Those in the way - priests, parishioners and children - have been given an ultimatum: follow him or face beatings by the security forces, arrest or homelessness.

The reason, they told United Nations officials, is that they faced beatings, imprisonment and death threats.

Dukie faces bullying and beatings from a rival gang of boys, from whom his friends fiercely protect him.

The report's author, Clarisa Bencomo, said many of those arrested, ostensibly for their own protection, were often held for longer than 24 hours and faced beatings or sexual abuse in detention centers by police officers or adult prisoners.

By the time he was 20 years old and a college student, Velasquez had already faced numerous beatings and arrests.

Most of those detained were Oromos living in Jijiga city and these Oromos faced beatings and torture by the OLF militia.

We know, because we have now seen ourselves, that Haitians could not gather together in the streets without facing beatings or death.

The Chinese government, in a disgraceful breach of its obligations under the 1951 Refugees Convention, hands these escapees back to North Korea, where they face beatings and imprisonment, occasionally even execution.