REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i. of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by spokespersons for the International Labour Organization, International Organization for Migration, United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, United Nations Refugee Agency and World Food Programme.

Geneva Activities

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances starts a two-week session on Monday,
7 September 2015, said Mr. Fawzi, in which it would consider the reports of Iraq and Montenegro. A background release was issued on Thursday.

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families is today concluding its consideration of the report of Timor-Leste,
which is the last country scheduled for the session. A background release with the programme of work is available here.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was concluding its session today in a closed meeting around 5 p.m. after which it would issue concluding observations and recommendations for the European Union, which is party to the Convention as a regional organization, and six countries: Kenya, Ukraine, Gabon,
Mauritius, Brazil and Qatar. A round-up press release would be available here by the end of the day.

The Conference on Disarmament would next meet in public at 10 a.m. on Tuesday,
8 September 2015, in the Council Chamber. The Conference was presently occupied with preparing its annual report to the General Assembly. The 2015 session of the Conference officially concludes on 18 September.

Libyan Political Dialogue

The Libyan Political Dialogue got underway on Thursday, 3 September 2015, at the United Nations Office at Geneva to advance the process with a view to finalizing discussions on the Libyan Political Agreement and its annexes, including the formation of a Government of National Accord, announced Mr. Fawzi.

The Special Representative for Libya, Bernardino Leon, held a series of meetings with different participants throughout the day and late into the night on Thursday. More meetings were planned for today, Friday.

All the invited parties were in Geneva and were taking part in this round. They included members of the House of Representatives and the General National Congress, said Mr. Fawzi.

Special Representative Mr. Leon hoped to brief the press later today, said Mr. Fawzi, and if that briefing took place the media would be duly informed of the time and place.

UN Summit for the Adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda

The United Nations Summit for the Adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda would take place in New York from 25 to 27 September when over 160 Heads of State and Government together with leaders of civil society and the private sector would meet to adopt a new set of goals, known as the Sustainable Development Goals. There were 17 goals, and starting on Tuesday, 8 September, United Nations Geneva planned to highlight one goal each day, for the 17 days running up to the summit. The Goals will be highlighted on the UN Geneva social media accounts Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts and use the hashtag #GlobalGoals.

To provide the media with background information, a series of briefings would take place with very senior United Nations experts from the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) to provide an overview of the summit in English, French, Spanish and Russian. The briefings, which would each last 30 minutes, would be available via WebEx. The Russian briefing would take place on Wednesday, 9 September at 3 p.m. following by a briefing in Spanish at 3.45 p.m. in Spanish. Briefings in English and French would take place the following Wednesday. Mr. Fawzi strongly encouraged any members of the media interested in reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals, which would change the world for the better, framing global agendas and guiding political action for the next 15 years, to subscribe to the briefings.

European Refugee and Migration Crisis

Christophe Boulierac for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake last night released a statement on the child migrant and refugee crisis in Europe. In the statement he referred to “heart-breaking images of children’s bodies washing up on the shores of Europe, lying suffocated in the backs of trucks crossing borders, and being passed over barbed wire fences by desperate parents” and called for urgent measures to be taken in response. The statement is available here.

Bertrand Desmoulins, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, speaking over the phone from Skopie, described the situation of children and women at Gevgeliya, at the border between Greece and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The situation in Gevgeliya was changing every day. The flow of people remained steady and had in fact increased from between 2,000 to 3,000 people crossing the border every day, to 3,500 people crossing on Wednesday, and then close to 5,000 people crossing on Thursday. There was also a marked increase in the number of women and children crossing the border, said Mr. Desmoulins, and the proportion of families had risen from one third to one half.

The main issue was that the registration system was in operation but the authorities were only registering around half of the people. The authorities had a system where the police, in coordination with the reception centre, let 25 people cross the border every 15 minutes and then put them on a train or bus to the reception centre, to avoid big crowds gathering. The reception centre was not only for registration, it was also a privileged place where people could access services, said Mr. Desmoulins. Therefore the problem with only letting a few people in at a time meant that the people who were left waiting outside at the border were exhausted, hungry and thirsty and had no access to basic services such as sanitation facilities. The authorities needed to manage a better flow of people, said Mr. Desmoulins.

There were many women and children, and UNICEF needed to care for their physical and emotional needs, but it could not currently access all of them. However, UNICEF had now received the tents and water bladders which would be set up at Gevgeliya today and tomorrow, so it would be better equipped then, said Mr. Desmoulins. The main issue was the need to provide services to people crossing the border, he emphasized.

Responding to questions about the registration process, Mr. Desmoulins said the authorities did not classify people as refugees or migrants, they only registered that a person had crossed the border and could move on.

Answering questions about the background of the people crossing the border, Mr. Desmoulins said the majority were Syrians fleeing Syria. There were many more women and children, he said, as only a few months ago most of the people crossing the border were young men. Now the men had made it to safety and their wives and children were apparently following to join them. Mr. Desmoulins gave the example of a young woman aged just 19 years old at the border yesterday with her seven-month-old baby, who had travelled from Kobani in Syria to join her husband who had made it to Germany.

Mr. Desmoulins also answered questions about the practical difficulties with people accessing food. He said people were not chronically malnourished but they were very hungry after a long and difficult journey and there were no shops or services to provide food, only some non-governmental organizations giving out sandwiches. The people at the border were not in a village and had no access to small shops. The reception centre was also out of town and had no vendors selling food nearby, so people were dependent upon the humanitarian agencies for food. As the temperatures were still above
30 degrees, people also needed water, and children were vulnerable to dehydration, he said.

A journalist asked whether reports that Germany automatically granted unaccompanied minors with refugee status upon their arrival in the country, and then provided refugee status to their parents, could have led to this influx of younger children. Perhaps it was a strategy in which the child travelled first and then their parents came afterwards? Mr. Desmoulins said it was an interesting hypothesis and possible the case, but he noted that while most small children were traveling with a family member there were many unaccompanied older children as well, who were still minors but aged 16 to 18 years.

Melissa Fleming, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres this morning issued a statement on the refugee crisis in Europe.

The situation was dramatic, said Ms. Fleming. Last night around 5,600 people crossed from Greece into The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Of those registered,
80 per cent were Syrians, and 1,000 of those were unaccompanied children. Only
49 people applied for asylum, meaning it was very much a transit country. There were similar statistics for Serbia, and Hungary, where 3,300 people were registered yesterday, while high numbers of people continued to come into Greece.

The High Commissioner’s statement set out UNHCR’s position on what Europe’s response strategy should be -- if not resolve the crisis – to at least address the most critical issues. Mr. Guterres was meeting the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe in Geneva today, and that meeting would be followed by a press conference this afternoon at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva. The details would be sent to the press shortly after the briefing, said Ms. Fleming.

Joel Millman, for the International Organization of Migration (IOM), said IOM had today published an updated map showing the number of fatalities of migrants in the Mediterranean, as well as an info-sheet with statistics on the number of children (minors) arriving in Europe following the tragic death of the three-year-old Syrian boy. The map was printed only a few minutes ago and showed 2,701 deaths but it was already out of date, said Mr. Millman, as IOM had just been informed of another fatality, and that 40 to 50 people were missing off the coast of Libya. The rapidly changing situation showed just how unrelenting the death toll was, said Mr. Millman.

Over the past week, IOM Greece estimated that over 5,000 migrants and refugees had crossed the Aegean Sea into Greece each day. On Monday, 31 August, according to IOM staff on the island of Kos, the Hellenic Police estimated that there were approximately 4,000 migrants on the island, of whom 2,000 were yet to be identified. On Monday, on the island of Lesvos, there were an estimated 4,750 people at the Moria screening centre, which normally processed 600 to 900 people a day. With processing times now reaching five to six days, people were camped outside the centre in tents and sleeping bags bought from local vendors. There had also been three deaths in Greece since Saturday.

Yesterday evening in Italy a ship brought 91 migrants and one corpse to Lampedusa. The 91 people were the survivors of a shipwreck. The people rescued included a pregnant Nigerian woman who had given birth to her baby on the coastguard’s ship. Thankfully both mother and child were well. The number of missing migrants from the shipwreck was still unknown, said Mr. Millman.

In Hungary, a report from IOM Chief of Mission in Budapest Magdalena Majkowska-Tomkin spoke of scenes of chaos continuing at train stations as migrants and refugees tried to leave the country and reach Germany via Austria. Ms. Majkowska-Tomkin reported confusion and chaos as the Hungarian authorities closed, opened and closed the station. Hundreds of people remained on a train in the Hungarian town of Bicske over Thursday night, refusing to go to the nearby reception centre and insisting on moving on to Germany.

Over 140,000 asylum applications had been registered in Hungary this year, representing a 58-fold increase from 2012, and a threefold increase from last year, said Mr. Millman. Most of this year’s arrivals came from Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. Up to last week, over 95 per cent of those registered had left for other destinations in western Europe within a few days. Mr. Millman said there was more information in the briefing notes: on the situation in Greece, and on Hungary.

Responding to a question about a statement from the Hungarian authorities that they did not want to accept Muslim refugees and migrants, Ms. Fleming said UNHCR believed any person had the right to protection in Europe no matter what their religious or ethnic background and was extremely concerned by statements from Hungary and other European countries indicating that they would only receive certain religious groups. The 1951 Refugee Convention was non-discriminatory – anybody fleeing war or persecution could seek asylum, she emphasized.

The crisis had exposed acute differences between policies and attitudes in European countries and a lack of unity in the approach towards how people were received and welcomed, said Ms. Fleming. Some of the problems were to do with a lack of capacity and infrastructure, but also some problems were to do with attitude.

Ms. Fleming said UNHCR welcomed in particular the political and moral leadership of certain countries, most prominently Germany and Sweden, which had done the most to receive refugees in need and to plan for the large numbers that they believed would come. Germany was describing the crisis as it was, and calling on Europe to do the right thing. No single country, or every two or five countries out of a bloc of 28 countries could manage the crisis alone. Every country had to do its part, and those countries which could not handle the large numbers of people coming in should be given urgent help, said Ms. Fleming. A comprehensive Europe-wide solution should include a relocation programme whereby each Member State was obliged to take in people who had been identified in registration centres in Greece, Hungary, and possibly Italy, as in need of protection.

A journalist asked whether UNHCR was involved in running refugee camps in Hungary in light of reports that refugees were afraid to go to those camps. Ms. Fleming replied that UNHCR was urging Hungary to expand its capacity and improve its reception and registration facilities and UNHCR’s offers of help had been partially accepted. UNHCR continued to offer more help but it could not impose its assistance on Governments.
Because Hungary was receiving such large numbers of people and was one of the first entry points into the European Union, the High Commissioner recommended that people were registered and processed in Hungary and then entered the proposed relocation system. There was a lot of fear among refugees who felt they had been misled and didn’t know what would happen to them. UNHCR was present and advising, but obviously it was a very dramatic situation.

Asked whether UNHCR would want to scrap the Dublin Agreement, which started people should apply for asylum in the first European Union country they reach, Ms. Fleming replied that UNHCR was recommending other measures at the moment and not taking a stand on whether or not the Dublin Agreement should exist in the future. What UNHCR proposed today was the establishment of large reception centres with good conditions in Greece, Italy and Hungary. They would be European Union-run centres, not Greek, Italian or Hungarian-run. The centres would operate with the support of UNHCR and IOM and provide fast processing of asylum claims, then relocate the person to another country in Europe. Refugees would not be able to pick and choose their country of preference, however, said Ms. Fleming.

Responding to a question about air travel to Europe, Ms. Fleming said once a person was identified and accepted for resettlement, for family reunification or for a student visa, a person could take an airplane to that country. UNHCR was asking for less strict family reunification measures and offering of student visas to the many students languishing in refugee camps, for example, to alleviate the need for people to take such risky boat journeys.

Mr. Fawzi noted that in addition to the other summits on the sidelines of the General Assembly in New York, there would be a high level summit on international migration. He emphasized that the Secretary-General would no doubt also condemn any discrimination on the basis of religion or ethnicity in the treatment of refugees and migrants.

Yemen

Jens Laerke, for the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), briefed on the release of Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) funding for Yemen, which would boost the humanitarian aid response. Today, four out of every five people in Yemen was in need of emergency aid and relief organizations were struggling to meet that demand.

CERF had allocated a further US$15 million to assist in the most critical lifesaving operations. So far in 2015 more than US$ 44 million was allocated to Yemen. The new funds would be spent on reducing the risk of communicable diseases through waste management, the supply of clean water, and urgent supplies for health facilities including medicines. The funds would also be used for tin mining and the removal of unexploded ordnance, which would not only increase the safety of civilians but help in expanding the geographical humanitarian effort. Some displaced communities would also receive basic domestic supplies as needed. A press release would be issued by OCHA in New York later today, noted Mr. Laerke.

Bettina Luescher, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said the situation in Yemen was dire and just one step away from famine. Access was one of the biggest obstacles faced in the humanitarian response. Many regions that required assistance were inaccessible and any assistance that the international community could offer was greatly appreciated, she said. WFP alone needed US$ 320 million over the next year for its operations in Yemen.

Sudan

Bettina Luescher, for the World Food Programme (WFP), briefed on a funding crisis in Sudan where an important shortfall could have big repercussions on the ground. WFP not only provided food assistance but it also ran the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service. In Sudan, in the first six months of 2015, WFP flew 20,000 aid workers on flights to areas that were otherwise inaccessible. More than 200,000 people had been displaced in the past few months in Sudan and WFP had so far this year helped three million people.

Without the United Nations Humanitarian Aid Service, which was a real tool to get aid workers to places where people needed help, people would suffer. The Humanitarian Aid Service was totally underfunded and without US$9.9 million in financial support it would have to shut down by the end of September. That would mean that millions of people would not be able to access the aid workers who helped them. WFP was urging donors to come forward to make sure the people in Darfur and other regions could get the help they needed.

G20 Labour meeting in Turkey

Jean-Luc Martinage, for the International Labour Organization (ILO), briefed on ILO’s contribution to the meeting of G20 Labour Ministers in Turkey and alerted the press to some forthcoming ILO reports. Yesterday (Thursday, 3 September) and today a joint meeting of G20 Finance, Labour and Employment Ministers was taking place in Ankara. ILO Director-General Guy Ryder was participating in the meeting. ILO would issue a press release later today summarizing its contributions, including three technical reports prepared respectively in partnership with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Bank and the International Monitory Fund (IMF). The reports outlined a number of ways to boost growth and promote jobs.

Mr. Martinage noted that an ILO report on the latest global unemployment rates would be published later this month, and a report on youth unemployment would be issued in October.

Forest products markets in the UNECE region

Jean Rodriguez, for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), said the UNECE/FAO Forest Products Annual Market Review 2014 to 2015 was released today, showing that forest products markets in the UNECE region were still experiencing uneven improvement after the 2008 crisis. The 56 countries of the UNECE region hosted 41.4 per cent of the world’s forests, produced some 58 per cent of world’s industrial roundwood (raw materials), and represented 70 per cent of the world's total exports of raw logs. The Review found that the general condition of forest product markets in the UNECE region had continued to improve in North America and Europe in 2014, driven by positive economic developments, upward trends in housing and construction, and increasing consumption of roundwood and wood products. More information can be found in the press release, said Mr. Rodriguez.

The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog040915