The impact the coronavirus disease is having on migrants is of “huge concern”, according to a spokesperson from the UN migration agency, IOM. He also warned that border closures could lead to increased health risks.
Mass returns of Afghan migrants from Iran have led to concerns about increased transmission rates of the coronavirus disease in Afghanistan. On Wednesday, Iran reported 17,361 confirmed cases of the virus. At the same time, Afghans have continued to flee back to their home country in record numbers.
The United Nations has reported that the number of Syrian civilians forced to flee violence in the northwest has risen to nearly one million since December 2019. The majority of them are women and children.
The United Nations denounced that tens of thousands of desperate people in northwest Syria, where there are currently about four million people, are at risk for famine as they flee due to the conflict between the Syrian government and pro-Turkish fighters.
A report issued by the UN on Monday states that an estimated 355,000 internally displaced children were not attending school in Iraq at the end of 2019. The UN is calling on the Iraqi government to revise regulations and practices concerning education for children who were prevented from going to school during the years their areas were under Islamic State (ISIS) control.
The situation is growing worse in Syria's northwestern opposition-held province of Idlib, where clashes have taken place between Turkish forces and the regime under Bashar al-Assad.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says less than five percent of refugees in urgent need of resettlement last year were moved to safety. The agency has repeated a call for governments around the world to offer more resettlement opportunities.
The United Nations has called for those responsible for deadly airstrikes in Tripoli last July to be brought to account. The attack killed 53 migrants detained in a hangar which took a direct hit.
In a landmark ruling, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has said that governments must take into account the effects of the climate crisis when considering the deportation of asylum seekers.
A UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has said that nearly nine years of conflict in Syria has robbed children of their dreams, reporting numerous rights violations committed by all sides involved in the conflict. The report entitled 'They have erased the dreams of my children' was released on Thursday.
Hundreds of migrants have been picked up in the Mediterranean this month and sent back to Libya. All the migrants were taken to detention centers, where the UN migration agency IOM has warned they are at increased risk of human trafficking.
The UN has described rising numbers of people fleeing their homes, saying more must be done to "shoulder this responsibility." German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Germany will welcome more refugees in the future.