Tag: Refugees

Young refugees ‘urgently need access to education’

November 30, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Amman, Children, Education, Erbil, Hungary, Iraq, Islamic State, Jordan, Nineveh Plains, Refugees, UN, Youth

The new Catholic University of Erbil offers displaced young people an opportunity to continue their education.

At the start of the 10th session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues, which this year focuses on ‘minority youth’, human rights advocate Ewelina Ochab draws attention to the obstacles displaced young people face in accessing education. Ochab describes meeting Iraqi Christian youth and children in Jordan. Their families . . . Read More

Universal Children’s Day: Kidnapped Christina receives letter from German namesake

November 20, 2017 Iraq Ankawa, Children, Christina Abada, Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Qaraqosh, Refugees

Five-year-old Christina, shortly after she was reunited with her family, including mother Ayda in the back. (Twitter @thestevennabil)

When German teenager Christina learned that a three-year-old girl with the same name from Qaraqosh, Iraq, had been abducted by Islamic State militants in August 2014, she started praying. A few months ago she heard the news of Christina’s release and decided to write a letter to the little girl, . . . Read More

To flee or not to flee?

November 17, 2017 Civil War, Converts, Egypt, IDPs, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Middle East, Migrants, Refugees, Syria

It is sometimes said that the Middle East is being denuded of Christians. Against this, church leaders throughout the Middle East urge Christians to remain in their country, or, where conflict makes that impossible, then to at least stay in the region. The emigration of Christians from the Middle East . . . Read More

‘My daughters have no future in the Middle East’

November 10, 2017 Lebanon Beirut, Divorce, Iraq, Islamic State, Lebanon, Refugees, Syria, UN

Suha, an Iraqi Christian living in Beirut with her four daughters and her mother

“I lived with my in-laws for 35 years. At the beginning it was like going to the gallows!” recalls Lydia Babayan, 57, an Iraqi-born Armenian Catholic. “My mother-in-law was very aggressive and my father-in-law was very strict. But my husband’s sister was good to me, she never said a bad . . . Read More

Lives in limbo – Iraqi Christians’ long wait for asylum in Lebanon

November 8, 2017 Lebanon Armenians, Assyrians, Asylum seekers, Beirut, IDPs, Iraq, Islamic State, Lebanon, Middle East, Refugees, Syria, Trauma, UN

Petros Babayan strains to sit up as if each bone of his paper-thin frame were heavy as iron. His wife Lydia and adult daughter Rita rush to help him. In their tiny rented apartment in Beirut, his single bed takes up a quarter of the room in which they live . . . Read More

Jordan charity ‘restoring dignity’ to Iraq’s refugees

October 31, 2017 Jordan Amman, Iraq, Islamic State, Jordan, Refugees, Trauma

There was a time when Maran, a mother of three, worked as an engineer and had a long career ahead of her. But when Iraqi refugees started arriving in Amman, Jordan’s capital, fleeing from the violence Islamic State had unleashed upon their communities, Maran was dismayed about the treatment they . . . Read More

EU ‘wilfully blind’ to risks of deporting Christian converts back to Afghanistan

October 6, 2017 Afghanistan Afghanistan, Apostasy, Asylum seekers, Converts, Islamic extremism, Kabul, Migrants, Refugees

European countries and the EU are “wilfully blind” to the risks facing Afghans who fail in their asylum claims and are sent home, according to a new report by Amnesty International. “All returnees face a real risk of serious human rights violations,” says Amnesty, but some, such as religious minorities . . . Read More

Number of North Koreans fleeing to South Korea drops by 13%

September 19, 2017 North Korea China, North Korea, Refugees, South Korea, Thailand

Barbed wire along the Yalu river which marks the border between China and North Korea. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The number of North Koreans who escaped to South Korea in the first half of this year dropped by 13 per cent compared to the same period last year, a government report shows. The report from South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said 780 North Koreans escaped between January and July . . . Read More

Award for man who brokered release of Chibok girls

September 19, 2017 Nigeria Chibok girls, Maiduguri, Nigeria, Rebecca Dali, Refugees, UN

Mr Mustapha and his son who in a nursery class at the school. Future Prowess Islamic Foundation School (I), Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria. 17 May 2017

A 58-year-old Nigerian lawyer who brokered the release of 82 Chibok girls taken hostage by Boko Haram has been named as the 2017 winner of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) Nansen Refugee Award. Zannah Mustapha won the prestigious honour, which recognises extraordinary humanitarian work on behalf of . . . Read More

Muslim asylum seekers find shelter in Germany’s churches

September 7, 2017 Afghanistan, Aideen Strandsson, Asylum seekers, Berlin, Churches, Converts, Europe, Germany, Iran, Islamic extremism, Migrants, Refugees, Sweden

A church in Germany. (Photo: Paul Frankenstein via Flickr; CC 2.0).

Refugees at risk of deportation from Germany are finding shelter in Germany’s churches, and many are becoming Christians in the process, reports The Washington Post. More than a million refugees travelled to Germany in 2015, in the midst of Europe’s so-called “migrant crisis”, because it was known for its open . . . Read More

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