The UN has announced a USD 71mn flash appeal for Kyrgyzstan, where it says some 400,000 people have been displaced by inter-ethnic fighting. The Central Asian state’s interim leader believes the number of people killed since violence erupted just over a week ago may be as high as 2,000.
Posts Tagged ‘refugee’
Double suicide attack at Pakistan refugee camp kills 38
April 17th, 2010 |
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Two suicide bombings at a refugee camp killed at least 38 people and injured 45 others Saturday in north-west Pakistan, police said. The attacks occurred in the Kacha Pakka area of Kohat district in North-West Frontier Province, apparently aimed at the Shiite Muslims among thousands of people that have fled the fighting in the tribal district of Orakzai.
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars U.S. Tour To Help Refugees
April 2nd, 2010 |
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SIERRA LEONE’S REFUGEE ALL STARS PARTNER WITH
THE INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE ON U.S. TOUR TO RAISE AWARENESS OF REFUGEES’ NEEDS
BAND’S NEW ALBUM RELEASED TO ACCLAIM MARCH 23
 Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars |
In keeping with the theme of their acclaimed new album, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars are
partnering with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) on their extensive U.S. tour, which begins next week
in Vermont. (See dates below.) The shows, which aim to raise awareness about the needs of refugees, will feature
material from the All Stars’ new album, Rise & Shine.
The All Stars first formed and performed in refugee camps in Guinea where the IRC managed school programs,
health clinics and other critical services for tens of thousands of Sierra Leoneans who escaped civil war at home. Since then, in electrifying live performances and recording experience with the likes of Aerosmith and Mavis Staples, the All Stars have
been establishing an identity based as much on skill, imagination and charisma as on their undeniably touching
story (The Los Angeles Times). The band’s remarkable journey was documented in the multi-award winning
documentary Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, by Zach Niles and Banker
White.
“Amid their shared experience of living as refugees [the All Stars] found a common cause to play beautiful music,
bring cheer and hope to refugees who fled a brutal war and help them forget the horrors they left behind,” says International Rescue Committee spokeswoman Melissa Winkler. “Their music became an antidote
to the misery, monotony and uncertainty that Sierra Leonean refugees faced each day, and their music continues to
be an inspiration to refugees around the world.”
On the upcoming tour, concertgoers will be encouraged to donate $5 to IRC programs by texting REFUGEE to 25383. The donations will help Sierra Leonean and other refugees given sanctuary in the United States to recover and
rebuild their lives here. The All Stars and Cumbancha are also donating $2 to the IRC’s global humanitarian aid
programs for each copy of Rise & Shine sold through this link: www.theirc.org/shop-irc-market.
Rise & Shine is the follow up to the All Stars’ debut, Living Like a Refugee, which garnered
the band international acclaim and high profile fans such as Keith Richards, Sir Paul McCartney, Angelina Jolie
and Ice Cube. On the new
album, produced by Steve Berlin (Los
Lobos, Angelique
Kidjo, Rickie Lee
Jones, Michelle
Shocked, Alec
Ounsworth, Jackie
Greene), Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars have realized a unique and seamlessly coherent sound: a fusion
of traditional West African music and roots reggae, inflected with New Orleans styles.
The new album is garnering considerable critical praise, including:
“It is simply great songwriting with incredible production. None of their message – unity, cultural celebration, spiritual salvation – is lost, and so much is gained.”
-The Huffington Post
“Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars have tapped into the music’s transformative powers… Rise & Shine is a testament to the unbreakable human spirit.”
-Relix
Sierra Leone’s Refugee
All Stars Tour Dates :: Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars News :: Sierra Leone’s Refugee
All Stars Concert Reviews
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars New Album Due 03/23
January 4th, 2010 |
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SIERRA LEONE’S REFUGEE ALL STARS TO RELEASE RISE & SHINE MARCH 23, 2010
 Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars |
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars started playing music together in West African refugee camps while their homeland was racked by years of bloody warfare. Since then, audiences around the world have embraced the band and their utterly extraordinary story. On their forthcoming album, Rise & Shine, the All Stars’ sound, as well as their biography, evolves further; the music finds them “…establishing an identity based as much on skill, imagination and charisma as on their undeniably touching story” (The Los Angeles Times). Cumbancha will release the album on March 23, 2010.
For the follow up to their acclaimed debut, Living Like a Refugee, the band began recording in their hometown of Freetown, Sierra Leone then traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana to work with the highly accomplished producer Steve Berlin (Los Lobos, Angelique Kidjo, Rickie Lee Jones, Michelle Shocked, Alec Ounsworth, Jackie Greene) at Piety Street Recording. The All Stars immediately felt at home in New Orleans, not only because the hot climate and spicy food reminded them of Africa, but also because the residents of the Crescent City have firsthand experience with the bitterness of exile and the redemptive power of music. The local musicians who contributed to the record (including favorites Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, Bonerama, and Washboard Chaz) lend it an infectious spirit of celebration and optimism in the face of struggle.
Rise & Shine reflects how far the band has come in the past few years, after multiple international tours and recording experience with the likes of Aerosmith and Mavis Staples. With an expert producer at the helm, Sierra Leone¹s Refugee All Stars have realized a unique and seamlessly coherent sound: a fusion of traditional West African music and roots reggae, inflected with New Orleans styles. The album’s 13 tracks embrace the wide array of musical influences the All Stars have encountered on their rise to international fame.
The band members are broadly diverse in age and character, although they possess a strong bond forged through common experiences and values: they all know war and have struggled to survive in one of the world¹s poorest countries, and they share an unwavering belief in the transformative power of music. The current lineup of the band was cemented when Reuben M. Koroma, the sage songwriter and guiding light of the group, returned home from the refugee camps, joined by Black Nature, an orphaned teenaged rapper; Mohammed Bangura, who suffered amputation at the hands of rebels; and Francis John Langba. Back in Sierra Leone, they reunited with family, friends and former band mates Ashade Pearce, Jah Son Bull, and Makengo Kamara (many of whom they believed not to have survived the violence).
The band’s journey (which culminated in the All Stars’ first recording in a studio) was documented in the multi-award winning documentary Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, by Zach Niles and Banker White. The resulting album, Living Like A Refugee, garnered the band international acclaim and high profile fans such as Keith Richards, Sir Paul McCartney, Aerosmith, Angelina Jolie, and Ice Cube.
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars deliver electrifying and uplifting live performances and will tour the U.S. in Spring 2010. They have already appeared at some of the most prestigious music festivals worldwide including Bonnaroo, Montreal Jazz, Fuji Rock in Japan, Central Park SummerStage, and Celebrate Brooklyn.
Refugees and cities: Tents come down
December 10th, 2009 |
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Tomorrow’s fugitive will live in a slum, not under canvas
SAY the word “refugee” and it still conjures up visions of uprooted families who live, for years, in vast camps where humanitarian agencies look after them and they remain largely separate from their so-called host countries.
That image is out of date and getting more so all the time, says UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. Perhaps half the 10.5m people who fall directly under the organisation’s remit (in other words, those who have crossed borders, fearing death or persecution) now live in cities, cheek by jowl with other desperate folk. Refugees, it seems, are just like other human beings: they are trying their luck in the vast conurbations whose growth will continue to be a big social trend in the 21st century. …
Angelina Jolie full of Goodwill!
September 14th, 2009 |
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Angelina Jolie has managed to stay charitable, even though being a part of the competitive Hollywood limelight.
Mrs. Brad Pitt is currently in Kenya to bring light to the problem of overcrowding in refugee camps on the Kenya Somalia border. Angelina has always been involved with charities, and is currently the Goodwill Ambassador for the UN, [...]
Refugee trends: Lost in limbo
August 27th, 2009 |
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There may be fewer refugees, but their problems are getting harder to solve
THE global stock of refugees, those who escape war or persecution by crossing a border, has steadily shrunk in recent years. The UNHCR, the UN agency with the job of looking after most of them, counted 10.5m around the world last year, well down from a peak of about 16m in the early 1990s. But few are cheering. In part this is because millions more are uprooted but do not count as refugees if they stay within their own countries, such as most of the 2.7m Darfuris made homeless by fighting in western Sudan.
The official figures also ignore 4.2m Palestinians whose families were displaced by war in 1948 after Israel was founded and who, by a quirk of history, are helped by another UN body, UNRWA. Worse, their intractable problems—left for generations by the countries where they sought shelter in wretched camps-cum-shanty towns—seem now to be typical of other refugees’ woes. The displaced are washing up more often in places with the least to offer. Poorer countries now host 80% of all refugees, partly because richer ones are keener to keep asylum-seekers at arm’s length by paying for refugees to get aid nearer to where they fled from. …
Foreign execs head east for jobs as China expands
July 27th, 2009 |
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He calls himself a Silicon Valley refugee who has worked for giants IBM and Siemens as well as software startups. Now Ronald Raffensperger, a marketing director at fast-growing Huawei Technologies, numbers among the increasing numbers of foreign expatriates China is counting on to steer its
Zaineb Alani: My Speech at the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations Conference.
July 17th, 2009 |
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The Iraqi, Afghan, and Pakistani people cannot win against the American war machine. On their own, they are helpless. They have only one hope: you.
UN worker shot dead in Pakistan
July 16th, 2009 |
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A UN refugee agency official has been shot dead during a failed kidnap attempt in north-west Pakistan.
The man, a Pakistani, died in hospital after the shooting at the Katcha Garhi camp near Peshawar, the UN said.
Police say a second UN official was also killed and another injured when four armed men tried to abduct them.
More than 200,000 people have been staying in camps near Peshawar since being displaced by recent fighting between troops and the Taliban. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Bradley Burston: Will Israel Grant Asylum to Fascism?
July 14th, 2009 |
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Fascism thrives on legality, it lawyers up every chance it gets, the better to use any institution of democracy to quietly and methodically corrupt and demolish every institution of democracy.
Canada toughens its visa demands
July 14th, 2009 |
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Canada has imposed visa requirements on travellers from Mexico and the Czech Republic after a big jump in refugee claims from these two countries.
Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said a significant number of such claims were rejected or abandoned, raising doubts about their legitimacy.
Since 2007, some 3,000 Czech nationals have requested asylum, while 9,400 Mexicans applied last year.
The Czech government says the move is wrong and is recalling its ambassador.
Announcing the new visa requirements, Mr Kenney said they were aimed at reducing the burden on Canada’s refugee system.
More than half the claims by Czech nationals were abandoned or withdrawn before a final decision was made, Mr Kenney said, indicating that many claimants may not be genuine refugees. Only 11% of claims by Mexicans were accepted in 2008.
"In addition to creating significant delays and spiralling new costs in our refugee programme, the sheer volume of these claims is undermining our ability to help people fleeing real persecution," Mr Kenney said.
"All too often people who really need Canada’s protection find themselves in a long line, waiting for months and sometimes years to have their claims heard."
Persecution
The number of Mexicans applying has almost tripled since 2005 to 9,400 in 2008, accounting for a quarter of all claims received.
The Czech Republic is the second main source of refugee claims. Since Canada lifted visa requirements on Czech nationals in 2007, nearly 3,000 claims have been lodged, compared with just five in 2006.
Almost all the claimants are members of the Roma or gypsy minority, fleeing what they say is persecution in the Czech Republic where there has been a sharp rise in far-right extremism.
Canadian officials acknowledge that about 85% of claims by Czech nationals which are heard are accepted.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout said Canada’s action was unprecedented against a European Union member, while the Prime Minister, Jan Fischer, said it was one-sided and wrong.
The Czech government has indicated it will reciprocate by imposing visas on Canadian diplomats and business travellers.
The Mexican government said it regretted Canada’s decision and that it would be closely monitoring the implementation of the requirements to ensure the rights of Mexicans are respected.
Officials said they had been working with Canadian authorities to try to tackle fraudulent claims.
The visa requirement came into effect on 14 July but people already travelling to Canada will be able to apply for a visa on arrival until 2359 on 15 July.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.