Geneva, 20 March 2020 (IOM)*– As the world confronts the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Network on Migration salutes the immense efforts to date to combat this crisis and urges that all – including migrants regardless of their migratory status – are included in efforts to mitigate and roll back this illness’s impact.
To that end, migrants must be seen as both potential victims and as an integral part of any effective public health response. It is particularly important that all authorities make every effort to confront xenophobia, including where migrants and others are subject to discrimination or violence linked to the origin and spreading of the pandemic.
COVID-19 does not discriminate, and nor should our response, if it is to succeed.
20 March 2020 (World Meteorological Organization)* – Flash floods cause more than 5,000 deaths worldwide annually, exceeding any other flood-related event. They have enough power to change the course of rivers, bury houses in mud, and sweep away or destroy whatever is on their path.
The protests began on Tuesday [17 March 2020] and reached on Wednesday other Brazilian cities and communities.
ultra-right-wing President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro. | Photo: EFE (Photo posted here fromteleSUR).
19 March 2020 (teleSUR)* — For the second day in a row, ultra-right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro was the subject of protests in several Brazilian cities, local media reported Wednesday [18 March 2020].
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 20 2020 (IPS)* – The devastating spread of the deadly coronavirus across every continent– with the exception of Antarctica– has triggered a conspiracy theory on social media: what if the virus was really a biological weapon?
And more specifically, was it an experimental weapon that accidentally escaped from a laboratory in China? Or as others contend, is it a weapon surreptitiously introduced to de-stabilize a country with more than 1.4 billion people and described as the world’s second largest economy, after the United States.
19 March 2020 (UN Environment)* — When you see a new car, you might think of the speed it can attain, the sound system on offer, the upholstery, or its range, if electric. But have you ever stopped to think about the greenhouse gas emissions created by its manufacture—including mining the metals and moulding the plastics that go into its construction?
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In the transport sector, one way to reduce greenhouse gases is to use fewer and recycled materials—a process experts call “material efficiency”.
United Nations Network on Migration
