MIGRATION

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) said on Wednesday (6 September) that an EU Council decision in September 2015 that imposed the quota system was valid. EU interior ministers at the time voted to share 120,000 asylum seekers from frontline states Greece and Italy. They were to be distributed according to calculations based on member states’ size and wealth, with …

Eritreans who have completed their military service can safely be sent home from Switzerland if their requests for asylum are rejected, a Swiss court has ruled. Eritreans are the biggest group of asylum seekers in Switzerland, with nearly 14,500 citizens in the asylum process as of the end of July 2017, government data showed. Nearly 9,000 of them have won …

Europe and the Africa intend to step up co-operation in the fight against criminal human traffickers – Europe is to provide more support for the African countries. That is the outcome of a meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris with leaders of other European and African states. “We must fight illegal migration and …

A mini-summit on Africa is being hosted in Paris on Monday (28 August) on how to stem migration, reports Nikolaj Nielsen. Heads of state and government from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, along with the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, will meet with their counterparts from Chad, Niger and Libya. The European Commission in a statement last week said that …

An information campaign to raise public awareness of the dangers of irregular migration will kick off  at the Centre for Management Development in Lagos on 12 September. Initiated by African-German Information Center (AGIC), Hamburg, and The African Courier Verlag, Berlin, with the support of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the campaign under the aegis of the “Migration Enlightenment Project in Nigeria (MEPN)” …

“The statelessness in which migrants and refugees sometimes find themselves can easily be avoided through legislation on citizenship complying with the fundamental principles of international law,” Pope Francis said in his message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2018. The Pope’s statement was issued a day after Premier Paolo Gentiloni irked anti-immigrant parties by vowing to pass a bill …

Austria is sending soldiers to stop migrants coming from Italy, while Bulgaria has said the EU should “defend” its borders by “force of arms”. Austria announced on Thursday (17 August) it would deploy 70 soldiers, but no armoured vehicles yet, at the Brenner Pass to Italy. It said between 700 and 1,000 migrants were entering the country from Italy each …

Who orders and who carries out deportations? And why do some people who get told to leave get to stay anyway? Jefferson Chase of Deutsche Welle (DW) untangles Germany’s complex and multilayered rules about who can be deported under what circumstances. ———————— Who decides whether someone should be deported? You might think that would be the task of the Federal Ministry of …

A group of Tunisian fishermen blocked the boat of far-right movement ‘Generation Identity’ from docking at the port of Zarzis in the southeast of Tunisia , dealing the latest blow to a controversial mission aimed at disrupting the flow of migrant boats from North Africa to Europe. The Identitarians had chartered the vessel C-Star to run their anti-migrant mission ‘Defend …

Germany is to send back asylum seekers to Greece, ending a five-year suspension of the EU’s asylum rules on transfers because of poor reception conditions. Greek migration minister Yiannis Mouzalas, speaking to the German public television channel ARD, in a program due to air on Tuesday (8 August), has confirmed that Greek authorities received 392 requests. Mouzalas said Athens approved …

A battery of new technological innovations has been unveiled by Germany’s refugee agency to help it determine more accurately the country of origin of asylum seekers and detect those who make multiple applications using different names. Jefferson Chase reports. No more Franco A.’s – that’s the motto at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge …

The anti-immigration group “Generation Identity” and its German counterpart, the “Identitäre Bewegung,” have raised over 150,000 euros to buy a boat and stop refugees coming into the continent. Here is an overview of the group and its latest operation in the Mediterranean by Manasi Gopalakrishnan. Wesearchr is a crowdfunding platform that has recently gained popularity among conservative, alt-right groups. Through …

Louise Hunt, freelance journalist specialising in social affairs and international development, writes on the situation of Gambian migrants in Europe whose case for asylum has been weakened by the overthrow of their country’s long-reigning autocratic leader. The Gambia’s leader of 22 years, Yahya Jammeh, used to give Gambians good cause for claiming asylum, even if the majority were fleeing poverty …

As Italy becomes increasingly frustrated with the number of African migrants reaching its shores, activists are taking matters into their own hands. They say they’re ready to sink migrant-trafficking ships and ensure that asylum seekers are returned to Libya. Anti-immigration activists are threatening to sink boats used to transport migrants off the coast of Sicily to prevent them from bringing …

Less than 20 per cent of migrants who reach Europe left their home countries for economic reasons, according to a report released by Middlesex University. The majority of migrants who reach European coasts are fleeing wars, violence and persecution. The report “Mapping Refugee Reception in the Mediterranean” is the first in the research project EVI-MED at Middlesex University, funded by …

Fighting disinformation and raising awareness of the risks of exile: These are the goals of the Saloum Rapatak association, which has been active in Senegal for more than seven years. Jimane – whose real name is Ousmane Thioune – is a radio host and the president of Saloum Rapatak, an organisation based in the city of Kaolack, 189 kilometres southwest from …

Fighting continues in Libya, a country fragmented by a multitude of power centers. Since mid-2014, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated due to political instability. Millions of people across Libya are impacted, including refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants. Dr. Tankred Stoebe, who works with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), spent the month of January in the country co-ordinating a medical assessment that took …

More than 40 migrants from Nigeria and Ghana died in the Sahara desert this week after their truck broke down in arid northern Niger, the Red Cross told news agency Reuters on Wednesday (31 May). Six survivors walked to a remote village where they said that 44 people, mostly from Ghana and Nigeria and including three babies and two other …

The western German town of Altena has been honoured for its contribution towards the integration of immigrants into German society. The prize includes a cash award of 10,000 euros. Speaking to the town’s representatives while awarding the National Prize for Integration in Berlin on Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that integration was the most successful where people are able to …

In response to the many reports of the maltreatment of sub-Saharan migrants in Libyan detention centres, the International Organization for Migration, IOM, has begun training officials in five facilities on human rights. These are “the first trainings inside detention centres since 2014”, the United Nations Support Mission for Libya (UNSMIL) announced. In the pilot project, IOM is targeting five centres …