One of the largest population movements in Latin American history is under way from Venezuela, according to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, which on 10 August 2018 confirmed that it is increasing assistance to neighbouring Ecuador, where more and more Venezuelans are arriving each week.
UNHCR/Paul Smith | Venezuelan refugees and migrants at a shelter on the outskirts of Cúcuta, Colombia. Currently there is an influx of Venezuelans entering Ecuador, through the Colombian border.
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Amid ongoing social and political upheaval in the South American country, more than half a million people have arrived in Ecuador since the beginning of the year, UNHCR’s William Spindler said.
“The exodus of Venezuelans from the country is one of Latin America’s largest mass-population movements in history,” he added.
11 August 2018 (Wall Street International)*– Throughout recorded history, humans have been a tribal species, whether nomadic or local. It is your tribe with whom you travel, identify and to whom you come home. Sometimes you fight for them against other tribes.
The Internet has changed all that and, in a cultural moment, we are perhaps in the most significant paradigm shift since amphibious creatures walked out of the water.
In a second, anyone can be connected to anyone, friend or stranger, on the planet.
The figure does not include “human losses resulting from deaths or the loss of human competences and skilled labor due to displacement.”
An internally displaced woman sits outside a tent in Idlib province, Syria, July 30, 2018. | Photo: Reuters | Photo from teleSur.
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8 August 2018 (teleSUR)* – Seven years of relentless conflict in Syria have wreaked destruction that the United Nations said Wednesday [8 August 2018] has cost the country close to US$400 billion.
10 August 2018 (UN Environment)* — Rakhi Goswami sits on a carpet on the floor of a small classroom in Delhi, India. The learning centre is situated near one of the largest landfill sites in the country. Surrounded by a group of children painting plastic bottles in bright colors and making waste into decorations, she explains her work. She helps children build their dreams, instead of picking through landfill trash.
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Georgina Smith / UN Environment
“Some children don’t know about studies. We make them aware, so they complete higher education. They are doing their best,” she says.
The 24-year-old teacher supports children from Delhi’s largest rubbish dumps as part of the “No Child in Trash” programme of the Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group.
MOSCOW, 10 August 2018 (Sputnik)*– The UK government should abandon net migration target in favor of ensuring that migrants who come to the United Kingdom contribute to the country’s economy, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said.
“Drop the net migration target and replace it with a system that increases control by ensuring that people coming to the UK make a positive contribution to the economy,” the organization said Thursday [9 August] in its report.
The CBI proposed reforming the Controlling Migration Fund for schools and hospitals to have extra funding to cope with any challenges posed by immigration.
Refugee youth are seldom consulted and frequently overlooked. Their potential remains largely untapped.
Elizabeth Kuach, 16, and Mary Aduol, 18, stand outside NRC’s youth center in Gordhim, South Sudan. Elizabeth and Mary are studying full-time, learning basic numeracy and literacy as well as vocational skills such as baking, carpentry, and agriculture. “We learn something new every day,” said Mary Aduol. Photo by David Belluz/NRC
9 August 2018 (The Norwegian Refugee Council)* – Refugee youth are seldom consulted, frequently overlooked, and often unable to fully participate in decision making.
Their talents, energy, and potential remain largely untapped, according to a report from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC).
9 August 2018 (The Norwegian Refugee Council)* – Colombia’s indigenous population has been among those most heavily affected by the 50-year conflict in the country. Even now, the peace is fragile, and many are still forced to flee.
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This woman is part of the Embera indigenous community. In October 2017, more than thousand members of this group were forced to flee due to violence and murder in the Chocó region in western Colombia. Photo: Ana Karina Delgado Diaz/The Norwegian Refugee Council
The Colombian government and the armed group FARC-EP entered into a peace agreement in 2016, but still there is armed conflict in the country. Some places, the fighting has intensified after FARC-EP laid down their weapons.
Aid access to embattled Syrians may soon improve following recent military gains by the Government, but the war “cannot be allowed to go to Idlib,” the head of the UN’s Humanitarian Task Force on 9 August 2018 said.
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UNHCR/Andrew McConnell | Manar, 13, sits in a truck that will take her to work a second shift in a nearby potato field, in Fayda tented settlement, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, on 5 June 2014. Manar fled Idlib with her family in 2011.
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Speaking in Geneva, Jan Egeland confirmed that fighting in the south-west had largely ended and that Syria’s last remaining sieges — in the Shia towns of Foah and Kefraya — have also been lifted.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on 9 August 2018 condemned an air strike by pro-Yemini Government coalition forces, which killed scores of children who were on board a bus travelling through a busy market area in the northern province of Saada.
UNICEF/Clarke for UNOCHA | A student stands in the ruins of one of his former classrooms, which was destroyed in June 2015, at the Aal Okab school in Saada, Yemen. Students now attend lessons in UNICEF tents nearby.
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While the exact death toll remains to be confirmed, initial news reports indicate that the number of casualties could be well above 60, with dozens severely injured. Most of the children were reported to be aged between 10 and 13.
NEW YORK, 9 August 2018 (UNICEF)* – “The horrific attack on a bus in Sa’ada, Yemen, reportedly killing and maiming scores of children, marks a low point in the country’s brutal war.
UNICEF/UN0188083/Mohammed
The question now is whether it will also be a turning point – the moment that must finally push the warring parties, UN Security Council and international community to do what’s right for children and bring an end to this conflict.
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