Migration in the News

• AFP and Xinhua  reported that Iraqi forces Wednesday recaptured several districts and advanced towards the centre of Tal Afar, one of the Islamic State group’s last strongholds in the country, as aid workers braced for an exodus of civilians fleeing the fighting.
   
• Rudaw reported that the United Nations’ refugee and migration agencies have warned of harsh conditions, abuse, and revenge attacks against civilians fleeing the fighting in Tal Afar during military operations to retake the city from ISIL.
   
• TRT World reported on the differing views of Syrian refugees in Turkey on returning home as the war across the border drags into its seventh year.
   
• Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and 20 Minutes reported that an armed group of several hundred men has been formed in Libya to stop the boats of the smugglers' networks and repulse the migrants.
   
• The Huffington Post Italy published a commentary by MOAS co-founder Regina Catrambone on the “forgotten crisis” in Yemen.
   
• Devex reported on Somalia’s “gatekeepers”, self-appointed middlemen who serve as negotiators between internally displaced persons and the humanitarian sector, and who wield enormous control over how aid is distributed.
   
• Devex reported that the humanitarian community was unprepared for the scale of Somalia’s ongoing drought and displacement crisis, and relief efforts so far have been both inadequate and disjointed, according to a report released Tuesday by advocacy group Refugees International.
   
• This is Africa published a commentary marking the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition on 23 August.
   
• Radio Chisinau reported that the majority of migrant workers from the Republic of Moldova do not intend to return home, according to a study by IOM.
   
• VOA, UN News, Just Earth News, and El Diario reported that worry over having enough food is forcing people from drought-stricken Central America to migrate north to the United States, leaving families behind who grow more vulnerable to poverty, said an international report released Wednesday.
   
• The Dhaka Tribune reported that IOM has launched a USD 3.7m fundraising campaign to help Rohingya migrants affected by Cyclone Mora in Bangladesh.
   
• Bangladesh’s The Daily Star reported that some 87,000 undocumented Myanmar nationals (UMNs) have so far entered Bangladesh following an outbreak of violence on October 9 last year in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.
   
• New Age Bangladesh reported that senior government officials and a representative of an international organization exchanged views with undocumented Myanmar nationals at Balokhali camp of Ukhia and at Ledha camp of Teknaf.
   
• Le Courrier du Vietnam reported the launch of Vietnam's National Profile 2016 on Migration on 22 August in Hanoi by the Consular Department of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and IOM.
   
• Xinhua reported that Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi met with IOM Director General William Lacy Swing in Beijing, China on 23 August.

Trending on the Internet

• Jiji Press reported that a first batch of 20 Syrian refugees will be admitted to graduate schools in Japan this autumn under a Japanese government initiative announced last year.
   
• The Guardian reported that during six years of civil war in Syria, novelist Khaled Khalifa has watched wave after wave of friends and family flee his home city. But despite everything, he has decided to stay.