Urgent action needed to address child statelessness
Nov 3 (UNHCR) – Thirteen-year-old Joe Hullman dreams of playing baseball in his native Dominican Republic. But because he has no birth certificate or identity papers, he scavenges instead for scrap metal at the San Pedro de Macoris municipal dump. Half a world away in...
The Kids Foraging for a Future
Joe Hullman looks you in the eye and speaks in Spanish with a calm authority that belies his 13 years. “I am on vacation,” he says, referring to his school’s summer break, before stepping over the carcass of an unidentifiable animal and using a stick to poke and prod...
UNHCR airlifts emergency relief to Algeria flood victims
TINDOUF, Algeria, Oct 30 (UNHCR)—The UN refugee agency has airlifted emergency aid including tents, blankets and plastic sheeting to distribute to as many as 11,000 refugee families at five camps in southwestern Algeria devastated by heavy rains and flooding....
Shaken by war, Syrian children start over at German school
NEUBRANDENBURG, Germany, Oct 29 (UNHCR)—Leen flings open the school doors after her German language class and runs out, clearly delighting in her new surroundings despite a cold rush of autumn air. “I like being here,” said Leen, gesturing around her....
Ongoing Myanmar conflict traps villagers in crossfire
MYITKYINA, Myanmar, Oct 28 (UNHCR)—Htoi Pan vividly recalls the moment when the fighter jets streaked across the sky over her village in northern Myanmar, piercing the calm of that late June morning. A former resident of Sumprabum in Kachin state, Htoi Pan, in her...
UNHCR warns of “looming refugee crisis” in the Americas
Oct 28 (UNHCR)—In late 2014, four members of a brutal street gang abducted Norma and took her to a cemetery nearby her home in El Salvador. Three of the four then raped her. She believes she was targeted because she was married to a police officer. “They took...UNHCR warns of looming refugee crisis as women flee Central America and Mexico
Washington, D.C., 28 October 2015 (UNHCR)—Women in Central America and Mexico are fleeing their countries in rising numbers to escape a surge in deadly, unchecked gang violence, fuelling a looming refugee crisis in the Americas that demands urgent and concerted action...
Vulnerable and Looking for a Home
Croatia. Family reunion, after four days of separation across border between Croatia and Serbia. Naasan, a Syrian refugee, clings to his four-year-old son, Muhamad. He and his wife lost the boy in a crowd at the border between Serbia and Croatia. It took four days,...