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Tag: Refugees

  • Don’t evict Nigerian refugees, UN tells Cameroon

    The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed grave concerns over plans by Cameroon to evict thousands of Nigerian refugees to Borno.

    UNHCR said it deplored the reported move that Cameroon was forcing several thousand Nigerians to return to Borno, adding, it has put the lives of the refugees “at risk”.

    Cameroon is currently home to more than 370,000 refugees, including some 100,000 from Nigeria, according to UNHCR.

    “We are gravely concerned for the safety and well-being of all these people”, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

    The UN refugee agency said on January 16, 267 Nigerian refugees, who had crossed into Cameroon in 2014, were forcibly returned.

    It regretted that at dusk on January 14, militants attacked and ransacked the border town of Rann, about 10 kilometers from the Cameroon border.

    UNHCR said that at least 14 people were reportedly killed and an estimated 9,000 fled to Cameroon.

    Grandi said: “This action was totally unexpected and puts lives of thousands of refugees at risk.

    “I am appealing to Cameroon to continue its open door and hospitable policy and practices and halt immediately any more returns and to ensure full compliance with its refugee protection obligations under its own national legislation, as well as international law”.

    North-eastern Nigeria has been particularly hard-hit by the insurgency being waged in the region since 2009, the UN said.

    Meanwhile, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Mr Edward Kallon, has said the deadly attack interrupted aid delivery to some 76,000 internally displaced people in Rann.

    Kallon said the attackers looted or destroyed a medical clinic, humanitarian supply warehouses and aid workers’ accommodations, and burned down the nearby market and camp shelters.

  • Over 30,000 Cameroonian refugees arrive Nigeria – UN

    The number of Cameroonians fleeing violence and seeking refuge in Nigeria has crossed the 30,000-mark, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has said.

    Mr Babar Baloch, a spokesperson for UNHCR, highlighted that the needs on the ground to cater for the refugees in Nigeria were outpacing donor efforts.

    Baloch said reports indicated that scores of people had been killed in English-speaking areas of Cameroon and thousands forced from their homes, including many who have sought refuge in Nigeria.

    He said the situation was particularly worrying for women and children – accounting for close to 80 per cent of arrivals – and most refugees are sheltering in Nigeria’s south eastern areas, hosted by local communities.

    The UNHCR boss said the refugee agency was facilitating voluntary relocation of refugees to settlements in Cross River and Benue provinces, which provide better security, shelter and access to essential services.

    “Currently, more than 9,000 Cameroonian refugees have been moved to new settlements, where they receive food as well as essential items such as mattresses, mosquito nets, stoves and cooking utensils, as well as equipment to build shelters,” Baloch said.

    The UNHCR spokesperson added that women and girls were also being provided with dignity kits, including among other items, buckets, soap and towels.

    In some instances, cash assistance is provided to enable refugees buy food directly from the markets in host communities, helping facilitate the integration of those forced to flee and those welcoming them, he stated.

    “However, despite the work of UNHCR and other aid organizations, the needs are far from being met and there are several challenges, including education opportunities for refugee children.

    “The rainy season and harsh road conditions to remote areas makes the assistance to the refugees outside of the newly-developed settlement very difficult, with acute needs for food, shelter, water and sanitation,” he said.

    Baloch explained that discussions were ongoing with the Government for improved access to the displaced population.

    The spokesperson for the UN refugee agency said many of those who had fled so far, had to rely on trails and informal paths to make the crossing, as official border entry points remained closed.

    Together with their partners, UNHCR staff are present at access points often used by refugees to assess the situation and the needs of new arrivals, Baloch added.

    “People are telling us they were ordered to leave their houses due to increasing violence in their home areas,” he said.

    Baloch said violence in Cameroon’s primarily English-speaking north-west and south-west areas has worsened over the past year and recent violence uptick followed clashes between armed groups and security forces.

    NAN

  • ‘Don’t send Nigerian refugees back to Boko Haram violence’

    The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has urged the Cameroonian authority not to send Nigerian refugees back to the Boko Haram violence they fled from.
    Despite warnings, Nigerian refugees and asylum-seekers who fled Boko Haram violence continue to be returned from Cameroon, UNHCR said, underscoring the need to accord international protection to those in need.
    “We appeal once again to the authorities in Cameroon to refrain from further forced returns and to ensure protection to those fleeing insecurity and persecution in Nigeria.
    “This is in accordance with Cameroon’s national and international obligations,” UNHCR said.
    Since the beginning of 2018, 385 Nigerians refugees and asylum-seekers had been forcibly returned from Cameroon, the majority of them in March, including 160 on April 10 and a further 118 a week later.
    In total, the UN agency has registered some 87,600 Nigerian refugees in the country.
    UNHCR said: “The forced returns are in violation of the principle of no forced returns or non-refoulement.
    “They are also a significant setback to progress previously achieved by Cameroon in granting asylum to Nigerian civilians fleeing Boko Haram violence”.
    UNHCR also noted that it recognised legitimate national security concerns of States affected by the Boko Haram crisis, and stressed that it is important that refugee protection and national security are not seen as being incompatible.
    “Properly functioning screening, registration and asylum systems help safeguard host country security,” it said.
    UNHCR reiterated its support to the Government of Cameroon to ensure that all those seeking international protection have access to efficient screening and registration procedures, as well as appropriate reception arrangements.

  • French president calls for European funding for towns hosting refugees

    French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday called for a European programme to fund local authorities that house and integrate refugees.

    In a speech to the European Parliament, Macron lauded European integration as the only way to regain sovereignty faced with global challenges such as migration, climate change, the growing digital economy, and the growth of authoritarian powers.

    “In this world and in this difficult moment, European democracy is, I profoundly believe, our best chance,’’ Macron told European deputies.

    Macron argued that the European Parliament should make progress on migration issues, digital taxation and reform of the euro zone before the end of its current term in 2019.

    He said it should “unblock the poisoned debate” on relocation of refugees from states with high numbers of refugees to those less affected by migration movements.

    “As well as on the EU’s controversial Dublin regulations which say that the state where an asylum seeker first arrived is responsible for dealing with their asylum request.

    “But the parliament should also “go beyond this debate, by building the internal and external solidarity that our Europe needs.

    “I therefore propose to create a European programme that gives direct financial assistance to local authorities who host and integrate refugees,’’ he stressed.

    Macron argued that the parliament should also approve an interim proposal for tax on major digital firms to put an end to the most shocking excesses.

    “And by 2019, a roadmap should be put in place for reform of the euro zone, including a budgetary capacity favouring stability and convergence,’’ he added.

     

  • Gov. Ortom urges refugee commission to be proactive

    Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue has advised the National Commission for Refugees, Migration and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to be swift in reacting to emergencies so as to ease the effect on victims.

     

    Ortom gave the advice on Friday in Makurdi, when a delegation of the commission, led by Mr Charles Nwanlo, Assistant Director, Migration, presented relief materials for distribution to IDPs in the state.

     

    He lamented that the commission’s support was just coming in, two months after a report was formally submitted to it.

     

    “The commission must be proactive; it must show more commitment to the plight of the IDPs considering its important role to their welfare,” he said.

     

    Noting that 60 per cent of the IDPs were children, Ortom said that it was a miracle that no epidemic had been reported from any of the camps.

     

    Ortom, however, commended the commission for sending the relief materials to the state, and thanked his colleagues that had shown deep concern to the plight of the IDPs.

     

    He also appreciated Nigerians that had supported the anti-open grazing law and the establishment of ranches as the only solution to the persistent conflicts between farmers and herdsmen.

     

    Earlier, Nwanlo had said that the commission was worried about the plight of the IDPs in Benue and other parts of the country, saying that the outfit was mobilising resources toward integrating and resettling them.

    FG donates relief materials to IDPs in Edo

  • 10,000 Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria – UN

    The United Nations has expressed concerns about the swelling numbers of people fleeing English-speaking areas of Cameroon for Nigeria, saying it is particularly worried over safety of women and children.

    William Spindler, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), decried the precarious situation of women and children, who make up about 80 per cent of the approximately 10,000 registered refugees in Nigeria’s Cross River.

    “Some of these are boys and girls who fled to Nigeria alone,” Spindler said, adding that unaccompanied and separated children are particularly vulnerable.

    “UNHCR has received numerous reports that children have to work or beg to survive or to help their families.

    “Many reported that they were unable to attend school, for lack of time and money.

    “Thousands more are among the population of unregistered Cameroonians in neighbouring states, where some of the children are unaccompanied and vulnerable.

    “UNHCR is working with the Nigerian authorities to assist with the reunification of separated children with their families, to provide unaccompanied children with protection services and to restore the basic right of all children to education,” Spindler said.

    He said some of the children fleeing to Nigeria told UNHCR that they had been out of school in Cameroon for all of 2017.

    “For women, the lack of work combined with the over-stretched reception facilities, creates a higher risk of sexual and gender-based violence, particularly from survival sex.

    “While only a limited number of cases have been recorded, mainly in the Amana community of Cross River state, UNHCR is concerned that many more go unreported or are referred only to community elders.

    “Incidents of domestic violence, as well as cases of teenage pregnancies involving girls as young as 14, have also been reported,” the spokesperson elaborated.

    He said in Benue, two school buildings were serving as temporary refugee accommodations, where women and their families sleep inside communal school halls – deprived of private space and the right to family dignity.

    “For them, and for the rest of the population living in temporary tents hastily built next to local residences, sufficient and appropriate shelter is key to ensure adequate registration, systematic aid distribution and reduced protection risks,” Spindler stressed.

    According to him, UNHCR and the Nigerian authorities are currently working to identify sites away from the border, where the refugees can live according to international standards.

    “We are also establishing offices in the towns of Calabar and Adikpo to better provide assistance and protection to the women and children,” he said, noting that support includes food, basic relief items, water and sanitation facilities.

    Since mid-2017, Cameroon’s Anglophone regions have seen demonstrations as tensions have mounted over what the country’s English-speakers see as discrimination against them in favour of the majority French-speaking population.

     

  • Over 7,000 Cameroonian refugees arrive Nigeria – UN

    The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is stepping up its presence in Southern Nigeria, to provide life-saving support to thousands of people fleeing unrest in English-speaking areas of Cameroon.

    UNHCR spokesperson, Andrej Mahecic, said tensions between security forces and pro-independence demonstrators in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone region intensified in October.

    Mahecic said “Joint UNHCR and government teams had registered some 7,204 arrivals in remote areas of Nigeria’s Cross River state.

    “As they report, thousands more are awaiting registration.

    “Some 70 per cent of the registered asylum seekers come from the area of Akwaya in South-west Cameroon.

    “Women and children in their majority, they are hosted by local communities near the border.

    “As the unrest in Cameroon continues and more asylum seekers arrive, UNHCR is concerned that the local population’s capacity will soon be stretched to its limits”.

    According to him, heavy wet season rains have worsened the state of the road network in the remote region, hampering efforts to deliver aid.

    The UNHCR spokesperson said the UN refugee agency and partners distributed food, basic relief items and medical aid.

    Mr. Mahecic said UNHCR was also deploying more staff in the region and coordinated with partners, national and local authorities to ensure that the needs of all affected people were met.

    According to him, however, additional resources will be necessary to support the arrivals and reinforce UNHCR’s coordination and response efforts.

    “Currently, UNHCR in Nigeria and partners have elaborated a contingency plan in the event of new arrivals,” Mr. Mahecic said.

     

    (NAN)

  • Deportation of Nigerian refugees worrisome – Dabiri-Erewa

    The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Friday gave Cameroon a thumps down for the alleged deportation of over 100,000 Nigerians from the country.

    Dabiri-Erewa in a statement by her media assistant, Abdul-Rahman Balogun, called the deportation of the Nigerians who fled their homes to escape the Boko Haram insurgency as worrisome and inhuman.

    She said that Cameroon should heed the UN’s call on all countries to protect refugees fleeing the carnage in the North-East of Nigeria and not to return them there.

    “This unfriendly attitude of the Cameroonian soldiers to Nigerian asylum seekers is really worrisome,’’ Dabiri-Erewa said.

    She appealed to Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and other West African regional groups to prevail on Cameroon to be “their brothers’ keeper in a situation like this’’.

    She said that deportations, according to Human Rights Watch, defied UN refugee agency’s plea not to return anyone to North-East of Nigeria until the security and human rights situation had improved considerably.

    The presidential aide said that a 55-page Human Rights report entitled “They Forced Us onto Trucks like Animals: Cameroon’s Mass Forced Return and Abuse of Nigerian Refugees,” condemned the act.

    The report, according to her, states that since early 2015, Cameroonian soldiers had tortured, assaulted, and sexually exploited Nigerian asylum seekers in remote border areas.

    She said that the report added that the soldiers also denied the Nigerians access to the UN refugee agency, and summarily deported, often violently, tens of thousands to Nigeria.

    “It also documents violence, poor conditions and unlawful movement restrictions in Cameroon’s only official camp for Nigerian refugees as well as conditions recent returnees face in Nigeria,’’ she said.

    Dabiri-Erewa said that Cameroon’s forced returns breached UN principles, which prohibited forceful return of refugees and asylum seekers to persecution and, under regional standards in Africa, to situations of generalised violence such as in Nigeria’s North-East.

  • FG evacuates 170 Nigerian refugees from Cameroon

    The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has evacuated another batch of 170 Nigerian repatriated refugees mostly Women and Children from Cameroon.

    The Director-General of the Agency, Alhaji Mustapha Maihaja, disclosed this at Mubi International Transit Camp, Adamawa, on Sunday.

    Maihaja, who was represented by Idris Garga, NEMA Coordinator in charge of Adamawa and Taraba, said that the evacuation exercise was the second in three months.

    “Today, we are evacuating another batch of 170 Nigerian repatriated Refugees from Cameroon Republic ,the first evacuation was conducted in May 2017 and involved about 300 Nigerians.

    “The refugees were intercepted along Nigeria-Cameroon boarder by teams of Nigeria security operatives and after thorough investigation and screening they were confirmed to be Nigerians.

    “The refugees are indigenes of Gomboru- Ngala in Borno who escaped Boko Haram attacks and ran to Cameroon for safety in 2013,” he said.

    Terry Igue, the Yola office Head of Search and Rescue of the agency, said the refugees had undergone several medical check-ups at Mubi camp and had been “well taken care before their evacuation to their local government and state of origin to meet their relatives”.

  • Obama backs protests against Trump’s Refugee Order

    Breaking his silence only 10 days after he left office, former President Barack Obama has backed nationwide protests against President Donald Trump’s Refugee Order on Monday.

    In a strongly worded statement issued through a spokesman, Kevin Lewis and reported by networks, Obama said he was “heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country”.

    “Citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble, organise and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.

    “With regard to comparisons to President Obama’s foreign policy decisions, as we’ve heard before, the President fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.”

    The former president rejected Trump’s defence on Sunday that his executive orders restricting travel from seven countries were “similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months”.

    “The 2011 order did not ban visas for refugees, who by definition don’t travel on visas.

    “It tightened the review process for citizens of Iraq and for refugees from the six other countries, while Trump’s is a near-blanket order applying to nearly all residents and citizens of all seven countries.”

    Former presidents walk a fine line between staying politically engaged and avoiding knocking their successor.

    President George W. Bush, for example, remained markedly silent on politics during Obama’s eight years in office.

    But Obama’s relationship with Trump is different, and Monday’s statement made clear that the former president will stay engaged and outspoken on political action.

    Trump’s order temporarily banned immigration from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia and indefinitely stopped Syrian refugees from coming to the United States.

    The White House has compared Trump’s action to what Obama did in 2011 when “he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months,” Obama’s move was much narrower in scope.

    It was crafted in response to two Iraqi refugees implicated in a bomb making scheme and while it did not outright ban refugees from coming to the U.Saudi. it did increase the amount of vetting each Iraqi refugee received.

    Trump defended his executive order on Monday in the wake of protests across the country.

    He said that America would “continue to show compassion to those fleeing oppression” but wOuld “do so while protecting our own citizens and border”.

    “I have tremendous feeling for the people involved in this horrific humanitarian crisis in Syria.

    “My first priority will always be to protect and serve our country, but as President I will find ways to help all those who are suffering,” Trump said.

     

    NAN