Best visited in:

"While the employment of migrant domestic workers in the oil-producing countries of the Arabian Peninsula is well-known, few people know that also in a poor country like Yemen mainly migrant women are employed as domestics. Why is there a demand for paid domestic labour in Yemen and who fills this demand?"

"Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our nuclear waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We didn't act on those crimes - but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 percent of the world's oil supply, we begin to shriek about "evil." If we really want to deal with piracy, we need to stop its root cause - our crimes - before we send in the gun-boats to root out Somalia's criminals."

somalische Internetzeitung

An Islamist militia has executed a Somali politician who they accused of betraying his religion by working with non-Muslim Ethiopian forces.

As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury - you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. When I asked Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention."

war has killed two million children in the last decade alone. Four million children have become disabled and hundreds of thousands serve as child soldiers. Nearly half of all refugees worldwide are under 18, and across the globe, an estimated 25 million children have been uprooted from their homes as a result of war. Beyond the Fire BEYOND THE FIRE introduces the real-life stories of 15 teenagers, now living in the U.S., who have survived war in seven war zones. These stories tell of loss, hope, fear, strength and despair—and most of all, resilience.

ng, his brother pleaded to be able to bury his body, however, he was

Marc Wathieu posted a photo:

Image source for this one, but other versions available :
unosat.web.cern.ch/unosat/asp/prod_free.asp?id=28

And more maps frm Unosat :
unosat.web.cern.ch/unosat/asp/prod_free.asp

UNHCR posted a photo:

A former Somali refugee who was resettled from Kenya to Canada in 1993 under the WUSC Student Refugee Sponsorship Program, seen here in a downtown Toronto shopping mall. / UNHCR / N. Na Champassak / March 2007

UNHCR posted a photo:

Resettled Somali Bantu woman resettling in the US. / Utica, New York / UNHCR / H. Caux / October 2003.

rjones0856 posted a photo:

rjones0856 posted a photo:

Airport runway in distance. Indian Ocean just over the hills

rjones0856 posted a photo:

rjones0856 posted a photo:

guess why they call these "dustoffs"...

rjones0856 posted a photo:

rjones0856 posted a photo:

airport terminal in distance

rjones0856 posted a photo:

rjones0856 posted a photo:

rjones0856 posted a photo:

rjones0856 posted a photo:

UNHCR posted a photo:

At Mareero, near Bossaso, Puntland (Somalia), customers who have paid $30 to $40 to people smugglers wait for night to fall so they can board the boat that they hope will take them across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen and a better life. / UNHCR / K. McKinsey / February 2006


More than 50,000 people risked perilous Gulf of Aden crossing last year


GENEVA, January 2009 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency announced on Friday that more than 50,000 people made the perilous Gulf of Aden crossing from the Horn of Africa to Yemen last year and almost 600 died in the attempt.

"Final statistics for 2008 from our office in Yemen show that 50,091 people made the perilous voyage in smugglers' boats across the Gulf of Aden last year, and that at least 590 drowned. Another 359 were reported missing," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva.

"This represents a 70 percent increase in arrivals over the previous year's total of 29,500 who made the journey with Somalia-based smugglers who are often brutal in their treatment of passengers. In 2007, the death toll was substantially higher – 1,400," Redmond added.

There were again many reports of people being beaten to death during the crossings last year, but most of the deaths were due to drowning after passengers were forced overboard far off the Yemen coast in a bid by the smugglers to avoid detection by Yemeni authorities. The increase in arrivals reflects the desperate situation in Somalia and the Horn of Africa, a region scarred by civil war, political instability, famine and poverty.

UNHCR is beefing up its response in Yemen by improving reception conditions for those who manage to reach its shores and has also carried out information campaigns in the Horn of Africa warning people of the dangers of using smugglers.

The UN refugee agency and its partners also have programmes aimed at improving living conditions of people with protection needs on the Africa side of the Gulf so that they don't need to risk their lives by crossing to Yemen.

graham_wa posted a photo:

Five Somalian pirates drowned while bickering over their ill-gotten gains.
www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=2&ContentID=11...

But the loot didn't go to waste. Now Spongebob can afford those round pants he always wanted.

(Thanks to Dale for the inspiration.)

jamesdale10 posted a photo:

Medium close-up of the rear entrance to a Russian An-124 Condor as Russian aircrew members from the Aviation Industrial Complex, Ulyanovsk, Russia, unload some prefabricated roofs for shelters. Some US Air Force Mobile Aerial Port Squadron (MAPS) personal look on. This mission is in direct support of Operation Restore Hope.

megansuzanne * posted a photo:

michiel_terellen posted a photo:

pilotes posted a photo:

Dooxa posted a photo: