DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Pope Francis is ordaining 16 priests during a Mass in Bangladesh, the start of a busy day that will also bring him face-to-face with Rohingya Muslims refugees from Myanmar. An estimated 100,000 people gathered Friday in a Dhaka park for the service, which mirrors the ordination Mass St. John Paul II … Continue reading
GENEVA (AP) — The Latest on the donors conference for Asia’s Rohingya refugees (all times local): 1:50 p.m. The head of the U.N. agency that coordinates humanitarian aid says have pledged roughly $340 million to help more than 600,000 ethnic Rohingya who have fled Myanmar into Bangladesh since August. Mark Lowcock of the U.N. Office … Continue reading
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Adil Hasan and his wife, Enas Ibrahim, came to the U.S. in 2008 as refugees from Iraq, and have been living peacefully in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., ever since. To get here, though, they faced a dilemma as they sat in a camp in Jordan, where they were required to … Continue reading
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya is coercing residents of the world’s largest refugee camp to leave it and return to Somalia where they risk getting killed or forcibly recruited into the Islamic extremist group, al-Shabab, Amnesty International said Tuesday. Some who voluntarily returned to Somalia from Dadaab camp told The Associated Press they are now … Continue reading
GENEVA (AP) — Food, water and shelter are obvious basic needs for people fleeing war. But with refugees now spending roughly 20 years in exile on average, the U.N. refugee agency is calling on the world to do more to ensure refugee children have access to education as a fundamental right. Over 3.7 million school-age … Continue reading
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Excited but fearful, refugees from Boko Haram piled into yellow school buses with their bundles of belongings, returning after two years to homes that have been torched, wells destroyed, livestock looted and fields that still may not be safe from the Islamic insurgents. On Monday, the largest group yet of such … Continue reading
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Amnesty International said Tuesday May 24th, that more than 1.2 million Afghans have been forced to flee their homes due to violence in the past three years and urged the Kabul government and the international community to tackle the country’s growing crisis of refugees internally displaced by war. Those numbers are … Continue reading
ROME (AP) — More than 4,000 would-be refugees were res cued at sea Thursday, May 26, in one of the busiest days of the Mediterranean migrant crisis, and at least 20 died trying to reach Europe as Libyan-based smugglers took advantage of calmer seas to send desperate migrants north. The death toll was likely to … Continue reading
LESBOS, Greece (AP) — Municipal crews were pressure-hosing streets, pruning trees and touching up building facades on this Greek island where Pope Francis will visit Saturday, Apr. 16, a mission human rights groups hope will highlight the plight of refugees who fled their war-ravaged homes only to be denied entry to Europe. The Vatican insists … Continue reading
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The European Union told member states Wednesday, Mar. 16, they “urgently need to deliver” on commitments to resettle more refugees on the continent, as the number of refugees arriving in Greece since the start of 2015 reached the 1 million mark. The demand came on the eve of a summit … Continue reading
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Tensions simmered one night inside the smoky Belgrade City cafe in a rough neighborhood near the train station. The price of a human being was being decided. Dozens of young Middle Eastern and African men dressed in track suits and woolen caps were frantically negotiating with a Serbian smuggler on the … Continue reading
ISTANBUL (AP) — Western governments fearful of terror attacks and the potential threat posed by refugees are adopting counterproductive policies in the name of security, Human Rights Watch said in its world report Wednesday, Jan. 27. HRW executive director Kenneth Roth said “fear of being killed or starved” drove millions of people to flee Syria … Continue reading
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — President Barack Obama is planning to visit a refugee center in Malaysia, casting a spotlight on the plight of those fleeing violence and persecution from Myanmar to Syria. Obama’s tour of the Dignity for Children Foundation on Saturday comes amid a raging debate back home over Obama’s plan to allow … Continue reading
VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Passport free travel in Europe is under threat as countries reintroduce border controls, toughen security and build fences in response to the biggest refugee emergency the continent has seen in decades. The Schengen open-borders zone uniting 30 countries is a pinnacle of European achievement. It underpins the EU economy, allowing goods, … Continue reading
AT THE SERBIAN-HUNGARIAN BORDER (AP) — At the edge of a Balkan vineyard, Mohammed al-Haj lay down under a tree to collect his thoughts. Come nightfall, he and the other Syrians with him would make a run for it, past the fence of chain-link and barbed wire being built along the Hungarian border to keep … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 