POVERTY: KENYA-SOMALIA: Red tape adds to refugee woes in Dadaab

DADAAB, 26 July 2011 (IRIN)

 Photo: Tom Maruko/IRIN

Somali refugees await registration at Dadaab

 After walking for days to escape drought and insecurity, often barefoot and with almost no food or water, Somali refugees who arrive at Dadaab camps in northern Kenya are met with delays and red tape.

Some wait up to two weeks to be registered as refugees, and longer to get food and shelter.
The sluggish pace of the registration process is partly because refugees may only register and receive ration cards at Ifo camp, at the centre of the three Dadaab camps set up to 10km apart.
Abdifatah Ahmed, chairman of the Dagahaley camp, told IRIN: "We request the [UN Refugee Agency] UNHCR to issue the ration cards in all the three camps as soon as possible to ease the pressure and immediately facilitate the distribution of food rations to the new arrivals."
The agency tries to register 1,000 refugees a day, out of the approximately 1,300 new arrivals, but they are limited by the number that Kenya's Department of Refugee Affairs (DRA) is able to process.
"We are sort of at their mercy,” said a UNHCR employee who declined to be named. The official said the DRA was working to increase its capacity to process new arrivals.
Often, they do not know what to do if they lose their ration cards, or who to contact to report cases of sexual and gender-based violence
At the start of registration, refugees are fingerprinted and photographed at Ifo camp to ensure they have not already been registered.
The UNHCR employee said many refugees tried to register more than once in an effort to get more food and assistance, but most were tripped up by a series of questions on family names and relationships.
Even after registering and receiving a ration card, some refugees wait for weeks to gain access to the food distribution that normally takes place twice a month as their data is transferred to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and CARE, the agencies facilitating the general food distribution.
To speed up the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the new arrivals, reception centres were established across the three camps on 6 June, where new arrivals can access dry food rations for two weeks. They also receive non-food items like kitchen utensils and plastic sheets, and medical screenings where the malnourished are referred to hospital for feeding and stabilization.
Refugees who arrived in the 1990s, backed by the escalating emergency response of humanitarian aid workers and other external supporters, are filling some of the gaps as well. Community leaders in Dadaab camps have facilitated massive contribution drives of non-food items, food rations and some money from as far away as Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, and the coastal town of Mombasa, for the new arrivals.
But new refugees are hampered by poor access to information, such as where and when to look for general food distribution. Often, they do not know what to do if they lose their ration cards, or who to contact to report cases of sexual and gender-based violence. Many have no idea of the various services offered by the more than 20 aid agencies operating in the camps.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=93332

MANUTRITION: Ivory Coast: Ivorian infighting forces UN refugee relocation

TAMBA JEAN-MATTHEW : July 14 2011
A UNHCR statement this week quoted refugees expressing fear for their lives due to fighting among armed rival gangs and which is affecting the distribution of relief aid.
An estimated 2,000 refugees are affected by the relocation from transit centres and villages along the Liberian border with Cote d’Ivoire.
The armed gangs are divided between supporters of President Alassane Ouattara and those of the ousted former leader, Laurent Gbagbo.
The fighting has prevented the regular supply of relief aid by UNHCR to hundreds of Ivorian refugees resulting in instances of starvation and malnourishment.
Mr Jerry Bahgou, a medical officer at the Yorpea Clinic in Liberia’s north-eastern Nimba County, says the rate of malnutrition among children is high and that dozens are being referred to hospitals in the area.
About half of the 100,000 Ivorian refugees reside in border towns and villages in Nimba County
http://www.africareview.com/News/Ivorian+gangs+force+UN+refugee+relocation/-/979180/1201196/-/7yfdgwz/-/

MALNUTRITION: ETHIOPIA: Floods pose new threat to food security

ADDIS ABABA, 14 July 2011 (IRIN)
 Photo: Ben Parker/IRIN
Expected flooding between August and September could exacerbate food insecurity for up to 4.5 million Ethiopians (file photo)

While the ongoing drought has seriously undermined the food security of up to 4.5 million people in Ethiopia, a threat posed by expected flooding during the second half of 2011 could exacerbate the situation, say meteorological officials.
Ethiopia's meteorological agency has forecast normal to above-normal rainfall during the June-September rainy season, with the risk of flooding in western, northwestern and central areas. Areas around Lake Tana in Amhara region, parts of Gambella and along the Awash basin in Afar region are likely to be affected by floods.
"Parts of these areas, particularly in low-lying [areas] and near riverbanks, could face flooding as we usually anticipate in this season," said Diriba Koricha, the director of Forecast and Early Warning Department at the agency.
However, "as the season progresses in August and September, swift but heavy rainfalls could result in flooding anywhere", he said, adding that further preparation was needed to prevent any humanitarian crisis.
Launching an appeal on 11 July for drought aid, Ethiopia's Agriculture Ministry said the country's food security situation had deteriorated since the beginning of the year to the La Niña-induced drought currently ravaging parts of the country.
The country requires US$398 million for food and non-food aid between July and December 2011.
The government made the appeal as humanitarian actors reported funding shortfalls.
Judith Schuler, World Food Programme (WFP) Ethiopia spokeswoman, said many of its food assistance activities in Ethiopia "face significant funding shortfalls".
WFP has a shortfall of 120,000MT of food, equivalent to about $112 million, until the end of the year.
"Due to this lack of funding, WFP reduced food rations in relief operations in certain areas of the country from March onwards," said Schuler.
A recent report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Ethiopia indicated that food rations had been allocated without vegetable oil and with a reduced amount of corn-soya blend.
Schuler said: "In order to resume full rations for all people badly hit by the drought, new contributions are urgently needed. Compounding the issue is time: from the moment a contribution is confirmed, it takes between four to five months until the food arrives in the country."
Between January and June, WFP assisted 269,300 moderately malnourished Ethiopian children under five through the targeted supplementary food (TSF) programme for malnourished children under five and pregnant and nursing mothers.

 Photo: Jane Some/IRIN Ethiopia's food security has deteriorated since the beginning of the year due to drought (file photo)

Somali refugees
The food needs are not just limited to Ethiopians; an influx of refugees from Somalia to Ethiopia has also been recorded.
"Numbers are increasing on a daily basis, and the nutritional status of the refugees upon... arrival is worrying," said Schuler, adding that a March/April survey had found malnutrition rates of 45 percent among newly arrived children under five at a camp in Dolo Ado, at the border between Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.
At least 55,000 new Somali refugees have been recorded in Ethiopia since January, according to the UN. The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, has set up a new camp to help them.
Eastern Africa is experiencing what the UN has described as the most severe food crisis in the world today.
On 4 July, international charity Oxfam GB made a £50 million ($80 million) appeal for drought-hit eastern Africa, saying at least 12 million people had been pushed "into a fight for survival".
"The aid effort faces enormous hurdles; there is not enough money to buy food in the quantities required and the price of maize has risen by up to 40 percent since a year ago in the region," Jane Cocking, Oxfam's humanitarian director, said. "The cost of fuel needed to transport food to the epicentre has also shot up."
On 1 July, the NGO, Christian Aid, also launched an emergency humanitarian appeal to help provide water, food and animal feed in the region.
"People are desperate and if we don't act now we could be looking at one of the worst humanitarian situations the world has seen in a long time," warned Nick Guttmann, Christian Aid's humanitarian director.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=93225

MALARIA: Refugees may escape conflict, but not malaria

 Bill Brieger : 04 Jun 2011
We have looked at the exacerbation of malaria in conflict situations before, and unfortunately will probably need to look at the issue again. A new article in Malaria Journal shows that even when refugees escape from the conflict zone, they may still be confronted by malaria in their camps.
Bayoh and colleagues looked at Kakuma refugee situated in Turkana District in the semi-arid north-west region of Kenya, an area that is normally not too hospitable to malaria. The researchers found that human activity was responsible for mosdquitoe breeding. “All of the habitats encountered in the dry season were associated directly with tap-stands, and were either cemented pits, soil-lined pits, drainage channels, or run-off puddles whose water source was from the tap-stands.”
Even in the short rainy season, “The habitats encountered … were primarily maintained by water from tap-stands.” These included cemented pits, soil-lined pits, drainage channels, and run-off puddles (90% of all habitats). Transportation lent a hand through wet tire tracks and roadside puddles.
The researchers in Kakuma were aided by rapid diagnostic tests and microscopy in diagnosing and subsequently treating those suffering from malaria. This is not always the case. Akello-Ayebara and co-workers documented inappropriate treatment of refugee children in northern Uganda. Obviously self-diagnosis presented problems, but misdiagnosis by local health care providers was common.


They concluded that, “The local diagnostic system needs to be improved, not only so that malaria can be reliably diagnosed but also so that alternative diagnoses can be confirmed or rejected, otherwise the current over-consumption of antimalarial drugs may simply be replaced with an over-consumption of antibiotics.”

Malaria problems for refugees are not confined to Africa. Basseri and colleagues document that in Asia refugees coming into a malaria endemic area are less likely to have protective measures like nets than the indigenous population.

The last two examples clearly show the disadvantage that refugees have when trying to survive among the indigenous populations where they have fled. The Kakuma example is more depressing in that circumstances in camps where refugees are supposed to be safe actually expose them to malaria risk. Overall, this is a neglected population, and unless attention is paid to conflicts and the peoples displaced by conflict, malaria cannot be eliminated.
http://www.malariafreefuture.org/blog/?p=1219

POVERTY: Australia: allocates $4.8b in foreign aid budget, up nearly $500 million

Padraic Murphy May 10, 2011
AUSTRALIA'S foreign aid budget will increase by almost $500 million next year in a bid to tackle extremism and reduce the numbers of refugees fleeing violence and poverty in the world trouble spots.
The mammoth $4.8 billion aid budget will go towards new schools in Indonesia as well as anti-violence and health programs across the third world.
And Pakistan – where Osama bin Laden lived for years under the noses of authorities - will receive $92.8 million next financial year.
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Taxpayers will pay the scholarships of 50 Pakistanis to study in Australia as well as for upgrades to eye hospitals in the country.
Other countries to receive large aid packages include PNG ($482.3 million), Indonesia ($558.1 million) and the Solomon Islands ($261.6 million).
The aid budget was $4.4 billion in 2009-2010 but is expected to grow by at least $1.9 billion over the next four years.
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said most of the extra funding would be spent in Indonesia and the Pacific.
"I am committed to enhancing the transparency of our aid program. When people are able to access information, they are better able to hold those who are managing their money.... to account," Mr Rudd said.
The government said 6 per cent, or $251 million of its aid budget will be spent "on climate change and environmental activities.
"The money will be spent on initiatives to slow carbon growth in Australia's region The government is also funding 300,000 secondary school places in Indonesia and building 2000 schools as part of a campaign to "assist around 1500 Islamic schools to achieve higher accreditation and operate to a higher education standard".
"Reducing poverty is also in our national security and national economic interest. Poverty breeds instability and extremism in our region and globally and creates conditions that lead to more refugees," Mr Rudd said.
"It is for these humanitarian, national security and economic reasons that the government is committed to increasing our aid to 0.5 per cent of our gross national income by 2015-16," Mr Rudd said.
The government has also committed $10.5 million to win Australia a non-permanent seat on the UN security council that will include extra bureaucrats in New York and Canbera and "additional funding for small posts".
Budget papers also show DFAT's expense measures, including AusAid and border security will explode from $55.6 million last financial year to $909.9 million by 2014-15.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-reports/australia-allocates-48b-in-foreign-aid-budget-up-nearly-500-million/story-fn8melax-1226053511863

MALNUTRITION: Bangladesh: Rohingyas Endure Desperate Situation

LALIT K JHA Friday, April 22, 2011 WASHINGTON— Noting that Rohingya refugees face a desperate situation in Bangladesh, a Washington-based non-profit organization has urged Australia, Canada, the US and Britain to work with the Bangladeshi government to strengthen protection and humanitarian assistance and reduce sexual and gender-based violence.



A view of the Kutupalong unofficial Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh. (Photo: Alex Ellgee/The Irrawaddy)



“The situation is desperate for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh,” said Lynn Yoshikawa, of Refugees International.
In its report, “Bangladesh: The Silent Crisis,” Refugees International said hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled repression in Burma have no protection from abuse, starvation and detention in Bangladesh because of a lack of documentation.
The plight of the Rohingyas was recently noted by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a speech in Berlin early this month. “In Burma, ethnic Rohingya Muslims continue to be denied full citizenship and equal opportunities for education, employment and travel,” Clinton said at the Rathenau Prize ceremony in Berlin on April 15.
“They live in squalor and are forced to suffer a litany of abuses because the government doesn’t recognize them as refugees,” said Yoshikawa, who recently returned from visiting Rohingya camps in the region.
The report called on the international community to urge the Bangladeshi government to register undocumented refugees and improve protection for all vulnerable Rohingyas, adding that donor governments must also work to restart and increase resettlement of refugees to third countries and increase assistance for communities hosting refugees.
“Donor governments should rapidly mobilize US $2 million to meet the World Food Program’s funding gap to ensure the provision of full food rations in the official refugee camps this year,” it said.
According to the report, approximately 800,000 Rohingyas live in three townships in northern Arakan State in Burma. Rohingya children are three times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than other children in Burma, and malnutrition rates frequently exceed emergency levels, the report said.
The World Food Program reported that food security in the region had worsened over the past two years, with two-thirds of the population going hungry.
Giving a graphic description of the plight of the Rohingyas, Refugees International said Rohingyas there are often arrested while collecting firewood in the nearby national forest or while working.
If they are unable to pay a bribe or obtain a guarantee from a Bangladesh national for their immediate release, refugees are often charged with illegal entry and sent to jail. Refugees International said that detained Rohingyas routinely have to pay a bribe of between $110 and $400 for their release, forcing many families into heavy debt.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21155

TUBERCULOSIS: CRS Battling Tuberculosis in Asia

“When I first arrived here, I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t stand. I couldn’t eat.” Maria Sabina Tai, a 40-year-old mother of 7 living in East Timor, sits in the yard of a treatment center for people with tuberculosis. Maria had felt sick for two years, but wasn’t sure what the sickness was. “Then a TB volunteer found me,” she says. She went to the center mainly because of her children: “I was worried about my kids.”
The volunteer who found Maria is part of a CRS-supported program run by Klibur Domin, a local organization in this small, impoverished country near Australia. Though East Timor’s population is only one million, over 470 people die from TB each year here; many more are infected. Klibur Domin runs the 50-bed treatment home, where patients stay and receive a course of antibiotics and good food. Klibur Domin also seeks out sick people in their villages, and raises awareness of the disease.
Tuberculosis festers and spreads easily “where people are crowded together in a small space, and where there is poor ventilation,” says CRS’ Michelle Lang-Alli, who is Asia Regional Technical Advisor for Health. Malnourishment and overwork add to the problem.
TB attacks people who are already weak. One vulnerable group are refugees. In southern India, refugees from Sri Lanka live in cramped warehouses where cooking smoke fills the air. There, residents who contract TB pass it on to other family members, including their children.
CRS programs help TB patients recover and prevent TB from spreading. In East Timor, CRS funds health groups that care for TB patients. In Cambodia, CRS partners do home visits, making sure TB patients are taking their medication properly. In southern India, CRS and its diocesan partners are building new houses for Sri Lankan refugees so they can leave their crowded, unhealthy quarters.
In Timor, Catholic sisters play an important role in running rest houses where patients can take medicine and recover. “In the past, families just thought it was a regular disease,” says Sister Carmelita Martines at the TB home she and her fellow Carmelite nuns run in Timor. If people aren’t in a controlled environment like a rest home, they often make mistakes and don’t take the medicine properly.
The sisters follow up when patients are strong enough to leave the rest house but are still taking the antibiotics. “We call them the champions of TB in East Timor,” says Lang-Alli. “They’re very active. They’ll chase patients up if they don’t finish their treatment.”
Throughout Asia, CRS and its partners are helping the poor breathe easy. “I feel happy and grateful when I see patients return home well,” says Sister Carmelita. “You’re like a bridge that God’s love can flow over to reach them.”
http://crs-blog.org/battling-tuberculosis-in-asia/