South Sudan Is ‘World’s Fastest Growing Refugee Crisis’
With 1.6 million South Sudanese displaced from their homes in the past eight months due to famine, drought and conflict, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) is raising concerns about the accelerating crisis.
“A famine produced by the vicious combination of fighting and drought is now driving the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis,” UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch told reporters.
Uganda currently hosts about 800,000 of the displaced. An average of 2,800 refugees per day have arrived in the country this month.
A total of 332,000 South Sudanese have fled to Sudan, according to the Sudan Tribune. Over 35,000 refugees arrived in the first three months of 2017, exceeding both projections and available resources.
New Agreement Between Libya and Italy to Thwart Migration
Italy and Libya will sign a new agreement worth 800 million euros for “joint, rapid-response, decisive operations to prevent thousands of people from risking their lives to reach North Africa and Europe,” according to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The agreement is primarily devised to control the central Mediterranean influx and prevent migrants from leaving Libyan shores.
The Libyan government, led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, has asked for “ships, helicopters, off-road vehicles, cars, ambulances, operations rooms and equipment” to effectively patrol its waters, according to the report.
But the training of Libyan coast guards has proven challenging, according to Defense News. European rescue vessels patrolling the waters close to the Libyan coast reported that the Libyan coast guards may have been trying to “sell engines to the traffickers, making them complicit in a traffic they are meant to be halting.”
More Refugees Expected in Canada; Half of Canadians Favor Deportation
The Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council has stated that it expects to receive at least a thousand application claims from asylum seekers entering Canada through irregular means this year.
According to the faith-based group, many of the refugees are entering from Minnesota in the U.S., while citing fears over the anti-immigration sentiments of the Trump government.
But 48 percent of Canadians support the deportation of migrants and asylum seekers entering the country “illegally,” due to security reasons, according to a recent Reuters poll.
Recommended Reads:
- Deutsche Welle: What You Need to Know About the Refugee Crisis in the Mediterranean
- Maine Public: Along Syria-Jordan Border, Refugees Struggle at a Camp Aid Workers Can’t Visit
- UNHCR: UNHCR Concerned About Returns of Nigerian Refugees From Cameroon
- VOA News: East Africa Summit to Focus on Refugees, Food Concerns
- Journal Advocate: Colorado Refugees: A New Beginning