By: Yusuf M Hasan
BORAME (Somalilandsun) – How to effectively coordinate rejoining scattered Somali families is the topic of discussions by Various Red cross and Red Crescent societies in the western city of Borama.
The Somaliland Red Crescent Society-SRCS is hosting an international meeting which brings representatives from various Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Crystal Societies funded by the International Committee of the Red Cross Society-ICRCS
The two days meeting, which is the 1st of its kind to be held in the country pools its participants from various country among them Somaliland, Kenya, Djibouti, China, India, Somalia, Israel, Rwanda, Yemen and Tanzania.
According to SRCS sources most of the participants have arrived and ensconced at the Haldoor Hotel in Borama town where the two day meetings is to be held from 30th to 31st June 2013.
Under the objective of “Restoring Family Links” participants shall brainstorm on how to establish a coordinated approach towards Tracing family members of Refugees especially Somalis domicile in the various country’s represented in the conference.
Tracing which is one of the major functions undertaken by the diverse organizations at the meeting has and continuous to bring long lost families together through searches conducted through print and electronic Medias worldwide.
The honour to open the international meeting has been bestowed on the chairperson of the SRCS Mr. Bakaal Ahmed Abdi while logistics are the preserve of Mr. Abdilahi Saeed Muhumed who is the ICRCS Somaliland National tracing officer based at the SRCS headquarters in Hargeisa.
Yet to be confirmed information indicates that delegations from China, India and Israel shall use a special banner at the meeting since their original logos are religious in nature.
As the delegates focus on reuniting displaced Somali families a UNHCR report reveals that Somalia produced the world’s second highest source of Refugees in 2012.
Somalia generated the second largest number of refugees (1.14 million) of any country in the world in 2012, though the rate of refugee outflow slowed, the UN refugee agency said in its report.
The report which was launched ahead of the World Refugee Day 2013 also reveals that Iraqis were the third largest refugee group (746,700 persons), followed by Syrians (471,400).
UNHCR’ s annual Global Trends in displacement report highlights that last year 7.6 million people were newly displaced due to conflict or persecution, with a total of 45.2 million people around the world in situations of displacement, meaning that more people are refugees or internally displaced than at any point since 1994.
Reacting to the report, UNHCR Somalia Representative, Alessandra Morelli, said over one million people are still internally displaced (IDPs) in Somalia while another one million Somalis are refugees in neighbouring countries.
The Report comes as Kenya has been lobbying the international community for support for speedy resettlement of Somali refugees residing in the world’s largest refugee camp, Dadaab in northern Kenya and those living in other urban cities and towns.
