'Unseen' News and Views
Previously stateless, Nazgul Avaz Kyzy, 22, is now a full citizen of Kyrgyzstan and able to work legally at a local café. © UNHCR/Chris de Bode
In a ceremony this morning in the capital, Bishkek, 50 previously stateless people, including 15 children, were issued with birth certificates and passports, making them citizens. They are the last known stateless people in Kyrgyzstan and will now have the same rights as any other citizen.
African migrants in Libya. Libya is one of the main departure points for African migrants, fleeing poverty and war, to try to reach Italy by boat. Some 3,800 migrants and refugees are held in government-run detention centres in Tripoli and elsewhere in Libya in what human rights groups and the U.N. say are often inhuman conditions. A military strike on a detention centre for migrants in Libya claimed dozens of lives on Tuesday. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS.
A few Democratic Party lawmakers and presidential hopefuls attempted to visit a privately-run immigration detention camp for children on Wednesday, June 26, 2019. The site in Homestead, Florida is but one on a list of overcrowded and dangerously unhealthy facilities around the country. After each official failed to gain entry, they took the opportunity to interview protestors calling for the camp’s closure. | Español
Overcrowding of families observed by OIG on June 11, 2019, at Border Patrol’s Weslaco, TX, Station. Faces were digitally obscured by OIG. | Source | Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General |Public Domain | This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.
Tripoli, 4 July 2019 (IOM)* – An airstrike on Tajoura detention centre in Libya late Tuesday [2July 2019] night killed at least 44 migrants and injured more than 130 others including some registered with IOM’s Voluntary Humanitarian Return (VHR) programme, several of whom were scheduled to return home in the coming days.
IOM medical staff assist survivors of Tuesday night’s Tajoura detention centre bombing. Photo: IOM
“Innocent lives were lost in the attack on Tuesday night, and immediate action is needed from all sides,” said IOM Libya Chief of Mission Othman Belbeisi.
After nationwide protests across Sudan on Sunday, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday [3 July 2019] called on Sudanese authorities to lift restrictions on the internet and launch independent investigations into all acts of violence against demonstrators, and allegations of excessive force, including attacks on hospitals.
3 July 2019 — Marginalized communities in Myanmar still face “grievous human rights violations” at the hands of security forces, a UN-appointed independent expert said this week, while repeating her call for an international and independent probe into the 2017 exodus from Rakhine state.
A missile attack on a detention centre in Tripoli that killed scores of migrants and refugees “deserves more than condemnation”, UN agencies said on Wednesday [3 July 2019], as both the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the head of the UN mission in Libya (UNSMIL), insisted that it may amount to a war crime.
Geneva, 3 July 2019 (IOM/UNHCR)* – The appalling toll in injuries and lives from Tuesday night’s attack east of Tripoli at the Tajoura Detention Centre speaks to the deep concerns, expressed repeatedly¸ by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, over the safety of people in detention centres.
The aftermath of Tuesday night’s attack at the Tajoura Detention Centre, east of Tripoli which resulted in significant loss of life. Photo: IOM/ Moad Laswed
Photo from Norwegian Refugee Council.
1 July 2019 (Norwegian Refugee Council)* — “At 4:30 am on July 1st, military units moved into several camps in Arsal and demolished at least 20 homes.
The presence of soldiers in those camps at dawn, and the demolition of homes with heavy machinery is a traumatizing event witnessed by families who had already lost everything.
We fear that this is the start and more demolitions will take place tomorrow.
– How effective is the global war on drugs?
The latest statistics released by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are staggering: 35 million people across the globe currently have a substance use disorder, and as of 2017, 585,000 people have died worldwide as a result of drug use.
According to a recently-released UNODC report, the lack of proficient drug treatment and facilities for those that need it is impacting mortality rates at alarming levels.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 