In 2014, European Union countries hosted a relatively small share of refugees. At the end of 2014, the world’s top refugee host was Turkey followed by Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Ethiopia and Jordan. Lebanon hosted by far the largest number of refugees by population. By the first six months of 2015, 137,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe by sea under profoundly difficult and unsafe conditions as compared to the 75,000 that arrived during the same time period last year. The numbers are expected to continue to rise throughout the rest of 2015.

Syrian refugees make up the single largest group followed by refugees from Eritrea and Afghanistan. High numbers of refugees from Somalia, Iraq and Sudan who are in need of international protection are also arriving in Europe. According to UNHCR, the majority of those arriving in Europe in the first six months of 2015 were men searching for a safe place to live and work before attempting to reunite later with their families. However, this total also included large numbers of women and children, including thousands of unaccompanied and separated children.

Often the lack of legal routes to safety leaves no choice for many men, women and children other than to turn to smugglers at enormous cost and danger to their lives. Before arriving in Europe, many have suffered high levels of abuse, exploitation and human rights violations.

In countries around the globe, Salesian missionaries are assisting close to 400,000 refugees and internally displaced persons whose lives have been affected by war, persecution, famine and natural disasters such as floods, droughts and earthquakes. Salesian programs provide refugees much needed education and technical skills training, workforce development, healthcare and nutrition.

Salesian missionaries are working across Europe helping to provide needed services for the new wave of refugees arriving in these countries.

ITALY

In Sicily, Salesian missionaries have revamped a reception center for children who come to Italy looking for a better life. The reception center provides the first emergency point of contact for unaccompanied migrant and refugee minors. By creating two new sections within the existing center, missionaries have been able to add an extra bedroom and bathroom as well as a new bathroom for staff. The center also includes a living room and balcony that serves as a communal area to encourage sharing and relaxation.

All the fittings and interior doors of the premises have been replaced and new furniture has been acquired including a television set, DVD player, computer, cookware and plates. Currently, the house can accommodate up to 12 youth. The center offers an immediate welcome and safe space and is prepared to offer accommodation for as long as necessary until youth find a suitable, more permanent solution. The new structure also offers educational initiatives including language skills training and legal assistance to help youth begin a new life in Italy.

In addition to the center in Sicily, the Salesians of the Special Circumscription of Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta are active in welcoming refugees to their new reception center at the Don Bosco Institute in Alessandria, a city in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. And in Turin, Italy, Salesian missionaries are working with the local government to actively plan a new center for refugees while assessing what assistance might be needed to help unaccompanied youth long-term.

GERMANY

The German Province of the Salesians of Don Bosco has been strengthening its commitment to young refugees. To meet the large and growing need in Germany in recent weeks, Salesian missionaries have been continually increasing the number of houses where they give assistance to youth in need.

In addition to new houses, missionaries are now offering temporary housing. Today, 11 Salesian programs across Germany are caring for 448 refugee youth and more accommodations are being prepared to accept additional refugees as the need increases. Most of the refugees are young males between 16 and 18 years of age who have come to Germany from African countries, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The boys are provided shelter in Salesian houses that can accommodate up to 12 people with four social workers available 24 hours a day.

SPAIN

In Madrid, Salesian missionaries are developing programs across the country in preparation for additional refugees seeking services. Missionaries are working with local governments and other social programs to respond to the refugee crisis.

Salesian missionaries who have previous experience working with young refugees and their families are helping to start additional Salesian programs that will address the needs of today’s refugee youth. Many of the new programs focus on meeting the immediate needs of newly-arrived refugees and go on to address the need for education and employment. Missionaries are also working with local schools to help assimilate children from refugee families into classrooms.

Salesian Sisters with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians are working with the local government and diocese in Madrid to determine the most appropriate course of action to respond to and assist refugees from Syria. Currently, the Salesian Sisters operate six socio-educational projects that offer services for children at risk of social exclusion (many of them immigrants) and a social work project that was created to provide education and workforce development services to help decrease youth unemployment and educational inequality for those in poverty, especially girls.

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Sources:

ANS – Italy Reception Centre for unaccompanied minors

ANS – Germany Welcoming Refugees: Salesians of Don Bosco in Germany give increased aid

ANS – Spain Welcoming Refugees: the Salesians in Spain are ready

UNHCR – The sea route to Europe: The Mediterranean passage in the age of refugees

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As of yesterday, 23,546 South Sudanese refugees had arrived in Uganda since the conflict erupted a month ago in the world’s youngest country, which only gained independence in 2011 after seceding from Sudan, when President Salva Kiir said soldiers loyal to former deputy president Riek Machar, dismissed last July, reportedly launched an attempted coup.

“They are now crossing at a rate of up to 2,500 people a day,” UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming told a news briefing in Geneva.

These new arrivals come at a time when UNHCR’s Uganda office is trying to cope with a continuing influx of refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). “We still have 8,000 new Congolese arrivals at three reception centers in western Uganda, so our staff and our supplies are stretched,” Ms. Fleming said.

Smaller but growing numbers of South Sudanese refugees are also fleeing to other neighboring countries. More than 5,300 refugees have been registered in Ethiopia – though the number is likely higher as the remote border area is hard to access. In north-west Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp, where as many as 300 South Sudanese are now arriving daily, UNHCR staff registered 3,173 new arrivals by Sunday evening.

The situation in Sudan remains less clear. At least several hundred South Sudanese have crossed the border, and perhaps several thousand. But with many groups, including nomads and rebels, active in the area, it is difficult to know exactly how many are refugees, Ms. Fleming said.

Representatives of Mr. Kiir and Mr. Machar are meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in talks mediated by the East African regional organization, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), with an immediate ceasefire at the top of the agenda.

Inside South Sudan, UNHCR is operating with a reduced staff of 200 people because of fighting and insecurity throughout much of the country, but it continues to supply services to some 230,000 existing refugees at 10 camps in South Sudan.

“We have also been taking on increased responsibilities for the 57,000 civilians taking refuge in 10 UN compounds throughout the country,” Ms. Fleming stressed. “We are helping lead efforts to protect especially vulnerable people like women and children. And we have brought in experts in areas such as site planning and camp management.”

Yesterday a chartered flight arrived in Juba, the capital, carrying essential relief items from UNHCR’s stockpiles in Nairobi, including 12,500 blankets, 2,500 sets of cooking pots and other kitchen equipment, and 4,000 plastic sheets to shelter 20,000 displaced people in and around the capital.

In Maban, north-eastern South Sudan, just four UNHCR international staff and 11 national staff have been working with partners and refugees to serve 120,000 refugees in four camps, making sure that health services remain available and water pumps are still working.

UNHCR and the UN World Food Program (WFP) together have distributed food rations to the refugees for 45 days instead of the normal 30 days, so that they will be able to eat if services are disrupted.

“We are also in the process of distributing soap in all four camps. Given the dangerous and fast-changing nature of operating in South Sudan, we are stretching resources and working to fill any gaps in service,” Ms. Fleming said.

The agency is also preparing to return personnel to Yida in Unity state, where three national staff and partners have been continuing to serve the 77,000 refugees in Yida and Ajuong Thok camps close to the border with Sudan. But that plan is contingent on the deployment of additional UN peace-keepers.

Operating in Unity state remains dangerous and unpredictable and last week UNHCR lost six pick-up trucks to looters, who also helped themselves to barrels of fuel and spare parts for vehicles and water pumps in Yida.

The South Sudan Government has declared a state of emergency in Unity and Jonglei states. With opposition forces now controlling Bor, the Jonglei capital, a large government military contingent has moved north to Pariang, close to Yida and Ajuong Thok camps.

“As a result, we are greatly worried about any effects of the fighting on the refugees and on our ability to serve them. We remind all parties to the conflict that refugee camps must remain civilian in character,” Ms. Fleming said.

On other fronts, the UN Mission in South Sudan, UNMISS, continues to protect approximately 62,000 civilians at its bases, with humanitarian actors providing relief and support. This includes nearly 30,000 at its two Juba bases, a UN spokesperson said today.

The Mission also reports that the situation in Juba continues to be tense. In addition to protecting civilians in its bases, Mission troops are conducting day and night patrols in the capital. UNMISS notes continued instability and fighting in a number of locations, including around Bor and in areas in Unity State.

In Jonglei State, the Mission reports fighting south of Bor and sporadic gunfire in the vicinity of its compound. It also says that a number of explosions have been heard this morning southeast of the city.

In Unity State, the Mission undertook a patrol to Pariyang and observed that most villages along the road from Mayom Junction to Pariyang appeared burnt or looted. Severe food, water and shelter shortages were also reported to the Mission by local officials.

The spokesperson said that UNMISS chief Hilde Johnson, continues to meet with senior Government officials as well, as with opposition leaders, to ensure full cooperation with the Mission to enable it to implement its mandate to protect civilians.

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See this United Nations article at its original location >

Photo: A family of South Sudanese civilians shelter at a UN base in Juba. UNHCR has been taking on increased responsibilities for the 57,000 civilians taking refuge in 10 UN compounds throughout the country. UNHCR/K. McKinsey

The post UNITED NATIONS: Refugee exodus from strife-torn South Sudan picks up momentum, UN reports first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Salesian missionaries in the Central African Republic reported that a Salesian center in Galabadja has taken in 8,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) while a center in Damala has taken in an estimated 12,000. People began fleeing their homes and villages on Dec. 5, 2013, to escape attacks caused by clashes between anti-Balaka militants and Seleka rebels who gained power in a coup in March. Violence broke out in the city of Bangui sending people fleeing from their homes in search of safety and shelter. During the escalation of violence, communities have been raided and homes burned. There have also been reports of brutal attacks on women and children.

The United Nations Refugee agency (UNHCR) reported that at least 140 civilians were killed during the clashes and heavy shelling in Bossangoa, causing panic among the residents. More than 700 fled to neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since the violence began in December 2012—when the Seleka rebel coalition launched a series of attacks leading to months of violence—UNHCR has reported that nearly 400,000 people have been displaced within the CAR, with another 69,800 forced into exile in neighboring countries.

The arrival of more than 1,600 French soldiers in support of current African forces already on the ground restored some order, according to the United Nations, but the humanitarian situation remains dire.

Scared residents started arriving at the Salesian center in Galabadja early on Dec. 5 when violence first broke out. The Salesian missionaries there provided shelter to more than 2,000 with the numbers expected to rise to as many as 20,000 in a few short days. Many displaced victims arrived at the centers injured but, according to the missionaries, due to a lack of fuel the Red Cross could not arrive in time to save some of them.

“We are in need of medical supplies,” said Father José Maria Sabé SDB, Economer of the Vice-Province of Equatorial Tropical Africa. “The Salesians on the ground have reported that the health center is lacking supplies and they cannot buy anything because the healthcare distributors have disappeared and no longer supply products. We are in the process of assessing their most pressing needs.”

With the influx of so many over a short period of time, resources are limited. There is an urgent need for safe water, sanitation, food and emergency health services. A recent food delivery from the International Red Cross provided some much needed relief but the situation remains fragile. “The situation is more delicate from the point of view of safety and health,” added Fr. Sabé. “Security is a concern at the Salesian centers. So far, all have remained safe but the situation remains delicate.”

Headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, Salesian Missions—the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco—has launched a donation appeal to aid in the humanitarian assistance for those displaced in the Central African Repbulic. Donations are urgently needed to get necessary medical, food and other life-saving supplies to those in Salesian centers there. Since missionaries were already working in the affected communities, their response was immediate. As the Salesians continue to provide safety and shelter for displaced families, they are reaching out for support so they may continue to help those in need. To give to the effort, go to www.SalesianMissions.org and select “African Crisis Emergency Fund” on the donate page.

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Sources:

UN – UN alarmed at worsening violence, humanitarian situation in Central African Republic

UN – Ban, African leaders meet in Paris to address violence in Central African Republic

ANS – Central African Republic – About 20,000 refugees in Salesian Centers

*Any goods, services, or funds provided by Salesian Missions to programs located in this country were administered in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including sanctions administered by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control.

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