'Unseen' News and Views
(UN News)* — Life is rapidly being choked out of northern Gaza. After enduring nearly five months of bombing, starvation, illness, pain and suffering, many of the last survivors have finally had enough, according to some of the displaced who have been speaking to UN News.
Geneva/ Berlin, 6 March 2024 (IOM)* -– At least 8,565 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2023, making it the deadliest year on record, according to data collected by IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.
The 2023 death toll represents a tragic increase of 20 per cent compared to 2022, highlighting the urgent need for action to prevent further loss of life.
“As we mark the Missing Migrants Project’s ten years, we first remember all these lives lost. Every single one of them is a terrible human tragedy that reverberates through families and communities for years to come,” said IOM Deputy Director General Ugochi Daniels.
UNICEF’s Appeal: Children in Gaza need life-saving support
(UNICEF)* — The escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip is having a catastrophic impact on children and families. Children are dying at an alarming rate – thousands have been killed and thousands more injured.
Around 1.7 million people in the Gaza Strip are estimated to have been internally displaced – half of them children. They do not have enough access to water, food, fuel and medicine. Their homes have been destroyed; their families torn apart.
(UN News)* — A senior official with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has appealed for wider and safer humanitarian access in Gaza, where malnourished babies are slowly dying while the world watches.
At least 10 children have died from dehydration and malnutrition at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north in recent days, according to reports.
Ms. Khodr warned that “there are likely more children fighting for their lives” in one of the few remaining hospitals in the enclave, and perhaps even more in the north who cannot access care at all.
(UN News)* — The Gaza conflict “is also a war on women”, who continue to suffer its devastating impacts, the UN agency championing gender equality has said.
UN Women estimated that 9,000 women have been reportedly killed by Israeli forces since the war erupted nearly five months ago. However, the figure is likely to be higher as many more are reported dead under the rubble.
“While this war spares no one, UN Women data shows that it kills and injures women in unprecedented ways,” the agency said in a press release issued late on Friday [].
Libya, 2 FEBRUARY 2024 (IOM)* –– In 2021, Owehidi – a father of three – set out from Bangladesh to Libya, seeking to secure a better income to help his family. He eventually settled in the city of Derna where he worked as a butcher. He was warmly welcomed into the tightly knit and mutually supportive community of Bangladeshi migrant workers.
Gaps in Repayment Program; Wage Theft Still Rampant
(Beirut) – Representatives of two construction companies in Saudi Arabiaannounced recently that migrant workers will get their long overdue unpaid wages, but gaps in the repayment scheme puts the payments at risk, Human Rights Watch said on 29 February 2024.
(UN News)* — The “carnage” in Gaza has left more than 30,000 dead and must end immediately, UN rights chief Volker Türk told the Human Rights Council on Thursday [], after almost five months of constant Israeli bombardment and mass displacement in the enclave, prompted by Hamas-led attacks.
How can I hold the knowledge of unspeakable horrors happening far away and not explode inside?
D.R. Congo
How can I sit in my modest but comfortable home, refrigerator well stocked, knowing what unbearable suffering is being inflicted on my brothers and sisters in the human family and not run raging through the streets screaming Stop! Stop!?
How can I hold the knowledge of my own so-called government, via named and nameless maleficent megalomaniacs, facilitating unspeakable horrors far away and not take the first flight to my nation’s capital and hurl buckets of blood at the White House?
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 