More Than 3 Million People Displaced by Yemen Conflict
The conflict in Yemen has displaced more than 3 million people, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced in a news release on Friday.
“The crisis is forcing more and more people to leave their homes in search of safety. More than 3 million people now live in very transient and precarious situations, struggling to cover basic needs,” said Ita Schuette, UNHCR’s deputy representative in Yemen.
The latest report from the Task Force on Population Movement, an organization led by the UNHCR and IOM, said some 3,154,572 people have been uprooted by the conflict, of which 2,205,102 remain displaced across the country and some 949,470 have attempted to return home.
Displacement has increased by 7 percent since April, as some 152,009 people fled their homes during this period.
Although the report also said many are trying to return home, a 24 percent increase of some 184,491 individuals, “movements remain fluid and correlate to moments of lulls or perceived improvements in the conflict.”
Jordan Is Promised $100 Million to Educate Syrian Refugee Children
The U.S., Britain, Norway and Switzerland pledged $100 million on Monday to help Jordan enroll Syrian refugee children in school, according to the International Business Times.
Jordan enrolled 145,000 Syrian children in school during the previous academic year, but roughly 91,000 did not receive any formal education because of overcrowding.
Jordan will add a “second shift” in 102 schools to accommodate Syrian children.
Human Rights Watch also announced Jordan will now allow Syrian children to register for school even without government-issued documents, a key policy that kept many children out of the classroom.
“Jordan’s Education Ministry has taken an important step by ordering schools to accept Syrian children this fall even if they don’t have their papers in order,” said Bill van Esveld, senior children’s rights researcher at HRW. “This move advances Jordan’s significant efforts to support education for Syrian refugees.”
Austria’s Interior Minister Calls for Stripping ‘Criminal Refugees’ of Their Right to Asylum
Austria’s interior minister, Wolfgang Sobotka, said refugees who break the law should be stripped of their right to asylum in the country, according to a local Austrian newspaper.
“The question is whether someone who is a lawbreaker automatically loses their asylum status with the legal sentencing. For me, that would be a conceivable measure to consider,” he said on Monday.
Sobotka added that this proposal could apply to people who have already been granted refugee status as well as those waiting for an answer to their asylum application.
His announcement follows a recent survey that revealed 79 percent of Austrians are “very” much in agreement that refugees “who have offended [should] be quickly removed from the country.” An additional 14 percent are “probably” in agreement.
Austria’s foreign minister Sebastian Kurz has also proposed an integration plan that would offer refugees “one euro jobs” until they learn to speak German as well as a ban on full face veils, according to the Times.
Recommended Reads
- The Guardian: Is Uganda the Best Place to Be a Refugee?
- IOM: A Migrant’s Harrowing Tale About Life in Libya
- UNHCR: Rwandan Refugees Head Home After a Generation in Angola
- The Guardian: Secret Aid Worker: People Are Hungry and I Have Food That Can’t Be Delivered
- The Huffington Post: No, Syrian Refugees Have Not Caused Four Decades of Wage Stagnation
- Associated Press: Report: More Migrants Die in Mediterranean as Risks Increase