17 Jul 2012

GENEVA / SOMALI REFUGEES

The number of refugees having fled Somalia due to the conflict and drought, has now passed one million but, according the spokesman for the UN Refugee Agency, the exodus is slowing. CH UNTV

Posted at: July 17, 2012 11:07 am

Duration: 02:39

Available in: SD

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STORY: GENEVA / SOMALI REFUGEES
TRT:  2:39
SOURCE: CH UNTV 
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 17 JULY 2012, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE – PALAIS DES NATIONS, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Wide shot, exterior Palais Des Nations

16 JULY 2012, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

2. Wide shot, briefing room
3. Cutaway, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English): Adrian Edwards, Spokesman, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
"Somalia's refugee exodus has crossed a new threshold this past week with more than 1 million people now having fled the country for the surrounding region.  According to our latest data, the most recent arrivals continue to cite insecurity and dwindling food sources as the main reasons for their flight."
5. Cutaway, Cameraman 
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Edwards, Spokesman, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
The conflicts and the worst drought in decades forced more than 137,000 Somalis to leave their homes during the first 6 months of last year.  For the year as a whole, some 294,000 refugees registered in camps in the surrounding region.  Inside Somalia, the situation in most of the southern and central part of the country remains fluid and unstable, though there appears to be relative calm in some ares.  The drought has been less severe this year, but the prospects for the harvest next month, are currently not good. Many people struggle to cope as livelihoods remain extremely fragile.
7. Cutaway, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Edwards, Spokesman, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
"Somalia is one of only three countries in the world in which we've seen more than a million people forced to flee their homes in the past decade.  The pressure on communities hosting Somali refugees remains massive in some cases as the crisis continues to affect the entire Horn of Africa region and beyond."
9. Cutaway, journalists
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Edwards, Spokesman, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
"What we have seen is that significant change, particularly in the Mogadishu region, with Al-Shabab no longer having the influence it previously had there. This has resulted, as you may recall, in more people being displaced into Mogadishu from other parts of the country.  I don't think we or anyone else would dismiss the continuing threat that Al-Shabab represents."
11. Cutaway, journalists

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Edwards, Spokesman, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
"This is, I think, a period of tentative hope for Somalia and we're certainly hoping to see progress over the next months."

FILE - 12, 13 FEBRUARY 2012, AFGOOYE CORRIDOR, SOMALIA

6. Various shots, IDPs on the move
7. Wide shot, truck full of people and goods
8. Various shots, people on the move

STORYLINE

The number of refugees having fled Somalia due to the conflict and drought, has now passed one million but, according the spokesman for the UN Refugee Agency, the exodus is slowing.

Adrian Edwards said that although this was "a period of tentative hope", Somalia was still one of only three countries in the world (Afghanistan and Iraq are the others) where more than one million people have fled their homes in the past decade.

Insecurity and food shortages caused by the worst drought in decades are the main reasons for their flight, he said.  Although the drought has been less severe this year, the Spokesman said, the prospects for the coming harvest are not good and people are still struggling to cope.

But despite the new total of people displaced, Kenya and Ethiopia, the main destination countries for refugees, have noted lower numbers of people leaving Somalia, during the first six months of this year, the Spokesman said.   The number of arrivals has dropped from 137,000 during this period in 2011, to 30,000 in the same period this year.

As a result of a drop in Al Shabab activity in Mogadishu, people are now arriving in the city in greater numbers than previously, displaced from their homes by conflict and drought in other regions of the country. But the continuing threat from Al-Shabab, could not be dismissed, Edwards said.