Refugees Locked up in Jordan Camp
Some 8,500 Syrian refugees are being held in a closed section of a Jordanian refugee camp, according to a report by humanitarian groups.
The refugees are locked behind barbed wire in a zone called “Village 5” in Azraq camp, which is home to some 36,000 refugees. Around 20 percent of Syrian refugees in Jordan live in camps.
Jordan set up Village 5 in 2016 to isolate and screen new Syrian arrivals for links to militants. “The screening process has proven long, tedious, opaque and irregular,” and residents are “increasingly desperate, unsure of what lies ahead,” said the report by the Jordan INGO Forum, a coalition of 60 organizations.
The report said the forced transfer of Syrians from elsewhere in Jordan to Village 5 – 979 Syrians were taken there during 2017 – raises “increasing concerns of the area’s use as a detention facility.” The groups called on Jordan to allow refugees free movement in the country.
Human Rights Watch: 3,000 Homes Demolished in Mogadishu Camps
Somali forces razed around 3,000 shelters in displacement camps and informal settlements in the capital in the past month, according to satellite imagery analyzed by Human Rights Watch.
Some 2.1 million people are internally displaced in the country due to conflict and drought. The mass evictions since December 29 have left thousands homeless, according to the human rights group. The Norwegian Refugee Council documented more than 153,000 evictions in Somalia last year.
Displaced families told Human Rights Watch their homes were demolished without warning, leaving them without water or shelter. The Somali government has pledged to investigate after an outcry by aid groups.
Refugee Dinghy Rescued in the Adriatic Sea
An Italian fishing boat found a boat of refugees floating in the Adriatic Sea and brought them to shore in Montenegro.
The small dinghy was carrying 11 Syrians, two Moroccans, two Yemenis, an Afghan and a Pakistani. Among them were four children. Their departure point was not clear.
Very few refugee boats have made their way up the Adriatic, with most reaching Greece or southern Italy first.
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