Geneva, 10 August 2018 (IOM)*–Between January and July 2018, IOM, the UN Migration Agency, safely returned 10,950 stranded migrants from Libya through its Voluntary Humanitarian Return (VHR) Programme as the number of detainees in the country rose alarmingly.
A migrant mother and child get ready to board IOM’s first VHR charter from Zintan, Libya. File photo: IOM 2018
The majority of the migrants, 9,636, returned home to countries in Central and West Africa on IOM charter flights. A group of 325 people returned to East Africa and the Horn of Africa, and the remainder to North Africa and Asia.
Nearly 64 million young people are unemployed, and one in four youth are not in employment, education or training.
This is without taking into account underemployment and the challenges of survival in the informal economy, which is the situation of many young people.
The world’s young people need safe spaces – both physical and digital – where they can “freely express their views” and “pursue their dreams” was the core message of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to mark this year’s International Youth Day.
World Bank/Roxana Bravo | Students from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, about half of whom are orphans and former street children and about one-third girls, play their instruments. | Photo from UN News.
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“The hopes of the world rest on young people,” said the UN chief on 10 August 2018, in advance of the official Day, which is celebrated annually on 12 August. “Peace, economic dynamism, social justice, tolerance – all this and more, today and tomorrow, depends on tapping into the power of youth,” he added.
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.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 