Latest Forced migration Stories

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Monday authorized the admission of 70,000 refugees into the United States in fiscal 2006, the same ceiling that was set the previous year, the White House said. The actual number of refugees admitted in fiscal 2005 which ended September 30 was 53,813, which was below the authorized ceiling because of funding restraints, an administration official said. Bush issued a memorandum to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that authorized the...

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese authorities have arrested and allegedly mistreated a lawyer defending the rights of refugees who live in camps outside the capital Khartoum, rights group Amnesty International said in a statement. About 2 million people who fled regional conflicts in Sudan live in slums surrounding Khartoum. Police clashed with refugees in the Soba al-Aradi camp in May, leaving at least 30 people dead, including 14 policemen, rights groups and witnesses said. The lawyer,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to put pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday to do more to end militant attacks against Israeli targets now that Israel has withdrawn from the Gaza Strip. Their White House meeting, to be followed by a joint press conference, is the first between Bush and Abbas since Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip last month after 38 years of occupation. Washington sees the Gaza pullout as a chance to revive a...

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO (Reuters) - A deteriorating environment could drive about 50 million people from their homes by 2010 and the world needs to define a new category of "environmental" refugee, a U.N. study said on Tuesday. Desertification, rising sea levels, flooding and storms linked to climate change might displace hundreds of millions of people, according to the report by the U.N. University's Institute for Environment and Human Security. "We're ringing...

OSLO -- A deteriorating environment could drive about 50 million people from their homes by 2010 and the world needs to define a new category of "environmental" refugee, a U.N. study said on Tuesday.Desertification, rising sea levels, flooding and storms linked to climate change might displace hundreds of millions of people, according to the report by the U.N. University's Institute for Environment and Human Security."We're ringing a kind of scientific and political alarm...

By Richard Waddington GENEVA (Reuters) - The international community has woken up to the tragedy of the millions who are refugees in their own country and begun to act, the head of the United Nations' refugee agency said on Tuesday. Internal refugees -- known as internally displaced people (IDPs) -- number 20 to 25 million, more than double the nine million refugees who are recognized as such because they have crossed a border, and their plight is often just as bad, said U.N. High...

By Jonathan Saul TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon narrowly won a vote of his ruling Likud on Monday against rival Benjamin Netanyahu trying to oust him as party leader as punishment for Israel's Gaza pullout, an exit poll showed. Israel Radio said Likud's Central Committee voted 51 to 49 percent to reject Netanyahu's motion to advance a party leadership ballot to November in protest at Sharon's removal of soldiers and settlers from Gaza this month after 38 years of...

By Stephanie Hancock MBALLA, Chad (Reuters) - Forced by armed raiders to flee their home in Central African Republic, Monica and her four children slept under a tree in neighboring Chad for four weeks, living on peanuts and water. The family are among thousands of refugees who have crossed Chad's southern border in recent months to escape unidentified gunmen whose raids have sparked an exodus that aid workers fear could turn into a humanitarian crisis. Local officials from the United...

By Ali Samoudi GANIM, West Bank (Reuters) - Waving the flags of rival armed factions, Palestinians poured into four abandoned West Bank Jewish settlements on Wednesday after Israel completed their evacuation under a plan to "disengage" from conflict. Unlike the Gaza Strip, which Israel quit earlier this month, the settlements of Ganim, Kadim, Sanur and Homesh are in an area of the occupied West Bank remaining under Israeli army control. But the army announced the complete removal of...

By Matt Spetalnick JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon flew home on Monday to a battle for his political survival after collecting diplomatic dividends at the United Nations for a pullout from the Gaza Strip. Sharon faces a showdown with hardline rival Benjamin Netanyahu trying to unseat him as head of their rightist Likud party, a move that could bring down the government, force early elections and keep peacemaking with the Palestinians on hold. In a show of...