Emma Batha
Emma Batha joined AlertNet in 2005 after four years on the Reuters international editing desk in London. She has previously worked as a reporter on the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong and was Asia Pacific editor at BBC News Online.
Africa plans landmark convention on internal refugees
African countries are set to adopt a ground-breaking convention providing rights to millions of people forced to flee their homes because of conflict. Africa has some 12 million internally displaced people (IDPs) who have been uprooted within their own country. Unlike refugees - people who have fled to another country - IDPs benefit from little or no protection. ...
Islamic values underpin refugee law - UN refugee chief
Islam's 1,400-year-old custom of generosity towards people fleeing persecution has had a bigger influence on international refugee law than any other tradition, according to the U.N. refugee chief. Antonio Guterres says Islamic law and tradition, more than any other historical source, underpin today's legal framework on which the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) bases its work helping millions of people uprooted by conflict. ...
Q+A with U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres
This is an edited transcript of an interview with U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres How many people are displaced in the world? We had 42 million at the end of 2008 and very probably we will be getting closer to 45 million at the present moment. The Pakistan displacement crisis is probably the biggest since events in Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo in the 90s. What we're witnessing now is indeed, if not an unprecedented crisis, one of the most dramatic in recent times. ...
World facing new displacement crisis - UN refugee chief
This year's crises in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Somalia are pushing the number of people forced to flee their homes towards the 45 million mark - the highest number in at least a decade, U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres says. There were around 16 million refugees and 26 million people uprooted within their own country at the end of 2008, according to the U.N. refugee agency's annual Global Trends report released on Tuesday. (See this factbox.) Although this was a slight decline on 2007, it does not reflect the rapid displacements in the first half of this year. ...
UN refugee chief says Pakistan aid in donor 'self interest'
Donor countries should dig deep into their pockets to help 2.5 million people displaced in Pakistan as a matter of "enlightened self interest", the United Nation's refugee chief says. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told AlertNet in an interview his agency was not even able to help half the people uprooted by Pakistan's military offensive to expel Taliban militants in the northwest Swat valley and neighbouring areas. ...
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