Cries for help in Arabic echoed off the waves in the pre-sunrise.

“‘We were ready for death, we were dying,’” a 30-year-old Syrian survivor told Al Jazeera as he clung to the orange rescue RIB (rigid inflatable boat) shuttling the refugees to the mothership while fighting against the high waves.

Among the survivors were one newborn and 30 minors, most of whom had embarked on the treacherous Mediterranean crossing on their own without an adult to accompany them.

“The newborn was completely covered in blankets, it was not easy to recognise that there was a baby inside.

“We also had very old people this time, some of them weren’t even able to walk by themselves due to dehydration and exhaustion,” Viviana di Bartolo, Humanity 1’s search and rescue coordinator, said.

According to the survivors, they had departed from the Libyan coast two days ago and were in distress due to rough weather conditions and high waves when they were intercepted by Humanity 1 while drifting in Maltese waters.

Many of the survivors were afraid they would be taken back to Libya [Nora Adin Fares/Al Jazeera]

They boarded the Humanity 1 barefoot, completely soaked in saltwater and obviously suffering from the cold and severe dehydration.

Many were disoriented and afraid they would be taken back to Libya.

‘Not even treated as humans’

The survivors spoke to Al Jazeera about the horrific ordeals they had suffered to make it across the Mediterranean, especially human rights violations on the Libyan side.

A young Syrian survivor in his early 20s, suffering from severe hypothermia, said he had tried to make the crossing from Tripoli to the south of Italy three times and that every time he had been intercepted by the Libyan coastguard.

“It has been hell. Libya is hell. I tried leaving for eight months now without success, over and over again, we were forced back,” he said.

Another survivor on board Humanity 1 testified to the inhumane conditions in Libyan prisons over the past year, after he had been forced back in a failed attempt to leave the North African coast in early 2023.

“You don’t understand, we were not even treated as humans”, he said.

The Humanity 1 was assigned a port of safety in Genova, north of Italy – but will request a closer port to disembark the suffering survivors sooner.

Viviana di Bartolo, Humanity 1’s search and rescue coordinator [Nora Adin Fares/Al Jazeera]

“We’ll ask for a closer port of safety because of the rough weather conditions and the fact that we have several vulnerable cases on board and people that require medical attention,” Lukas Kaldenhoff, Humanity 1’s press officer, says.

‘Boats in distress’

The desperate people who make these dangerous crossings have usually paid every last penny they have to human smugglers who put them on board rickety boats with no concern for their safety.

As the boats flounder on the high seas, often the only hope these refugees have of survival is that their plea for help is picked up by a vessel that is willing to come help.

“They [the survivors] were not only in distress because of the water conditions, but because of the boat,” di Bartolo said, exhausted after shuttling refugees between the wooden boat and the mothership for more than two hours.

“It was very poorly structured, had no safety equipment at all or people that could navigate. The people on board had no life jackets or even basic stuff such as water, food or even a toilet. This kind of boat is not meant to sail in a safe way, not at all,” she continued.

According to international law, vessels have a clear duty to help boats in distress.

That definition is determined on a case-by-case basis but, according to di Bartolo, the term “boat in distress” is applicable to nearly every departure from Tunisia and Libya that aims to cross the central Mediterranean route.

The small, overloaded boat had no safety precautions on board when the Humanity 1 intercepted it [Nora Adin Fares/Al Jazeera]

On Wednesday night, Humanity 1’s crew had received two different Mayday calls about boats in distress, and they desperately tried to clarify whether there was another boat nearby.

The first Mayday came from Frontex, the European border control, regarding a wooden boat carrying 40 people and the other from Alarm Phone, [a hotline for people in distress] regarding 90 people.

“We’re now sure that both calls were regarding the boat we rescued this morning”, Kaldenhoff said.

Humanity 1 is operated by the German NGO SOS Humanity and has been undertaking risky search-and-rescue missions across the Mediterranean Sea since 2022.

At least 2,498 refugees, migrants and asylum seekers are known to have drowned in 2023 while crossing the central Mediterranean according to the International Organization for Migration, making it the deadliest year since 2017. But the real number is believed to be far higher.

The Central Mediterranean is the deadliest known migration route in the world, with more than 17,000 deaths and disappearances recorded by the Missing Migrants Project since 2014.

Most of the departures are from Libya and Tunisia – but the refugees and migrants have often travelled far from countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Turkey or Egypt, fleeing violence, discrimination, and a loss of livelihood.

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Meanwhile, China has engaged in intense diplomatic negotiations with the Myanmar military junta, urging them to address the Rohingya crisis to avoid potential repercussions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where Myanmar faces charges, brought by the Gambia, of genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minorities. The UN described the genocide of the Muslim Rohingya as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” which Myanmar has repeatedly denied.

An exodus of millions

The genocidal campaign sparked the worst refugee crisis in South Asia, forcing a million to flee from the restive Rakhine state in Myanmar. Bangladesh has struggled to shelter 1.2 million Rohingyas in squalid camps in the southeast of the country.

An estimated 3.5 million Rohingya have dispersed worldwide, of whom a large percentage are in Bangladesh. Others are in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Pakistan. An estimated 600,000 Rohingya who remain in Rakhine State are victims of the Myanmar security forces’ persecution, deliberately confined 140,000 to guarded camps and villages without freedom of movement, and access to adequate food, health care, education, and livelihoods for more than 10 years.

Bangladesh, unfortunately, does not recognize these stateless people as refugees and instead describes them as “forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals.” Dhaka has yet to ratify the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention, which protects the rights of asylum seekers. HRW has lamented that Bangladeshi authorities are also intensifying restrictions on work, movement, and education, creating a coercive environment designed to force people to consider premature returns.

Myanmar’s “all-weather friend” China stands beside the regime as it tries to weather a series of economic sanctions from the West, which slammed it after its persecution of Rohingyas and ouster of the country’s former democratically-elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since the military coup in February 2021.

China has been pushing the junta to initiate a so-called pilot “family-based repatriation” project, aiming to repatriate nearly a thousand refugees in the first phase.

Myanmar has an untrustworthy plan

Myanmar’s military junta wishes to appear as if it has undergone a sudden change of heart, ostensibly displaying compassion by committing to repatriate 6,000 Rohingyas by the end of the year. Myanmar has deemed these individuals foreign intruders or “illegal migrants,” denying them citizenship and subjecting them to abuse and discrimination.

In March, a delegation of Myanmar officials visited refugee camps in Bangladesh to conduct interviews and carry out a “verification” process for the pilot repatriation initiative.

“The figure of 6,000 Rohingya is a drop of water in an ocean,” says Asif Munier, a Rohingya refugee expert. The repatriation is a face-saving project of Myanmar amid country-wide embattlement with ethnic rebellions and economic crises that have worsened after economic sanctions by the United States, Canada and several European countries.

A delegation of Rohingya refugees, along with Bangladeshi government officials, toured the Hla Poe Kaung transit camp and Kyein Chaung resettlement camp in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw township on May 5. After the day-long “go and see” visit, the delegation expressed their dissatisfaction over the arrangements and facilities made by the Myanmar authorities.

Rohingya and Bangladeshi representatives seem to have two different interpretations of what they saw there. Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, who led the delegation, opined that “repatriation is the only solution to end the refugee crisis.” Rahman said Myanmar authorities did indeed prepare settlements for Rohingya under a pilot project. There are homes, employment opportunities and schools for Rohingya children as described by Myanmar officials.

The junta claims in the booklet that the UN Development Program, the UNHCR, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be involved in the pilot project  Altogether 3,500 Rohingya will be accommodated in 15 villages, says Rahman.

The delegation, however, found that their villages have been erased from the map and instead security forces occupied their lands and erected military and police barracks, outposts and checkposts. The authorities “even changed the name of my village in Rakhine,” a frustrated member of the delegation complained. Rohingya refugees are reluctant to return to Myanmar to “be confined in camps” again. They will only repatriate voluntarily if their security is guaranteed and they will be granted citizenship.

Rohingya don’t want to return to their country to be placed in glorified cages. They want to return to their own villages, from which they were forced to flee during the ethnoreligious strife of August 2017. “Myanmar is our birthplace and we are citizens of Myanmar and will only go back with citizenship,” said refugee Abu Sufian, 35, father of three children told Reuters. It is not enough to move the refugees from one temporary camp in Bangladesh to another, concrete one in Myanmar. Without freedom of movement and guarantees of citizenship rights, the program is a non-starter.

Second-class citizenship for Rohingyas, if that

Refusing full citizenship to the ethnic minority, the authorities offer the Rohingya a consolation prize: a national verification card (NVC), which Rohingya refugees regard as insufficient protection. The draconian Citizenship Law of 1982 requires individuals to prove that their ancestors lived in Myanmar before 1823, and refuse to recognize Rohingya Muslims as one of the nation’s ethnic groups or list their language as a national language.

“We don’t want to be confined in camps,” Oli Hossain, who was among the refugees who visited Rakhine State in early May. He said they will never accept the NVC, which would effectively identify Rohingya as foreigners.

“Myanmar officials said that the confirmation of citizenship is a long process and would take more time to complete. Therefore, Myanmar won’t provide citizenship to the Rohingya people who want to repatriate under this pilot project,” Rahman told Turkish news agency Anadolu.

The booklet “Resettlement of Displaced Persons on their Return under the Pilot Project,” dated April 2023 and written in Burmese, English, and Bangalee, states that returnees will be housed at the Hla Poe Kaung transit camp for up to two months, then relocated to one of two resettlement camps with prefabricated houses or a land plot in one of 15 “designated villages,” where they can build a home through a cash-for-work program.

Since the crisis, Bangladesh has been trying to repatriate displaced Myanmar citizens with rights and dignity. Several attempts to repatriate the refugees fell flat in 2018 and 2019. After the failed attempts, Bangladeshi authorities echoed the UN Refugee Agency catch-phrase of safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable repatriation of 1.2 million Rohingyas.

In April, in a crucial tripartite parley between senior Foreign Minister officials of Bangladesh, China and Myanmar in Kunming, China, the parties decided to expedite the repartition process to avoid further sanctions. Whether this will see any effects on the ground remains to be seen.

An official team from Myanmar arrived in Bangladesh for the second time in three months to build confidence among Rohingyas in early June. After the return of the Myanmar delegation from the camps in Cox’s Bazar, the refugees have been agitating to cancel the piecemeal plan, calling instead for insurance of a dignified and sustainable repartition.

The UN Refugee Agency, after the visit of diplomats from eight ASEAN countries including Bangladesh to Rakhine State last March, said that “conditions in Rakhine State are currently not conducive to the sustainable return of Rohingya refugees,” adding that no refugee should be forced to return. Bangladesh’s hopes that the UN may be able to bring about a quick solution to the quagmire by going along with Myanmar’s pilot plan have been frustrated due to ongoing Western sanctions against the military regime.

In a flurry of diplomatic consultations in Dhaka in early May, Bangladesh’s foreign minister sought the opinion of several European and North American diplomats, as well as the UN Refugee Agency. The diplomats insisted that Myanmar should restore the citizenship of Rohingya and ensure safety, security, and access to livelihood, education, healthcare and freedom of movement which were restricted after they were declared “alien” more than 40 years ago.

Western, Bangladeshi, Myanmarese, Chinese, and UN officials are all pushing for a resolution to the crisis, but the path forward remains unclear. What is certain is that no one wants a resolution more than the Rohingya people; still, they will not sacrifice their safety, liberty, or dignity for the sake of speed.

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Since fierce fighting broke out in Sudan on April 15, an estimated 20,000 people have entered Chad and at least 100,000 are set to arrive, the United Nations said on Tuesday, raising concerns about the stability of a fragile region.

The conflict has pitted army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and al-Burhan’s deputy in the military’s Sovereignty Council that has been running the country since the October 2021 coup. More than 400 people have died so far.

While the most intense fighting has been taking place in the capital Khartoum, battles have also spread to Sudan’s western region of Darfur, reviving memories of the 16-year-long conflict, in which 300,000 people were killed. Back then, rebels fought against the government of President Omar al-Bashir and the Popular Defence Forces – called “Janjaweed” by the rebels – which later evolved into the RSF.

Lying on Darfur’s western border, Chad has reported the highest number of refugees from the Sudan conflict compared with other neighbouring countries, according to the UN.

“They arrive exhausted and in a state of panic after they left behind all their material and financial assets,” said Idriss Mahmat Ali Abdallah Nassouri, head of Chad’s National Commission for Reception, Reintegration and Returnees (CNARR).

Most of the refugees have come from the towns of Nyala and El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, where the fighting has been more intense, Nassouri said, adding that most are now staying in Chad’s eastern provinces of Ouaddai and Sila.

“The number of arrivals is increasing by the thousands and is worrying,” Nassouri said, noting that resources were straining to assist the 600,000 refugees, spread across 13 camps in the country’s east, who were already living in Chad before the latest crisis in Sudan erupted.

People carry kerkade (hibiscus) juice and cold water to distribute them to people amid evacuations from Khartoum [Twitter@dalliasd/via Reuters]

The CNRR, along with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), began pre-registering incoming civilians to Chad on Monday, identifying urgent needs and assessing whether new camps were needed, or if families could be relocated to pre-existing reception centres.

Meanwhile, UNHCR has said that it has rushed basic items, from sleeping mats to water, to villages close to the borders.

Aid workers operating at the border described receiving mostly women and children who had been walking for more than two days, carrying nothing more than their clothes and a little food.

“The need is huge,” said Alpha Koita, Chad’s chief mission of Premiere Urgence Internationale – a French NGO operating in Chad. “They are mostly women and children coming with nothing, they have left everything behind,” he said as his team deployed a mobile hospital in Adre, a town in Ouaddai.

“We need water, as access to it was difficult – even before the conflict; we need shelters, as people are sleeping under trees, and infrastructures for potable water and latrines to avoid diseases, such as cholera,” Koita added.

Timing is also not favourable, as the rainy season is due to start in June, which will further hamper humanitarian assistance and put locals and refugees into competition for already-scarce resources.

“If the conflict in Sudan continues we will also see an increase in large-scale banditry and inter-ethnic conflict,” Koita added.

Aid agencies were also concerned about their capacity to provide support to the new wave of refugees: “Services are already overstretched to support those who are already there and funding shortfall is critical to our capacity to assist new refugees,” said Eujin Byun, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency. Since the start of the year, only 15 percent of the budget needed to assist displaced people in Chad has been funded.

People gather as they flee clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum, Sudan [El-Tayeb Siddig/Reuters]

But while Chad has seen the most significant border crossing so far, due to Darfur’s proximity, aid workers have warned that civilians even further away will be affected.

“We need to be prepared in South Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt … People will be moving; it’s going to take longer, but they are going to start arriving,” said James Curtis, executive director for East Africa at the Danish Refugee Council. “This is only going to get bigger and greater as the crisis intensifies,” Curtis added.

Sudan is home to 800,000 South Sudanese refugees, a quarter of whom live in Khartoum, now pounded by gunfire and air raids.

South Sudan was formerly a part of Sudan but gained independence when a decades-long civil war ended in 2011.

So far, 4,000 South Sudanese have crossed into their home country, mostly through the Renk border crossing point in Upper Nile State, but there has been “a daily increase” in arrivals, read a UN memo. Arrivals have mostly used transport to reach the border, but a large number of South Sudanese are expected to reach the crossing on foot.

The consequences of a significant number of people forced to return to South Sudan, a country plagued by an enduring ethnic conflict that has left almost three-quarters of the population in need of humanitarian aid, were already worrying aid organisations.

“The humanitarian impact of this crisis will be harsh,” read a UN report released on Tuesday.

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About 1,200 tonnes of ammunition were dropped on Iraq during the Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003, making it difficult to distinguish between cancer cases caused by flaring and those originating from the depleted uranium left by the bombing. But experts were still very concerned that the 8,000 refugees living at Kawergosk were exposed to dangerous chemicals such as benzene because of the flaring.

Shireen*, a 53-year-old Syrian refugee living at the Kawergosk Camp in Erbil, Iraq, started to have cancer symptoms in March 2020. “In the beginning, I had a lot of pain in my breast, back, and arm. I ignored the pain because I thought it could be muscle spasms or an infection,” she said.

The only option for her to seek treatment was the camp’s health center, where services were limited. She could not leave the camp due to a COVID-19 lockdown, and private clinics were too expensive for a jobless refugee.

It was only in the summer of 2020 when she was finally able to visit a doctor in one of Erbil’s biggest hospitals, that she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“My nipple was bleeding, and I had to get a biopsy immediately,” she said. She later underwent surgery and started chemotherapy, which, although completed, she continues to feel pain from.

Shireen is not alone. Nine other women in her block at Kawergosk have been diagnosed with cancer.

Doctors operating in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq and residents believe that flaring – the process of burning off petroleum gas by setting alight any excess in a jet of fire – by a nearby oil refinery may be contributing to a rise in cancer rates. The refinery is operated by KAR Group, Iraq’s largest private-sector energy company. The KAR Group did not respond to a request for comment.

A study published last year in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention (APJCP) found that the number of patients with cancer doubled between 2013 and 2019 in Erbil and Duhok, also in northern Iraq, correlating with a resumption in production at oil facilities in the region following the end of the conflict with ISIL (ISIS).

Several residents shared their health records, with diagnoses ranging from respiratory disorders to cancer.

Shireen’s life has changed in the last decade. “We were happier in the village because everything we ate was organic, and our life and mental health were better when we lived there,” she said, referring to the village of Sheir in Qahtaniyah, Syria where she had been living.

ISIL attacked the area in 2013, forcing villagers such as Shireen to flee, leaving their livestock and farmland, to the Iraqi side of the border.

Exposure to chemicals

About 1,200 tonnes of ammunition were dropped on Iraq during the Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003, making it difficult to distinguish between cancer cases caused by flaring and those originating from the depleted uranium left by the bombing.

But experts were still very concerned that the 8,000 refugees living at Kawergosk were exposed to dangerous chemicals such as benzene because of the flaring.

“[Benzene] is a potent carcinogen that causes leukaemia,” said Laura Cushing, presidential chair in Health Equity at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). “I do think it is concerning that people are being exposed nearby.”

Pregnant women living near natural gas and oil wells that burned off excess gas through flaring were 50 percent more at risk of premature birth than women with no exposure, a 2020 UCLA study headed by Cushing found.

“We were able to say that people exposed to 10 or more flares during their pregnancy had a 50 percent increased odds of preterm birth, when a baby is born too early – fewer than 37 completed weeks,” said Cushing. “The earlier you are born can result in severe health impacts.”

Long-term exposure harms the bone marrow. Those exposed feel increasingly weak and tired as their red blood cell count decreases. Bruising and bleeding become more common, with healing taking longer.

According to research by the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, in partnership with University of California Los Angeles scientists and in which Cushing was involved, women living near natural oil and gas wells that burn off excess gas through flaring had a 50 percent higher risk of giving birth prematurely.

Cancer and premature births are not the only concern. A study by Global Paediatric Health found respiratory viruses to be almost twice as prevalent among children under the age of 15 in areas administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) compared with neighboring Iran. With residents suffering deteriorating health, the KRG issued oil and gas companies a directive to phase out all flaring by 2023, giving them 18 months to comply.

Flaring levels, however, appear to have remained largely the same based on satellite data from 2018 to November 2022, which was analyzed as part of a collaborative investigation funded by the Environmental Reporting Collective (ERC).

The investigation also identified Erbil and its surrounding villages, including fringe communities living in Kawergosk and Lalish, as having the highest incidence of flaring.

Winter months normally show a drop-off in flaring, as most of the gas produced at processing plants is sent directly to houses, as opposed to the summer, when gas use slumps. However, historical data revealed that flaring levels have not decreased compared with 2018 and 2019. Flaring levels began to creep back up again during the summer – with less gas consumed during the hot months.

Unable to meet flaring deadline

A KRG official, speaking under condition of anonymity, said “headaches” with the Iraqi government made meeting the flaring deadline difficult.

Iraq has been planning to set up a new state oil company to negotiate the KRG’s oil contracts, a deal reached after a political standoff between Erbil and Baghdad.

The Iraqi Federal Supreme Court ruled in February 2022 that the KRG negotiating its own oil and gas contracts was “unconstitutional”, a claim strongly rejected by the KRG.

Early proposals seen by local Kurdish media suggested that Iraq was willing to re-form the State Organisation for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) company that oversees the country’s oil contracts to include a Kurdish veto, smoothing over the regional dispute.

Following the KRG’s declaration, the Iraqi government announced in December that it set 2024 as a target for the elimination of gas flaring. It was unclear if the KRG will fall under the 2024 deadline once the new state oil company is set up.

The ERC has reached out to Iraqi government officials for clarification, but they have not yet responded to a request for comment.

According to World Bank data, Russia burns the most amount of natural gas globally, flaring off 24.88 billion cubic meters per year as of 2020, with Iraq following closely with 17.37 billion cubic meters.

But an analysis by the ERC showed that Iraq’s population, on average, lives much closer to flaring sites than Russia’s.

Since October 2018, we found that 1.19 million people in Iraq had lived within a one-kilometer radius of more than 10 flaring events. In Russia, only 275,000 experienced the same level of exposure across the same period.

Russia’s oil refineries are often in remote locations and spread across the arctic tundra, unlike in Iraq where major cities and towns are more commonly situated close to the flares.

Companies serious about phasing out flaring would need to implement infrastructure to capture or sell the gas, reducing the amount they burn. In certain countries, companies use filters to stop the smoke from reaching towns or villages. In Iraq, there is no pressure to do the same, making operational costs cheaper than in other parts of the world.

“In most places, we try to capture the natural gas and use it, burn it for heat, in this case, it is just being burned off as a waste product,’ said Cushing. ‘The [energy] boom happened so fast that [the Iraqi regions] don’t have the infrastructure to bring this to market or the resources on site to capture the gas.”

‘Cancer rates fears’

It was not until COVID-19 hit the region that its residents realized how bad asthma rates had become, said Iraqi environmentalist Rebin Mohammed*.

Doctors in rural areas of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, such as those working in the Kawergosk refugee camp, almost always referred residents to a hospital in Erbil, the nearest city with basic health facilities, but many cannot afford the transport due to rising fuel prices.

The Enabling Peace in Iraq Centre reported that Iraq’s public health sector has fallen into steep decline after cycles of war, sanctions, funding shortfalls, and neglect for 30 years.

“The government is not forcing them [the oil companies] to start giving back to the environment and the community,” said Mohammed.

Environmental activist Salah Saed Goran said that the situation could be worse in a decade. “All the damage it’s doing now is going to be five times more in 10-11 years after they surround us with oil fields.”

“[We are concerned that] cancer rates are going to increase in the future because of the flaring spots surrounding here,” Mohammed added.

Almost every oil field in KRG-administered territory in northern Iraq has a 20 percent stake held by the KRG, which negotiates its own oil contracts, overseen by sitting Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.

Officials were evasive when asked about the issue.

Local municipality official Rebaz Qasim Mirani, who represents the Khabat district in Erbil, blamed the pollution on traffic from the nearby road, dismissing flaring as the leading cause.

On the Global Paediatric Health study, a senior KRG official, who asked not to be named, said that the government remained committed to the policy to end gas flaring by the start of 2023 and that Barzani was personally encouraging the policy, but could not say what consequences companies who continue flaring into the new year might face.

Meanwhile, the government has applied strict procedures for hospitals to issue public health data in the region. Several health officials and doctors who had agreed to speak about respiratory problems from gas flaring dropped out at the last minute. Many would be putting themselves at personal risk, they said. “People are scared,” said Mohammed, with refugees fearful they would be removed from the camps if they speak publicly about the flaring, and medical officials worried about their job security.

Companies such as the KAR Group, whose processing plants were photographed flaring gas earlier this year, do not disclose how much gas they lose due to flaring and do not publicly provide updates on their efforts to phase out the practice.

The KRG has said that it stands by its commitment to phasing out flaring by 2023, but so far oil and gas companies in the region it governs – none of which responded to requests for comment – are projected to have a similar output as the last two years, based on an ERC analysis.

On July 13, 2021, the KRG’s Minister of Natural Resources Kamal Atroshi issued a decree giving energy companies in KRG-administered territory 18 months to put a complete end to flaring, with the deadline falling in January 2023.

That deadline has now passed, but Lawk Ghafuri, the KRG’s head of foreign media affairs, said that the directive was “still in effect”, but that some “minor extensions” had been provided to some companies who had “proper justifications”.

“This project is a costly one and needs proper design and planning, which, in turn, takes time,” Ghafuri said.

In May, however, the minister who issued the order, Kamal Atroshi, resigned from his role as minister of natural resources, a role covered in the interim by the KRG’s Minister of Electricity Kamal Muhammad Salih.

A flare gas-to-power project recently completed in the southeast of KRG territory could provide a path forward. The plant, built by energy firm Aggreko, has cut flaring by a third.

Locals hoped the government establishes healthier and safer camps for refugees, but regardless of whether the situation improves, many have no choice but to remain in the area.

“Our ancestors lived here, and we love this land so we have to stay here. We are sadly used to it,” said Goran.

*Real name not used

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Almost half – or around 4 million – of affected Syrians were internally displaced before Feb. 6. 3.7 million of the 8.8 million are children. The UN puts the latest death toll in Syria at 5.791, and the number of injured at 10.041.

The worst-hit region in Syria is Aleppo Governorate, where the UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, counts 235 collective shelters housing 183.000 people affected by the earthquake.

The agency launched a $51.3 million supplementary appeal aiming to assist 385.000 earthquake victims across the country. On Feb. 14, it said it required $397.6 million to help 4.9 million earthquake-affected Syrians.

Activists in northwest Syria have criticized the UN for its slow reaction to the earthquake. During a visit to the area, Martin Griffiths, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, acknowledged that the organization had failed to properly assist victims.

Cross-border aid did not arrive in the region before February 9, when six truckloads arrived in northwest Syria. Since then, the UN has sent 192 aid trucks.

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Piles of donated items, such as diapers and clothes, now fill the room of the Torwar Sports Centre. And the centre’s arena is filled with rows of cots for people to sleep.

An estimated 1,300 people have already stayed in the centre since the war began. But the exact number of refugees taking shelter there at any given moment is hard to calculate.

“The number of those staying here is constantly rotating,” said Malgorzata Naporowska, coordinator of the refugee centre. “They come, they leave. We are constantly organising transport, so a constant number is impossible to estimate.”

Over 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine since the war started. A little under half of those people are children.

And as the number of refugees grows, so do concerns that some of them could be exploited by human traffickers and other forms of abuse.

One of the causes for concern is that the number of people staying with strangers is increasing. When the war started, friends or family housed 95% of those arriving in Poland. Now that number has decreased to 70%.

“The risk for these things to happen is very high,” said Andreea Bujor, Communications Advocacy Director for World Vision Romania. “A lot of women are trafficked every year — [and] children because it is a risk not only for women but also for children.”

“As you see here, a lot of Romanians mobilised and I’m very proud, but the risks for other people to capitalise on the pain of these families is very high.”

Police are giving many of the women arriving in Hungary advice on protecting themselves at the border. They are reportedly telling them to keep their phone batteries charged and document the license plates of cars they get into.

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A sign stands near the entrance of With Asia, a non-profit dental clinic 
offering free services for migrants and refugees near Dongdaemun Gate in 
Seoul, Dec. 18. / Courtesy of With Asia

“I think migrants are in the direst need of help in today’s Korean society. Most minority groups ― rural villagers, for example ― can benefit from the public medical system. On the other hand, migrants cannot benefit despite their large number and their contributions to the country’s economy. So I thought I should do something to help them,” Yang said.

From 2017 to 2019, the dentists and dental assistants volunteering there saw more than 100 new patients and some 330 to 570 patients returning each year. The number of patients decreased in the past two years under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, but still, there were 64 new patients and 220 returning ones representing 15 nationalities in 2020 and 72 new ones and 243 repeat ones with 12 nationalities in 2021.

In 2021, 13 dentists and 10 assistants worked at With Asia.

The clinic closed down for three months in 2020 when the pandemic hit the country hard. However, as the calls and inquiries from patients grew, they reopened the clinic. Usually, the clinic operates every day except two to three times a year when it closes for major public holidays.

“We are open from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Saturday and treat about 12 to 15 patients a day. There is a long line of reservations, but we try to restrict the number of patients for the safety and prevention of the virus spread,” explained Kim Sung-sook, the secretary-general of the organization.

According to Yang, most patients who come to With Asia have tooth loss and low masticatory ability. “They come here only when they cannot endure the pain any longer. Dental care usually costs a significant amount of time and money, and most of our patients would rather spend the money they have to their families back in their home countries,” Yang said.

The clinic runs on donations and support funds from its members, relevant associations and local governments. Among the longtime donors are the dentistry association, dental technicians’ groups and medical device companies.

In 2020, the clinic received financial aid from the Seoul Metropolitan Government which selected it as one of the non-profit organizations for its public service project.

Yang Hyun-bong, the head of With Asia, treated a migrant worker at the 
organization's clinic in Seoul, Dec. 18. / Courtesy of With Asia

Jeong Jin-woo, the pastor at Seoul Diaspora Church supporting the Philippine community in the city, is one of the many sources introducing migrant patients to the clinic.

“Our church members (from the Philippines) were amazed when I introduced With Asia to them. It is especially difficult to find a volunteer dental clinic among all medical services, and we all know how a toothache can be a real pain. Unfortunately, going to a hospital is rarely an option for them and they depend on painkillers,” Jeong told The Korea Times, Tuesday.

According to a report by the National Human Rights Council of Korea based on a 2020 survey, about 3 out of 10 migrants here could not receive medical services even if they wanted to, mostly because it was too expensive (54.1 percent) and because they don’t have the time (37.4 percent).

“I believe Korean society should be more generous and inclusive to foreign workers. The country’s economy cannot run without foreign manpower in the ‘3D’ industries,” Jeong said. “I hope that organizations like With Asia, which reaches out to the migrant population in welfare blind spots, will receive more support and attention from the government and people.”

Yang called for more government coverage of medical costs for migrant workers.

“It could be difficult for the government to cover the medical needs of registered and unregistered migrant workers all at once. Thus, I believe it is important to first guarantee them safe working conditions and fair compensation,” Yang said.

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Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak told broadcaster PR1 on Wednesday that it was “not a calm night”, as he reported “many attempts to breach the Polish border”.

Some tried to break through a barbed-wire fence using spades and other tools but were repelled by Polish security forces.

Crowds of people have gathered in subzero temperatures near the Belarus-Poland frontier in recent days hoping to cross into the European Union nation, bringing a simmering months-long border crisis to a head and prompting flashbacks of the 2015 refugee crisis.

Polish radio station RMF said about 200 people tried to breach the border on Tuesday afternoon, and the second group of 60 people made an attempt after midnight.

Blaszczak said all who attempted to cross were detained, and that the force of Polish soldiers stationed in the area had been strengthened to 15,000 from 12,000.

Hundreds are camped along the border, a fraction of the estimated 4,000 migrants and refugees gathered in areas near the frontier, including nearby forests.

EU slams Minsk’s ‘gangster-style’ tactics

Poland and other EU states accuse Belarus of encouraging the migrants and refugees – who are mostly from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa – to cross in revenge for Western sanctions on Minsk over President Alexander Lukashenko’s crackdown on dissent after last year’s disputed election.

EU diplomats told Reuters news agency on Tuesday that the bloc was close to imposing more sanctions on Belarus over the escalating crisis, targeting about 30 individuals and entities, including the Belarusian foreign minister.

The EU earlier on Tuesday accused Lukashenko of using “gangster-style” tactics in the standoff, in which at least seven people have died amid warnings from human rights groups that they face freezing conditions and a lack of food and medical attention.

Germany’s acting Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement on Wednesday that the images from the Belarusian border were “horrific”.

“Lukashenko …unscrupulously exploits people seeking refuge as hostages for his cynical power play… But the European Union cannot be blackmailed,” he said.

Minsk, which is backed by Russia, denies engineering the migrant crisis and blames European powers and the United States for the plight of the people stranded at the border.

On Wednesday, the Belarusian border guard service accused Warsaw of illegally pushing back migrants and refugees.

Belarus’s foreign minister meanwhile said the EU was “provoking” the standoff on its border with Poland and added Minsk was seeking a “joint response” to the crisis with Russia.

“The migrant crisis was provoked by the EU itself and its states that border Belarus,” Vladimir Makei said on a visit to Moscow.

Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane, reporting from Berlin, said the war of words over the dispute appeared to be “heating up”.

“There are lots of conversations taking place across Europe now at the higher echelons of politics about how to deal with this,” he said.

Polish PM says Putin ‘mastermind’ of crisis

The Kremlin has also blamed the crisis at the Poland-Belarus border on the EU, saying the bloc has failed to uphold its own humanitarian values and was trying to “strangle” Belarus with plans to close part of the frontier.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that comments by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki – who has blamed Moscow for the situation – were unacceptable.

Morawiecki on Tuesday charged Russian President Vladimir Putin with orchestrating the crisis, which he said threatened to destabilize the 27-member EU.

“This attack which Lukashenko is conducting has its mastermind in Moscow, the mastermind is President Putin,” Morawiecki told the Polish Parliament on Tuesday, after visiting security forces along the border.

Putin on Wednesday suggested to German Chancellor Angela Merkel that EU member countries discuss the migrant crisis on the Belarus-Poland border directly with Minsk, his office said.

A German government spokesman said Merkel had told Putin in a phone call that Belarus’s “instrumentalization of migrants” was inhumane and unacceptable, and asked him to put pressure on the Minsk government.

Moscow has sent two strategic bombers to patrol Belarusian airspace amid the crisis.

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According to UNHCR, authorities carried out raids and arbitrary arrests this month which targeted areas largely populated by refugees and asylum-seekers.

This resulted in several deaths, thousands detained, and many homeless and destitute.

“We have witnessed a sharp deterioration in the situation facing vulnerable asylum-seekers and refugees in Tripoli”, Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR’s Special Envoy for the Western and Central Mediterranean Situation said. “The Libyan authorities must come up with a proper plan that respects their rights and identifies durable solutions.”

Situation ‘precarious’ for many

The situation for some 3,000 people currently sheltering outside the Community Day Centre (CDC) in Tripoli, “is very precarious” UNHCR said. Many people have been affected by the raids; their homes have been demolished and they have escaped from detention after suffering terrible conditions.

Others have joined the group hoping to be evacuated, the agency added. “Many have been left homeless and lost all their belongings as a result of the security operation and are now sleeping in the cold and in a very unsafe environment.

“This is utterly unacceptable,” Mr. Cochetel stated.

UNHCR and its partners provided medical assistance and other services at the center but suspended operations for security and safety reasons. Agency staff is talking with representatives of the protesters outside the CDC, to explain the limited assistance it can offer, including cash and food support.

Targeted

Last week, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) also issued an alert concerning a number of major incidents in which migrants and asylum seekers had been targeted since the beginning of October.

In a raid by Ministry of Interior personnel on an informal settlement in Gergaresh, about 12 kilometers west of Tripoli, security forces used unnecessary and disproportionate force to detain women, children and men. At least one person died, five were injured, and more than 4,000 were detained.

Evacuation ‘not enough’
UNHCR reiterated that it stands ready to support an urgent action plan that could help alleviate the suffering of asylum-seekers and refugees in Libya.

While it welcomed the authorization to restart humanitarian evacuation flights, the agency warned that it was not enough. “This is a positive development for some of the most vulnerable refugees, who have been waiting anxiously for many months to depart.

“Our teams are already working to ensure humanitarian flights can restart as soon as possible,” Mr. Cochetel said.

“But we also need to be realistic: resettlement or evacuation flights will only benefit a limited number of people.”  More than 1,000 vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers are currently prioritized for humanitarian flights and awaiting their resumption, according to UNHCR.

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