U.S. Reunites Some Children but Misses Court Deadline
The United States government has reunited most children who were separated from their parents at the southern border, but missed a court deadline to reunite all families. Of the 2,500 children aged 5–17 affected by the former policy, 1,400 are back with their parents, 430 have parents who have been deported and others are not yet reunited for various reasons.
Officials from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras demanded that the U.S. government provide more information about the status of those still waiting for reunification. “This cruelty is unacceptable and un-American,” an International Rescue Committee official said.
UNRWA Cuts Jobs After U.S. Aid Reduction
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees will cancel or phase out 1,000 jobs in the West Bank and Gaza as the United States’ $300 million reduction in aid takes it toll on the UNRWA budget. While some of the shortfall was plugged by other donors, the agency still has a $217 million deficit. It is examining whether schools for Palestinian refugees will open in September.
UNRWA staff held a sit-in in the Gaza Strip to protest the cuts and pledged to step up strikes. One employee who was laid off doused himself in gasoline, but was apprehended before he could set himself on fire.
Migrants Storm Land Border to Spanish Enclave
More than 600 people stormed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa by breaching a border fence from Morocco. Another 200 people were held back by police.
Africans trying to reach European territory periodically stage mass border crossings at Ceuta. The overall number of migrants crossing the border remains fairly consistent, while the number of sea crossings to Spain has more than doubled this year to almost 17,000, causing shortages of emergency accommodation.
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“The welcoming committee is trying to ensure that families make their initial check-in dates, something they feel the government should be helping with but isn’t. But they’re also trying to show another face of America to the victims of the family separation policy.”
- IRIN: Searching for Othman
“Along the way I learned not only Othman’s name, but also how words like displacement, return and war, so common in press releases and news articles, don’t even begin to express what the last few years have done to many Iraqis, and how hard it will be for many to break out of a long cycle of violence and build any semblance of a future.”
- The Marshall Project: New York on ICE
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