive impact of the humanitarian activities of the Government, but these efforts had to be further increased to ensure that all the islands had access to food, water, shelter and medical care. The humanitarian activities were continuing, and the reconstruction and restoring the economy were starting. Journalists were aware that 90 per cent of the harvest had been destroyed, and a large per cent of animal stock had perished during the typhoon. The population had lost their livelihoods. Vanuatu needed a lot of support to reconstruct its infrastructure, revive its agricultural sector, provide temporary work and support the country during the reconstruction. UNDP, in partnership with other agencies like the International Labour Office, UN Women and UN HABITAT, were putting in place a common programme to restore livelihoods. The press release at the back of the room was the first part of this joint project to put in place a programme for temporary employment to clean up the debris and garbage that had increased over the past month and was creating problems both for the environment and health.

Osnat Lubrani, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Vanuatu, speaking via phone link, said the humanitarian relief effort was ongoing, but more and more the focus was shifting towards early recovery and into the medium- and long-term recovering. Actually, right now, she was at an event to finalize the exercise of the post-disaster needs assessment; another humanitarian action plan had also been completed, and the Government would be looking very carefully at the short-term plan and the medium- to long-term plan and coming up with its priorities in the coming weeks. A very important need was to focus on the life-saving needs that would get people to restore their lives; because all of the crops had been destroyed, it was very important to restore people’s livelihoods, and UNDP was looking forward to offering short-term employment opportunities, but at the same time, to strengthen the capacities of national, provincial and local institutions to deliver services and to cope with all the waste and debris and to get things back in order.

Somalia

Mr. Zaccheo said yesterday, there had been an attack on United Nations personnel in Somalia, more specifically on UNICEF personnel.

Christophe Boulierac for the United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF) said it was with great sadness that UNICEF could now announce the names of the four UNICEF staff members who were killed on Monday, 20 April in a horrific attack as they travelled to work in Garowe, north Somalia. A press release was available at the back of the room with the names of the four colleagues, who had been working since 2014 on vaccination against poliomyelitis, social mobilization with local communities, education, and administration. Five other UNICEF colleagues were being treated for injuries sustained during the attack, and they hoped for their speedy recovery. Two local security personnel unrelated to UNICEF were also killed as a result of the attack and four others were injured. Mr. Boulierac presented condolences to families of the victims and to all UNICEF staff who continued to work tirelessly in Somalia to support children and women.

Answering a question on the nature of the attack, Mr. Boulierac said that all they knew was that the UNICEF staff members were being transported from the guest house to the office. The van stopped near the Food and Agriculture Organization compound to collect a staff member when an explosion occurred. The cause of the explosion was being investigated; it was believed that it was a suicide bomb.

On how many UNICEF staff were in Somalia, if they were nationals or expatriates, and if this tragedy would affect the operation against poliomyelitis in Somalia and make the expatriates leave the country, Mr. Boulierac responded that UNICEF was constantly monitoring the security situation in the areas where staff were working, and they had security experts in Garowe to assess the situation. It was too early to make a decision. UNICEF had been present in Somalia since 1972 to improve the situation of women and children, and had developed a nationwide network of partnership with both national and international organizations and community based organization in the areas of water, health, education, nutrition, and child protection. They did both emergency response operations and also early recover and development approaches. There were no details right now on whether this would affect the UNICEF operations in the region.

Asked about what security measures were taken for the UNICEF staff, Mr. Boulierac said that they did not want to enter into details on security measures for the sake of the security of their colleagues. Security was constantly being assessed and monitored, but security measures were not constant and could change anytime. Mr. Boulierac later announced that the total number of UNICEF staff in Somalia was 183, 37 international staff and 146 Somali staff.

Jens Laerke of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) expressed on behalf of the entire humanitarian community their solidarity and thoughts with their deceased and wounded UNICEF colleagues. The Secretary-General also expressed himself yesterday on this, reiterating that this attack would not erode the commitment of the entire United Nations family to support the people and Government of Somalia. He also said that such attacks would not diminish the United Nations resolve to continue working for the cause of peace and security in that country. The attack came as a shock because Somalia was not one of the most dangerous countries to work in as a humanitarian. According to the aid workers’ security database, last year Somalia was number six of the list of the most dangerous countries to work in. Number one was Afghanistan, where 40 humanitarians had lost their lives; number two was Syria, where 12 humanitarians had lost their lives; and number three was South Sudan. Number six was Somalia where in 2014, six national staff had been killed. Eight humanitarians were killed in Somalia in 2012; 15 were killed in 2013; and six were killed in 2014.

A journalist asked if more security measures would be taken after Al Shabaab had claimed responsibility for the attack. Mr. Laerke said that Puntland, where the attack happened, had been considered a relatively secure place in Somalia, which was still a dangerous place to work. He could not go into details of security measures, which was overseen by the United Nations Department for Safety and Security.

Mediterranean Boat Tragedy

Adrian Edwards of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said UNHCR had now interviewed most of the survivors of Saturday’s boat tragedy in the Mediterranean. According to the survivors, the boat departed from Tripoli in Libya on Saturday morning, with some 850 people on board, including many children. Among those on board were 350 Eritreans, as well as people from Syria, Somalia, sierra Leone, Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Ivory Coast and Ethiopia. They did not have a full breakdown so far. Only 28 people were known to have survived the shipwreck, including a young man from Bangladesh who was transported by helicopter to a hospital in Catania, Sicily on Sunday, and 27 people disembarked by the Italian Coast Guard in Catania last night. From available information and the various accounts that they had had, UNHCR now believed the number of fatalities to have been over 800, making this the deadliest incident in the Mediterranean they had ever recorded. They currently had a total of about 1,300 deaths in April, which meant that April 2015 had been the cruellest month with the highest number of deaths in any month. So far this year, 1,776 migrants had been reported dead in the Mediterranean. Last year, 3,500 migrants had died.
Volker Turk, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection of UNHCR, said this was clearly another wakeup call, in particular for Europe to find ways and means to address the particular challenges on the Mediterranean. He would like to particularly mention the asylum and protection dimension. As they had seen yesterday night, there was a press communique adopted by the European Union after the meeting of the joint Home Affairs, Interior and Foreign Ministers, who adopted a ten-point plan to be further discussed at the European Union Council meeting on Thursday. UNHCR very much welcomed the various action plans. Obviously, the devil was in the detail. They needed to make sure that the asylum component and the protection of people component was one that was prioritized within these measures. There was a lot of emphasis on law enforcement measures and smuggling and trafficking, and on various types of cooperation. UNHCR believed that given the fact that there was a whole region in crisis that was adjacent to Europe, displacement was not going to go away. They were talking about a global displacement crisis that was playing out at the doorsteps of Europe. It was clear that the European political leadership would need to provide the appropriate response, which was built on the fundamental European values and human rights and human dignity, responsibility and solidarity. UNHCR hoped very much that the European Union Council on Thursday would provide very strong direction that took these action points further and ensured that the asylum and refugee component was given sufficient attention. They all knew that there would not be any quick solution, but it was important that they not lose sight of the much broader context that was playing out.

Asked if the ten-point plan was enough to deal with the situation, or if new measures were necessary, Mr. Turk said that what they had heard yesterday was a lot of attention being given to the smugglers and not to what he had been mentioning. David Cameron and others all talked about tackling smugglers. Was this the way forward? Mr. Turk said that it was clear that there were push and pull factors, but in UNHCR’s assessment, the push factors were much stronger, and as a result, because they had a crisis adjacent to Europe, it was clear that appropriate protection measures for people, who were taking to the sea under these circumstances, were taken. UNHCR had made a number of proposals in this regard, such as enhancing resettlement, humanitarian admission, alternative legal channels to enter Europe, increased search and rescue operations, making sure that they identified and screened people who were in need of international protection and ensure that they were properly distributed with the European Union. They wanted to ensure that the protecting refugees component was given prominence. This was a good beginning, but they clearly needed to work much more on some of those people protection components.

A journalist said one of the measures mentioned was 5,000 settlement places. That was literally a drop in the ocean. In response, Mr. Turk said that they clearly needed more. They needed strong commitment and a distribution key within the European Union. UNHCR had proposed a pilot project for Syrian refugees who arrived. If they looked at the numbers last year, over 50 per cent of the people who crossed the Mediterranean, were people who were in need of international protection, mostly Syrians, Eritreans and Somalis. It was clear that there was a strong refugee component within this population. If they looked at the figures from the last couple of months, at least 30 to 40 per cent were people who needed international protection. UNHCR had launched a major initiative last year in order to ensure stronger resettlement and humanitarian admission, particularly for Syrian refugees. They had about 100,000 places committed so far, but they needed some 20,000 more in order to give some alternative to people who had been living in prolonged conflict.

In response to another question, Mr. Turk said Libya was not able to deal with the consequences of displacement, and with their own migrant population. It was clear that Mare Nostrum was an extremely important search and rescue regime that helped to save thousands of lives. With the end of Mare Nostrum, UNHCR had indeed unfortunately predicted the type of scenarios that were playing out today and it hoped that the European Council meeting on Thursday would give adequate attention to the search and rescue dimension of this issue, given the fact that they were talking mostly about push factors here. Mr. Turk, answering another question, said that the ten-point action was a very good beginning and some of the measures dealt directly with some of the points he had been talking about, like resettlement and intra-European Union support for Italy and Greece, but he had noted before that the devil was in the detail and they needed to know what concrete commitments were going to be put on the table when it came to humanitarian admission, legal alternatives to migration, legal alternatives for refugees to arrive here, family reunification, facilitated and expedited, sponsorship programmes; they needed to see what type of intra-European solidarity measures meant for Italy and Greece. On another question, Mr. Turk said this was a multidimensional issue and it needed multiple responses. There was a smuggling and trafficking component and a law enforcement component that needed to be tackled. These measures were highlighted in the action plan. There was a need to ensure that the international refugee protection dimension was properly and adequately dealt with. There was a predominant burden on Italy and Greece, when it came to those arriving at sea. Within the European Union, Germany and Sweden were the countries that in fact hosted most of the Syrian refugees. There was a very important intra-European discussion to be held about a distribution scheme within the European Union that made sure that countries that were particularly affected, like Greece and Italy, were able to call on the solidarity measures from the rest of the European Union and find ways and means to process asylum applications and re-distribute those to be found in need of international protection more adequately. These were some of the proposals that UNHCR had made, in particular for Syrian refugees. They could use existing European instruments like the Dublin Three regulation creatively to provide that type of solidarity.

Joel Millman of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said IOM had just reported that its staff had met with the 27 survivors who arrived in Catania last night. IOM and UNHCR had very similar numbers. IOM was saying an estimated 770 lives had been lost, now they learned that it was at least 800. Their total for the year had been 1,727 migrants drowned so far this year, but they were going to adjust that upwards. Last week, IOM had filed the report of 400 migrants dead in a capsizing on April 14 south of Malta, 50 more on April 17, and then this latest 800 plus off Libya this weekend. IOM also mentioned yesterday that they had received distress calls from two or more boats at sea somewhere north of Libya, one with between 150 and 200 migrants on board and another with 300 on board. They had indications that there had already been 20 fatalities from one of the boats. These were distress calls that had come in but they had not confirmed either the number of people on the boats or the 20 fatalities, although it was IOM’s understanding that a search and rescue operation for those migrants had started late yesterday. With this latest count, IOM calculated that the 2015 death toll now was more than 30 times last year’s total at this date on April 21, when just 56 deaths of migrants had been reported on the Mediterranean. Through the end of April last year, 96 migrants had perished, indicating that the last week of April had been the deadliest period of the year to date. IOM now feared that the 2014 total of 3,279 migrants on the Mediterranean may be surpassed this year in a matter of weeks, and could well top 30,000 by the end of this year or even higher.

In response to a question asking for details about the two distress calls mentioned, Mr. Millman said his best understanding of the phone call was that someone called saying there were three boats together; they did not know if they had left together, or if it was the same group of traffickers sending them out. The person who called from one of the boats had indicated that another boat that they could see was taking on water, and they thought it had 300 people on board. Subsequently, there was a press conference saying that they were searching for two boats, one with 150 to 200 on it and the other with 300 on it, which was consistent with what IOM had heard. They still didn’t know if both parties were talking about the same group, but they thought so. It could well be that they might hear later today of 600 people rescued, or that there had been fatalities.

Answering another question, Mr. Millman said that he had heard accounts of racial profiling, more than racial discrimination or racism, that the traffickers set prices according to what they thought was the ability to pay, that the poorer the country that the migrants came from, the lower the price. When he had interviewed migrant survivors, they had said 450 euros was what Gambians, Malians and other from west Africa were charged, while prices went up for people from the Horn of Africa, and prices for people from the Middle East and Syria were probably at the highest end.

Mr. Boulierac of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said there was a real necessity to intensify efforts in the Mediterranean to avoid tragedies like these seen in the last few days. Swift, collective and courageous action focusing specifically on the interests of children was needed. Sometimes, entire families, including children, were on board these boats, fleeing brutal conflicts at home in search of safety and opportunities in Europe. Children who found themselves on these journeys were exposed to abuse, exploitation and possible death; if they survived, they were often placed in unsafe and unsuitable accommodation, and sometimes they were criminalized. This was in violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. UNICEF asked that all actions were guided by the best interest of each of these children every step of the way. No matter their refugee or migrant status, children should be cared for in a safe place and not in a detention facility, and they should have access to education, health, social and legal services, with full implementation of existing safeguards, especially for the most vulnerable.

A journalist noted that Doctors without Borders had announced that they would start a new search operation in the Mediterranean at the start of May and asked about UNHCR’s reaction to that. Mr. Turk of UNHCR said it was clear that States had the capacity to provide robust search and rescue operation, as seen with the Mare Nostrum operation. Any efforts to save lives was obviously welcomed. Merchant vessels had said they had taken over a disproportionate burden of rescuing people at sea as a result of the phasing out of Mare Nostrum. This was an issue that they had to grapple with. At the end of the day, it was States that had the resources that could match response to the scale and scope of the problem.

UNICEF, Holy See and Adolescents

Mr. Boulierac of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said he had a short announcement not related to the Mediterranean. He would send journalists a press release about it. UNICEF’s Executive Director met his Holiness Pope Francis this morning in Rome to launch a new partnership that would provide more disadvantaged adolescents with the skills, information and understanding they needed to become fully participating citizens of their societies and the world. Young people between the ages of 10 and 19 represented nearly 20 per cent of the world’s population, and the vast majority of the world 1.2 billion adolescents lived in developing countries.

Iraq

Mr. Edwards said Mr. Turk had just returned from Iraq and would be happy to respond to questions from journalists afterwards. In Iraq, UNHCR was concerned about the difficulties facing thousands of Iraqi civilians fleeing violence in Ramadi. They faced numerous challenges, including dwindling resources, checkpoints, entry restrictions, and security procedures to navigate on their journeys to safety. An estimated 114,000 Iraqis had fled Ramadi over the past two weeks as conflict between government forces and extremists intensified. Of these, some 39,000 remained inside Anbar province, many unable to move further afield. Some 54,000 had gone to Baghdad; 15,000 to Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and 2,100 had fled further south near Baghdad. Other people were still on the move trying to reach safety, and at least 900 had reached Diyala. Inside Anbar, the displaced were seeking shelter wherever they could find it, in places such as Khalidiya and Amriyat Al Fallujah, southeast of Fallujah. Here they stayed with relatives and host families, or they sought shelter in mosques and schools. In one community centre in Al Habaniya, people already displaced from previous waves of violence were sharing their space with new arrivals, resulting in serious overcrowding, - in some cases up to four families sharing a single tent.

Mr. Edwards said UNHCR was worried about the processing arrangements in place at the Bzabz bridge, a series of pontoons across the Euphrates River, about 65 kilometres west of Baghdad. An estimated 1,200 people were still waiting to cross when the United Nations visited on Sunday. People waiting on the Anbar side had no shelter and faced worsening conditions. The newly displaced were exhausted and anxious to move on to more secure locations. Some people had walked for miles without food and water. UNHCR had distributed mattresses, blankets, kitchen utensils and other supplies to people and more distributions were underway. They expected to reach another 12,000 people with emergency relief kits in the coming days. More people had been able to move into Baghdad in recent days. Reports overnight suggested that there were many displaced people still waiting in Diyala trying to cross into the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Some 2.7 million Iraqis had been internally displaced across Iraq since January 2014, including 400,000 in Anbar province.

A journalist asked Mr. Turk if he had discussed with Iraqi authorities any contingency plans in the event they made an assault to regain Mosul. Mr. Turk said indeed there had been discussions about making sure that the displacement angle and that the humanitarian consequences of military action were high on the national agenda. They also had discussions with Iraqi authorities both in Argyle and in Baghdad about what could be the humanitarian consequences of military action in and around Mosul and they hoped that they could be taken into account.

The journalist said there had been estimates of 1.2 to 2 million people and asked if that was still the number they were making contingency plans for. Mr. Turk said it was difficult to predict what or how military action was going to take place, but indeed, they needed to be prepared, not for possible military action around Mosul, but also in the Anbar governorate for hundreds of thousands of people who may be displaced. It was crucial that the displacement component was addressed collectively, first and foremost by the authorities, with the support of the United Nations humanitarian country team.

Elizabeth Byrs of the World Food Programme (WFP) said WFP had provided food assistance to around 60,000 people fleeing Ramadi. Those people received food for three days, including food. WFP was distributing food to districts that had been set free. WFP was working in partnership with the Iraqi Salvation Humanitarian Organization to distribute food to 15,000 persons and it was preparing another delivery with other agencies to feed 28,500 families. Since the beginning of April, WFP has also been helping 850 students who had found refuge in a school in the Abu Grahib district which was secure after escaping from the University of Anbar.
WFP had been helping another 5,000 people who were blocked in the area of the bridge of Bzabz, 65 km away from Bagdad. WFP was doing his best but that it needed to be helped financially by the international community because from now to September, it needed $ 250 million for its emergency operations as well as for its logistical operations.

Yemen

Mr. Millman of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said IOM was suspending evacuation operations in Yemen. On 20 April, IOM took the decision to temporarily suspend its evacuation of third country nationals from Yemen in view of escalating difficulties faced in undertaking flight operations in recent days. Despite multiple requests made to all parties to facilitate such movements, both within Yemen and in the neighbouring region, IOM continued to experience challenges evacuating stranded third country nations out of Yemen, including unacceptable demands with regard to the identity of passengers to be evacuated by IOM. Security conditions within and around Sana airport had also worsened. IOM undertook its last flight on Sunday, 19 April, flying out almost 140 stranded migrants and it went to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Mr. Jasarevic of the World Health Organization (WHO) said the health situation in Yemen was deteriorating in Yemen. As of 17 April, health facilities across Yemen had reported 944 deaths and 3,487 injured. Health services were becoming increasingly difficult for people to access. The Ministry of Health was talking about the possible collapse of health services as health facilities were struggling to function, facing increasing shortages of medicines and health supplies. Power cuts and fuel shortages also threatened to disrupt the vaccine operation, leaving millions of children below the age of five unvaccinated, which increased the risk of communicable diseases like measles, which was present in Yemen, and polio, which had been eliminated from the country. Because of shortages of safe water, there had been increased cases of bloody diarrhoea in children below five, as well as increased cases of measles and suspected malaria. There were also cases of malnutrition among children and women. There had been a 40 per cent reduction in overall daily consultations, indicating people were having increasing difficulties reaching health facilities. The Ministry of Health had said that major hospitals and health facilities would soon be completely unable to provide humanitarian and emergency services or to perform operations. A note with more details would be sent out.

Asked if there was a WHO readout on why the coalition were prohibiting the importation of pharmaceuticals into Yemen, according to a report by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Mr. Jasarevic said it was really about how to physically get the medicines into the country.

Geneva Activities

Mr. Zaccheo said the Committee against Torture opened its fifty-fourth session yesterday and was this morning starting its consideration of the report of New Zealand. This afternoon, the Committee would hold a meeting with States parties to the Convention against Torture. On Wednesday morning, the Committee would start its review of the report of Congo, and it would start its consideration of the report of Romania on Thursday morning. Next week, the Committee would be considering the reports of Luxembourg, Spain, Serbia, Colombia, and the week after it would review the report of The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers would be meeting in private this week. It would hold a public meeting on Friday, 24 April to close its session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Kyrgyzstan, Peru and Uganda.

Mr. Zaccheo said the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination would start on Monday, 27 April its eighty-sixth session during which it would consider the reports of Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, France, Guatemala and Sudan. A background release was issued yesterday.

Spokespersons for the International Labour Organization, the International Telecommunication Union and the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development were also present, but did not brief.
The webcast for this briefing is available here: …http://bit.ly/unog210415