Tents, sacks of food and a recreation of a burnt-out village hut appeared in Trafalgar Square as a tourist hot spot became a refugee camp to highlight the plight of millions of people displaced in Darfur and elsewhere.
The display, set up on Tuesday to mark World Refugee Day this week, came as the UN refugee agency reported a record 11.4 million people were driven from their home countries last year.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said numbers were rising again after several years of decline in which refugees returned to countries including Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Angola.
PHOTO: AP
“Now, unfortunately, with the multiplication of conflicts and the intensification of conflicts, the number is on the rise again,” said Guterres, standing amid white UN tents erected in the square as part of the “Experience Darfur” exhibit.
“People being forced to move, unfortunately, will be one of the characteristics of the 21st century,” he said.
In its annual report released on Tuesday, the UNHCR said 11.4 million people were forced to leave their countries last year, compared to 9.9 million in 2006. Another 26 million were displaced within their own countries by conflict or persecution, up from 24.2 million the year before.
Nearly half the world’s refugees are from war-torn Afghanistan and Iraq. The UNHCR said there are 3.1 million displaced Afghans, most in neighboring Pakistan and Iran, and 2.3 million Iraqi refugees, mostly in Syria and Jordan. Another 2.4 million Iraqis are internally displaced, an increase of 600,000 since the start of last year.
The number of internally displaced people grew last year in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Yemen, as well as in the Central African Republic and Chad, where thousands of refugees have crossed the border from the Sudanese region of Darfur.
Up to 300,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced since ethnic African tribesmen took up arms against Sudan’s Arab-dominated government five years ago. The government is accused of responding by unleashing the tribal militia known as the Janjaweed, which have committed the worst atrocities against Darfur’s local communities.
Around half a million Sudanese have sought refuge abroad, the UN report said, including some 300,000 in Chad, and violence has also spilled across the border from Darfur.
“Darfur is like an earthquake,” Guterres said. “It has an epicenter in Darfur itself, but then the waves spread and instability is created also in the countries around, as is the case in Chad and the Central African Republic. And that’s why it is so urgent for the international community to be engaged to make sure there is a political solution in Darfur, to bring stability to the whole region.”
Organizers of the mock refugee camp said they hoped it would bring home the situation in Darfur to politicians at parliament, a few hundred yards away, as well as to Londoners and tourists.
“The burning house had quite a strong impact. It was quite emotive,” said 22-year-old student Charlotte Snowdon, who stopped by the exhibition. “When you see something and can experience it for yourself, it makes you understand it more.”
The UNHCR also said that in Colombia, where the government has fought a decades-long war with guerrillas, as many as 3 million people have left their homes, while more than 550,000 have become refugees in other countries.
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
RSS