News | Latest Breaking News Stories & Headlines

Bob Geldof said he looks at the emigrant crisis with profound shame

Bob Geldof offers to host refugees in his homes

Bob Geldof has said he is prepared to take in four refugee families to do his part in helping to deal with the growing migrant crisis.

News • 04 Sep 15

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin says people are contacting public representatives wanting to know whether Ireland was doing its rightful duty

Govt needs to address refugee crisis - Ó Ríordáin

Minister of State at the Department of Justice Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has said history will be very unkind to Ireland if it does not step up to the mark in tackling the refugee crisis.

News • 30 Aug 15

Syrian refugees cross the Syria-Turkey border last month

Number of Syrian refugees passes 4m mark - UNHCR

The number of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries has passed four million, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said, adding that the total was on course to reach 4.27 million by the end of 2015.

News • 09 Jul 15

Angelina Jolie visited a refugee camp in southeastern Turkey

Jolie calls for more action to help refugees

Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie has called for more international action to help refugees as she visited a camp in southeastern Turkey.

News • 21 Jun 15

Ten million Syrians have fled their homes because of the civil war

Syrian refugees could number '5m by year's end'

The number of Syrian refugees who have been forced from their country by civil war could easily exceed the population of Ireland by the end of 2015.

News • 09 Mar 15

Close to 12 million people have been displaced by the nearly four-year war in Syria

Syrian refugee crisis nearing 'turning point' - UN

Syria's refugee crisis is approaching a "dangerous turning point" as nearly four million Syrians face worsening living conditions in exile, the UN refugee chief has warned.

News • 26 Feb 15

There are more than one million Syrian refugees in Lebanon

Lebanon enforces permit controls at Syrian border

Lebanon has enforced new immigration controls at the Syrian border in a move to gain control of the steady stream of refugees from its much larger neighbour.

News • 05 Jan 15

Police carry the body of one of 24 illegal migrants, mostly Afghans, who drowned off the coast of Turkey last month when their boat capsized

3,419 die in Mediterranean trying to reach Europe

The UNHCR has said governments must focus more on saving lives rather than keeping foreigners out after a record 3,419 people have died in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe since January.

News • 10 Dec 14

Three million people have fled the war in Syria

WFP to restart food aid for Syrian refugees

The UN World Food Programme is restarting food aid for 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt after it received enough donations to fund the halted programme.

News • 09 Dec 14

UN rushes aid to Turkey for Syrian refugees

The United Nations is sending aid of Blankets, sleeping mats and kitchen sets, with 20 truckloads of aid already supplied to Syrian refugees in Turkey.

News • 22 Sep 14

Lebanon has let in one million Syrian refugees over three years

Call for Europe-wide strategy for refugees

The Head Spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has called for a Europe-wide strategy to help save the lives of refugees who are trying to reach Europe.

News • 29 Aug 14

The UN says that about 6.4 million people have been internally displaced

UN says 10.8 million Syrians need aid

The number of Syrians in urgent need of humanitarian aid has jumped to 10.8 million - nearly half of Syria's population of 22 million - United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has said.

News • 21 Jun 14

Syrians fleeing the escalating conflict accounted for most of the world's 2.5 million new refugees last year

UN says 50 million people displaced worldwide

The number of people driven from their homes by conflict and crisis has topped 50 million for the first time since World War II.

News • 20 Jun 14

A Syrian refugee boy poses with his newborn brother as their mother lies near them in a house in the Basaksehir district of Istanbul

5.5 million children affected by Syrian conflict

UNICEF has said the number of children impacted by Syria's war has doubled in the past year to 5.5 million, many of them trapped in besieged areas and beyond reach.

News • 11 Mar 14

Manus Island hosts a detention centre for would-be refugees sent there after trying to get to Australia

Asylum seeker killed in Australian camp violence

An asylum seeker was killed and at least 77 injured in the second riot this week at an Australian immigration detention centre in Papua New Guinea.

News • 18 Feb 14

Syrians walk along a destroyed street following a reported airstrike by government forces on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo

Syria still has 95% of chemical weapons arsenal

Less than 5% of the most dangerous chemicals in Syria's arsenal have left the country, sources close to the world's chemical watchdog said this afternoon.

News • 29 Jan 14

Amnesty International said the situation for those fleeing Syria is unacceptable

Amnesty says Jordan denying Syrian refugees entry

A new report by human rights group Amnesty International has said that hundreds of people trying to flee the fighting in Syria are being turned back at the Jordanian border.

News • 31 Oct 13

Boat carrying around 250 people was stranded off coast of Sicily

13 migrants feared drowned off Sicily coast

At least 13 people on a migrant boat arriving into Sicily have drowned close to the coast near the eastern city of Ragusa.

News • 30 Sep 13

A Syrian refugee family pictured in their accommodation in the Lebanese city of Tripoli

Syria's neighbours request help with refugees

Syria's neighbours are appealing for stronger international support to help them care for almost two million refugees who have fled their homeland.

News • 05 Sep 13

Syrian refugees cross the border into the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan

Iraqi Kurdistan places limit on Syrian refugees

Syrian refugees continue to flee to northern Iraq, where the Kurdistan regional government has placed a limit of 3,000 on the number of refugees they will allow cross the border each day.

News • 20 Aug 13

Syrian refugees queue for water at the Domiz refugee camp in northern Iraq

Thousands of Syrian refugees pour into Iraq

Thousands of Syrian refugees have poured across the border into northern Iraq, taking advantage of a new bridge along the largely closed border.

News • 16 Aug 13

Nearly 1.8m refugees have fled the Syrian conflict to bordering nations

Syrians fleeing war at rate not seen since Rwanda

The United Nations has said the Syrian conflict has now generated the worst refugee crisis since the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

News • 17 Jul 13

The UN Refugee Agency says the conflict in Syria is a contributing factor to rising refugee numbers

UN warns refugee numbers at 20-year high

The United Nations has said the number of refugees worldwide has reached its highest level in almost 20 years.

News • 19 Jun 13

Most refugees have fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt and some went to North Africa and Europe

20 UN peacekeepers held by Syrian rebels

Syrian rebels have seized a convoy of UN peacekeepers near the Golan Heights and said they will hold them captive until President Bashar al-Assad forces pull back from rebel-held village.

News • 06 Mar 13

A Syrian boy cuts wood at a refugee camp near the city of Azaz on the Syria-Turkey border, home to more than 7,000 people

Brahimi dismisses Assad speech on Syria crisis

International peace envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi has dismissed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's proposal to end the crisis in the war-torn country.

News • 09 Jan 13