MIGRATION

No fewer than 20 Nigerian migrants have been deported by the German authority, The African Courier can confirm. The migrants arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport at 4:30pm on Monday (19 August). The African Courier gathered that the returnees were picked randomly at different times and detained in a deportation prison prior to their repatriation. READ MORE New law for …

About 100 protesters gathered in Gotha, state of Thuringia, on Saturday to protest against deportations to Nigeria and what they described as “the intimidation of the authorities and police”. Participants from Berlin, Erfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Göttingen, Jena and Wuppertal converged on the eastern German town in response to the call of refugees stationed in Gotha. Organised by pro-refugee groups, …

Every day, young Africans out of sheer desperation endanger their lives in their quest to cross the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea for a better life in Europe. More than 20,000 have drowned in the past seven years while many more are even believed by experts to have perished in the desert. The main factor pushing young people to leave …

The African Network of Germany (TANG) has opened a new office in Dortmund. The organisation implements projects to support its objectives, among which is the promotion of the integration of Africans in German society. TANG, founded in 2013, also facilitates the engagement of diaspora Africans in the development of their countries of origin. The Dortmund office, which formally opened for …

Sea-Watch rescue ship’s captain, Carola Rackete, has expressed the hope that the new EU commission would work to let boat-rescued migrants enter Europe. Rackete, who is under investigation in Italy for docking her boat in the Italian port of Lampedusa without permission in early July, said: “I sincerely hope that the European Commission now, after the new election of the …

If you want to move to Germany to join a family member or spouse, a German family reunification visa will allow you to live and work in Germany. However, applicants have to meet certain requirements, one of which is passing a German language test in their home countries. But too many spouse reunification visa applicants often fail due to the …

The Federal Government has appointed Dr Sylvie Nantcha as a member of a technical commission on migration. The task of the 24-member commission is to identify “the root causes of flight and irregular migration” and it has until the end of next year to make concrete recommendations for action on how to tackle the issues. Flight and migration are among …

As I write this article, 44 migrants, mostly Africans, who were rescued in the Mediterranean by the humanitarian organisation Sea Eye off the Libyan coast on Monday, are desperately looking for where to be allowed to disembark in Europe. The migrants’ dilemma follows the Sea-Watch 3 controversy in June, when the rescue boat forcibly docked in the Italian port of …

Fifty-three migrants, mostly sub-Saharan Africans, were killed on Wednesday when a faction in the Libyan civil war carried out an air strike that hit a migrant detention centre near Tripoli. More than 130 others were injured. The internationally-recognised Government of National Unity (GNA) blamed the attack on forces loyal to renegade General Khalifa Haftar, but his militants have denied it. …

The weeks-long standoff between Sea-Watch 3 and the Italian government ended with the arrest of Captain Carola Rackete, who has now been freed. But international maritime law and a country’s own laws often don’t chime, say experts. Carola Rackete, captain of the search and rescue vessel Sea-Watch 3, was arrested on Saturday by Italian authorities for “resisting a warship” after …

National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Friday said a total of 14,036 Nigerians have voluntarily returned home under the Assisted Voluntary Returnees Programme which began in April 2017. The Nigerians, who were stranded in Libya, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ireland, France, Gambia, Austria, Poland, Morocco and Liberia, were brought back by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the European …

The Federal Parliament has passed two laws to regulate immigration from non-EU countries into Germany. One of the laws provides more opportunities for people to come to Germany to work and receive training while another amends the regulations affecting asylum-seekers. In a major step to modernise and liberalise its immigration system, the German parliament (Bundestag) passed into law a bill …

The European Union on Thursday announced plans to tie the issuing of visas to the willingness of third countries to take back their nationals whose asylum applications have been rejected by member states of the bloc.

Seven years after the introduction of the EU Blue Card, Germany has awarded 104,000 such residence permits to highly-skilled non-EU immigrants. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees said in Nuremberg on Tuesday that about 27,000 visas were issued in 2018, a 25.4% jump over 2017, and more than any previous year. 11,738 of the Cards issued in 2018 were …

One in three foreigners seeking to join a spouse in Germany is unable to do so because they fail to pass a basic language test. The failure rate was especially high for applicants from Iraq. Nearly a third of foreigners seeking to join their spouses in Germany fail to pass a German language test in their homeland, preventing them from …

Malta allowed the 49 migrants stranded on two humanitarian rescue ships since last month to disembark at its port on Wednesday. The Sea-Watch 3 ship, which is run by a German humanitarian group, picked up 32 people from a boat off the coast of Libya on December 22. Another German-run organisation, Sea-Eye, rescued 17 others a couple of days later …

Various new or tweaked Swiss laws, governing a range of issues from foreigners to online shopping, entered into force on 1 January. One of them affects the Foreigner’s law. Foreigners living in Switzerland now have to meet certain criteria of good behaviour, for example respect for public security and order and constitutional values, before their residence permits are granted or …

As I write this article, 49 migrants, mostly Africans, are stranded at sea. They had been rescued in the Mediterranean by the humanitarian organisation Sea Watch about two weeks ago but no European country is ready to allow the migrants to disembark at its port. Last year, about 112,000 migrants found their way irregularly through the Mediterranean to Europe while …

The Israeli government has issued a notice for thousands of African migrants to leave the country or face imprisonment. Rights group kick against controversial plan. Israel will force tens of thousands of African migrants to leave over the next three months, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday. Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that the Israeli government will …

As Nigeria continues the battle against irregular migration, a German Foundation, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), has advised Nigerian government to focus on economic development to end the menace. Mr Vladimir Kreck, Country Representative of KAS, advised the government on Wednesday in Abuja during a workshop on “Migration- current trends part two’’. Kreck said that poverty and unemployment were identified as …