International Rescue Committee [to 25 October 2014]

October 23, 2014
The plight of unaccompanied children [IRC REPORT]
The arrival of tens of thousands of unaccompanied children from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala at the Texas-Mexico border this summer sparked a media frenzy and a political backlash around the country. With mounting evidence that many of these children are fleeing gang-related violence in their home countries, the International Rescue Committee expressed concern early on that the message of “illegal immigration” did not tell the whole story.
In order to understand the situation first-hand, in July and August the IRC undertook a fact-finding mission to Texas and Arizona. This report shares what the IRC learned about why children from Central America are fleeing, what problems and needs they have upon arrival in the United States, and what steps the U.S. government should take to improve the response in the future.
Download the report: The arrival of unaccompanied minors from Central America to the U.S. border (October 2014) [PDF]

Ebola in New York: Here are the facts [COMMENTARY]
October 23, 2014 by The IRC ntelligence, not panic, will win the fight against Ebola says International Rescue Committee senior health director Emmanuel d’Harcourt in an opinion piece published yesterday on Ebola Deeply.
Even as a new case of Ebola is confirmed in the United States — a Manhattan physician recently returned from treating patients with the virus in Guinea — it is important to remember that Ebola in New York is not the same as Ebola in West Africa. “The chances of an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. or Europe are extremely low,” says Dr. d’Harcourt, “much lower than events we don’t worry about as much, such as extreme weather conditions or the flu.”
Setting out the facts about Ebola and what’s needed to prevent its spread, Dr. d’Harcourt explains that the only way we can protect the U.S. is by containing the epidemic at its source in West Africa. In hard-hit Liberia and Sierra Leone, the IRC is working to do just this by supporting Ebola response efforts across all fronts: treatment, surveillance, aid agency coordination, and community engagement. Learn more about the IRC’s Ebola response.»
Read Dr. d’Harcourt’s Oct. 22 Ebola Deeply op-ed in full: Intelligence, Not Panic, Will Win the Fight Against Ebola By Emmanuel d’Harcourt