Somalia : Photos

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Oh mon héros ! [parachute doré] posted a photo:

Almost 170,000 Somali civilians have fled from Mogadishu since early May. Many cannot hide the strain. / UNHCR / E. Hockstein / December 2008


Fighting forces more Somalis to flee Mogadishu, pushing number of displaced to almost 170,000

GENEVA, June 26 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency on Friday said it was "gravely concerned" about spiralling violence and the worsening displacement crisis in Somalia, where almost 170,000 people have fled the capital Mogadishu since a fresh wave of fighting erupted in early May.

"Fighting between government forces and the opposition Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam, which erupted on May 7 in several north-west areas of the Somali capital Mogadishu, is leaving a trail of civilian casualties, destruction and renewed displacement," UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told reporters in Geneva on Friday.

According to records of local Somali hospitals, more than 250 civilians have been killed and at least 900 wounded during this period. "We estimate that since the start of the fighting in May more than 169,000 people have been forced to leave their homes and seek shelter elsewhere within Somalia or in neighbouring countries," Spindler said. Between last Friday and Monday alone, an estimated 33,000 were displaced from Mogadishu due to the heavy fighting.

The majority of the internally displaced people (IDPs), some 51,000, moved to safer districts within the city or makeshift IDP settlements on the outskirts of Mogadishu, while another 48,000 fled towards the Afgooye corridor to the west of the capital. They joined more than 400,000 civilians who have been displaced since 2007. A further 70,000 have gone to more distant locations, including the districts of Lower and Middle Shebelle, Lower Juba, Galgaduud, and Gedo.

According to UNHCR's local partners, some of the displaced are heading towards neighbouring countries. And some are families that had recently returned home following a period of relative peace in Mogadishu during the first four months of the year.

Many IDPs tell stories of hardship and suffering as they try to flee the embattled Somali capital. Most of the people are trying to leave the city on board minibuses. Drivers are reportedly charging US$250 or more for a fare. UNHCR partners in Somalia spoke with some of the displaced in Afmadow, some 400 kilometres south-west of Mogadishu. One of these, a mother of six, said it took her nine days to reach Afmadow as the local transporters took her money and then left her and her children stranded along the route.

The deteriorating security situation has sharply reduced deliveries of desperately needed humanitarian aid to the displaced in and around Mogadishu. "Our local partners that have been providing a lifeline to the IDPs are facing growing security problems as they try to help the needy," said Spindler in Geneva.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Kenya, the number of refugee arrivals from Somalia continues to rise. Since the beginning of the year, some 38,000 new refugees arrived in Kenya, virtually all of them Somalis. In June, the Dadaab camp in the north-east received 4,104 refugees. Sheltering more than 280,000 people, Dadaab is the largest refugee complex in the world.

These were for our school's internationally-themed summer fair. How many can you name?

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An aerial view taken from a NATO military helicopter shows boats at a beach said to be frequented by pirates near Somalia's northern port town of Bossaso, June 16, 2009. International navies are patrolling the busy shipping lanes off Somalia to try and prevent hijacks that have worried shipping firms, driven up insurance costs and prompted some vessels to avoid the Gulf of Aden. Picture taken June 16, 2009. REUTERS/NATO/Handout (SOMALIA CONFLICT CRIME LAW MILITARY) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

An aerial view taken from a NATO military helicopter shows Somalia's northern port town of Bossaso, June 16, 2009. International navies are patrolling the busy shipping lanes off Somalia to try and prevent hijacks that have worried shipping firms, driven up insurance costs and prompted some vessels to avoid the Gulf of Aden. Picture taken June 16, 2009. REUTERS/NATO/Handout (SOMALIA CONFLICT MILITARY CITYSCAPE) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

Minister of Security assassinated in Somalia.

pictures shot before, during after interview/concert with K'naan

A Somalia government fighter patrols June 18, 2009, outside the Presidential palace during a press conference by President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed that followed the assasination of Somalia Security Minister Omar Hashi Aden [R] killed today in a suicide bombing incident targeting a hotel he was staying in Beledweyne north of capital, Mogadishu. Aden's killing today using a car-bomb packed into a Toyota Sedan vehicle driven-up to Hotel Medina as the minister and his entourage preapred to leave, before being detonated and killing nine others, is said to be the most high-profile political assasination since the fledgling administration under moderate Islamist Sheikh Sharif Aden took control last May, following that of a Mogadishu Police commander. AFP PHOTO/Mohamed DAHIR (Photo credit should read MOHAMED DAHIR/AFP/Getty Images)

The bodies of Somali and Ethiopian asylum seekers, who were forced to jump off of the traffickers' boat, washed ashore in Yemen. ©SHS/N.Bajanoub


Latest Gulf of Aden smuggling mishap leaves 18 dead, 29 missing

ADEN, Yemen, June 18 (UNHCR) – Eighteen people drowned and another 29 are missing and presumed dead after a smuggling boat capsized in the Gulf of Aden due to strong winds and rough seas this week off the coast of Yemen.

The boat, which departed June 11 from the Somali village of Marera, east of the northern port of Bossaso, sailed for four days across the Gulf of Aden prior to reaching the shore of Yemen's Hadramout region Monday morning. The boat, reportedly carrying 88 people, capsized after taking on water while still far from shore off the Yemen town of Bourom, some 500 kilometres east of Aden.

Eighteen bodies were recovered by the Society for Humanitarian Solidarity (SHS), UNHCR's local partner. They were buried in Al Hamra cemetery, south of the Mayfa'a registration centre.

Some 24 African nationals made it to the shore aboard a smaller skiff which was towed behind a bigger boat. Upon arrival on the beach, SHS provided them with food and water as well as transportation to Mayfa'a for further assistance and registration.

SHS continued patrolling some 100 kms of shoreline between Bourom and Bir Ali for three days in search of survivors. As a result, four survivors were found ashore in the vicinity of Bourom, and two others were found alive on the outskirts of Mukalla, some 600 kms east of Aden. The latter said they had walked towards Mukalla along with another 11 Somali survivors, who have not been traced so far.

More bodies are expected to be washed ashore as the likelihood of finding others alive dims due to seasonal high waves throughout the Gulf of Aden from June to September.

So far this year, more than 522 boats and 25,764 people have arrived in Yemen after making the perilous voyage across the Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa. To date, 146 people have reportedly drowned and 85 are missing at sea.

Those who make the crossing are fleeing desperate situations of civil war, political instability, poverty and famine in Somalia and the Horn of Africa.

Local aid workers distribute food to some of the migrants and refugees who have been living in makeshift shelters in the Calais area. Photo Courtesy of IOM/N.Lajili


UNHCR News Story: UNHCR returns to Calais to provide migrants, refugees with information

CALAIS, France, June 17 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency has been sending staff from its Paris office on a weekly basis to Calais, where hundreds of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, are living in squalid settlements hoping to cross to the United Kingdom.

UNHCR plans to open a full-time presence from the beginning of July in the northern French port, which it left in 2002 after the authorities closed Sangatte reception centre. UNHCR staff have been staying in Calais for three or four days a week since early June, working with aid partner France Terre d'Asile to inform the people about a wide range of issues.

They explain asylum in France and how to apply for it; organize information sessions with British aid agencies about conditions in the United Kingdom and asylum policies there; and give data on France, Britain and countries through which migrants transit to get here.

"We have come here to help the migrants and asylum seekers to make an informed decision," Francisco Galindo-Velez, UNHCR representative in France, said during a recent visit to Calais, which continues to attract irregular migrants and refugees hoping to reach the UK. He later said this was not just a French problem, but a European and international one.

"They no longer have any link to their country of origin, they need to know what is happening in order to decide their future," added Monique Delannoy, a worker with a local aid agency that helps the uninvited visitors.

Most pay smugglers large sums of money to bring them to Calais, which is separated from the UK by a narrow strip of sea. Ferries criss-cross the English Channel every day and some migrants try to hide on trucks to make the journey from France undetected.

Staff from UNHCR and France Terre d'Asile, together with interpreters, have been visiting the grim makeshift settlements in and around Calais where the migrants live. They mainly come from places like Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq and Somalia, but some are from as far away as Vietnam. Many have had to travel thousands of kilometres to arrive here, literally within sight of their goal.

Most are motivated by economic or family reasons, but a few have fled violence or persecution and their well-being is of direct concern to UNHCR. Many have no idea about the situation back home, or about what they can expect in the UK. "I left my country several months ago, I don't really know what the situation is anymore," Asad, a young Somali, told UNHCR during a food distribution organized by local aid agencies.

There are currently an estimated 800 migrants in the Calais area and about one in five are unaccompanied minors. A further 800 are in other ports on the northern coast. Relations between the foreigners and the people of Calais are tense. If they make it to the UK and are caught, they could face a return to the continent or to their country of origin, unless granted asylum.

By Marie-Ange Lescure in Calais, France

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50 shillings - 1989

The local hairdresser in Chogo, Tanzania. Many hundreds of Somali Bantu refugees were granted Tanzanian citizenship in 2007 and 2008. The refugees currently living in Chogo began arriving in Tanzania in the early 1990’s.Their ancestors were originally from the Tanga province (Tanzania) and had been sold into slavery hundreds of years ago. All photos: UNHCR / Brendan Bannon

Local Integration: Local integration can be regarded as a process which leads to a durable solution for refugees. It is a process with three necessary interrelated dimensions:

First, it is a legal process, whereby refugees are granted a progressively wider range of rights and entitlements by the host state. Under the terms of the 1951 Refugee Convention, these include, for example, the right to seek employment, to engage in other income-generating activities, to own and dispose of property, to enjoy freedom of movement and to have access to public services such as education. The process whereby refugees gain and accumulate rights may lead to the acquisition of permanent residence rights and ultimately to the acquisition of citizenship in the country of asylum.

Second, local integration can be regarded as an economic process. For in acquiring the rights and entitlements referred to above, refugees also improve their potential to establish sustainable livelihoods, to attain a growing degree of self-reliance, and to become progressively less reliant on state aid or humanitarian assistance. In accordance with these indicators, refugees who are prevented or deterred from participating in the local economy, and whose standard of living is consistently lower than the poorest members of the host community, cannot be considered to be locally integrated.

Third, local integration is a social process, enabling refugees to live amongst or alongside the host population, without fear of systematic discrimination, intimidation or exploitation by the authorities or people of the asylum country. It is consequently a process that involves both refugees and the host population.

The concept of local integration does not imply the assimilation of refugees in the society where that have found asylum. While the concept of assimilation is to be found in the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, the international community has always rejected the notion that refugees should be required or expected to abandon their own culture, so as to become indistinguishable from members of the host community. As one scholar has pointed out, integration is a more useful term than assimilation, suggesting as it does that refugees “maintain their own identity, yet become part of the host society to the extent that host population and refugees can live together in an acceptable way.”

Taken from: "The local integration and local settlement of refugees: a conceptual and historical analysis", Jeff Crisp ; Reearch Working Paper nr. 102

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