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Welcome to a world of seven billion people
Sunday, October 30th, 2011
A newborn baby’s first cry has just marked a world record – the seven billionth person living on our planet was born.
Each new life is a new hope. And yet, all too many hopes get crushed by poverty and conflicts. Read the full entry
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The refugee camp you did not know about
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
Exactly three months ago, the United Nations declared famine in Somalia. Throughout the entire Horn of Africa, drought has thrown more than 13 million people into a humanitarian crisis with no quick fix in sight. My colleagues and I have already shared our impressions about what we have seen in the region – and you certainly have seen the shocking images of hunger and misery from the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya. The situation in Dadaab is more serious than ever, but it is not the only hot spot – which is why today I have invited ECHO’s regional information officer Bea Spadacini to tell you more about Dollo Ado, another camp where humanitarian struggle daily to save, cure and feed people.
For several months now, the world has been hearing about the drought which ravages the Horn of Africa, leaving millions of people at risk of starvation in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. The media have paid a lot of attention to the Dadaab refugee camps in Northern Kenya. Built for 90,000 people, the camps now host almost half a million. And they keep growing. Read the full entry
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Doolow is the last stop for Somalis running from hunger and conflict to neighbouring Ethiopia. The local community is itself hard-hit by the drought. What I saw there was grim but I also took some positive notes from my visit.
The first encouraging sign was the local chieftain sitting down with our partner organisation Coopi and taking an active part in the process of distributing food supplies to fellow Somalis arriving from the worst-hit regions of their country. Read the full entry
Number of views: 2370
Ten years ago we marked June 20th for a first time as a special day, dedicated to the millions of people pushed out of their homes by conflicts or disasters. In my travels around the world: in Haiti, Sudan, Kyrgyzstan, Yemen, Thailand, Japan, Tunisia, the occupied Palestinian territories, I have witnessed the daily struggles of men and women, children and grandparents to rebuild their lives away from home. As I write this blog I see their faces and hear their stories again. It is a good decision to have a World Refugee Day, to honour them and to lift up attention to their suffering and their aspirations. Read the full entry
Number of views: 2709
A friendship bridge to a better future
Friday, April 1st, 2011
As you may know from my previous posts and from the news, I have been busy with different emergencies in the past weeks: Libya, Japan and the Ivory Coast. But there are other crises that make the news less often, yet also deserve our attention. One such crisis is with the refugees from Myanmar to Thailand. It brought me to Bangkok and the Mae La refugee camp in mid-March.
It is important not to lose sight of forgotten humanitarian crises; this is why I have long planned to visit the camps on the Thai side of the border, where ethnic minorities from Myanmar find refuge from oppression. It may seem strange that at a time when we have so much on our plates – a crisis in Libya, a civil war in the Ivory Coast and an emergency in Japan – I would think about a protracted and little-known crisis. Read the full entry
Number of views: 2865
On my way to the border of despair and hope
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011
A new and growing humanitarian emergency has summoned me to Tunisia. Just between the 1st and the 2nd of March, more than 25,000 people have reportedly crossed into this country from Libya, fleeing from continuing violence. Many of them have little than the clothes on their backs; even more have no easy way to reach their home countries. There are harrowing reports, made even more troubling by their high number.
I am going to the border to assess the problem and the needs, and to determine how the European Commission can best deliver aid and alleviate pain, in coordination with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organisation for Migration and other partners. Read the full entry
Number of views: 3445
Hospitality over guns – part 1: Yemen’s untold story
Monday, January 17th, 2011
We all know Yemen as a very dangerous place. Since reunification in 1990, the country has been struggling with conflicts in both the South and the North, and a small, but powerful Al-Qaeda movement raises security concerns on a global scale. Jambiya, the traditional knife all men carry, is proudly on display everywhere, and there is no shortage of more modern weapons of all kinds. Read the full entry
Number of views: 3801
My first trip in 2011 is to Yemen, a weak link in a belt of fragile states that spans from Pakistan and Afghanistan to Sudan and Somalia. As I arrived here, the first news that hit was of the kidnapping of three Bulgarians in Darfur – a stark reminder of the problems these countries present.
I arrived in Yemen together with Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for refugees, because we both believe the country deserves much more attention than it receives. Long gone are the days when people came to Yemen because of its incredible historic heritage – traced back to 1,000 years BC. Today, the only window through which the world looks at Yemen, is terrorism. Read the full entry
Number of views: 3638
The political dispute in the Ivory Coast has spilled over into violence. A new crisis is looming in West Africa and Ivorians, international peacekeepers and humanitarian workers are all at risk. Another danger is a refugee crisis, as some 11 thousand people are already streaming into neighbouring countries, mainly Liberia.
What will tomorrow bring? I hope that good sense will prevail and a step back to normality and calm will be made. But while hoping for the best we also need to prepare for the worst. Today the European Commission decided to dispatch 5 million EUR in emergency aid. The funds will help meet refugees’ urgent needs, such as food, drinking water and shelter.
Together with my colleagues at the Commission, I will be on alert over the next days in case new humanitarian needs arise. I will keep you posted on our next steps. As we come close to the holidays, I pray for peace – everywhere. This is the very best wish for 2011 for the Ivory Coast as well.
Number of views: 3468
On Sunday, the 20th of June, the World Refugee Day is celebrated across the globe. It is a day of solidarity with those who have been displaced from their homes because of war, persecution or natural disasters. Today they include around 10 million refugees and more than 27 million internally displaced people (IDPs) seeking sanctuary within their own countries. The European Commission has made a firm commitment to help and protect people who have lost their homes wherever they may be.
The theme of this year’s World Day is ”Home”, a word which at its core, expresses a basic human need for comfort and safety. A few months ago many Europeans found themselves in a very unfortunate situation. They were stranded in foreign countries, unable to return to their homes and families, as the ash of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull spread over European skies, bringing air traffic over large parts of the continent to a complete halt (see my previous entry Grounded). The situation cannot be compared in any way to the hardships experienced by refugees. But perhaps it made many travellers closer to the feelings of fear, despair and longing for home that the millions of refugees around the world have to endure, sometimes for years on end. Read the full entry
Number of views: 1467
