Record High Migration to Yemen

The accumulated total number of refugees and migrants to make it from the Horn of Africa to Yemen is at a record high of 84,656.  It has been reported by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that numbers are expected to grow even further by the end of this year.  The majority of refugees have come from Ethiopia, and have since 2009 constituted as the "largest group among those to cross the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden."  Sailing patterns have shifted significantly over the years due to increase in traffic on the Red Sea.  With more frequent boat arrivals, more refugees are able to seek safety and opportunities on Yemen grounds.  However, leaving their countries by no means guarantee them an abundance of freedom.  There is concern regarding the increasing trend of abductions, extortions, kidnappings, and sexual assaults directed at refugees, particularly Ethiopian migrants.  Yemen is to host more than 200,491 Somalian refugees and 445,679 displaced Yemeni civilians are to be displaced throughout the country.

--Georisa Chang

SOURCE: UN News Center

Ikea gives €43 million donation to help Somali refugees

A charitable foundation linked to the Swedish furniture chain, Ikea has given the United Nations its largest ever private donation in the agency’s 60-year history (€43 million or £38 million) to refugees who have fled civil war and famine in Somalia. This huge sum of money will be used to expand the world’s largest refugee complex in Dadaab, Kenya over the next three years, according to UN officials. The complex was first opened in the early 1990s and designed to hold 90,000, but it now holds 440,000 refugees, including 150,000 who have arrived in the last few months. The refugee crisis is still growing fuelled by violence, drought and famine in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres said that the donation would help up to 120,000 people fleeing a crisis that “continues to deepen with thousands of people fleeing Somalia every week”. UN officials also confirmed that the donation was examined with “due diligence” before it was accepted due to a recent controversy about the Nazi past of Ingvar Kamprad, Ikea’s founder.

-Nisha Noor

SOURCE: THE TELEGRAPH

Baby Raha

The emergency facilities operated by the Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas program provided the medical care and ambulance amid the country's worst floods in recorded history to safely deliver baby Raha Khan on September 8, 2010. The grateful parents named their baby using the initials of the United Nations-supported program to assist those seeking asyulum and those who offer shelter to refugees in the country.

RAHA was launched in 2009 by the Government of Pakistan and is supported by the UN Development Program (UNDP) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This five year program aims to promote "peaceful coexistence between Afghan refugees and local communities through paid employment projects in the areas of agriculture and irrigation, road repairs, crop and livestock production, rehabilitation of health facilities and services, and access to safe drinking water"(undp.org).

-Shereen Alibhai

SOURCE: UNDP