REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by spokespersons for the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the World Health Organization.

Secretary-General’s visit to Saudi Arabia

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that the Secretary-General was currently in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was attending the sixteenth meeting of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre Advisory Board. He was expected to meet with His Majesty King Salman and Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir before returning to New York on 18 April. The Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, was also in Riyadh as part of the Secretary-General’s delegation and would be holding bilateral discussions with officials from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Ukraine appeal

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), made the following statement:

“Four years into the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, acute humanitarian needs persist. These include the basics – access to health care, food, water and employment. IOM, the UN Migration Agency, is appealing for USD 38 million to assist 340,000 people in critical need this year, an increase from the 215,000 people the Organization has assisted over the four years since start of the conflict.
Since April 2014, over 10,000 people have been killed in the fighting in Eastern Ukraine and a further 24,000 have been injured. In total, 3.4 million people require humanitarian assistance. According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Social Policy, about 1.5 million people are registered as internally displaced persons.
IOM will also rehabilitate important critical and social infrastructure and provide psychosocial assistance where needed.
The ongoing unrest has provoked an increase in human trafficking.
Thomas Lothar Weiss, the IOM Ukraine Chief of Mission said that ‘Last year, we assisted over 1,200 victims of trafficking, nearly all of whom were trafficked and exploited during the years of conflict. The true numbers may be even higher. To alleviate risks and protect people from exploitation and abuse, we are focusing our anti-trafficking efforts on people living near the contact line.’”

Responding to questions from journalists, Mr. Millman said that the substantial increase in the numbers of people affected was probably the result of a number of factors, including the deterioration in infrastructure and the lack of local employment possibilities. IOM hoped to work wherever it was needed in the country, although work carried out in the conflict area, such as the renovation of a hospital in 2017, had required extensive negotiations with the different parties.

Preparations for the monsoon in Bangladeshi refugee camps

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), made the following statement:

“Rohingya refugees and local people in Teknaf, a southern sub-district of Cox’s Bazar, are racing to prepare for monsoon rains forecast to start as early as this week. IOM, the UN Migration Agency, has been supporting efforts to prepare the camps, which although smaller than the giant Ukhiya sub-district settlements of Kutupalong and Balukali, still house thousands of people, who face similar threats of flooding and landslides.
To date IOM has supported 24 quick impact projects in Teknaf under the umbrella of 20 Para Development Committees (PDCs) – community platforms, each comprised of six refugees and five locals. The projects include building bridges, access roads, steps, drains, and slope protection work that will enable communities to better weather the monsoon.
IOM and partner agencies recognize the risks posed by the flimsy structures in high winds and rain and have been racing to upgrade the shelters. In Teknaf over 15,000 shelters – covering over 78,000 people – have been identified as in need of upgrades, including plastic sheets, poles and guy ropes. IOM itself is targeting 13,204 shelters housing 66,020 refugees.”

In response to questions from journalists, Mr. Millman said that, with the monsoon rains forecast to begin later in the week, IOM and the other parties concerned were as prepared as was possible but, given the particularly fragile state of infrastructure and the environment even before the rains, they could never be sure that it was enough. Up to 1 million people could be affected. IOM hoped that it had enough funding, but additional financial resources would always be welcome.

Yemen - Conditions of newly arrived refugees and migrants

William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), made the following statement:

“UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is extremely concerned by a further worsening of the situation for newly-arrived refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Yemen. Unabated conflict, deteriorating economic conditions and now increasing criminality are exposing people to harm and exploitation.
With prolonged conflict and insecurity threatening state institutions and weakening the rule of law, there are growing accounts of extortion, trafficking and deportation. Many are arrested, detained, abused and then pushed out to sea or forcibly returned by the very same smugglers who brought them to Yemen.
Since February this year, UNHCR has been working on the situation of some 100 new arrivals to Yemen who have been arrested and kept in detention. Those individuals have been faced with threats of removal or deportation, as well as subject to extortion and various forms of abuse either at the hands of traffickers or during their detention.
Reports of abuse inside detention facilities are numerous with some new arrivals being subject to physical and sexual violence. Survivors have described to UNHCR being shot at, regular beatings, rapes of adults and children, humiliations including forced nudity, being forced to witness summary executions, and denial of food.
With deportations, UNHCR has received reports of people being forced by smugglers on to boats off the Yemeni shoreline. In January this year, more than 50 Somalis were reported to have drowned during one of these operations.
For those who are pushed back across the Gulf of Aden, many fall prey once again to smugglers and traffickers who lure them in to re-attempting the journey.
Others are subject to extortion even during their deportation. Last month, for example, UNHCR received reports that a group of migrants and asylum seekers was transported to a departure point on Yemen’s Bab Al Mandab Strait for imminent deportation, only for some to be detained by smugglers seeking further ransom for their release. They were made to call families back home in Ethiopia and transfer up to US$ 700 per person in order to be released.
UNHCR’s numerous interventions and advocacy at high levels on these issues have been frustrated by the complex structures of responsibility and accountability in Yemen resulting from the ongoing conflict. We are calling on all state and non-state actors effectively controlling detention facilities where new arrivals are being held to ensure those being detained are treated humanely and with dignity in accordance with refugee and human rights law. UNHCR is also seeking unfettered access to assist those in need of international protection in proper accord with international law.”

Responding to questions from journalists, Mr. Spindler said that, because of the existence of rival administrations in Yemen and the increasing numbers of armed groups who were taking advantage of the situation, it was very difficult to ascertain where any line of responsibility for the abuse of migrants lay. The Ministry of the Interior had cooperated with IOM, allowing it access to Al Kharaz refugee camp in the south of the country, but the Organization had also received reports of people being held by smugglers. It was endeavouring to follow the cases of around 100 individuals, but had no estimates for the total number of persons concerned. Yemen had long been an interim destination for refugees, who generally hoped to move on to other countries in the Gulf region. Historic figures for refugees were available, but it was unknown how many had arrived in recent weeks and months. Most of them came from Somalia and Ethiopia, but there were also Sudanese and Eritreans. They were desperate and ill-informed about the situation in Yemen; having paid the smugglers at the start of their journey, many of them were then held captive on arrival until further payments were made. IOM was running a campaign to inform potential victims of the dangers involved and of the conditions in Yemen.

Burkina Faso - Mali violence drives thousands to Burkina Faso

William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), made the following statement:

“UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is alarmed at a spike in intercommunal violence in central Mali which over the past weeks has driven some 3,000 people into neighbouring Burkina Faso.
Dozens of people have been killed in clashes between the Dogon and Peul communities since February, and homes and other property have been destroyed, mainly in the Koro area of central Mali’s Mopti region.
The violence led 3,000 people to flee across the border into Burkina Faso’s Nord Region between mid-February and early April. The new arrivals add to some 24,000 Malian refugees who have found refuge in Burkina Faso since the start of the Mali conflict in 2012.
With extremist and inter-communal violence on the rise, UNHCR now fears more displacement and increased humanitarian needs.
The new arrivals in Burkina Faso include 2,000 Malian citizens as well as 1,000 Burkinabe who had been living in Mali for many years. With many afraid to travel by road, for fear of kidnappings and murder, they arrived via unofficial border crossings, on foot or in light vehicles.
The new displacement adds to the challenges faced by people of the region. Food insecurity is high due to a lack of rain affecting crops. Health facilities are equally overstretched, with gaps in medicines and staff.
Hosted by friends or relatives, the new arrivals are staying in areas that are hard to reach. UNHCR is urging them to move to a camp further away from the border, where they could be registered and have access to basic social services.
Insecurity in northern Burkina Faso has also led to internal displacement. It is reported that several thousand Burkinabe in the Soum province of the Sahel region have left their homes, fleeing southwards or to the east inside the borders of their country.”

In response to questions from journalists, Mr. Spindler said that the insecurity did not seem to be related to the recent attack in Timbuktu and he did not know whether any international security forces were present in the Mopti region, where violence had been occurring between the two communities for some time. It seemed that the insecurity was unlikely to stop and so the exodus of refugees to Burkina Faso would doubtlessly also continue.

Accession of Chile to both UN Conventions on Statelessness

William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), made the following statement:

“Chile has become the latest State to accede to the international conventions on statelessness. Last week, Chile formally deposited at the United Nations Treaty Office in New York the instruments of accession to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, welcomes the country’s commitment to protect and promote the fundamental right to nationality. Without a nationality people can be denied the ability to enroll in school, access medical services, seek legal employment or even get married.
Statelessness affects millions of people around the world and UNHCR is promoting its eradication. Chile’s accession to the two conventions represents an important step towards that goal.”

Rights of asylum-seekers

Responding to questions from journalists, Mr. Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that, although he had no knowledge of and therefore could not comment on the case of an Egyptian physics professor who had reportedly been denied asylum in the United States of America, persons who feared torture or persecution in their country of origin, even if they were not recognised as refugees, were nevertheless entitled to protection of their basic human rights under international instruments such as the Convention against Torture. Hence, they should not be returned to a country in which they were likely to suffer torture.

Announcements (WHO)

Fadela Chaib, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that a meeting of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization was to take place on 17 and 18 April 2018 to review the progress and strategy of the measles and rubella elimination agenda and the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme. It would also review and update policy recommendations on dengue vaccine and the Post-Polio Eradication Certification Strategy and discuss WHO’s efforts to guide the development of new vaccines.
At 4 p.m. on Thursday 19 April, Dr Alejandro Cravioto, the Chair of SAGE, would hold a Virtual Press Conference from WHO headquarters in Geneva to discuss the findings and recommendations of the meeting with interested journalists. Dr Joachim Hombach, Executive Secretary of SAGE, and Dr Martin Friede, Director a.i., Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, WHO, would also participate.
Responding to questions from journalists, Ms. Chaib said, while she was unable to comment on the specific case of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, updated health statistics from all countries were published annually in the World Health Statistics reports, the next of which would appear in mid-May. All countries were encouraged to submit up-to-date information and assistance with obtaining the data in accordance with WHO methodology was provided by WHO experts if required. However, there was no strict obligation on individual States to do so.

Geneva events and announcements

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that the Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was scheduled to hold its second session from 23 April to 4 May 2018 at the United Nations Office in Geneva.
In response to journalists’ questions, she said that the United Nations would provide journalists with the schedule for the first day of the Conference, including the names of confirmed speakers, as soon as possible and would endeavour to ensure that the whole session was webcast. The accreditation process for journalists was available online and there could be a press conference and other media opportunities, should funds be available.

The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog170418