Dear Deeply Readers,

Welcome to the archives of Refugees Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on April 1, 2019, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on refugees and migration. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors and contributors.

We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].

Executive Summary for January 5th

We review the latest issues related to refugees, including startling estimates of the number of births in 2018 in Bangladesh’s Rohingya camps, Egypt’s human trafficking crackdown and U.S. refugee resettlement hitting historic lows under Trump.

Published on Jan. 5, 2018 Read time Approx. 2 minutes

Around 48,000 Births Expected in Rohingya Camps in 2018

Save the Children estimates that 48,000 babies will be born in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh in 2018.

“The camps have poor sanitation and are a breeding ground for diseases like diphtheria, measles and cholera, to which newborn babies are particularly vulnerable,” said the aid group’s Rachael Cummings. “This is no place for a child to be born.”

The figure is based on Save the Children’s estimate of the number of pregnant women in the camps, which shelter 868,000 refugees – of whom more than 650,000 fled Myanmar’s military crackdown in the last four months of 2017.

Around 60 percent of the newly arrived refugees are children. Bangladeshi officials told Associated Press they had identified more than 36,000 orphans among the displaced persons.

Egypt Rounds up Human Trafficking Suspects

Egypt ordered the arrest of 75 people, including government officials, as part of an investigation into human trafficking.

Authorities conducted raids across Egypt, including in Cairo and Alexandria, Al Ahram newspaper reported. The detainees included public officials, foreign nationals and Egyptian citizens.

The country’s anti-corruption authority said the arrests followed a 14-month probe that uncovered “bribery, profiting from public office, forging official documents and human trafficking.”

Egypt passed anti-trafficking legislation in 2016, imposing jail terms from three to 15 years. The crackdown has left some refugees, including many Eritreans, stuck in the country with few rights.

U.S. Refugee Resettlement Hits Historic Lows

Refugee resettlement to the United States plummeted during Donald Trump’s first year in office, government figures show.

Some 29,000 refugees were resettled in the U.S. between his January inauguration and the end of 2017, according to the State Department. This is the lowest number since records began in 2002, USA Today reported.

Over the past decade, around 60,000 refugees have been resettled in the U.S. annually – the largest number of any country in the world. In Barack Obama’s final year in office, more than 94,000 refugees were resettled in the U.S.

The Trump administration has set a refugee resettlement cap of 45,000 in 2018 and is currently battling to uphold its suspension of resettlement from 11 countries in the courts.

Recommended Reads

Suggest your story or issue.

Send

Share Your Story.

Have a story idea? Interested in adding your voice to our growing community?

Learn more
× Dismiss
We have updated our Privacy Policy with a few important changes specific to General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and our use of cookies. If you continue to use this site, you consent to our use of cookies. Read our full Privacy Policy here.