REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i. of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons for the United Nations Refugee Agency, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, International Organization for Migration, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, World Intellectual Property Organization, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, World Food Programme, World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization.

UN Secretary-General

Mr. Fawzi informed that the Secretary-General was in Washington, D.C. for the 2016 meeting of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. He would speak at high-level meetings on forced displacement and new financing to support the Middle East and North Africa. He would also deliver opening remarks at an event marking the partnership between the United Nations and the World Bank.

The International Criminal Court, based at The Hague, was being moved to a new building constructed by the Dutch Government. The Secretary-General would be there on 19 April to attend the official opening ceremony of the permanent premises of the Court, and on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the International Court of Justice. The Secretary-General would meet high-level Dutch officials, including the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and Members of Parliament.

Geneva activities and press conferences

Asked on any planned Syria-related events at the Palais des Nations over the weekend, Mr. Fawzi stated that no events were envisioned for the time being. He informed that there was a cut-off point for any Syria-related events at 8 p.m.; after that time in the day, no television or interpretation services by the UN would be provided. Mr. Fawzi also informed that the tent close to the Press Bar would be removed from the parking lot.

Mr. Fawzi informed that Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, Special Envoy for Yemen, would brief the Security Council today at 3 p.m. New York Time (9 p.m. Geneva time). The briefing would be webcast live at webtv.un.org.

The United Nations Office at Geneva and the United Nations Institute of Training and Research were organizing another event in the Geneva Lecture Series, featuring the Tunisian Quartet, the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Winner. The event would take place in Room XX on 21 April at 4 p.m. The Quartet would hold a press conference in Press Room III, at 2:30 p.m. the same day. They would be joined by Ghassan Salamé, Professor Emeritus of Science Po in Paris and a former Lebanese Minister of Culture.

The Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers this morning was reviewing the report of Turkey. After Mauritania, Lesotho and Senegal (all reviewed this week), Turkey’s was the last report in the current session. The Committee would then meet in private until the closure of the session, scheduled for 22 April.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would now mainly meet in private until the closure of its session on 21 April. On 19 April, it would hold a full day of public general discussion on the right to independent living and to be included in the community.

The Committee against Torture would start its fifty-seventh session on 18 April, during which it would examine the reports of France, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Philippines and Israel.

Mr. Fawzi informed of two events taking place at the UN Library: on 21 April at 1 p.m. there would be a talk by Tracey Curtis-Taylor, an exceptional aviator and adventurer; and on 22 April at 1:30 p.m. the film “The Aviatrix” would be screened.

Edward Harris, for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), announced a conference on the global digital content market on 21 and 22 April 2016. Speakers included WIPO Director General Francis Gurry, United States Senator Christopher Dodd, tech pioneer Jaron Lanier, and many others. Panellists included Grammy Award Winners, business leaders and top executives. Mr. Harris added that before the opening on 20 April at night, there would be a screening of the movie Burnt by the Sun by the famous Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov, who would also be among the panellists.

Mr. Fawzi informed that on 15 April at 11.30 a.m. in Press Room III, a World Health Organization briefing would take place on the outcomes from the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization Meeting. The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization had met between 12 and 14 April 2016. Anticipated topics included recommendations on the use of the Dengue vaccine, polio, and addressing missed opportunities in vaccination. The speaker would be Dr. Jon Abramson, Chair of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) and Professor in the Department of Paediatrics, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, United States of America.

Jessica Hermosa, for the World Trade Organization (WTO), informed that in a Goods Council’s meeting this afternoon, among other issues, Japan would be raising its concern over India’s import restriction, and Ukraine would be airing its concerns over Russia’s trade restriction, regarding a food embargo. Ukraine would also be undergoing a trade policy review the following week.

Ms. Hermosa highlighted three meetings from the following week’s agenda. First, there could be possible developments at the Disputes Settlement Body regarding the United States-India solar panel dispute. The United States complained against India’s import policy which had affected imported solar panels. The decision would be presented for formal adoption. The United States would also report on its compliance to an extensive dispute that had been issued in favour of China. The deadline to comply with the ruling was 1 April. Also, the European Union, Japan and the United States would be questioning India on its 10-percent duties on certain information technology products. Finally, the least developed countries were to raise a discussion on how to follow up with the Nairobi December decision, which had been supposed to make it easier for their products to qualify for trade preferences.

The following week, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo would meet with Ministers of Cote d’Ivoire, Russia, Vanuatu and the Director-General of Consumers International.

Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said that the E-commerce Week would begin on 18 April 2016. Mr. Lijun Sun, Vice-President of Alibaba, would give a keynote speech on E-commerce for Rural Development from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Palais des Nations. He would also speak at an afternoon event "Entrepreneurs Empowering Entrepreneurs through E-commerce and E-services" from 3 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. The talk would cover the issue of women who came to cities after having developed their business and then returning to the rural zone.

In the beginning of the afternoon on 18 April, Mr. Ibrahim Diagne, African Alliance for E-Commerce, and Mr. Usman Ahmed, PayPal, would speak about electronic business and online economics. Subjects such as cyber-criminality, personal data protection would also be addressed. Ms. Huissoud said that some sessions would be organized by the World Trade Organization, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Swedish Government.

Syria

On the question of incidents happening along the border between the Turkish-Syrian border, William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), responded that the situation was very worrying. UNHCR was not in the position to confirm or deny if Syrian refugees trying to cross the 900-km long border with Turkey were being shot at. The Turkish authorities were asked to provide details on the allegations that refugees had indeed been shot at while crossing the border. Mr. Spindler stressed that Turkey had received more refugees than any other country in the world, which had to be borne in mind. On the other hand, the UNHCR had expressed concern over the European Union-Turkey deal and the lack of safeguards. The main thing was that people would have access to protection in Turkey, where the asylum system would still need strengthening.

On the question of using the military airport in Deir ez-Zour to deliver aid to civilians, Bettina Luescher, for the World Food Programme (WFP), reiterated that the area was besieged by ISIS. In order for charter planes to operate safely, they could do so only at a high altitude. The risk of having planes shot down ought to be avoided; the WFP kept appealing to allow for more convoys to get in. Four million people were reached in Syria every month, but more was needed, she stressed. Over the recent days, 25,000 people had been reached with food airdrops, with an average of 10 kg of food items per family. WFP was trying to feed as many people as possible under the difficult circumstances and it did not matter who besieged the areas, as people – men, women and children – needed food and medicine. The airport in Deir ez-Zour was not being used for security reasons, and landing there would be quite dangerous.

Asked why no one outside of the airdrop areas in Deir ez-Zour had been reached in the past week, Ms. Luescher said that the UN was constantly asking to access the areas, but without receiving permission, it was impossible to go in. Requests were made by the UN team, not any separate agency. No positive answers had been received, added Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). If there was a threat to security, convoys could not move. Both approval procedures and security conditions ought to be borne in mind. The same requests made the previous week were still pending, and were being adopted and modified as the situation on the ground was changing.

Ms. Luescher, replying to a question, said that Douma was besieged by the Government forces. Without permission to drive or do airdrops there, not much could be done. Driving would be faster and easier if it was permitted. On the question whether permission had been asked from ISIS to do airdrops, Ms. Luescher stated that no permissions were deliberated with ISIS. Airdrops were done from high altitude.
Asked about the delivery of medical materials to Syria, Fadéla Chaib, for the World Health Organization (WHO), responded that for years surgical equipment had been systematically removed from WHO deliveries. As a result, more than 100,000 people had been deprived of vital medical support, she estimated. In a recent mission in rural Damascus, and then in Idlib and Homs, antibiotics and chronic disease medicine had also been crossed from the list. Such moves brought lives of many people into danger. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan was in a regular contact with the WHO local office in Damascus and the regional office in Cairo. WHO made it clear that all medicine and equipment had to be allowed in; the emphasis was placed on the absolutely necessary medicine, such as antibiotics. Ms. Chaib would request further details from the WHO representative in Damascus regarding which items were being prohibited or removed from the deliveries.

Japan earthquake

Denis McClean, for the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, said that the earthquake in Japan had come one year after the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. The previous day’s event was a clear proof of the Japanese Government’s commitment to the process, including applying building codes and informing the population. The death toll had so far been kept at nine, and thousands had been evacuated; a bullet train had been derailed, but nobody had been on board. Had Japan not been prepared so well, the number of casualties would certainly have been higher. Mr. McClean drew a contrast between the Japan earthquake and the 2015 Nepal earthquake, which had claimed 8,000 lives.

Answering a question, Mr. McClean said that every year there were more than 150 strong earthquakes, but usually they attracted attention only when they hit populated areas.

Mozambique

William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), informed that in southern Malawi, a major UNHCR-run relocation operation involving some 10,000 Mozambican asylum-seekers and aimed at improving the conditions in which they were living had begun earlier this morning.

The previous month, the Government of Malawi had authorised UNHCR to relocate the Mozambican asylum-seekers to a former camp at Luwani that had been re-opened for that purpose. The majority of the Mozambican asylum-seekers, nearly 10,000, had until now been living in overcrowded conditions in an area about 100 km south of the capital Lilongwe. Most were in the village of Kapise, close to the border with Mozambique, where heavy rains were at present making roads impassable. For that reason, UNHCR and the Government of Malawi had agreed that the transfer to Luwani would begin first with families located in the district of Nsanje. With end of the rain, the condition of the road to Kapise was expected to improve enough so that the relocations from there could begin the following week. Relocation of the 800 asylum-seekers from nearby Ckiwawa would then follow.

Mr. Spindler said that the UNHCR had over the previous three weeks conducted intention surveys in all the transit centres. A majority of the Mozambican asylum-seekers had expressed willingness to be relocated to Luwani. A few families in Kapise preferred not to relocate. UNHCR would continue to provide them with information on Luwani, where there was more land and better access to services. Since the previous December, Malawi had seen an increase in new arrivals from Mozambique, peaking at more than 250 people per day in early March. The numbers had since decreased significantly, but those who had managed to cross had informed UNHCR that they were turning to alternate routes due to increased military presence along the border. UNHCR called upon all actors to respect the right to seek asylum.

Mr. Spindler reminded that Malawi already hosted some 25,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, mostly from the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa in Dzaleka camp located some 35 km from Lilongwe. That camp was already stretched to capacity, with severely limited resources to assist refugees.

Asked whether the refugees from Mozambique were still arriving, Mr. Spindler said that the refugees were still being moved from the potentially dangerous border area deeper inland into Malawi. They were fleeing because of the fighting between the Renamo forces and the Government. Mr. Spindler stated that it was difficult to predict how the situation would evolve; until it had stabilized, people would need to be moved and protected.

Mr. Spindler informed that refugees had been saying that they had fled into Malawi because of the presence of Government soldiers looking for Renamo fighters and harassing civilians. There were military operations going on, and the UNHCR was concerned over any interference of people crossing into safety.

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), stated that an ongoing drought in central and southern Mozambique, aggravated by the El Niño phenomenon, had left 1.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. The Government had declared a red alert due to the drought and had so far provided emergency food assistance to some 315,000 affected people, with the support of the Humanitarian Country Team led by the United Nations Resident Coordinator team in-country.

The drought was affecting more than 320,000 farmers and, although there was significant rainfall in March, it was considered too late to recover the affected crops which were planted in January and had essentially dried out. One result was an increase of 100 per cent on the price of staple food in local markets. The Government had announced that it needed at least USD 180 million dollars to ensure assistance to the affected people over the next 12 months and had released USD 6.7 million to the drought response.

In support, the Central Emergency Response Fund in March had released USD 4.7 million dollars to humanitarian agencies in order to immediately provide food, nutrition, water and sanitation and agricultural and livestock support to the affected Mozambicans.

Mediterranean crossings

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), stated that over the previous three days more than 6,000 people had crossed the Mediterranean route. Fewer than 300 of those had gone to Greece, while almost all of them coming out of north Africa had gone to Sicily. That was not necessarily an indication of a shift of Syrian traffic away from Turkey into North Africa. Nonetheless, the IOM knew from 2014 that over 40,000 people from Syria had made that journey via Egypt into Libya, and it could be starting again, but there was no evidence for it yet.

Mr. Millman said that it was also important to note that this was the first month in almost two years where the death rate was less than at the same time the previous year. This year’s death count to this day in April was around 1,000 less than for the same period of 2015. That was also partly due to the fact that April 2015 had been the deadliest known month in the Mediterranean.

IOM estimated that there was a high season of twenty-six weeks ahead, and if the arrivals continued at the current rate through spring and summer, the IOM had every reason to think that arrivals to Italy in 2016 would surpass 100,000 for the third straight year. It could possibly be many more than that.

Mr. Millman also mentioned the 2.4 million internally displaced persons in Nigeria, stressing that it was important not to look it over because Nigerians were now the largest nationality coming to Italy from North Africa. Further information could be found in the press report.

Responding to a question, Mr. Millman stated that there was no evidence on the coordinated actions between smugglers from Turkey and Libya. The Libyan smugglers were very experienced and very well armed and would probably operate the way they always had. IOM had also noted that on 12 April around 100 Dominicans had come to Greece from Turkey. Dominicans could get in Turkey visa free, so some people took advantage of such provisions.

Asked about the projection for the year, Mr. Millman said that, based on the data for the first 100 days of 2016, it was realistic to expect over 100,000 arrivals to Italy this year.

On the treatment of refugees by ISIS in the areas of Libya controlled by them, Mr. Millman said that there had been cases of kidnappings of sub-Saharan Africans, who later had to pay ransom. There were no reports of ISIS forcing migrants to fight on their side.