SYDNEY, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - The Australian Navy has detained 17 suspected asylum seekers at sea just a week after a boatload of Afghans, Iranians and Indonesians was intercepted off the country's coast, officials said Tuesday.

KABUL, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Over a quarter million Afghans have returned home this year from Pakistan and Iran, many of them reportedly due to economic and security uncertainties faced in exile, the United Nations said Tuesday.

GENEVA, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - The head of the UN refugee agency said Monday that the organisation would likely spend 500 million dollars (370 million euros) more this year than in 2006 as it tackles growing problems worldwide.

WASHINGTON, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - The United States has taken in 13,823 Iraqi refugees over the past year and promises to accept 17,000 more in the next 12 months, the State Department said on Thursday.

The US government touted the figure after coming under widespread criticism for moving too slowly to take in Iraqis forced to flee their war-torn country.

DATU PIANG, Philippines, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Arbaya Musalip gently cradles her three-day-old daughter swaddled in a piece of old cloth amid the chaos of this filthy evacuation camp in a remote corner of the southern Philippines.

SANAA, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Twenty-eight Somali migrants died when their boat capsized off Yemen, the Yemeni interior ministry said on Thursday.

The boat, carrying 51 people, including 17 women, overturned on Wednesday due to strong winds and high waves when Yemeni coastguards ordered the vessel to stop off southeast Shabwa province, it said in a statement posted on its website.

WASHINGTON, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush on Tuesday said up to 80,000 refugees from around the world would be welcome in the United States in fiscal year 2009, which begins October 1.

In a memorandum to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Bush allocated the numbers as follows:

GENEVA, Sept 28, 2008 (AFP) - Up to 52 Somali nationals have died in the Gulf of Aden as they tried to make their way by sea to Yemen, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Sunday.

Engine failure on the boat in which they were travelling left the passengers without food or water for 18 days. 71 passengers survived after being saved by local coastguards.

GENEVA, Sept 28, 2008 (AFP) - At least 52 Somali nationals have died in the Gulf of Aden as they tried to make their way to Yemen, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Sunday.

Engine failure on the errant boat in which they were travelling left the passengers without food or water for 18 days. Seventy-one survived after being saved by Yemen coastguards.

TBILISI, Sept 27, 2008 (AFP) - Tidying her room in a decrepit former military hospital housing about 1,000 refugees, Valia is among those dealt an especially poor hand by Georgia's war with Russia.

The 57-year-old is one of numerous Ossetian women married to ethnic Georgians who when last month's war erupted fled from South Ossetia to other locations in Georgia.

KAMPALA, Sept 26, 2008 (AFP) - Around 1,700 people fleeing violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have sought refuge in neighbouring Uganda, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday.

'Most people are spending the day at their homes in the DRC and then crossing into Uganda to sleep at night,' Kampala-based UNHCR spokeswoman Roberta Russo told AFP.

KAMPALA, Sept 26, 2008 (AFP) - Around 1,700 people fleeing violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have sought refuge in neighbouring Uganda, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday.

'Most people are spending the day at their homes in the DRC and then crossing into Uganda to sleep at night,' Kampala-based UNHCR spokeswoman Roberta Russo told AFP.

TILBURG, Netherlands, Sept 26, 2008 (AFP) - Though her husband, and her hopes, were killed in the Congo war, the plump, greying woman now dares to dream again thanks to a brand new Dutch restaurant set up to train refugees.

BRUSSELS, Sept 24, 2008 (AFP) - The European Commission said Wednesday that it will send a mission to the Middle East in early November to evaluate the problems faced by refugees from the conflict in Iraq.

'This mission will take place in the first week of November,' said Michele Cercone, the commission's justice affairs spokeswoman.

GENEVA, Sept 23, 2008 (AFP) - The United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday it was seeking 17.2 million dollars (11.6 million euros) to help more than 300,000 people forced from their homes in Pakistan by floods and fighting.

BERLIN, Sept 23, 2008 (AFP) - Rights groups called Tuesday on the European Union to take in more refugees from Iraq, two days ahead of a meeting of EU justice and interior ministers in Brussels.

ADDIS ABABA, Sept 19, 2008 (AFP) - The United Nations refugee agency on Friday said it would repatriate almost half of the 26,000 Sudanese refugeses in Ethiopia by next year.

The agency projects that 12,000 of the 26,492 Sudanese refugees will, with their consent, have been taken home in 2009, a statement said.

GENEVA, Sept 16, 2008 (AFP) - Nearly 70,000 people who fled their homes in Georgia during last month's conflict with Russia have now returned, the United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday.

Of the 127,000 internally displaced people in Georgia, some 68,000 have now gone back home, UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman William Spindler said.

GENEVA, September 10, 2008 (AFP) - More than two dozen people died when smugglers shipping them across the Gulf of Aden forced them overboard off the coast of Yemen and around 20 bodies are missing, the UN refugee agency said Wednesday.

TEHRAN, September 6, 2008 (AFP) - The United Nations refugee chief said on Saturday that Iran was committed not to expel more than one million registered Afghan refugees.

'Iran is committed not to expel registered Afghans,' UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told reporters in Tehran.

TUNIS, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - The UN's refugee chief said Wednesday at least 50,000 displaced people remained unable to return home following the brief war between Georgia and Russia last month.

BAGHDAD, September 2, 2008 (AFP) - The Iraqi army began on Tuesday evicting squatters occupying the homes of people who fled sectarian violence in Baghdad but little movement could be seen on the first day of Ramadan for Shiites.

'The Iraqi forces started today (Tuesday) to evacuate the homes of families displaced, occupied by squatters,' an Iraqi military statement said.

BAGHDAD, September 2, 2008 (AFP) - The Iraqi army began on Tuesday evicting squatters occupying the homes of people who fled sectarian violence in Baghdad but little movement could be seen on the first day of Ramadan for Shiites.

'The Iraqi forces started today (Tuesday) to evacuate the homes of families displaced, occupied by squatters,' an Iraqi military statement said.

SEOUL, September 2, 2008 (AFP) - A newly formed rights group said Tuesday it would launch a campaign to help thousands of North Korean children forced into begging or prostitution in northeast China.

BAGHDAD, August 30, 2008 (AFP) - Iraqi forces will begin evacuating from next week squatters illegally occupying the Baghdad homes of people who fled at the height of the sectarian conflict, officials said on Saturday.

The move is designed to encourage people who are the legal owners of their homes to return, said Daniel Endres, representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

BAGHDAD, August 30, 2008 (AFP) - Iraqi forces will begin evacuating from next week squatters illegally occupying the Baghdad homes of people who fled at the height of the sectarian conflict, officials said on Saturday.

The move is designed to encourage people who are the legal owners of their homes to return, said Daniel Endres, representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

COLOMBO, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - Sri Lanka on Thursday appealed to minority ethnic Tamil civilians living in the line of fire in rebel-held towns to move to areas under government control, saying it would guarantee them safe passage.

SEOUL, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - Dating customs and street demonstrations are part of a major culture shock for young North Korean refugees struggling to adapt to a new life in South Korea, a recent survey shows.

DUJIANGYAN, August 26, 2008 (AFP) - More than 100 days after a powerful earthquake devastated much of this region in southwest China, Li Kuilan still faces an uncertain future, having lost her husband and her home.

STOCKHOLM, August 25, 2008 (AFP) - More rejected asylum seekers are going into hiding in Sweden, where stricter rules allow authorities to send back more refugees from war-ravaged countries like Iraq, the Swedish immigration agency said Monday.

GENEVA, August 22, 2008 (AFP) - The Red Cross has helped around 900 trapped civilians to escape from a combat zone this week on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, the organisation said Friday.

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