Refugees/IDPs

Concern for Syrians stuck at Jordanian border

AMMAN/DUBAI, 24 May 2013 (IRIN Middle East) - Thousands of people are gathering in villages in southern Syria, unable to seek refuge in Jordan either because of insecurity along the border or, according to some, new Jordanian security measures. In the meantime, some of them are living “between the mosques and the streets” without enough food and water, amid daily violence. full report

Helping displaced children in rebel-held parts of Kachin

 KACHIN STATE, 23 May 2013 (IRIN Asia) - Children's laughter rings out from bamboo huts along the perimeter of the Lana Zup Ja camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in a part of Myanmar’s Kachin State controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA): A group of pre-schoolers are playing in a plywood hut, seemingly oblivious to the squalid conditions surrounding them. full report

Syrians seeking refuge in Libya

 MISRATA, 23 May 2013 (IRIN Middle East) - Two years ago Syrians in the relative security of their own country watched the unfolding crisis in Libya descend into a devastating civil war. full report

Analysis: Nigerians on the run as military combat Boko Haram

 KANO, 22 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - Tens of thousands of residents of northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State have fled their homes - thousands of them into neighbouring Niger and Cameroon - following airstrikes by Nigerian fighter jets on Boko Haram (BH) camps from 15 May. full report

Containing cholera in Niger

 NIAMEY, 22 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - Cholera has struck 248 people in Ayorou in the Tillabéry Region of northwestern Niger, killing six, two of them Malian refugees. full report

Analysis: How to avoid a fourth year of serious flooding in Pakistan

 SUKKUR, 21 May 2013 (IRIN Asia) - Since 2010, monsoon rain in Pakistan has brought with it some of the biggest seasonal flooding in living memory. Two months from this year’s rains, weather forecasters are already predicting above normal rainfall and in some areas standing water has yet to drain away from last year’s monsoon. full report

Seeking safety in the city

 LONDON, 21 May 2013 (IRIN Global) - Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are forced from their homes by violence or natural disasters. But the face of displacement is changing: While the popular view of displacement is one of sprawling rural camps, displaced people are now just as likely to be living in urban areas, often hidden from view. full report

Libyans in North Africa scared to return home

 CAIRO, 16 May 2013 (IRIN Middle East) - Until government and revolutionary forces attacked the Libyan town of Bani Walid, about 170km southeast of the capital Tripoli in October last year, Abdullah Warfella had been determined never to leave. full report

Evacuation volunteers fan out in Bangladesh

 DHAKA, 16 May 2013 (IRIN Asia) - Some 50,000 volunteers in coastal communities across southern Bangladesh are out and about warning people to move to higher ground ahead of Cyclone Mahasen. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated so far. full report

Cape Town's asylum seekers struggle to get documented

 CAPE TOWN, 16 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - When Jean Baptiste*, a medical student from Lubumbashi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), arrived in South Africa in September 2012, he headed straight for Cape Town, where he knew he would be able to stay with his brother. No one at the border told him that it was no longer possible to apply for asylum in Cape Town. full report

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