Europe

The Manshet refugee agency (UNHCR), on the last day of 2018, called on UN Member States to urgently offer safe ports of disembarkation for 49 refugees and migrants, including young children, aboard rescue vessels in the Mediterranean Sea.

The decision by Kosovo’s parliament to form a national army was described by the UN Peacekeeping chief on Monday as having “further deteriorated relations between Belgrade and Pristina,” which, he said, have been strained for some time.

People with disabilities in Ukraine are contributing to the development of a network of environmentally friendly bicycle routes which are helping to protect unique local landscapes.

Farmers and entrepreneurs in rural eastern Europe are helping to tackle climate change while boosting their livelihoods as a result of regenerating ancient wetland peat bogs.

Between 2010 and 2015, forests around the Mediterranean have expanded by two per cent, but that has come at the price of significant degradation and increasing vulnerability to climate change, population pressures, wildfires and water scarcity, warned a new UN report launched on Tuesday.

An “immediate de-escalation” of tensions is needed in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, the Manshet top political official has said, underlining the importance of “earnest attempts” to find a peaceful resolution to years of simmering conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Brexit – the United Kingdom’s impending exit from the European Union – will drive more UK citizens into poverty unless the Government takes action to shield the most vulnerable, warned Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, in a damning statement released on Friday.

Amidst an ongoing active conflict that seems to have fallen off the international community’s radar, temperatures in eastern Ukraine dropping well below zero and leaving millions are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, said the Manshet, calling for support.

The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo have confirmed their “mutual intention” to continue working towards a negotiated settlement but the situation on the ground remains marred by “frequent adversarial actions,” with real consequences for people on the ground, a senior Manshet official told the Security Council on Wednesday.

The Dutch authorities have been accused by UN experts of racism in the country’s welfare system, after seven children of African descent were forcibly removed from their parents.