Pacific 

Amid COVID-19 pandemic, thousands stranded in Bay of Bengal ‘unable to come ashore’

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that thousands of lives may be at stake if the stranded people are unable disembark. Those at sea include hundreds of Rohingya, ethnic communities from Western Myanmar who faced persecution that was likened to ethnic… Read More
Pacific 

First person: South Korea’s COVID-19 success story

Self-discipline, effective measures, and testing Stephan Klingebiel, director of the UNDP Global Policy Centre, Seoul, by UNDP Stephan Klingebiel is Director of UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Global Policy Centre in Seoul, which fosters partnerships between the Republic of Korea and the developing world. He puts the country’s success down to self-discipline, effective measures and testing. “Just a few weeks ago,… Read More
Pacific 

FROM THE FIELD: Women act as ‘agents of change’ in climate emergency

A woman in Viet Nam makes environmentally-friendly biomass briquettes, a biofuel substitute to coal and charcoal cooking fuel., by UN Photo/Kibae Park Although a changing climate affects everyone, it is the world’s most vulnerable people, and especially women and girls, who bear the brunt. They are more likely than men to suffer from the social, environmental and economic impacts of… Read More
Europe 

Greece: COVID-19 pandemic a further risk to refugee child education, warns UN partner

The UN refugee agency UNHCR, and children’s agency UNICEF, which co-ordinate the refugee education response on the Greek islands – as well other services including safety, sanitation, health care and nutrition, in liaison with the Greek government – have appealed for emergency funds to extend remote learning for refugee children whose education has been severely disrupted by the coronavirus. “We… Read More
Pacific 

From bustling streets to lockdown: Bangladesh and the UN mobilize to fight COVID-19: a UN Resident Coordinator blog

The capital city of Bangladesh, Dhaka, where I have been living and working for the past three years, is normally a bustling and fast-paced metropolis of some 18 million people, animated by street life and high-end restaurants, expensive cars and rickshaws, culture, fashion, slums, the call to prayer sounding from loudspeakers.  The UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, Mia Seppo (centre),… Read More
Europe 

Put aside political agendas ‘to save lives’, top UN official in Kosovo urges

Zahir Tanin, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), told the Security Council on Friday, that Kosovo is especially vulnerable to threat of a wider outbreak.    “Even as heroic efforts are being made by medical personnel, the healthcare resources of Kosovo are stretched thin”, he said, during his first regular briefing to the… Read More
Pacific 

UN condemns killing of WHO staffer in Myanmar transporting COVID-19 samples

“The United Nations is deeply saddened to confirm that Mr Pyae Sone Win Maung…has died after being wounded in a security incident in Minbya Township in Rakhine state, on the evening of Monday 20thApril 2020”, the statement read.  The WHO driver was en route in a clearly-marked UN vehicle, from Sittwe to Yangon, transporting COVID-19 surveillance samples in support of the Ministry of Health and… Read More
Pacific 

UN human rights office calls for compassion following Rohingya deaths at sea

Nearly 400 others onboard were found dehydrated, malnourished and in need of immediate medical care. They disembarked in Bangladesh on Thursday morning and are receiving assistance from UN refugee agency UNHCR, and its partners. “We are aware of reports that this boat had repeatedly sought a safe harbour, but the vessel was unable to land in Malaysia”, OHCHR Spokesperson Richard Colville… Read More
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