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Executive Summary for March 17th

We review the latest developments on refugee issues, including the International Rescue Committee’s calls for generous E.U. resettlement, more than a million asylum seekers arriving in Greece and Yemen’s 2.4 million displaced struggling for emergency aid.

Published on March 17, 2016 Read time Approx. 2 minutes

E.U. Must Resettle Half a Million Refugees in Five Years’

Calling the rate of resettling 108,000 refugees per year a “fair and achievable target” for the E.U., the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said it would be the only way to reduce current levels of migration, according to a Reuters report.

According to David Miliband, former British foreign minister and current head of the IRC, the proposal is based on the findings that the number of Syrian refugees will increase over coming years.

Warning European leaders against empowering smuggling networks, Miliband said that Europe is faced with two choices – “whether refugees come in a legal, orderly, managed way or in an illegal, disorderly, smuggler-enriching way.”

The New York-based organization, which has been supporting Syrian civilians since 2012, claims that they have reached as many as 3.3 million people with life-saving services.

IRC is both a humanitarian aid agency and a refugee resettlement network.

More Than a Million Refugees Reached Greece since 2015

“More than one million people, mostly refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, have now crossed into Greece since the start of 2015,” the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) announced on March 16.

According to UNHCR’s latest figures, “women and children now make up nearly 60 percent of sea arrivals, compared to less than 30 percent in June 2015.”

Despite Greek authorities increasing levels of support to arriving people, in the absence of concerted E.U. support, many are without shelter or basics such as clothing and food.

“Thousands are sleeping in the open without adequate reception, services, aid or information,” according to UNHCR.

Yemen’s 2.4 Million Displaced Struggle for Emergency Medical Aid

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported that its medical teams at Abs Hospital, Yemen treated at least 40 patients following two airstrikes on a marketplace on March 16.

According to a recent UNHCR report, more than 2.4 million people have been displaced by conflict, many in hard-to-reach places.

MSF reported the latest airstrikes as one of several “indiscriminate attacks”, which injured and killed women, children and the elderly.

“The people of this area have been living with insecurity for months, many have been displaced. They have gone through so much already, and this kind of violence makes them yet more vulnerable,” said Albert Stern, MSF field coordinator.

The agency has been providing medical care for people being housed in Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) camps since April 2015.

MSF hospitals have treated 31,000 war-wounded since conflict erupted in March 2015.

Recommended Reads

Top image: A young boy who lost his leg in the Yemen war uses a prosthetic limb at a government-run rehabilitation center in Sanaa, Yemen, on Saturday, March 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

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