The Tragic Link Between Gang Violence and Displacement in Central America
From the massive migration of an estimated 70,000 unaccompanied children to the U.S. border this past summer to President Barack Obama’s recent executive action on immigration reform, issues facing...
View ArticleFleeing South Sudan's Violence
The village of Pagak lies in Ethiopia’s Gambella region on the western border with South Sudan. Pagak essentially exists on both sides of the border, and in better times, people would move from one...
View ArticleLifting the Siege in South Sudan
In December 2013 South Sudan's capital city, Juba, exploded in violence. Fighting between troops loyal to the ousted vice president Riek Machar and those loyal to President Salva Kiir was followed by...
View ArticleSri Lanka’s Unfinished Humanitarian Business
Prior to Sri Lanka’s January 2015 election, it was impossible to turn on the television, look at a newspaper or walk down the street without being bombarded with images of President Mahinda Rajapaksa...
View ArticleThe President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Request: Humanitarian and Peacekeeping...
With so many humanitarian crises around the world, priority humanitarian and peacekeeping accounts need increased support from Congress now more than ever. This includes the Migration and Refugee...
View ArticleA Counter-Intuitive Flight: Is Somalia Ready to Receive Refugees from Yemen?
For more than 24 years, refugees have fled instability in Somalia for the comparative safety of Yemen. Now, as indiscriminate violence grips Yemen, civilians there are packing up their lives and...
View ArticleA Return to the Central African Republic
More than two years since a rebel movement launched a violent campaign against the Central African Republic government, the country is continuing to experience a major humanitarian crisis. In March...
View ArticleNotes from the Turkish Border
A few days in southern Turkey, in cities which have received Syrian refugees, leaves a complex feeling of both achievements and failures. Turkey is currently the largest refugee hosting country in the...
View ArticleCentral Africa’s Perilous Polls
The political struggle underway in Burundi has thrust that tiny Central African nation into the global spotlight. Burundi’s president, Pierre Nkurunziza, is seeking a third term despite being limited...
View ArticleThey Told Me Not to Forget Darfur. Then I Did.
Twelve years ago, when I was a high school student living in a small New England town, I remember hearing about Darfur. I remember seeing news reports about the terrible conflict there, and about the...
View ArticleSudanese Refugees in Chad: Time for a Return to the Spotlight
The over 360,000 Sudanese refugees currently in Chad have been there for over a decade. They fled to Chad after violence in their towns and villages in Darfur. And that violence in Darfur...
View ArticleThe Crisis Continues for the Displaced in Central African Republic
Periodic violence, reprisal attacks, recent displacement – the town of Bambari, almost right in the middle of the Central African Republic (CAR), is emblematic of the continuing crisis in the country....
View ArticleShining a Spotlight on Myanmar's Rohingya Crisis
Below is the text of a speech delivered by RI Senior Advisor on Human Rights Sarnata Reynolds at the Oslo Conference on Myanmar's Systematic Persecution of Rohingyas. I have been asked today to speak...
View ArticleLife in “The Devil’s Door”
It is a Saturday evening in El Salvador, and my Refugees International colleague and I are riding in the back of a car with our heads on our knees. We are on our way to meet with a displaced family...
View ArticleKeeping Refugees on the Agenda for Obama’s Africa Visit
Earlier today, I was in touch with a Somali friend, Farah, who has been living as a refugee in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, for the past several years after he fled fighting in Somalia. I asked him what...
View ArticleUkraine's Invisible Displacement Crisis
The 18-month, Russian-backed rebellion of eastern Ukraine has displaced more than 1.4 million residents from the eastern Donbas region into central and western Ukraine. It has cost nearly 7,000 lives,...
View ArticleBurundi’s Ticking Time Bomb
On August 20, 2015, Pierre Nkurunziza took the oath of office for the third time as Burundi’s president. His inauguration followed one of the most explosive periods in this small Central African...
View ArticleA Return to Malaysia
Earlier this year, the world watched in both horror and sadness as thousands of desperate Rohingya who had fled persecution in Myanmar were abandoned on boats without food or water. As countless...
View ArticleFull Circle with the Rohingya
This week, in a stifling hot room in Malaysia filled with more than 50 Rohingya refugees, my own work with the community came full circle. I was sitting among dozens of people who had fled the very...
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