COVID-19 pandemic is worsening the plight of millions of migrants, finds UN study
The global COVID-19 pandemic is making life much harder for millions of migrants and is expected to increase their number, two United Nations agencies said in a report published jointly on Tuesday.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has driven up food insecurity and increased vulnerability - among migrants, families reliant on remittances, and communities forced from their homes by conflict, violence and disasters. In a report released today, the International Organization for Migration and the World Food Programme warn the social and economic toll of the pandemic could be devastating on the lives of millions”, IOM spokesperson Angela Wells told a regular briefing of journalists in Geneva.
“The impact COVID-19 has had on the ways people move is unprecedented and issues of food and security have been closely interlinked. We are particularly concerned about the reality facing the more than 2.75 million migrants stranded on their journeys around the world. Many are now unable to return to their places of work, their communities, or their countries of origin. Stranded in precarious situations, many are reliant on humanitarian agencies for food support.”
Hunger and forced migration go together, she said, with nine out of the 10 worst food crises occurring in countries which also had the largest numbers of internally displaced persons. Obstacles to migration would only make things harder.
“More than 94,000 travel restrictions in over 220 countries, territories or areas, put in place to contain the spread of the disease, have limited opportunities for people to move, work and afford food and other basic needs. Without sustained income, the report warns that many will be pushed to return home, which will cause a significant drop in remittances, which we estimate provide an essential lifeline for around 800 million, or one in nine people in the world”, Ms. Wells said.
WFP spokesperson Tomson Phiri said the pandemic had hit after four consecutive years of rising hunger, caused by conflict, climate-related shocks and economic crisis.
“Now, the World Food Programme projects that the number of acutely food insecure people in 79 countries where we operate and where this analysis was done could increase by 80% from 149 million before COVID-19 hit to about 270 million by the end of this year, 2020”, Mr. Phiri said.
“Nearly 3 million migrants have been stranded by coronavirus travel restrictions, unable to travel back either to communities, unable to travel back to their places of work.”
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Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“Deadly attacks on distraught civilians trying to access the paltry amounts of food aid in Gaza, are unconscionable. For a third day running, people were killed around an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. This morning, we have received information that dozens more people were killed and injured,” Jeremy Laurence UN Human Rights spokesperson said at the biweekly press briefing in Geneva.
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Edited News | OCHA
Gaza ‘hungriest place on earth’ with aid stymied – UN humanitarians
Starving Gazans continue to be deprived of aid as international relief efforts are being severely constrained by the Israeli authorities, the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA said on Friday.
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Edited News | OCHA , UNRWA
As a controversial United States and Israel-backed aid distribution plan gets underway in Gaza, the UN called on Tuesday for an “immediate surge” of its own pre-positioned supplies to help prevent starvation.
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Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani today urged Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to reject a bill that was recently endorsed by parliament allowing trials of civilians in military courts. The Uganda People’s Defence Forces Amendment Bill 2025, which was passed on 20 May and now awaits presidential signature to become law, among others broadens the jurisdiction of military courts, authorising them to try a wide range of offences against civilians.
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Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Seif Magango today warned of a further deterioration in the human rights situation in South Sudan at the bi-weekly briefing in Geneva.
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Edited News | OCHA , WHO
Syria: ‘Staggering’ needs amid insecurity, health care crisis - UN humanitarians
Millions of people in Syria continue to face mortal danger from unexploded munitions, disease and malnutrition and urgent support is required, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
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Edited News | UNRWA , OCHA , WHO
UN life-saving aid allowed to trickle into Gaza as civilian needs mount
Amid calls for more humanitarian trucks to enter the food and medicine-deprived Palestinian enclave of Gaza, UN humanitarians have received permission from Israel for “around 100” more aid trucks to cross into the Strip after only five were let in yesterday, But the scale of relief efforts allowed remains entirely insufficient to meet the urgent needs of people there, humanitarian workers say.
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Edited News
A war reporter from Lebanon who lost a limb in the line of duty is calling for an end to impunity for attacks against journalists.
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Edited News | ITU
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) commemorated 160 years dedicated to connecting the world on Saturday, 17 May in Geneva, Switzerland, during the annual World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.
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Edited News | WHO , OCHA
Gazans ‘in terror’ after another night of deadly strikes and siege
Amid reports that Israeli strikes across Gaza into Friday killed at least 64 people, aid teams once again pushed back strongly at allegations that aid is being diverted to Hamas and pleaded for the blockade to end.
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Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
Deportations over recent months of large numbers of non-nationals from the United States of America, especially to countries other than those of their origin, raise a number of human rights concerns, the UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk warned on Tuesday.
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Edited News | WHO
Gaza: Over 50 child malnutrition deaths amid aid blockade; entire generation will be ‘permanently affected’ - WHO
In the aid desert of Gaza, malnourished children are dying while survivors can expect a lifetime of dire health problems, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.