About this report

This report provides an overview of the number of people in immigration detention and Offshore Processing Centres as at midnight on the date of the report. The report is produced on a monthly basis.

Data is sourced from several departmental processing and recording systems. Data relating to the immigration detention population is dynamic and there can be delays in transmission of information from the department's immigration detention network operations. Variations in figures between this report and previous issues can occur. Due to these issues, data from the current financial year should always be considered provisional.

Further information about immigration detention is available at:http://www.immi.gov.au/About/Pages/detention/aboutimmigration-detention.aspx

HIGHLIGHTS

• General inflation in the region continued to slow, falling to 3.7 percent from 3.8 percent, while food price inflation was unchanged.

• Nominal rice prices rose 7.7 percent in South Asia in October.

• In Afghanistan retail prices for wheat and wheat flour fell by a respective 2 percent and 4.9 percent in expectation of an above-average harvest.

• Rice prices in India rose 18 percent year-on-year.

• India’s cereal exports are forecast to decline by 30 percent this marketing year because of higher domestic requirements and anticipated lower output.

• India and Pakistan increased minimum producer prices for wheat to boost production.

• Viet Nam will establish 11 agricultural research parks to develop innovative technologies.

About this report

This report provides an overview of the number of people in immigration detention and Offshore Processing Centres as at midnight on the date of the report. The report is produced on a monthly basis.

Data is sourced from several departmental processing and recording systems. Data relating to the immigration detention population is dynamic and there can be delays in transmission of information from the department's immigration detention network operations. Variations in figures between this report and previous issues can occur. Due to these issues, data from the current financial year should always be considered provisional.

Further information about immigration detention is available at:http://www.immi.gov.au/About/Pages/detention/aboutimmigration-detention.aspx

December saw a significant deterioration of the security situation – compared to the previous month – in nine countries or conflict situations in the world, including in South Asia (Pakistan and India), and East Africa (South Sudan and Kenya). There is a risk of increased violence in the coming month in Sudan, where major offensives are anticipated on the heels of a failure in the peace talks; in Sri Lanka, in the context of the 8 January elections; and in Haiti, where the current president could rule by decree unless parliament's mandate, due to expire on 12 January, is extended. On a positive note, the Colombia peace talks emerged strengthened in December, and relations between Cuba and the U.S. dramatically improved.

In South Asia, both Pakistan and India experienced severe violent attacks. In Pakistan, the deadliest ever attack by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) took place on 16 December on a military-run school in Peshawar, killing at least 148, including 132 children. The military retaliated by escalating operations against militants in the tribal belt. The government introduced a counter-terrorism “National Action Plan”, including the establishment of military-run courts, which would require a constitutional amendment undermining fundamental rights and due process. It also lifted a moratorium on the death penalty, leading to the execution of several non-TTP militants allegedly responsible for past attacks on the military. (See our recent report). In India’s north east, militant Bodo separatists killed over 70 people in several attacks across Assam state on 23 December. The attacks, which reportedly targeted Adivasi settlers and came in response to several Bodo deaths during the army’s ongoing counter-insurgency operation in the area, prompted retaliatory vigilante assaults on Bodos and an intensification of the military campaign. In Sri Lanka, as the race tightened ahead of the 8 January presidential election between joint opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena and President Rajapaksa, an increasingly volatile campaign environment, including numerous attacks on opposition activists and rallies, raised concerns about the possibility of serious election related violence. (See our new report on the January presidential election and blog post published today).

In the Horn of Africa, both Sudan and South Sudan saw serious armed clashes. In South Sudan, peace talks between warring parties ground to a halt. Both sides remain at odds over the details of a power-sharing deal, in particular the powers that SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar would have as premier of a transitional government. Clashes between the opposing forces continued despite the recommitment in November to a cessation of hostilities agreement, including in Nasir town where fighting between government and SPLA-IO forces is ongoing. There is a risk attacks will escalate into major offensives if no political agreement is reached. (See our new report). Peace negotiations in Sudan floundered as the government continued to reject a comprehensive approach to talks with rebel groups in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan. Violence is already on the rise, and major offensives are anticipated if the talks fail. The government has stepped up pressure on the UN presence, expelling two UN officials in late December. Somalia’s Al-Shabaab militants continued to step up attacks in Kenya. On 2 December 36 non-Muslim workers were killed at a quarry near Mandera, prompting hundreds to flee the town. Thirteen were injured and one killed in an attack by suspected Islamist militants on a club in Wajir. The government’s clampdown continued, as President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law an anti-terror bill that is widely contested and seen by many as draconian. (See our recent report)

Elsewhere in Africa, government rule was challenged in both Gambia and Gabon prompting a crackdown. In Gambia, the military foiled a coup attempt against President Yahya Jammeh. Three coup plotters were reportedly killed as the military repulsed the 30 December attack on the presidential palace in the capital Banjul. Dozens of military personnel and civilians were subsequently arrested and, according to Gambian official sources, a weapons cache found. President Jammeh, who was abroad at the time of the coup attempt, has accused dissidents based in the U.S., UK and Germany of masterminding the attack and alluded to suspected foreign support. The government in Gabon violently cracked down on protesters demanding the resignation of President Ali Bongo Ondimba. On 20 December, protesters clashed with security forces – officials reported one killed, but protesters suggested at least three. Several opposition leaders were detained by police in late December.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, political crisis deepened in both Venezuela and Haiti. In Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro’s government pushed through a number of appointments to key institutions with a simple majority vote, installing government allies in the judiciary and other branches of state. In doing so it has violated a number of legal and constitutional requirements designed to ensure that nominees are impartial and of good repute. The opposition Democratic Unity (MUD) alliance abstained in all the appointments in protest. (See our latest report and recent blog post). Haiti’s political crisis over its long-overdue elections intensified, with mass protests demanding the resignation of President Michel Martelly even after Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe resigned, and calling for polls to take place. There were fears of further violence with parliament’s mandate set to expire on 12 January, leaving Haiti without a functioning government and meaning Martelly would rule by decree. On 30 December, Martelly reached a deal with the senate and the chamber of deputies to extend their mandate, however lawmakers still need to approve the deal and agree on an acceptable provisional electoral council.

In Russia’s North Caucasus region and in Libya the situation deteriorated in December. In the North Caucasus, fifteen police, two civilians and eleven militants were killed, and 36 police injured, in a shootout between rebel gunmen and police in the Chechen capital Grozny in the early hours of 4 December. An Islamist group claimed responsibility for the raid. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov announced that relatives of militants responsible would be punished; sixteen houses belonging to insurgents’ relatives were later destroyed. Meanwhile, the leader of the Caucasus Emirate's Dagestan network and several insurgency leaders from Dagestan and Chechnya pledged loyalty to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In Libya, multiple new frontlines emerged across the country, with heavy clashes in the south, west and east between the military allies of the country’s two rival parliaments. The fighting deepened the conflict between the two political bodies. A UN-sponsored political dialogue was again postponed due to disagreements over participants.

On a positive note, there was progress both in Colombia and Cuba. In Colombia, peace talks with FARC emerged strengthened from the crisis triggered by the kidnapping of an army general in November. The guerrillas declared an unprecedented, indefinite unilateral ceasefire, which entered into force on 20 December. President Santos welcomed the ceasefire but rejected demands for third party verification and said that security forces would continue operations. There are questions about sustainability, but if the ceasefire holds, it will help break the ground for ending decades of conflict. Expectations that exploratory talks with the ELN could finally develop into formal negotiations are rising, after the country’s second guerrilla group said it would make a “special announcement” in early January. (See our recent report on the challenges of ending the Colombian conflict). December saw a dramatic improvement in relations between Cuba and the U.S., with the U.S. announcement on 17 December that it would normalise ties with the island. The possibility of an end to the decades-long U.S. embargo of Cuba is set to transform political relations across the hemisphere (see our blog post on U.S.-Cuban relations).

The year opened with a worsening of the ongoing conflicts in Yemen, Nigeria and Ukraine, each with potentially major regional implications. Violence escalated in Sudan, as well as in Lebanon's Tripoli and along its southern border with Israel, and a deadly clash between police and militants in the southern Philippines threatened to derail the peace process there. In South Asia, both Bangladesh and Nepal saw political tensions intensify. On a positive note, the Sri Lanka elections resulted in a peaceful transition of power from long-time President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Maithripala Sirisena, despite initial fears of election-related violence.

Yemen’s downward spiral took yet another dramatic turn. President Hadi and the government resigned on 22 January after Huthi rebels consolidated control over Sanaa and put Hadi under virtual house arrest. The entire political process established with the signing of a UN-backed peace and power-sharing agreement in September has been thrown into question, raising the prospect of territorial fragmentation, economic meltdown and widespread violence – as outlined in our Conflict Alert. There is little external actors can do at this point, except possibly Saudi Arabia and Iran, to influence Yemen’s internal political dynamics. The Huthis have set a 4 February deadline for all parties to reach a power-sharing agreement or they will assume control of the state through a “revolutionary leadership”. Yemen again made international headlines for its connection with global terrorism as al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Yemen’s local branch, claimed responsibility for the 7 January Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris.

The significant increase in Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria’s north throughout 2014 was compounded by what may have been the insurgent group’s deadliest attack yet. Reports suggest in early January they killed anywhere between 150 and 2,500 civilians in Borno state. As the February elections loom, there is a danger that ongoing insecurity in the north could worsen potential political violence and undermine the credibility of the polls, as discussed in our recent report on violence and the elections.

The most intense fighting for many months in eastern Ukraine resulted in heavy civilian and military casualties and a significant increase in internally displaced civilians, and further undermined peace talks. It also led to heightened concern in Western capitals that Russia has not abandoned the idea of open military intervention. The stated aim of the separatists is to seize the totality of Donetsk oblast, but there is so far no conclusive change in the balance of military power in the east. The possibility of a resumption of full-fledged hostilities, and the risk of a humanitarian crisis during winter, were discussed in our recent report. Without immediate and forceful international intervention to end the fighting, the current offensive could herald the beginning of a new and very costly military conflict.

As anticipated last month, violence once again increased in Sudan following the collapse of peace talks between the government and rebel groups in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan, as both sides launched major offensives in the disputed areas. (See our new report). In late January, a Hizbollah attack on an Israeli military convoy along Lebanon’s southern border – retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that killed six of its fighters in the Golan Heights – caused fears of an impending all-out confrontation, although both parties said they wanted to avoid a costly escalation. Earlier in January, a deadly suicide attack in Tripoli shook the relative calm that had prevailed in the city for months. In the southern Philippines, 44 police and at least seven civilians were killed in a clash between police and MILF militants, undermining support for last year’s historical peace agreement between the government and the longstanding rebel group at a critical time in its implementation.

In South Asia, the first anniversary of Bangladesh’s disputed January 2014 elections saw dozens killed in clashes between government and opposition groups, and marked the start of a new phase of the political deadlock between the ruling Awami League and opposition Bangladesh National Party. Tensions between Nepal’s political parties worsened when they failed to reach consensus on a draft constitution before a self-imposed 22 January deadline. Sri Lanka’s long-time President Mahinda Rajapaksa surprised many observers when he conceded defeat to opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena in the 8 January presidential election, following a largely peaceful election day. Sirisena has promised reform, including more meaningful devolution of power and accountability. However, international pressure and support will be needed for those promises to be met and the political transition to succeed (as discussed in our recent briefing).

Snapshot 11–17 February 2015

Myanmar: Fighting between the Myanmar army and the MNDAA, an insurgent group in the Kokang area of Shan state, displaced tens of thousands of people. Some fled into central Myanmar, while between 30,000 and 50,000 are thought to have crossed into Nansan, Yunnan province, China.

Afghanistan: 32,000 undocumented Afghans have spontaneously returned from Pakistan, after security incidents in the country have led to a military crackdown; another 2,000 people have been deported to Afghanistan. This is 130% more people than returned in all of 2014.

DRC: 1,170 cases of cholera have been recorded in Katanga province so far in 2015, with 24 deaths.

Global Emergency Overview Web Interface

ABSTRACT

This study on “Disasters in Asia and the Pacific: 2014 Year in review”, developed by the Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction Division of ESCAP, provides an overview of natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific region and its impacts. Although there were no major disasters in 2014, over half of the world’s natural disasters occurred in the region. Hydro-meteorological hazards were the most frequent, causing most fatalities and economic losses. The study considers lessons which show that building resilience to disasters remains a key priority and areas in need of urgent attention, namely strengthening existing regional cooperative mechanisms for cyclone/typhoon early warning, establishing regional cooperative mechanisms for transboundary floods and landslides, utilizing innovative technologies for disaster assessment and addressing slow-onset disasters.

About this report

This report provides an overview of the number of people in immigration detention and Offshore Processing Centres as at midnight on the date of the report. The report is produced on a monthly basis.

Data is sourced from several departmental processing and recording systems. Data relating to the immigration detention population is dynamic and there can be delays in transmission of information from the department's immigration detention network operations. Variations in figures between this report and previous issues can occur. Due to these issues, data from the current financial year should always be considered provisional.

Further information about immigration detention is available at: http://www.immi.gov.au/About/Pages/detention/about-immigration-detention.aspx

Tianyi Luo, Andrew Maddocks, Charles Iceland, Philip Ward and Hessel Winsemius - March

This blog was co-written with Hessel Winsemius and Philip Ward. Hessel is a researcher at Deltares. Philip is a senior researcher at the Institute for Environmental Studies of the VU University Amsterdam.

Last September, Hamberton Nongtdu woke to a loudspeaker at a nearby mosque blaring a warning: Floods were coming.

Nongtdu, a Kashmiri resident, barely had time to rush to the third floor of her house before water burst through her gate and inundated the first and second floors. Nongtdu and her family survived, but unusually heavy monsoon rains in September 2014 triggered floods in India and Pakistan that claimed more than 500 lives. It was the year’s costliest catastrophe.

Those floods may have been the most dramatic of recent river floods, but the threat extends well beyond Southeast Asia. More people are affected by floods than by any other type of natural disaster. New analysis shows that approximately 21 million people worldwide could be affected by river floods on average each year. That number could increase to 54 million in 2030 due to climate change and socio-economic development.

Quantifying and Visualizing River Floods Worldwide

The Aqueduct Global Flood Analyzer, a new online tool, quantifies and visualizes the reality of global flood risk. WRI co-developed the tool with four Dutch research organizations: Deltares, the Institute for Environmental Studies of the VU University Amsterdam, Utrecht University and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, supported by the Netherlands’ Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. The Analyzer estimates current and future potential exposed GDP, affected population and urban damage from river floods for every state, country and major river basin in the world.

We ranked 164 countries by the number of people affected by river flooding. We found that the top 15 countries account for nearly 80 percent of the total population affected every year. These countries are all considered least developed or developing. Roughly 167,000 people in the United States, the highest-ranked high-income country, are affected every year.

River Flooding Affects GDP

WRI analyzed which countries have the highest percentage of total GDP affected by river flooding on average per year, and each of the top 20 is classified as least developed or developing. India has by far the most GDP exposed, at $14.3 billion. Bangladesh is a distant second, at $5.4 million.

We judged the potential national economic consequences of river floods to be highest in countries with the largest percentage of affected GDP. China and Brazil, for example, would fall first and fifth respectively on a list ranked by gross GDP affected. However, their national incomes are so large that they drop off a list of countries ranked by percentage of GDP exposed.

GDP Exposure in 2030: Disparity between the Developed and Developing Countries

Our analysis shows a clear trend across the world. In lower and middle-income countries, socio-economic development is expected to concentrate more people, buildings, infrastructure and other assets in vulnerable regions. So, the developing world is expected to see more GDP exposed to flood risks in 2030, driven largely by socio-economic change.

India, for example, faces more potential change in exposed GDP than any other country. Using a middle-of-the road scenario, the Analyzer estimates that India’s current $14 billion in GDP exposed annually could increase more than 10-fold to $154 billion in 2030. Approximately 60 percent of that increase could be caused by socio-economic development.

In the developed world, Australia, Croatia, Finland, Portugal, and Israel are expected see more GDP exposed to floods in 2030, driven primarily by social-economic change. On the contrary, countries like the Netherlands, Slovenia, Belgium, Ireland, and Switzerland will likely see increased GDP exposure driven primarily by climate change.

Climate Change Will Expose More People to River Floods

Climate change is a greater driver of change in population exposure to river floods than socioeconomic development, because both the frequency and intensity of river floods is expected to increase due to climate change in many areas. This phenomenon would expand flood-prone areas, and make floods more likely to occur in those areas more often.

Climate change drives populations at risk in the developed and developing world alike – there is no clear distinguishing pattern. In Ireland, for example, 2,000 people face flood risks currently. By 2030, 48,500 more people could face river flood risk, and 87 percent of that difference would be driven by climate change. From the developing world, 715,000 people in Pakistan are at risk today. By 2030, river floods could affect 2 million more people, with climate change driving 70 percent of that increase.

A Tool for Awareness and Action

The risks may be escalating, but public and private sector decision makers can do more to prevent catastrophic damage before it happens.

Sharing the Analyzer’s easily accessible data with public and private sector decision makers will immediately raise their awareness about current and future river-flood risks. Armed with the right information, decision makers can then prioritize risk reduction and climate adaptation projects, and implement the most viable, cost-efficient options (see sidebar).

It will take decades and many billions of dollars to protect the tens of millions of people at risk from river floods and coastal storm surges. But starting now and following the direction of tools like the Global Flood Analyzer will help decision makers in international relief organizations, reinsurance companies, multinational companies, and many others build advanced protection systems to protect people and infrastructure.

Who Can Use the Flood Analyzer?

• International development and financing organizations like the World Bank can prioritize investments in promising natural disaster risk-reduction strategies.

• International natural disaster risk-reduction monitoring organizations like the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction can evaluate baseline risk conditions and monitor progress of risk reduction activities.

• (Re-) insurance companies can rapidly assess risk and projected risk trends across their portfolios and explain the importance of insurance to potential clients.

• Multinational companies can assess risks to their global manufacturing facilities and supply chains and prioritize locations for further analysis and risk mitigation actions.

For more on the ranking and methodology behind this analysis, access our data setsor test the tool.

Executive Summary

This report provides a UK perspective on the global human rights situation during 2014, and examples of what the government is doing to promote human rights and democratic values overseas. It reviews the situation in specific countries and against the thematic priorities around which our work is organised.

One of the most striking trends of 2014 was the pressure put by governments on civil society organisations in many parts of the world, damaging human rights and the economic interests of those same countries.

Chapter I focuses on the protection of civil society space and those who defend it.

It sets out how the UK has worked through the UN and features case studies on Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Burma. It describes what the UK is doing to support human rights defenders, including through the EU, particularly in Afghanistan. 2014 was an important year for our Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI), marking two years since its launch.

Chapter II sets out achievements in this area, including the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict and increasing support for the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, and our plans to address the myriad challenges that remain.

Chapter III focuses on the FCO’s programme and project work on human rights, with case studies on each of our priority areas, and the steps we have taken to mainstream human rights across the FCO network. It also includes material on the Department for International Development’s work on economic and social rights.

Chapters IV, V, VI and VII cover issues related to our six thematic priorities: freedom of expression on the internet, abolition of the death penalty, torture prevention, freedom of religion or belief, women’s rights, and business and human rights.

Chapter IV focuses on freedom of expression and democracy.

Acknowledging that democracy takes many forms, and evolves over time, the UK’s own experience strengthens our conviction that democracy offers the best system for protecting human rights, guaranteeing the rule of law, supporting economic development and preventing conflict.

This chapter sets out the UK’s approach to democracy strengthening, including work carried out by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. It features case studies on democratic developments and challenges during 2014, such as the Fijian and Tunisian elections, and the military coup in Thailand.

Freedom of expression is an essential element of any functioning democracy, and this section also features our work in this area, through fora like the Freedom Online Coalition, in which the UK plays a leading role. It includes case studies on countries where media freedoms were under threat in 2014, such as China, Ethiopia and Honduras.

Chapter V sets out our work on abolition of the death penalty and on torture prevention, and our efforts to support the international justice system. Our ambition remains a world free of capital punishment and torture, where there can be no impunity for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It is also strongly in our interest, and those of our international partners, that the citizens of all countries can fulfil their potential, free from discrimination on any grounds. Chapter VI describes our efforts to promote equality internationally, including by focusing on: freedom of religion or belief, with case studies on the Middle East, South East Asia, and ISIL; anti-Muslim hatred, antisemitism and post-Holocaust issues (particularly the UK’s chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance).

This chapter also illustrates the priority we attach to women’s rights, and children’s rights, with case studies on India, and on the Girl Summit (hosted by the Prime Minister in June 2014), which changed the terms of global debate on child, early and forced marriage, and female genital mutilation;
LGB&T rights, where the UK promoted inclusive societies in all parts of the world and condemned restrictions and violence against LGB&T people (including by action in international fora); and disability and indigenous rights.

Chapter VII explores the human rights dimension of the UK’s security agenda: counter-terrorism; reducing conflict and building stability overseas; women, peace and security, and the protection of civilians. It features case studies on Boko Haram in Nigeria, and Ebola.

Chapter VIII focuses on business and human rights, setting out our progress on implementation of the UK National Action Plan, and our efforts to promote responsible business practice internationally.
Protecting the human rights of British nationals overseas is a top priority. Chapter IX describes the actions taken by our officials to support those who are detained, facing the death penalty, forced into marriage, at risk of female genital mutilation, or involved in child abduction cases.

As a nation with global interests, the UK has both the motive and the means to shape the international community’s response to human rights priorities. Chapter X details how we worked through the international system in 2014, with a particular focus on the UN Human Rights Council, where we resumed our seat as a voting member, and have had a positive impact on issues from Sri Lanka to freedom of religion or belief. This chapter also looks at how we work through the European institutions and the Commonwealth, and includes a case study on the international response to Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and separatist-occupied areas of Ukraine.

The UK government expects Overseas Territories which choose to remain British (for example, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar etc.) to abide by the same basic standards of human rights as the UK. Chapter XI sets out how we continued to pursue our programme to extend core UN human rights conventions to the territories where possible, and to implement child safeguarding initiatives.

The final section of this report contains an assessment of the human rights situation in 27 countries where the UK has wide-ranging concerns. Online, we continue to report on developments in these countries on a quarterly basis. Our concerns, and the manner in which we raise them, is rooted in a desire to understand the local context, and to help these governments extend to all their citizens the full benefit of human rights we enjoy ourselves.

About this report

This report provides an overview of the number of people in immigration detention and Offshore Processing Centres as at midnight on the date of the report. The report is produced on a monthly basis.

Data is sourced from several departmental processing and recording systems. Data relating to the immigration detention population is dynamic and there can be delays in transmission of information from the department's immigration detention network operations. Variations in figures between this report and previous issues can occur. Due to these issues, data from the current financial year should always be considered provisional.

Further information about immigration detention is available at: http://www.immi.gov.au/About/Pages/detention/aboutimmigration-detention.aspx

Highlights

• In China, New Year festivities contributed to price increases above 10 percent for vegetables but pork prices fell slightly on ample supplies.

• Wheat prices in Afghanistan’s Kabul markets fell sharply in February in response to the lower demand from domestic millers and abundant supply from neighbouring countries.

• The Philippines has set a target of procuring 190 000 MT of rice from January to June 2015.

• Sri Lanka has introduced several measures to stabilize vegetable prices aiming to reduce the vulnerability of smallholder farmers.

• The Government of Vanuatu together with UN agencies, are undertaking coordinated actions under the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster to provide relief to the people affected by Cyclone Pam.

Snapshot 9–14 April 2015

Afghanistan: Security incidents have spiked in early April, after the announcement that more NATO troops would remain in the country than originally scheduled. NATO convoys were targeted in Nangarhar and Kabul on 10 April. On the same day, five NGO staff were found dead, having been abducted in Uruzgan province in early March.

Kenya: Following Al Shabaab’s attack on Garissa University, Kenyan officials said they had asked UNHCR to repatriate almost 350,000 refugees from Dadaab camp, though UNHCR said it had not received any official request. The Central Bank of Kenya has closed 13 Somali remittance firms based in Nairobi.

Yemen: Fighting continues to escalate. 650 people are reported dead, and nearly 2,000 people have been injured. Airstrikes have hit 18 of 22 governorates. In Aden, electricity and water supplies have been cut for days at a time. Al Dhale’e is inaccessible. Some 30% of armed group fighters are thought to be minors.

Updated: 14/04/2015. Next update: 21/04/2015

Global Emergency Overview Web Interface

About this report

This report provides an overview of the number of people in immigration detention and Regional Processing Centres as at midnight on the date of the report. The report is produced on a monthly basis.

Data is sourced from several departmental processing and recording systems. Data relating to the immigration detention population is dynamic and there can be delays in transmission of information from the department's immigration detention network operations. Variations in figures between this report and previous issues can occur. Due to these issues, data from the current financial year should always be considered provisional.

Further information about immigration detention is available at: http://www.immi.gov.au/About/Pages/detention/aboutimmigration-detention.aspx

Highlights

• In India, unseasonal rains damaged 8.5 million hectares of crops, mainly wheat. The Government has responded mainly by increasing input subsidies and facilitating the processing of insurance claims.

• Thailand has launched a loan relief programme for affected farmers through the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives.

• In Pakistan, potato prices have fallen by 45 percent year on year as farmers switch from growing wheat to potatoes.

• Kazakhstan is diversifying crops and improving productivity to increase economic performance of the agriculture sector.

• Viet Nam approved three varieties of genetically modified maize to boost yields and reduce reliance on imports.

• Fiji implemented its first school feeding programme for more than 20 000 first-year students.

New Delhi, India | AFP | Wednesday 5/6/2015 - 04:00 GMT | 790 words

by Abhaya SRIVASTAVA

Nepal's earthquake should act as a wake-up call to neighbouring countries which have failed to learn lessons from their own disasters and where shoddy construction and rapid urbanisation could lead to death on an even greater scale next time round, experts say.

Given its location on a seismic faultline, another major earthquake had long been feared in the Himalayan nation following a disaster in 1934 that flattened much of the capital Kathmandu.

Experts and engineers had been racing against time to try to better prepare the landlocked country, which like many of its neighbours is plagued by poverty, urban overcrowding and corruption, for the big one.

But the conditions that have long raised alarm bells for Nepal are mirrored across the South Asian region, regularly hit by quakes that have left tens of thousands dead and homeless in the last two decades.

"The quake could have happened anywhere in this region," said Hari Kumar, regional coordinator for South Asia at GeoHazards International.

"This (the Nepal disaster) is an opportunity for the rest of Asia to turn things around. We can't go on building death traps," Kumar, whose organisation works to reduce quake risks, told AFP.

As buildings crumbled in Nepal around midday on April 25, the quake was felt more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away in New Delhi, where residents fled onto the streets, and Bangladesh, where walls of busy factories cracked.

The region regularly suffers quakes as the Indian subcontinent gets pushed below the Eurasian tectonic plate.

Among the worst of the recent disasters was a 7.7 quake which killed around 25,000 people in the western Indian state of Gujarat in January 2001 while 75,000 died in a quake centred on Pakistan in October 2005.

Experts warned the region's governments against turning a blind eye to the devastation in Nepal, imploring them to work harder to reduce their own vulnerability.

• Catastrophe in Dhaka -

In impoverished Bangladesh, engineer Mehedy Hasan Ansary predicted a catastrophe in the capital Dhaka where millions are crammed into apartments, whose owners have skimped on building materials.

"More than 100,000 buildings in Dhaka are risky and could collapse," Ansary, from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, told AFP.

A study by Bangladesh's government in 2009 concluded that 250,000 buildings nationwide would implode if a major earthquake hit, with many built on landfill and other soft soil that shifts during tremors.

"Many are also made by masons who did not use any steel rods or reinforced concrete in constructing buildings," Abdul Qayyum, head of the government's disaster management programme, told AFP.

Nepal, which also suffers from poor building standards, had been working before the quake to reduce its risks, including taking steps to retrofit schools, despite a lack of resources, Kumar said.

"In 2003 they brought in new building codes. There were many things that they did right and this possibly saved many lives."

GeoHazards has also been working with Bhutan, east of Nepal, to better protect its hospitals and schools, including training staff and running safety drills, following a minor quake there in 2009.

The need to better protect schools was highlighted in Sichuan in China in 2008 when more than 5,000 children and teachers were crushed to death after classrooms collapsed during a massive quake.

• Failed to learn lessons -

Elsewhere across the region, frustrated experts said governments have failed to learn lessons of the past.

The UN and other relief agencies have stressed the need for greater disaster preparedness in Afghanistan, susceptible to not only quakes but floods, avalanches and landslides.

Large swathe of Afghans living in flimsy mud-brick houses in impoverished villages are usually the worst affected. But aid agencies say disaster planning has been a low priority in a nation plagued by conflict.

In Pakistan, the boundary between the two tectonic plates cuts through almost the entire length of the country, making it prone to quakes including the monster one in 2005, centred in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Pakistan created a disaster management authority in 2006 to help cope with future tragedies, but the explosive growth of urban areas means the country is still at high risk of quake damage, with many buildings poorly constructed.

"The situation is very alarming and God forbid if there was another big earthquake, the damage would be twice as bad as last time," Zahid Amin Kashif, the former administrative head of Muzzafarabad, the main town of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, told AFP.

Across the border in Indian Kashmir, where several thousand people were killed in 2005, university professor Shakil Ramshoo said a disaster management plan does not exist.

"Bureaucrats become complacent the moment you tell them earthquakes cannot be predicted," Ramshoo said in the region's main city of Srinagar.

burs-tha/co/jg

© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse

Introduction

By Mark Lattimer and Derek Verbakel

The 2015 release of the Peoples under Threat index marks the 10th year that Peoples under Threat has sought to identify those communities around the world that are most at risk of genocide, mass political killing or systematic violent repression.

A number of the countries which rose most sharply in the index last year, including Syria,
Yemen and Ukraine, saw escalating violence over the course of 2014–15 and the killing, in total, of tens of thousands of civilians.

This year again the publication uses current indicators from authoritative sources to highlight where the risks are highest and where they have risen most significantly over the last year. It also provides an opportunity to review risk factors over the last decade and the predictive power of the index itself.

Mali: Gao and Timbutku regions have been the scene of multiple clashes between the Azawad Movement Coalition and Malian forces, as well as the pro-government Gatia militia. At least 12 people have been killed, including nine civilians. About 31,500 people have been displaced from three districts in Timbuktu region. They are in urgent needs of water, food, NFIs, and shelter support, but access is limited.

Yemen: Violence increased after the ceasefire ended 17 May, and surged again after the postponement of peace talks on 25 May. Casualty numbers since the escalation of conflict in March have reached 1,870 dead and 7,580 injured. 490,000 people in Sa’ada can no longer be reached, and food items are no longer available in a number of governorates. The fuel crisis is making it even more difficult to meet basic needs.

DRC: A surge in ADF attacks in Beni territory, North Kivu, has displaced more than 15,000 people. In Orientale, 4,000 people have been displaced by an FARDC offensive. In Katanga, 400 cases of measles are being recorded per week in Malemba Nkulu territory.

Updated: 27/05/2015. Next update: 02/06/2015

Global Emergency Overview Web Interface

Snapshot 28 May–2 June 2015

Iraq: 104,000 IDPs from Ramadi district over 15–29 May brings the total number of displaced in Anbar to 238,000 since April. They are facing serious restrictions accessing neighbouring governorates. In Anbar, Islamic State abducted 400 children in the last week of May. The humanitarian response for Syria is facing severe cutbacks due to funding shortages.

Yemen: Violence has escalated even further. Displacement has increased in Sa’ada, Hajjah, and Amran governorates, and the humanitarian situation continues to worsen in Aden, Lahj, Taizz, and Al Dhalee.

Somalia: Nearly 12,000 people have arrived in Somalia from Yemen since late March. 3,665 people arrived in Bosaso, Puntland and Berbera, Somaliland over 21–27 May. Camps are overcrowded and cannot meet needs: Bosaso only has capacity for 500, and Berbera for 200. Authorities in Somaliland have stated they will no longer accept arrivals in Berbera as they cannot provide the necessary assistance. Some 7,000 more people are registered to travel to Somalia.

Updated: 02/06/2015. Next update: 09/06/2015

Global Emergency Overview Web Interface