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Posts in category Middle East

Refugee News & Updates 23/5/11

May23
2011 Written by admin

Ouattara Inaugurated As Cote d”Ivoire President

Alassane Ouattara won the presidential election in November and a mere six months later he has managed to get himself sworn in to the role as President of Cote d”Ivoire.  That’s six months in which the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo refused to leave office and refused to enter into any meaningful dialogue with Ouattara or any other intermediary nations.

Unsurprisingly the dispute soon turned violent and months of disruptive civil war began, only ending recently with the capture of Gbagbo by Ouattara’s forces.  Ouattara has the backing of the international community and will now try to commence some kind of national reconciliation process although he is well aware he only won just over half the vote.

During the conflict, hundreds of thousands of citizens were displaced, fleeing mostly across the Liberian border.  Camps there are now sheltering more than 150,000 people and it must remain a priority for the new government that these people are given the confidence to return to Cote d’Ivoire.  Internally displaced persons number as many as million and these too must be a priority.

Syrian Refugees Heading for Northern Lebanon

While the international community is quite happy to take military action against one tyrannical dictator in Libya, for some reason there is no appetite to take action against a similar tyrant in Syria.

While Syrian citizens have been emulating their Tunisian and Egyptian counterparts and protesting against undemocratic regimes, their leader President Bashar al-Assad has been using extreme military force to attempt to crush any protests.

This has led to a considerable number of refugees leaving the worst hit areas and heading for the nearest border area which is Northern Lebanon.  Although the numbers are not huge (around 4000 in total so far), the Lebanese authorities, along with the UNHCR has taken measures to make sure all those crossing are provided with shelter and food.  Many of the refugees do in fact have friends and relatives in the area with which they can stay.

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Refugee News & Updates 13/5/11

May13
2011 Written by admin

UN Offers Japan Help

It’s not often that a first world country such as Japan requires outside assistance to deal with internal problems but the recent earthquake and tsunami which struck the North of the country caused damage on a scale which even the resourceful Japanese found hard to deal with.

In fact one could argue that the the gift of 1800 solar lamps that have been distributed to the areas where rebuilding is continuing is more of a symbolic offering than an urgently needed resource.  Japan is of course quite capable of feeding, clothing and providing shelter to those of its citizens still being housed in emergency accommodation but the lamps are useful in providing light where there are still problems with electricity supply.  Temperatures in the North of the country can fall to below zero at night so it helps to have the various shelters well lit even if the power supply fails.

Israel Removed Residency For 140,000 Palestinians

This is a story that dates back some years but it appears to have emerged only recently in one or two media publications around the world.  From 1967 to 1994, around 140,000 Palestinians lost their residency permits after leaving the territories to work and study abroad.

Israel issued three year-permits for these Palestinians to leave the country across the Allenby Bridge with the option to extend the stay abroad three times for an additional year.  Importantly they were required to leave their Palestinian ID documents with Israeli authorities.  Once the permit had expired and nothing was heard from the person for the next six months, Palestinian residency was revoked.  From 1967 to 1994 some 140,000 people were affected by this law, which on the on the face of it seems to be an attempt by Israel to gradually change the demographic constitution of the Palestinian Territories.

Israel has also applied similarly harsh conditions to Palestinians who live and work in East Jerusalem – revoking their residency if they stay outside the area too long.  This rule does not apply to Israeli citizens who leave for similar amount of time.

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Refugee News & Updates 22/2/11

Feb21
2011 Written by admin

Prospects for North Africa and the Middle East

We’ve been reporting recently on the situation in North Africa with regard to the creation of refugees from those countries which have already managed to boot their unpopular leaders from office.  Tunisia was first and (mostly) economic uncertainty there has resulted in Lampedusa, the traditional destination for Tunisian refugees located between Italy and North Africa, being overwhelmed by fleeing citizens.  Egypt was next but appears to be handling the transition in a a manner acceptable to its people.

The following is a chart showing the countries across the region and the relative unhappiness with their current governments (the Unrest Index column):

What it demonstrates is that every country in the region could face problems.  Some are more likely than others – Saudi Arabia for example doesn’t yet seem set for revolution.  Noticeably  Egypt and Tunisia were not even that high on the index yet the Tunisian leader was gone in a matter of days and it didn’t take much longer in Egypt.

So with regards to refugees, how will the European Union in particular prepare itself if, one after another, these countries bordering Europe’s Southern states start to revolt.  Spain and Italy know they are in the firing line and the EU has already agreed to help Italy’s tiny Lampedusa to take the strain – but that’s just from one country.  And where will Middle Eastern refugees go?  Iranians might be able to make it Turkey but where are Yeminis going to go? Perhaps back across the Red Sea to Somalia, crossing paths with the boats bringing Somalian refugees to Yemen.

There’s a lot to think about here and even Southern Turkey may not be the safe haven fleeing Iranians may be looking for.  When you’re surrounded by strange and unstable countries – Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan – where do you run to?

The next few days, weeks and months are going to be interesting ones.

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