The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have released a joint statement, calling on Malta and other EU states to find a way to bring some 160 migrants on board two private vessels on the Mediterranean to safety.
The organisation Action Against Hunger has launched a free telephone hotline in response to the coronavirus emergency in Jordan. It offers updated information on the risks tied to the pandemic for vulnerable groups, in particular Syrian refugees.
A court in the French city of Lyon has scrapped all charges against Cedric Herrou, a farmer in southern France who had helped about 250 migrants cross the border to France from Italy in 2015 and 2016. His case became synonymous with the term “crimes of solidarity.”
The UNHCR has warned that conflict and serious flooding have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes amid risks of COVID-19 in Somalia.
UNHCR has announced it will be distributing more emergency aid in Tripoli to help the most vulnerable during Ramadan, as war and the novel coronavirus pandemic increase difficulties for many.
The UN Refugee Agency has called for emergency funding to implement life-saving assistance programs for nearly one million vulnerable displaced persons and refugees in Yemen who risk losing their shelter and vital cash assistance for essentials like food and medicine.
In southern Spain, migrant workers have long been relied upon to pick crops. But under the current COVID-19 lockdown, many have found themselves jobless and reliant on food from charity groups.
The Danish Refugee Council has warned that the COVID-19 crisis will have devastating long-term consequences for displaced people. It wants to raise $75 million to protect these communities beyond the current pandemic.
The European Union has approved an aid package worth almost 240 million euros. The goal: To help Syrian refugees in Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon. Total aid from the EU fund for Syrian refugees now comes to two billion euros.
As the coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, calls are growing for more to be done for vulnerable migrants and refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions and open letters demanding the urgent evacuation of migrant camps on the Greek islands.
The UN children's fund UNICEF has said that sending humanitarian aid across Syria's border has been a lifeline for vulnerable families in the northwest, with some 600,000 children displaced just in the past three months.
An aid worker with a Turkish humanitarian organization says violent push-backs by authorities on the border between Greece and Turkey are putting migrants’ lives in danger. Volkan Pirincci has described the situation as “the worst he has ever seen.”