REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Alessandra Vellucci, Director, United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons for the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Health Organization, the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.

Syria

On behalf of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Ms. Vellucci announced that yesterday, the second part of a two-part inter-agency convoy was delivering life-saving humanitarian assistance comprised of food, health, nutrition and non-food items for 40,000 people in Al-Waer, Homs province. The delivery would complete assistance for 75,000 people in the besieged neighbourhood, after the first half of the convoy, which had reached 35,000 people in need in Al-Waer, had been completed on 23 August. This was the first full, completed inter-agency cross-line convoy via road to a besieged location in August.

While the UN welcomed today’s convoy, the level of access to besieged areas in August was wholly unacceptable. Much more progress was required to reach all besieged and hard-to-reach areas considering the very high level of needs. The UN continued to call for unconditional, unimpeded and sustained access to the millions of people in besieged and hard-to-reach locations across Syria.

In response to a question, Jessy Chahine, for the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria (OSE), said that the Office was making no comments at this stage on the Syrian political process, as it was linked to discussions underway between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. On Aleppo, the UN was working day and night on the preparation of its humanitarian mission and awaiting the concurrence by all parties in order to make sure that the UN humanitarian mission could move towards Aleppo, both east and west. Regarding Darayya, the UN was aware of the current situation and was following it hour by hour. The UN team was discussing with the Syrian authorities how they could assist the people in Darayya in this very difficult moment. However, the UN was not involved in the negotiations between the Syrian Government and the local representatives. The UN was always ready to assist the people of Darayya, depending on their own wishes, and whether they would like to be evacuated or not.

Ms. Chahine would keep the press posted on whether or not Mr. de Mistura would meet with Messrs. Kerry and Lavrov and would update the press on any media opportunities should they arise.

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that IOM was delivering supplies to Aleppo under the “Whole of Syria” programme. On 22 August, despite security precautions one truck carrying IOM aid had been targeted, destroying the cargo of humanitarian supplies inside and injuring one aid worker. Security risks remained high, and this was one of several such incidents which had affected IOM deliveries around the world over the past few months.

Greece

Sarah Crowe, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that she had just returned from Greece and that there were hundreds more children and families continuing to arrive there. August had seen an increase in the number of arrivals. There was a real sense of refugee families just waiting, waiting for asylum, waiting to reunify with their families, waiting for proper schooling. Children were facing a double crisis, being stranded in Greece, not being able to move on, and now have growing education and health needs that needed to be met. On the cusp of the back-to-school period, UNICEF was making a strong effort to put in place proper learning facilities, and has been supporting learning and recreational activities for children in Skaramangas camp, near Athens, and will be providing 11 container classrooms. The most effective tool at a time like this for children in limbo, stranded and exposed to risks, was to give children a sense of stability and get them children back into the routine of learning, of classroom work and of activities, and to give them a sense of a future.

There was a real momentum for those who were there, with some children trying to learn Greek instead of German. In terms of nationalities, a much more mixed group was seen in August than previously, although the majority were still Syrian, Afghans and Iraqis. Some 38 to 40 per cent of those currently in Greece were children, and 2,250 of them were unaccompanied, with concerns around their exploitation. There was a critical need to get them into school and learning. It was harder for the older children who had lost many years of school, and many may not be able to be mainstreamed into a curriculum, which is why for them it was more a case of life-skills training, with efforts underway with different partners. Some families were accepting that they would be there for the long-term, with the need to meet their children’s long-term needs.

In response to questions, Ms. Crowe said that almost 27,500 children were currently stranded in Greece. In July, 1,920 people had arrived in Greece, and 2,289 in August as of 24 August, so more people had arrived in the first three weeks of August than during the entire month of July. In July, about a third of the arrivals had been children. Between June, July and August the current estimate of the number of arriving children was around 1,500, but the August figures on children were not yet in. This new influx was coming at a time when Greece was trying to cope with significant economic and public service challenges. Public services were overwhelmed, and the Greek Government was trying to integrate some of the children into Greek schools. From what she saw in the Skaramagas refugee camp, Ms. Crowe noted that there was a great hunger for learning and for activities, and deep frustration. Some of the unaccompanied children were in open shelters where they could come and go, but they are being preyed upon and were very vulnerable and exposed to exploitation and abuse which is why solutions need to be found for them early – getting them learning and active and most importantly reunifying them with families elsewhere in Europe when in their best interests. UNICEF asks that reunification processes for children, especially unaccompanied, are accelerated – three months maximum.

In response to a question, William Spindler for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that UNCHR was following closely the evolution of the situation as part of the EU-Turkey agreement or ‘statement’. The number of arrivals was fluctuating but remained very small compared to 2015 and early 2016. It was necessary to ensure preparations for any contingency. UNHCR had asked Greece and other countries to be prepared, but needed to work for the situation to stabilize. Although UNHCR had had some concerns about the agreement at the beginning, there was no plan B, no other alternative. UNHCR was worried that if the situation changed, we could see again similar scenes to those seen in the past year, including widespread suffering and deaths at sea. So far, the number of people relocated had been very small. In September 2015, the EU Member States had agreed to relocated 160,000 asylum seekers out of Greece, Italy and other countries. In the case of Greece, 66,400 people were to be relocated. As of 17 August, 12,440 places for asylum seekers had been made available by 24 EU countries out of the 160,000. So far, as of 17 August, 3,977 asylum seekers only had been relocated, of those 961 out of Italy and 3,016 out of Greece. The commitments made by the EU were not being lived up to. An estimated 58,453 asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants were still in Greece, which was a relatively small number which the EU could easily deal with, given its resources. The relocation programme needed to take off, as the numbers had been very disappointing so far.

Some 270,000 arrivals by sea had been recorded in Europe in 2016 so far, including 162,000 to Greece and just over 100,000 to Italy. Those countries were still receiving large numbers of people and it was becoming increasingly difficult for those migrants and refugees to get out of Greece and Italy, who could not deal with the situation on their own. The crisis was not over. The situation had improved dramatically but people were still in need of protection and refugees were still fleeing Syria. The cause of displacement was still there. Europe could not be complacent.

Mr. Millman said that on 25 August IOM had been part of a relocation of 160 asylum-seekers from Greece to France, as part of the EU’s relocation programme. The group included 128 Syrians, 30 Iraqis and 2 stateless individuals. There had been 93 men, 67 women and 53 minors.

IOM Greece had reported that since the start of the programme in November 2015, 3,386 asylum seekers had been relocated from Greece and another 548 persons were booked for relocation within the coming weeks, mostly Syrians and Iraqis who had arrived in Greece between September 2015 and 20 March 2016.

The total number of arrivals in 2016 through 24 August stood at 105,342 to Italy 162,730 to Greece, as well as much smaller numbers to Cyprus and Spain. Total arrivals for 2016 stood at 270,576. Out of the arrivals to Greece, over 150,000 had arrived before 20 March. The strong reduction in arrivals was giving Europe an opportunity to be creative in the ways to integrate the arrivals and cope with this emergency.

Libya

Mr. Millman spoke about a new report on IOM’s assisted voluntary return programme from Libya since the start of the Arab Spring and the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi. The number of assisted voluntary returns was approaching 11,000 over the last five years, including 241 Nigerian nationals who had been taken from Tripoli on 23 August and returned to Nigeria. Nigerians were among the largest groups coming by sea to Italy, with 40,824 arrivals from the beginning of 2015 through the end of July 2016. Some 1,624 Nigerians had been relocated since the beginning of the crisis on 2011. The flights were leaving more often than once a month, and two were scheduled for the first week of September.

Iraq

Mr. Millman said that preparations were underway for what was expected to be an enormous emergency in Mosul. Mr. Millman had spoken to the IOM Head of Operations, Mohammed Abdiker, who was currently in Geneva, about this being probably the first time in history that so many humanitarian agencies had been waiting for so long for a battle of that scale. It was perhaps comparable to the end of the Congo civil war or the assault against Idi Amin in Uganda in the 1980s, but the scale was still greater. Up to 2 million people could be exposed to danger and there was concern that not enough had been prepared, with not enough supplies ready or reachable. Mr. Abdiker could be available for interviews in Geneva in the coming week.

Yellow fever vaccination campaign

Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), gave an update on the yellow fever vaccination campaign underway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Angola. In Kinshasa, just short of 7 million people had been vaccinated, which represented approximately 91 per cent of the target population. In Angola, 2.1 million people (72 per cent of the target population) had been vaccinated.

UNDP Africa Human Development Report: Gender inequality

Sarah Bel, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said that UNDP would launch its 2016 Africa Human Development Report on 28 August in Nairobi. The report would be under embargo until 28 August, 2 p.m. East African time. The report focused on gender equality and women’s empowerment in Africa, and argued that Africa would not meet its development aspirations if it couldn’t close the gender gap. Findings showed that gender inequality in the labour market alone cost Sub-Saharan Africa USD almost 105 billion in 2014. Closing the gender gap would not only put Africa on a double-digit economic growth track, but would also significantly contribute to meeting the SDGs. The situation for women in Africa had been getting better, and the report stressed a number of achievements in that field. The report pinpointed the need to accelerate gender equality as much more could be done, with a strong positive impact on human development in general.

With political commitment, African leaders could address gender inequalities, and the report offered concrete recommendations and policy frameworks. Ms. Bel said that she could connect the journalists with the UNDP chief economist or UNDP’s bureau Director for Africa.

Global migrants deaths - correction

Mr. Millman clarified that in the data briefing “Global Migration - Dangerous Journeys” released on 23 August, there had been a mathematical discrepancy which had been corrected. There had been a 28 per cent increase in migrant deaths and disappearances recorded by the Missing Migrants Project in the first six months of 2016 compared with the same period in 2015, not 23 per cent as previously reported.

Geneva Events and Announcements

Isabelle Valentiny, for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), announced a press conference on 30 August at 9.15 a.m. in Press Room 1 with the newly appointed UNEP Executive Director, Erik Solheim. During his first visit to Geneva on 30 August, Mr. Solheim would present to the accredited journalists his priorities for the UN Environment Programme and the areas he had identified as being critical to address current environmental challenges, such as sustainable cities, oceans, biodiversity, finance and climate and migration. Mr. Solheim's presentation would be followed by a Q&A session. Prior to joining UNEP, Mr. Solheim had been the Chair of the Development Assistance Committee at the OECD, and before that, Minister of International Development, then Minister of the Environment in Norway, for a total of seven years. He was also an experienced peace negotiator and had acted as the main facilitator for the peace process in Sri Lanka from 1998 to 2005.

Mr. Lindmeier announced that two WHO Emergency Committees would meet the following week. A virtual Emergency Committee meeting on yellow fever would take place on 31 August at 1 p.m., with a press conference at 8 p.m. The Emergency Committee on Zika would meet on 1 September at 2 p.m., and there would be a virtual press briefing on 2 September at 2 p.m. All dial-in information would be sent out today.

Ms. Vellucci said that the Conference on Disarmament - the third and last part of the annual session of which would run until 16 September – would hold its next public plenary on 30 August at 10 a.m. Until the end of its session, the Conference would be presided by Ambassador Kim In-chul of the Republic of Korea.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, would close today at 3 p.m. its ninetieth session, underway at the Palais Wilson since 2 August. At the conclusion of the session, the Committee would publish its final observations on the reports presented by eight States Parties which it had reviewed: Greece, the United Kingdom, Paraguay, South Africa, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was holding its sixteenth session at the Palais Wilson until 2 September, would focus this morning and this afternoon on its draft general observations relative to Article 24 of the Convention, on inclusive education. The Committee would then hold private meetings until the end of its session, at the conclusion of which it would publish its final observations on the reports presented by seven States Parties which it had reviewed: Uruguay, Ethiopia, Bolivia, United Arab Emirates, Guatemala, Colombia and Italy.

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families would hold its twenty-fifth session starting on 29 August (opening at 10 a.m.) and ending on 7 September, at the Palais Wilson. During the session, it would review the initial reports of Honduras, Niger and Nicaragua, as well as the periodic report of Sri Lanka.

Ms. Vellucci also said that 29 August would be the International Day Against Nuclear Tests. The UN Secretary-General’s message was available, and an event would take place in New York. More information was available on the UN website.

Ms. Vellucci also said that UNIS would try to organize a briefing in Geneva ahead of the Summit on Refugees and Migrants in New York on 19 September.

The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog260816