"At the end of 2022, 108.4 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order," according to the report from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

"This represents an increase of 19 million people compared to the end of 2021 ... the largest ever increase between years according to UNHCR's statistics on forced displacement."

The UN agency's statement on the report noted that "Russia's invasion of Ukraine was the top driver of displacement in 2022. The number of refugees soared from 27,300 at the end of 2021, to 5.7 million at the end of 2022—representing the fastest outflow of refugees anywhere since World War II."

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The military offensive to root out ISIS militants from Mosul and surrounding villages will be a "huge challenge", the United Nations (UN) has said.

The UN said it expects about 1.5 million people to flee the warfare in a short amount of time.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and other humanitarian agencies - including Caritas and other Catholic groups - in Iraq are scurrying to ready preparations.

It as it is believed the US-led assault could be pushed forward as early as September. But aid groups fear they may be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers involved.

The UN that as the Mosul crisis evolves, up to 13 million people throughout Iraq may need humanitarian aid by the year's end - far larger than the Syrian crisis.

This would make the humanitarian operation in Mosul likely the single largest, most complex in the world in 2016.

Bruno Geddo, UNHCR chief for Iraq, told the US Catholic News Service that the United Nations has issued an appeal for the $284 million needed in part for the "preparation of camps ahead of the humanitarian emergency from Mosul".

He said a cluster of camps needs to be built in six locations in disputed territory.

"Not only do you have to make sure that the location is not in the direct range in the line of fire," he said, "but the terrain must be fit to build a camp."

He said safety and security screenings were top priorities as Sunni Muslims flood out of Mosul, controlled by ISIS for the past two years.

Iraqi authorities will be charged with conducting the security screenings to identify ISIS collaborators.

Source

• Catholic Herald
• AMN
• Image: Pixabay

But when Yarrie Bangurra saw the camp she was supposed to be staying in, she couldn't understand what it was her family had come to.

"It was isolated and rocky and dusty," Yarrie, now 22, says. "There were just tents and people like us who had run from the war. It got me confused. We didn't know what was happening from there.

"I was ill and I was shaking a lot. My mum thought it wasn't safe for me in this environment."

Like so many fleeing persecution throughout history, Yarrie was about to discover the journey of a refugee does not end as soon as you escape the conflict zone.

Protecting refugees like Yarrie is the core mandate of the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency originally set up in 1951 to help those waiting to return home after World War II.

Refugees are forced to flee. They have no other choice unlike most migrants who leave their homes voluntarily to improve living conditions.

To stay means risking their lives and freedoms because of conflict or persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, social or political grouping.

When Yarrie and her family fled the intense rebel fighting in Sierra Leone in the late 1990s, it was to be the start of years of hunger and hardship in neighbouring Guinea.

"I never dreamed of living in a camp," she says today. "I was thinking why, why, why? Even now I have nightmares. When I hear the word ‘camping' I get so scared and fearful even though I know it is a fun thing. Horrible things happened in that time of our lives." Continue reading

Sources

• The Guardian
• Image: news.com.au

Palau and Nauru have pledged to decriminalise homosexuality following the audit of their human rights as part of the UN Human Rights Council's (UNHRC) review. But Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea (PNG) have refused to reform their laws in the face of international criticism.

The three nations cited cultural and religious reasons for rejecting requests to amend their laws.

In response, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Pacific regional representative Matilda Bogner called Pacific laws criminalising homosexuality "an affront to principles of equality and non-discrimination". Such laws … fuel hatred and violence, in effect giving homophobia a state-sanctioned seal of approval," Bogner wrote.

Source

• Island Business
• Image: Indiaopinion.com