MIGRATION

The German interior minister, Horst Seehofer, sees a demand for improvement in the storage of data relating to foreigners in Germany. He has proposed recording all data in the Central Register of Foreign Nationals, which all federal states would be able to access. Benjamin Bathke reports Asylum decisions, scanned IDs and other documents belonging to foreigners who live in Germany …

The Initiative for Youth Awareness on Migration, Immigration, Development and Reintegration (IYAMIDR), said the current situation in the country would likely drive many more Nigerians into irregular emigration. Mr Solomon Okoduwa, Executive Director of IYAMIDR, who is a former aide to Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Illegal Migration, made this known in an interview with NAN in Benin …

How an IOM frontline worker goes beyond return counselling by providing African migrants in Germany with the support they need Berlin – It is a full day for Danielle Al-Qassir at the foreign immigration office in Berlin. “I have clients calling me on my work phone, my private phone and the landline, and we have clients coming in in-person,” she …

In 2018, Germany’s asylum office BAMF came under fire for supposedly wrongly issuing numerous positive asylum decisions. Now, German courts have ruled in favour of 66 refugees whose positive asylum decisions had been revoked. Benjamin Bathke/DW reports German administrative courts have ruled in favour of 66 refugees after they brought lawsuits against the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees …

The number of asylum applications in Europe fell by almost a third last year. A total of 461,300 applications, 31 per cent fewer than in 2019, were filed, according to EASO, the EU’s asylum office based in Valletta, Malta. The main reason for the decline, according to EASO, is the Corona pandemic travel restrictions. The figures cover all initial applications …

The number of migrants who arrived in Italy by sea increased significantly last year, inspite of the coronavirus emergency, according to the UN refugee agency. Nearly 40% of newly arrived migrants were Tunisians. 34,154 migrants arrived in Italy by sea in 2020, according to UNHCR Italy. That’s three times as many as in the previous year — in 2019, a …

The annual Henley Passport Index has just been released. It ranks passports according to the number of countries their holders can travel to visa-free. The latest ranking named Japan as the country with the most powerful passport in the world followed by Singapore while Germany and South Korea tie for third place Holders of the Japanese passport can travel visa-free …

Rita Ekua Yamoah reports on a recent program, organised by the Frankfurt-based non-governmental organisation Maisha e.V. for the empowerment of girls and women in Ghana against irregular migration, which took place in Accra. — Germany-based Maisha – African Women in Germany e.V. has again held a 5-day program to empower women who went through difficulties as a result of irregular …

A Senegalese court has sentenced three fathers to jail after it found that the fathers had pushed their sons to migrate. They were found guilty of “endangering the lives of others.” The three men, of whom the son of one died during the attempt to cross the Atlantic, were sentenced to two years in jail, with 23 months suspended. The …

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim as the new Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), a statement signed by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity), announced on Tuesday. She succeeds Mrs Julie Okah-Donli, who was obviously sacked as her tenure had not yet expired.   Sulaiman-Ibrahim, a …

On 24 November 2020, the European Court of Human Rights published a Chamber judgement in the case Unuane v. the United Kingdom (no. 80343/17) concerning the applicant’s deportation to Nigeria, following a criminal conviction, forcing him to leave his partner and three children in the United Kingdom. The Chamber held that there had been a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private …

"These countries must be told that they must take back people who are identified as their nationals"

A migrant organisation has criticised Germany and Austria for deporting people to Nigeria amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to Nigerian media reports, 32 Nigerians were forcibly returned to Nigeria on a flight from Germany last Thursday (12 November). “It is unfortunate that the German government decided to embark on such a deportation operation especially at a time when Europe is …

Foreigners who are to be deported may not be visited at night, according to the Düsseldorf Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgericht Düsseldorf) in a new ruling announced on Tuesday (17 November). The court was of the opinion that persons to be deported have the right to night rest and as such should not be woken up in the middle of night like …

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has forbidden Switzerland from deporting a homosexual Gambian to his homeland. The Swiss authorities had failed to consider whether The Gambia would protect the man against attacks by non-state actors, the court ruled in Strasbourg on Tuesday. Therefore, the deportation would violate the prohibition of inhuman treatment if carried out. Switzerland must also …

A 15-year-old asylum-seeker was killed during an attack on a Tripoli shelter earlier this week. Now, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya has asked local authorities to investigate the killing and prosecute the perpetrators. “I am shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the death of a young Eritrean asylum-seeker Tuesday at a shelter in Tripoli,” the United Nations …

The Director-General of Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Mrs Julie Okah-Donli, has been appointed as the new chair of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons (UNVTF). A statement titled ‘Press release on appointment of DG NAPTIP as new chair of UNVTF’ by Olivia …

The Dutch government is reassessing the cases of dozens of Ugandans who were granted asylum, after it uncovered a criminal network that helped them to fake their sexual orientation in order to claim protection. Marion MacGregor reports The Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) said last week that in 2018 it uncovered an organized network that was coaching Ugandan asylum-seekers …

In a sign that it may become increasingly difficult to cross the Mediterranean on boat, a major route of irregular migration to Europe from Africa, Libya’s coast guard intercepted about 1,000 migrants and returned them to Libya within three days in the past week. From Sunday until Tuesday, a total of 935 migrants who tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea …

An unfortunate effect of COVID-19, to include on the already long list, is that news stories which would usually make the headlines are either not being reported or are consigned to the back pages. What can happen is that governments then feel able to ignore important issues safe in the knowledge that they may be less likely to be challenged.