An annual Ramadan appeal to help displaced refugees receive lifesaving support and aid has seen people across the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia make the highest number of donations in the region, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has told Al Arabiya English

For the third year, the UNHCR launched the ‘Every Second Counts’ fundraising campaign as the Islamic world marks the holy month of Ramadan.

The UN agency launched the campaign while calling for greater support for millions of refugees and internally displaced persons in low-income countries hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Houssam Chahine, UNHCR’s chief of private sector partnerships in MENA, told Al Arabiya English that the campaign has seen a flood of generosity from residents across the GCC.

« Every year, UNHCR appeals to the public during the month of giving and generosity to help raise awareness and funds for refugees and internally displaced people in need,” he said.

“The ‘Every Second Counts’ campaign focuses on the incredible impact individuals can create within seconds, in the lives of refugee and displaced families whose lives turned upside down within moments and who have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety.”

The campaign aims to raise funds through donations including Zakat and Sadaqah, to help provide lifesaving support such as shelter, food, clean water and monthly cash assistance, to the most vulnerable refugee and internally displaced families from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, countries in the Sahel region, and Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

In the Muslim faith, Zakat is the obligatory annual payment required of every Muslim, while Sadaqah is a kind gesture made with the intention of helping others.

“We are grateful to the outpouring of support shown by the people of the UAE and KSA, with those who have been forcibly displaced,” said Chahine.

“People in the UAE, followed by KSA, rank highest in the number of donations made to UNHCR’s Refugee Zakat Fund, which is testament to their empathy and generosity, and trust in our ability to deliver 100 percent of their Zakat contributions to eligible displaced families.”

COVID-19 worsens refugee crisis

Chahine said COVID-19 has created a new emergency – on top of existing ones – for the millions of refugees around the world.

“The pandemic has compounded existing challenges for displaced people, such as poverty, food insecurity, discrimination, border closures, protection risks such as domestic violence and sexual abuse, and access to livelihoods and education.”

A Syrian refugee receives the Coronavirus vaccine, at a medical center in the Zaatari refugee camp, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the Jordanian capital Amman on February 15, 2021. (File photo: AFP)

“The COVID-19 induced recession is expected to push between 88 million and 115 million people into extreme poverty. While precise measures are difficult, estimates by the World Bank and UNHCR point to a large and disproportionate impact on already vulnerable people, such as the forcibly displaced.”

In September 2020, a UNHCR assessment among 1,579 refugee and asylum-seeker households of different nationalities in Egypt showed that 42 percent of the respondents had lost their job and 98 percent reported lack of financial means to access basic hygiene items.

In Jordan, about four out of five Syrian refugees (close to 80 percent) were living under the national poverty line even before the pandemic, surviving on about $3 a day or less. While new assessments are currently underway, the impact of the pandemic on refugees in terms of loss of income and taking on debt was clearly severe.

The situation is even more difficult for female-headed households in Lebanon: A far higher proportion of female-headed households (68 per cent) than male-headed households (13 per cent) are using coping strategies categorized as “crisis level” or “emergency level. »

Syrian children play in the Zaatari refugee camp, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the Jordanian capital Amman on February 15, 2021.

Crisis coping strategies include marriage of children under the age of 18, selling productive assets, withdrawing children from school, and reducing expenditure on education and health. Emergency coping strategies include begging, accepting high-risk jobs or sending children to work.

“The donations received will help UNHCR in providing lifesaving support to vulnerable refugees and displaced families through the distribution of cash assistance and goods, allowing them to address basic needs including shelter, food, education, healthcare and debt repayments,” said Chahine.

In 2020, the fund has helped 2.1 million beneficiaries in 13 countries including Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Mauritania, Niger, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, through Zakat & Sadaqah donations.

Despite the growth that the Refugee Zakat Fund has witnessed due to generous contributions by individuals and institutional partners, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has widened the gap between the needs of displaced families and funds received, said Chahine.

“Ramadan is a time of reflection and generosity, and a great opportunity to show solidarity with the world’s forcibly displaced especially during a time where it is needed more than ever,” said Chahine. “We are always surprised by the incredible outpouring of support and kindness that people have towards refugees, and more so during this Holy month and ask people to continue standing with refugees and internally displaced people during these difficult times. No donation, or act of solidarity is too small. »

Zakat and Sadqah donations to refugees in urgent need can be given now via zakat.unhcr.org and UNHCR’s newly launched Zakat mobile application “GiveZakat”.

World Opinions News – Al Arabiya English

L’article UAE, Saudi Arabia lead fundraising effort in Ramadan refugee appeal: UNHCR chief est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Confirmation of closure of Shimelba and Hitsats camps in embattled region comes after state-appointed human rights commission reports both sites were ‘destroyed’.

Slow social service restoration in #Ethiopia's Tigray increased H/R abuses.

– 108 rape cases reported in Mekelle, Adigrat, Ayder hospitals
– Severe food shortage
– Insecurity/lack of health service forcing long-distance travel@EthioHRC's brief report: https://t.co/FH13UQEIPU

— Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (@EthioHRC) February 11, 2021

Two refugee camps caught up in a brutal conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region have been closed and their Eritrean residents relocated, authorities have confirmed, as the country’s state-appointed human rights commission reported that both sites had been “destroyed”.

The United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) has called for protection for the residents of the Shimelba and Hitsats camps, which it says were attacked by armed men who killed and abducted refugees. Last week, it said occupants – who often leave to escape mandatory, indefinite military service and repression or search for better opportunities out of one of the world’s most isolated states – had reported that Eritrean soldiers had forced some refugees back into Eritrea.

The alleged Eritrean military presence is one of the most contentious issues in the border region of Tigray, where Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has claimed victory over rebellious regional authorities in a conflict that began in early November.

Eritrea and Ethiopia have both denied that Eritrean troops operated on Ethiopian territory. The removed Tigrayan regional authorities and many residents accuse neighbouring Eritrea of intervening on the behalf of the central government in Addis Ababa. Reports from all sides are difficult to verify because communications to the region of some six million people remain patchy and the government tightly controls access.

Tesfahun Gobezay, director general of Ethiopia’s Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affairs, confirmed on Thursday the camp closures, first reported by the state news agency on Wednesday.

Slow social service restoration in #Ethiopia's Tigray increased H/R abuses.

– 108 rape cases reported in Mekelle, Adigrat, Ayder hospitals
– Severe food shortage
– Insecurity/lack of health service forcing long-distance travel@EthioHRC's brief report: https://t.co/FH13UQEIPU

— Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (@EthioHRC) February 11, 2021

n Thursday, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it has learned that Shimelba and Hitsats “had been destroyed and the refugees inside the camps dispersed”. Earlier this week, the Norwegian Refugee Council also said the destruction of its facilities at the camps was confirmed using satellite imagery.

“We condemn the criminal destruction of our buildings and facilities that we set up to serve refugees in great need,” Jan Egeland, NRC’s secretary-general, said in a statement. “This rampage of burning and looting by armed men deepens an already dire crisis for millions of people.”

We condemn the criminal destruction of our buildings and facilities that we set up to serve refugees in Tigray, Ethiopia.

This burning and looting rampage by armed men deepens an already dire crisis for millions of people. #NotATarget https://t.co/SIR2mSu7N8

— Jan Egeland (@NRC_Egeland) February 8, 2021

But Tesfahun told Reuters news agency the description of destruction was an “overstatement”.

“There was a lot of fighting in those areas, not in the camps but in those areas where the camps are located,” he said. “Refugees didn’t get the necessary services quickly and also they panicked due to the firing happening around the camps. So they left the camps, and Ethiopian defence forces sheltered them and escorted them to the nearest towns of Tigray,” he said.

He said 5,300 refugees had gone to two other refugee camps in Tigray. Others were now in Tigray towns or the capital, Addis Ababa.

Chris Melzer, a UNHCR spokesman, said the agency concurred with the conclusion that the camps were now unsafe, “considering the reports of attacks on Hitsats and Shimelba, the reports of abductions, destruction, looting, and killing of humanitarian staff”. Decisions to relocate must be voluntary and movements must be organised in safety and dignity, he said.

Some 96,000 Eritrean refugees were living in four camps in Tigray before the conflict erupted in November. The EHRC said on Thursday there are currently “between 26,000 and 28,000 Eritrean refugees sheltered in Mai Aini and Adi Harush refugee camps”..

AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

L’article Ethiopia shuts two Tigray camps housing Eritrean refugees est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.