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Over 660,000 Displaced During Pandemic

FILE PHOTO: A general view of trucks carrying belongings of displaced Syrians, is pictured in the town of Sarmada in Idlib province, Syria, January 28, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A general view of trucks carrying belongings of displaced Syrians, is pictured in the town of Sarmada in Idlib province, Syria, January 28, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo
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Over 660,000 Displaced During Pandemic

FILE PHOTO: A general view of trucks carrying belongings of displaced Syrians, is pictured in the town of Sarmada in Idlib province, Syria, January 28, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A general view of trucks carrying belongings of displaced Syrians, is pictured in the town of Sarmada in Idlib province, Syria, January 28, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo

More than 660,000 people have been displaced from their homes in conflict zones around the world since March, despite a UN call for a global ceasefire during the coronavirus pandemic, a top international aid group said Friday.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said its figures showed that armed conflict around the world had continued during the pandemic, even as much of globe went into lockdown.

This was despite a call on March 23 by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a global ceasefire for the pandemic.

The NRC said a total of 661,000 people have been displaced in 19 countries since then, with the highest number by far in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"At a time when health experts tell us to stay at home, men with guns are forcing hundreds of thousands out of their homes and into extreme vulnerability," said the NRC's Secretary-General Jan Egeland.
"This not only hurts those who are forced to flee, it seriously undermines our joint efforts to combat the virus."

According to Agence France Presse, the NRC accused the UN Security Council of failing to show leadership to encourage peace talks.

"While people are being displaced and killed, powerful members of the UN Security Council squabble like children in a sandbox," Egeland said.

He called on world leaders to "rise to the occasion" and jointly push parties to put down their weapons and unite in protecting all communities from COVID-19.

"Now is not the time for kindergarten politics," he added.

The NRC said it was appealing to UN Security Council members to issue a "clear call" to warring parties to halt the conduct of hostilities and to "settle their conflicts through talks and allow for a systematic response to the pandemic."

In DR Congo alone, clashes between armed groups and the country's military forced 482,000 people to flee their homes, it said.

Meanwhile fighting in Yemen resulted in the displacement of 24,000 people since March 23.

Africa's Lake Chad region has also experienced a surge of displacement, the NRC said, with Chad and Niger worst affected.

Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Syria, Somalia and Myanmar all saw more than 10,000 people displaced in the same period, the group added.

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As Trump Returns to the White House, Families Prepare for Mass Deportations

Venezuelan Jorluis Ocando (4th L) listens to directions before crossing the border to El Paso, Texas, United States with other migrants to attend their CPB One appointment in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on October 22, 2024. (Photo by Guillermo Arias / AFP)
Venezuelan Jorluis Ocando (4th L) listens to directions before crossing the border to El Paso, Texas, United States with other migrants to attend their CPB One appointment in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on October 22, 2024. (Photo by Guillermo Arias / AFP)
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As Trump Returns to the White House, Families Prepare for Mass Deportations

Venezuelan Jorluis Ocando (4th L) listens to directions before crossing the border to El Paso, Texas, United States with other migrants to attend their CPB One appointment in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on October 22, 2024. (Photo by Guillermo Arias / AFP)
Venezuelan Jorluis Ocando (4th L) listens to directions before crossing the border to El Paso, Texas, United States with other migrants to attend their CPB One appointment in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on October 22, 2024. (Photo by Guillermo Arias / AFP)

Parents around Nora Sanidgo's large, rectangular dining table had lunch before signing documents to make the Nicaraguan immigrant a legal guardian of their children, entrusting them to her if they are deported. She gave a list of what to carry with them: birth certificates, medical and school records, immigration documents, her phone number.
“Talk to your children and tell them what can happen, let them have my phone number on hand, let them learn it, let them record it,” Sandigo said Sunday.
For the group at Sandigo's southwest Miami home and for millions in the United States illegally or with temporary legal status, the start of Donald Trump's second term as president on Monday comes with a feeling that their time in the US may end soon. Trump made mass deportations a signature issue of his campaign and has promised a raft of first-day orders to remake immigration policy.
“You don’t have to be afraid, you have to be prepared,” Sandigo told the group of about 20 people, including small children, who watched a demonstration of how to respond if immigration officers knock on their door. “Take precautions wherever you are.”
Sandigo, who came to the US in 1988, has volunteered to be guardian for more than 2,000 children in 15 years, including at least 30 since December. A notary was on hand Sunday.
Erlinda, a single mother from El Salvador who arrived in 2013, signed legal rights to her US-born children, ages 10 and 8. She said she applied for asylum but doesn't know the status of her case.
“I am afraid for my children, that they will live the terror of not seeing their mother for a day, for a month, for a year,” said Erlinda, 45, who asked to be identified by first name only due to fears of being detained.
Plans for deportation arrests appeared to be in flux after news leaked of an operation in Chicago this week. Trump's “border czar” Tom Homan said on Fox News Sunday that Chicago was “not off the table, but we’re reconsidering when and how we do it.” He said the leak raised concerns about officer safety.
So-called sanctuary cities, which limit how local police cooperate with federal immigration authorities, have been a favorite Trump target, especially Chicago. Reports that his initial push would be in the nation's third-largest city brought a new sense of urgency and fear.
Chicago became a sanctuary city in the 1980s and has beefed up policies since, including after Trump first took office in 2017. Last week, the City Council heartily rejected a longshot plan calling for exceptions allowing local police to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on deportation cases for people accused or convicted of crimes.
The Rev. Homero Sanchez said he didn’t realize the depth of fear in the Chicago immigrant community he serves until someone asked him to handle the sale of their family’s home and other finances if they are picked up after Trump takes office.
“They feel they have been targeted for who they are. They feel like they’re reviving this fear they had eight years ago,” said Sanchez, who serves the St. Rita of Cascia Parish on Chicago’s South Side. “They’re feeling like something is going to happen. This is not their city because of the threat.”
Sanchez, whose congregation has consisted mostly of people of Mexican descent since the 1980s, devoted Sunday Mass “to solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters.”
Cardinal Blase Cupich, who leads the Archdiocese of Chicago, said reports of the city being targeted by immigration officers were "not only profoundly disturbing but also wound us deeply.”
“We are proud of our legacy of immigration that continues in our day to renew the city we love,” Cupich said Sunday during a visit to Mexico City, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.
ICE arrests a fraction of targets in its street operations, though Trump is expected to cast a wider net than President Joe Biden, whose focus on picking up people away from the border was largely limited to those with serious criminal histories or who pose a risk to national security.
Biden’s administration also ended the practice of mass worksite arrests, which were common under Trump, including a 2019 operation targeting Mississippi chicken plants.
Trump aides have said immigration officers will arrest others, such as spouses or roommates, who are not targets but happen to be in the country illegally.