Gallery Links:
- UNHCR & Charity Projects Visits to the HALO Trust HQ

More than 40,000 people, including refugees and asylum-seekers, have crossed the Mediterranean on overcrowded boats and descended on the small island since the beginning of the year. Many were economic migrants from Tunisia, but some are people in need of international protection, including refugees from sub-Saharan Africa and Libya.

Italy has moved most of them to the mainland, but some have been returned to Tunisia. Jolie and Guterres will visit detention facilities on Lampedusa and see the crowded conditions faced by new arrivals.

The UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador flew to Lampedusa from Malta, which has also been a destination for people fleeing North Africa by boat. She visited Lyster Barracks, a former Royal Air Force facility and now a detention centre for asylum-seekers, many of whom who have fled the violence in Libya. They include Somalis, Ethiopians and others from sub-Saharan Africa.

“Malta has saved many lives, but it is the daily conditions on the ground that are of most concern,” Jolie said in Malta on Sunday morning. “We’ve spent time today speaking with the government and will spend more time talking about how, together, we can make the conditions more humane, especially for the children.

“We’ve spoken about our shared concerns about making sure asylum claims are processed as quickly as possible so no-one is sitting in a prison-like situation and waiting on a decision about their status, ” she added.

Many of the people Jolie met in the barracks told her that they had been working in Libya to make money to remit to their families back home. One man referred to Libya as the heart of Africa, where they were able to work. “Now it is on fire and Africa is crying,” he said.

The people said they had never attempted to come to Europe before, they just wanted a place where they were safe and could work. But when the war escalated in Libya, they ran out of options. “They are not asking to go to any particular country, they just want to find safety to work, and to have freedom,” Jolie stressed.

Women thrust their hands through bars and shook hands with the actress. “I just want freedom,” they all said.

Jolie praised Malta’s coastguards, saying they had “saved thousands of lives over the years and should be commended for that. They should now be given support from the international community to handle this continuing situation,”

The Goodwill Ambassador also visited an open centre near Malta’s main airport where vulnerable asylum-seekers are living in tents inside an old aircraft hangar while their asylum claims are assessed, The people she met there said living conditions were difficult and they were concerned about the pools of fuel on the ground and rats chewing their tents.

Read more: Angelina Jolie – Page 22 – the Fashion Spot http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f50/angelina-jolie-135539-22.html#ixzz1PkV9Dt89

Gallery Links:
- UNHCR & Charity Projects Visits a Syrian refugee

Gallery Links:
- UNHCR & Charity Projects Visits Somali refugees

More than 400,000 people have escaped the violence in Libya in the last month, arriving in surrounding countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Niger, Algeria, Chad and Sudan. Tunisia alone has received more than half of the outflow from Libya and has mobilized an outstanding relief operation.

The outpouring of generosity from the Tunisian people says so much for the future of this country, said UNHCRs Goodwill Ambassador. It is a sign of the openness sweeping across the region.

At the end of February, transit facilities were erected 7 km inside Tunisia to provide temporary shelter. At the same time, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration began helping migrants home with a humanitarian air evacuation. Today, over 70,000 people have reached home safely with help from UNHCR and IOM, but more continue to arrive. Some 11,000 third country nationals are still in transit.

The international community has done well to reinforce Tunisias remarkable relief effort, said Jolie. But with 2,000 people still crossing each day, we cannot let the funding dry up and need to sustain the momentum.

During the visit, an important contribution is being made by the Jolie-Pitt Foundation to help sustain the humanitarian evacuations being carried out. The Foundation covered the costs for a flight of 177 persons to return to their countries of origin and purchased an ambulance to help support Tunisian efforts on the border to assist the injured arriving from Libya.

We would encourage others, individuals and governments, to continue to support and assist with the needs on the ground, said Jolie.

While migrants make up the majority of these new arrivals, there are also some 2,500 people from war-torn countries who are unable to return home and thus require international protection.

Theyre waiting here with little hope, unable to return home and unsure of whats to come. This constant cycle of displacement must finally come to an end, said Jolie.

In conversations on Tuesday with people who had recently left Libya, UNHCRs Goodwill Ambassador was told of heavy fighting inside the country. She listened to harrowing stories of checkpoints, harassment and assaults. She appealed for measures that would allow the UN and non-governmental organizations to access Libya, and to distribute urgent assistance, including food and medical supplies.

Jolie also heard dramatic accounts of eastern and sub-Saharan Africans being deliberately targeted inside Libya. Many remain in hiding in desperate conditions, unable to move for fear of violence. Jolie called for a humanitarian corridor to facilitate the safe access of these populations to points of refuge.

Without this corridor, thousands of eastern and sub-Saharan Africans are escaping Libya by sea, relying on unseaworthy vessels organized by smugglers. In recent weeks, there have been several landings on the small Italian island of Lampedusa as well as interceptions off the coast of Tunisia. There are also reports of some people not surviving the perilous journey across the Mediterranean.

Source: UNHCR

During her two-day trip, the acclaimed actress met internally displaced people and refugee returnees still struggling to survive and reintegrate almost 10 years after returning to Afghanistan from years of exile.

More than 5.5 million refugees have returned since 2002, mainly from Pakistan and Iran, and now make up 20 per cent of the population. UNHCR is concerned that too many of these former refugees continue to live without jobs, shelter and other basic needs.

“It’s clear travelling through the country that what needs to be done is a very focused approach in places of return. We need to revisit the idea of what return is and the difference between just returning and reintegrating,” said Jolie, who last visited Afghanistan for UNHCR in 2008.

“The focus needs to be put now on reintegration, and that means not just putting up shelter but making sure there is water, job opportunities, a school for the children and medical clinics,” she added.

On Wednesday, Jolie returned to visit families living in a dilapidated warehouse in Kabul that once served as a storage facility for the national bus company. The Tamir Mili Bus depot is now one of 30 UNHCR-identified sites in the Afghan capital where returned refugees and internally displaced people can live while they eke out a living.

The Goodwill Ambassador caught up again with Khanum Gul in the small damp room she shares with her husband and eight children. A UNHCR plastic tarpaulin covered a gaping hole in the front wall, providing some shelter from the wind and snow. On Jolie’s first visit in 2008, Khanum had just given birth to her son Samir.

“It was very distressing to see that, because of the poor conditions, Samir seems to be suffering some form of developmental delay due to malnutrition or lack of medical care. He can’t walk and is barely surviving in what can only be described as a very cold and damp warehouse,” Jolie said.

Khanum’s husband, Eshan, tries to earn a living as a daily labourer. He waits for hours every day but is rarely picked for work. The couple also support Khanum’s ailing 70-year-old mother, Bi Bi Zamo Jan, who also met Jolie on her first visit.

“This old woman was so upset, because she feels like a burden. She watches her grandchildren go onto the streets every day to wash cars for a dollar a day so the family can eat. Often they earn nothing,” Jolie said. “Everyone I have met on this visit has been very clear. The Afghan people don’t want to become beggars. They want the opportunity to work for a living with dignity so they can provide for their families.”

The day after arriving on Monday evening, the Goodwill Ambassador travelled to the village of Qala Gadu, which lies north of Kabul on the Shomali Plain, the scene of fierce fighting during successive waves of conflict in Afghanistan since the late 1970s. Among the 2,500 families in the area, almost everyone is a returned refugee or was internally displaced before 2002.

Jolie met a group of young girls who will study at a new primary school that is being built in the village with funding from the actress. She also paid for a school in the remote returnee settlement of Tangi in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. The girls in Qala Gadu currently study next to the local mosque. The lack of a proper classroom means most girls can’t study beyond 4th Grade.

Ten-year-old Sahira presented Jolie with flowers on behalf of her classmates, saying: “If you build this school, I promise I will work really hard and study until the 12th Grade.” Sahira, who wants to be a doctor when she grows up, is the youngest of five daughters and the first of them to attend school.

UNHCR is currently rallying support from donors and humanitarian and development agencies to redouble efforts to help returning refugees integrate in Afghanistan.

Source: UNHCR

The Jolie-Pitt family spent Christmas at the N/a’an ku sê Wildlife Sanctuary, which takes care of injured animals like cheetahs and lions. The sanctuary is run by conservationists Dr. Rudie van Vuuren and his wife Marlice.”

Source: American Chronicle