U.N. Drops Aid Into Rukban Border Camp by Crane
The U.N. dropped food and other aid by crane from Jordan into the Rukban camp on the Syrian border. It was the first aid delivery to some 60,000 displaced Syrians in six months.
Jordan suspended cross-border deliveries in June 2016 after a militant attack on a Jordanian border post in the area. Since then, displaced families have received intermittent deliveries of food and other basic supplies. The use of a crane drop was a compromise with Jordanian authorities.
The Rukban camp lies in an isolated border zone, where conditions are harsh, but the area provides a measure of protection to the displaced due to a deconfliction zone around the U.S. garrison in nearby Tanf.
More Than 60 Feared Drowned in Mediterranean Shipwreck
Dozens of people are believed to have drowned after a rubber dinghy carrying migrants from Libya sank in the Mediterranean Sea.
Eight hours into the crossing, water started pouring into the overcrowded dinghy and the passengers panicked and shifted to one side, causing it to deflate.
A European naval plane patrolling for smuggler boats spotted the sinking dinghy and sent the Italian coast guard. Many people were still clinging to the partially submerged boat, while a 3-year-old child was found alive, hanging onto her drowned mother.
In all, 86 people were rescued, hailing from Mali, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Senegal and Nigeria. Survivors said the boat had been carrying about 150 people and the remainder were believed to have all drowned.
Some 3,100 people drowned in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe last year, according to U.N. figures.
200,000 Salvadorans Must Leave U.S. by 2019
The Trump administration announced that it will not renew the temporary protected status of some 200,000 people from El Salvador in the U.S. after September 2019.
Salvadorans in the U.S. were granted the status after two massive earthquakes in 2001 killed more than 1,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless. It has been renewed by U.S. administrations in the years since, most recently citing the drought and bloody gang violence plaguing the country.
The Trump administration, however, argued that the country has recovered from the earthquake. The government has already revoked the temporary protected status (TPS) of smaller numbers of Haitians and Nicaraguans, set to take effect in 2019 as well.
The status allows migrants to live and work legally in the country. After it expires, they will have to leave or find another way to stay in the U.S.
El Salvador had advocated for the U.S. to extend the program. The estimated 1.35 million Salvadorans living in the U.S. send home most of the remittances that make up 17 percent of the Salvadoran economy.
The International Crisis Group warned recently that canceling the TPS of Salvadorans risked destabilizing the country. “El Salvador is simply unprepared, economically and institutionally, to receive such an influx,” the group warned.
Recommended Reads
- Stanford Social Innovation Review: Crowdsourcing Refugee Resettlement
- The Local: Refugees in Switzerland Lack the Psychological Care They Need
- VOA: Refugees, Migrants Attempt to Escape Italy on Pass of Death
- Al Jazeera: Nigerian Migrants Return From Libya Back to Square One