The police of North African countries to prevent refugees from crossing the Mediterranean to Europe. EU Interior Ministers and their North African counterparts have agreed. Amnesty sharply criticises agreement. Europe is also relying on African police to stop refugees crossing the Mediterranean. Germany’s Federal Ministry of the Interior announced in Berlin, the interior ministers of EU countries and North African …

As Nigerian government prepares for the resumption of commercial international flights into and out of the country, Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, disclosed that citizens from some countries would be banned from gaining entry into Nigeria to ensure safety at its airports and the country in general. The minister made the disclosure on Monday in Abuja while speaking at the …

Mastercard Foundation and USIU-Africa partner to expand access to higher education in Africa NAIROBI, Kenya, July 14th, 2020,-/African Media Agency (AMA)/- Nairobi-based United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa) and the Mastercard Foundation today announced a partnership that will enable 1,000 high-performing students to receive quality education and leadership development over the next 10 years under the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program. The …

Pope Francis has likened the living conditions in migrant detention centres in Libya to concentration camps. He made the comments on  Wednesday during a mass commemorating the pontiff’s journey to the Italian island of Lampedusa seven years ago, his first pastoral visit outside Rome after his election. Sertan Sanderson reports Pope Francis used the German term “Lager” during his sermon, …

  Will you be sent back to Italy if you had your fingerprints taken there, but then applied for asylum in another EU country? What happens if you are to be deported under the Dublin Regulation but you refuse? We put these questions and more to a number of experts, including German lawyer Albert Sommerfeld. Marion MacGregor reports The Dublin …

Estimates of the number of Ghanaians living outside their homeland range from one to three million out of a general population of about 30 million. Ghanaians in Germany are reputed to form the second largest of the country’s diaspora populations in Europe, after the United Kingdom. Journalist, translator and community activist Sam Atsu Nove*, who first arrived in Germany in …

Regular operations have resumed at Nigeria’s two leading airports after a break of three months due to the coronavirus pandemic. Domestic flights recommenced at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja on Wednesday, 8 July. However, the turnout of passengers was low as Channels Television monitored activities at the domestic wing of the Murtala …

Dr Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, member of the European Parliament, MEP, has criticised Germany’s Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer, for stopping the planned investigation into racial profiling in the country’s police services. In a press statement issued on Wednesday, Ms Herzberger-Fofana, who represents Germany on the platform of the Green party in the European parliament, said Seehofer by his decision “denies the existence …

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) has warned against racial profiling, as well as “systemic racism and inequalities” in Europe. “Racial profiling constitutes a specific form of racial discrimination and must be expressly prohibited by law,” ECRI, a human rights monitoring body, said in a statement published on 6 July. “It generates a feeling of humiliation and injustice …

The decision of the Federal Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, to call off an investigation into racial profiling in the police is drawing anger and criticisms not only of migrant associations but also political parties, including the junior governing coalition partner SPD. Following the Black Lives Matter protests in Germany, questions are being raised about racism in the country’s …

Award-winning author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is mourning her father who died after a brief illness recently. Taking to Facebook on Saturday (4 July), she lamented that she couldn’t travel to Nigeria from her US base due to the international travel ban as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic to stand by her extended family in the period of mourning. Professor …

The Zentralrat der afrikanischen Gemeinde in Deutschland (Central Council of the African Community in Germany or ZAGD) has relaunched its website and introduced a new logo on Tuesday. The move by the organisation, an umbrella body for African associations in Germany, is part of its efforts to increase its visibility in the country. The relaunch ceremony, held by video conference …

A group of associations and NGOs have set up a camp for young migrants in the heart of Paris to highlight the plight of homeless asylum-seekers in France. While they wait for their paperwork to be handled, they do not benefit from any care, causing many to literally live in the streets. Charlotte Oberti reports A stone’s throw from the …

Italian authorities have broken up a network facilitating illegal immigration from Ghana to Italy, the Italian news agency ANSA has reported.  The group is said to have  a contact point in Ghana which facilitated migration to Italy and other countries using false documents. ANSA reported that police carried out three arrest warrants issued by the preliminary investigation judge at the …

Government had planned to probe the scale of ethnic profiling after a federal lawmaker claimed that “latent racism” exists in German police ranks. The proposal followed a wave of protests in the US against police brutality. The study has now been dropped, according to a new report ——- Research planned to investigate alleged racial profiling by German police forces has …

A total of 80,366 applications for migrant regularisation in Italy have been submitted in the first month of the scheme, which began on 1 June as part of post-COVID-19 relaunch measures. The vast majority of the cases have already been processed. However, the Italian interior ministry said the number of applications is continually growing. Applications for migrant regularisation have picked …

The Democratic Republic of Congo marked its 60th independence anniversary on 30 June. Belgium’s King Philipe chose the occasion to apologise for his country’s horrendous atrocities against the Congolese people during its colonial occupation of the vast African country. How genuine is the apology? Femi Awoniyi takes a look at the situation of the troubled African country against the background …

After years of agitation by Black activists and their German supporters, a Berlin underground train station will be renamed. According to the management of the Berlin public transport authorities (BVG), the “U-Bahnhof Mohrenstrasse”, the station on Line U2 of the city’s metro network, will be changed to “U-Bahnhof Glinkastraße”. The decision, announced on Friday, came as Black Lives Matter protests …

Carola Rackete, 32, is a ship captain who works for the German sea rescue organisation Sea-Watch. She gained international fame in June 2019, when as captain of Sea-Watch 3, she rescued a total of 53 migrants in distress from the Mediterranean Sea. And after weeks of waiting for approval  despite a ban by Italian authorities, she piloted the rescue ship …

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday condemned France for the “inhuman and degrading living conditions” of three asylum-seekers who were “living in the street without any resources”. The Strasbourg-based court ruled that authorities “had failed in their duties” with regard to the three asylum-seekers, finding France responsible for the conditions in which the three men – an …