MIGRATION

“For people wishing to study in Germany, it is not difficult to get a visa. It is easier than you think. It requires filing the details or you can just go to our website,” – Mr Bernhard Schlagheck, German Ambassador to Nigeria,  July 2017 ————————————————– One of the legal ways to migrate to Europe is to go there to study. …

Alarm Phone is an independent support hotline connecting migrant boats in distress with local coast guards to ensure quick and effective rescue operations. Michaela Cavanagh/InfoMigrants reports. Last week, the Sarost 5 docked in the port of Zarzis with 40 migrants aboard after spending weeks waiting off the coast for the green light from the Tunisian government. The Sarost 5 rescued the …

Berlin and Madrid have reached a bilateral agreement to send migrants back to Spain in case they have filed for asylum in Spain prior to arriving in Germany. The deal would take effect on August 11, the German Interior Ministry said on Wednesday. The deal reached with Spain applies to asylum seekers who have applied for asylum in Spain with …

The men were being driven home after picking tomatoes when their van crashed into an oncoming truck. The second such crash in two days, it highlights the precarious working conditions foreign laborers face in Italy. A van transporting African migrant workers crashed into an oncoming truck hauling tomatoes on Monday, killing 12 workers. Two men in the front of the van as …

On 1 August 2018, a new asylum and immigration law went into effect. What will change for asylum-seekers in France?  Wesley Dockery explains. In spite of controversy from both the political left and right, France enacted a stringent new asylum law last Wednesday designed to accelerate asylum procedures, expedite expulsions and quicker integrate successful applicants. The bill was passed by French parliament with 100 …

A new phase of the campaign to raise public awareness on the dangers and risks of irregular migration in Nigeria by the Migration Enlightenment Project Nigeria (MEPN) has commenced. Round of dialogue with multipliers such as journalists, youth groups, women associations, students, artists and religious and traditional leaders, to hold in Abuja, Enugu, Lagos and Benin-City. Despite last October’s CNN …

Seven migrant transfer centres have begun operation in Bavaria. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer hopes to use them to bundle and accelerate asylum procedures.

A new act goes into effect in Germany on 1 August that will again allow refugees with subsidiary protection to bring their family members to Germany. Wesley Dockery of InfoMigrants takes a look at how the regulation works. Since 2015, over a million refugees have come to Germany. Many of these refugees, whether they received full refugee protection or partial …

A German government program aims to help migrants who choose to leave Germany voluntarily to find jobs and prospects in their home countries. But critics say the results of the program are little more than lip service. Daniel Pelz of Deutsche Welle (DW) reports. After four years, Derrick Adamson had had enough. He was living in Germany illegally, and without …

UN’s International Organization for Migration has said that over 50,000 migrants have irregularly reached Europe’s coasts by sea in 2018. A reported 1,443 died as the central Mediterranean route remains the most lethal, the organization said. The UN agency International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said that 50,872 migrants and refugees this year have reached Europe by sea as of …

Germany’s federal cabinet wants to add three Maghreb states and Georgia to a list of “safe countries of origin.” But will the change pass Germany’s upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, where it failed last year? Timothy Jones and Jefferson Chase report. The German government will put forward legislation declaring Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Georgia “safe countries of origin.” The …

An aid group has blamed both Libya’s coast guard and Italy’s interior minister for the deaths of a woman and child in a stricken raft. Libya and Italy reject the accusations. Spanish sea rescue charity Proactiva Open Arms said on Tuesday it had found one woman alive, clinging to the wreckage of a destroyed migrant boat about 80 nautical miles …

Germany’s Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has presented his long-awaited asylum “master plan.” But he did not include the last-minute compromises made with coalition partners last week, which averted a government crisis. Ben Knight of Deutsche Welle reports. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer finally got to present his migration “master plan” to the press on Tuesday, a month after it was blocked at …

Italy and Libya have agreed to reactivate a friendship treaty signed a decade ago that allowed migrants to be returned to Libyan territory. “We agreed to reactivate the 2008 Italian-Libyan friendship treaty,” said Libya’s foreign minister Mohamad Siala in a joint press conference in Tripoli with Italian counterpart Enzo Moavero Milanesi. Milanesi hailed the agreement reached during his first visit …

Thousands of people took part in demonstrations across Germany on Saturday to show their support for NGOs rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean Sea. NGOs have come under increasing political pressure and been blocked from docking in several European countries. Thousands of people took part in protests in several German cities, including Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Bremen, Munich and Ulm. Organizers said …

Italy has handed sea rescue mission responsibility to Libya’s coast guard in an effort to stop migrants reaching Europe. Critics argue the move violates international law and that Libyan authorities are ill-prepared. Bernd Riegert reports. At the recent EU summit one week ago, European leaders once again agreed to protect the bloc’s exterior borders from migrants entering illegally. That meant, …

The UN agency for migration IOM has reported that up to 10,000 migrants are detained in dire conditions in Libya. Over 10,000 migrants who were rescued or apprehended by Libyan coast guards are detained in 20 centres in extreme living conditions due to overcrowding and a heat wave with temperatures reaching over 40 degrees Celsius, Christine Petré, IOM’s spokeswoman for …

The Dortmund-based AfricanTide Union e.V. has opened its first branch office.  Since 15 June, there is now the opportunity to exchange and develop joint projects in the Gutruf Haus in the immediate vicinity of the Alster in Hamburg. “We are happy to be in Hamburg now. Together with local stakeholders, we want to implement our successfully tested programmes for promoting integration and …

At the age of fifteen, Ismail Drammeh left home in Gambia and set out on a long journey over land and sea. He ended up in Italy and eventually found work as a model. He talks about his remarkable journey: I come from the poorest village in Gambia, Mabally Koto. In 2014, when I was 15, I left my village …

European leaders reached a deal on migration on Friday after tense and lengthy talks, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel conceded differences remained. Under the agreement, reached after nine hours of often stormy talks, EU leaders agreed to share out refugees arriving in the bloc on a voluntary basis and create “controlled centres” inside the European Union to process asylum requests. …