MIDDLE EAST: MIDDLE EAST: Weekly round-up
Number 108 for 5 January - 11 January 2007
11 Jan 2007 16:00:42 GMT Source: IRIN
MIDDLE EAST, 11 January (IRIN) - EGYPT: Torture allegations as more Brotherhood members arrestedIRAQ: Hussein Iyad, "We live in misery"IRAQ: High price of asylumIRAQ: Haifa
Waleed - "I prefer to be illiterate than to die"IRAQ-JORDAN: UNHCR upbeat about future of Ruweished refugeesIRAQ: Najaf provides land for displacedIRAQ: Aid agencies cannot cope with
displacement, says UNHCRIRAQ: Displaced urge Iraqi Red Crescent to returnIRAQ: The exodus of academics has lowered educational standardsSOMALIA-YEMEN: 90 Somali migrants buried in mass gravesSOMALIA-YEMEN: Somali community warn of refugee deathsYEMEN: Illegal pesticides cause cancer, health officials sayEGYPT: Torture allegations as more Brotherhood members arrestedOn 5 January,
the London-based international human rights organisation Amnesty International issued a statement saying that the Egyptian authorities were preparing to forcibly return four Tunisian nationals –
Ayman Hkiri, Ahamed Lahbib, Mhamed Almadiri and another whose name was unknown. If returned to Tunisia they would be in grave danger of torture, Amnesty added.http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56940 and SelectRegion=Middle_East and SelectCountry=EGYPTIRAQ: Hussein Iyad, "We live in misery""I am a 38-year-old Shiite Arab and I have never been
in such a horrible situation as now. I have been displaced since 23 March 2006 when insurgents came to my home in the Kadhimiya neighbourhood of Baghdad and gave me and my family 24 hours to vacate
our home.http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57032 and SelectRegion=Middle_East and SelectCountry=IRAQIRAQ: High price of asylumRa'ad Farouk, 34, has been waiting for nearly four months
for his asylum documents. Farouk and his wife paid US $25,000 to an immigration broker, who is now demanding an extra US $10,000 to finish the paperwork for asylum in Sweden.http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57034 and SelectRegion=Middle_East and SelectCountry=IRAQIRAQ: Haifa Waleed - "I prefer to be illiterate than to die""I am 10 years old but I have not
been to school for the past three years because I'm scared of the killings taking place in Iraq. Many of my friends have either been kidnapped or killed.http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56971 and SelectRegion=Middle_East and SelectCountry=IRAQIRAQ-JORDAN: UNHCR upbeat about future of Ruweished refugeesOfficials from the United Nations
refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday they were confident about the resettlement of 119 refugees from Iraq who are in Ruweished refugee camp, 50 km from the Jordanian-Iraqi border, after 49
Palestinians left the tent camp for Canada last month.http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57003 and SelectRegion=Middle_East and SelectCountry=IRAQ-JORDANIRAQ: Najaf provides land for
displacedLocal authorities in Iraq's southern city of Najaf, 200 km south of the capital, Baghdad, are allotting pieces of land to displaced families from outside the province as well as to some
residents.http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56964 and SelectRegion=Middle_East and SelectCountry=IRAQIRAQ: Aid agencies cannot cope with displacement, says UNHCRThe United Nations
refugee agency (UNHCR) has warned that the scale of internal displacement in Iraq was beyond the capacity of humanitarian agencies, including UNHCR.http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56966
and SelectRegion=Middle_East and SelectCountry=IRAQIRAQ: Displaced urge Iraqi Red Crescent to returnDisplaced families in the capital, Baghdad, have urged the Iraqi Red Crescent Society to
continue supporting people who have been displaced as a result of sectarian violence.http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56942 and SelectRegion=Middle_East and SelectCountry=IRAQIRAQ: The
exodus of academics has lowered educational standards"You are on the list of the teachers who are going to be killed this month for not obeying our demands to leave Iraq," said a hand-written letter
which was left at Dr Hamida Bakri's door.http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56941 and SelectRegion=Middle_East and SelectCountry=IRAQSOMALIA-YEMEN: 90 Somali migrants buried in mass
gravesNinety of the 140 missing Somali migrants to Yemen have been buried in mass graves in the Bir Ali area of Shabwa after their bodies were found floating off the coast, members of the Somali
community in the capital, Sana'a, said on Wednesday.http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56998 and SelectRegion=Middle_East and SelectCountry=SOMALIA-YEMENSOMALIA-YEMEN: Somali community
warn of refugee deathsThe Somali community in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, has warned of more deaths as increasing numbers of Somali migrants make the perilous journey to Yemen to escape the civil
war. The warning followed reports that 140 migrants, mostly Somalis, were missing and 17 had died after their vessels capsized off the Yemeni coast last month.http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56960 and SelectRegion=Middle_East and SelectCountry=SOMALIA-YEMENYEMEN: Illegal pesticides cause cancer, health officials sayHealth officials in Yemen
say illegal pesticides used in the cultivation of khat [a mild narcotic popular in Yemen and the Horn of Africa], fruit and vegetables cause 16,000-17,000 cancer cases each year.http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56951 and SelectRegion=Middle_East and SelectCountry=YEMEN
