Refugees

Pregnant women fleeing South Sudan arrive at settlements in Uganda only to face dire conditions: long walks to the (overcrowded) health center, malnutrition and hard labor to be able to make money to provide for their newborn babies.

As if you didn’t already think Doctors Without Borders had its hands full with the Ebola crisis unfolding in West Africa, the organization recently released a series of videos and photographs covering the group’s work in and around Syria. The series, “The Reach of War: A Day in the Life of the Syrian Conflict,” offers a glimpse into the activities that the organization conducts on a daily basis to aid refugees and the war-wounded in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan.

SITTWE, Myanmar — When the kicking stopped, Zura Begum suspected something was wrong with the twins she was supposed to deliver that month. When the pain started shooting through her body, all doubt was erased. She needed help, but had nowhere to turn. She was trapped with thousands of other Muslim Rohingya in a squalid, dusty camp in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state. The foreign aid workers she had relied on early in her pregnancy were gone — forced out by a distrustful government and extremist Buddhist mobs. Getting help outside the camps, in hospitals run by the Buddhist Rakhine majority, requires special permission that is harder than ever to obtain.

Sunday: Mahmoud Thrakis, 5, died without medical care after suffering post-appendix operation complications. Monday: Rusmai Ga, 1, died without medical care after contracting an infection and developing a fever. Tuesday: Mahmad Farouk, 40, father of four, died without medical care from symptoms related to diabetes.

The undersigned organizations are deeply concerned about the deteriorating health conditions of refugees detained in Alexandria who require urgent medical care, among them at least two children (ages 6 and 14) and one woman who are in grave condition requiring immediate care. At the very least, the government must release these cases, most of whom are still detained despite release orders issued by the Public Prosecution, to enable them to obtain the necessary care immediately.