MIGRATION

Displaced people have a hard time finding employment. Five hundred thousand refugees are currently on the job market — and prospects look bleak. A Munich startup has founded a non-profit temporary work agency. Temporary work employment refers to an employment situation where the working arrangement is limited to a certain period of time based on the needs of the employing organization.  …

Amidst the deportation-or-imprisonment policy of the Israeli government, some pilots of national airline El Al are refusing to fly planes that will forcibly expel Eritrean and Sudanese refugees in Israel to third countries. Israeli pilots are taking a stand against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mission to expel tens of thousands of African migrants from the country, publicly declaring they will …

An Afghan man has been sentenced to life in prison for killing a woman because she had converted to Christianity. The court recognized a ‘very high degree of culpability’ in handing down its decision. A court in the southern German city of Traunstein on Friday sentenced a 30-year-old Muslim refugee from Afghanistan to life in prison for killing a woman …

In a new report to the UN Security Council, sanctions’ experts warn that most armed groups involved in human trafficking in Libya have links to the country’s official security institutions. They further note that militant groups, including the so-called “Islamic State” (IS), overpower authorities. Kai Dambach reports. The United Nations Security Council received a confidential report that said Libyan forces …

Israel has started issuing deportation orders to African migrants, giving them 60 days to return to their home countries or opt for an unnamed safe haven. Those failing to meet the deadline risk being sent to prison. Israel’s Population, Immigration and Border Authority delivered the first batch of notices Sunday, telling migrants they have to leave before 1 April. The …

Arab refugees and Germans carrying pro-immigrant and anti-fascism placards marched in Cottbus on Saturday to denounce what they say are attempts by far-right groups to stoke tension in the eastern city after two knife attacks by Syrian teenagers. The group of around 600 demonstrators in the German city of Cottbus calling for acceptance and open-mindedness were upstaged and outnumbered by …

The United Nations says 90 people are feared to have drowned off the coast of Libya, after a people smuggler’s boat capsized. The United Nations’ migration agency, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), believes just three people have survived the boat accident, in the latest migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea. The boat was carrying mostly Pakistani migrants. “At least …

After news of Libyan slave markets went around world at the end of 2017, many migrants stuck in North Africa decided to return home voluntarily. However, those returning to Nigeria complain that they face the same problems they had left behind. Katrin Gänsler reports. Loveth Ekumabor recently returned to Benin City, the capital of Edo State and Nigeria’s epicentre of …

It was a key point of disagreement between the parties, but Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU bloc appears to have reached a compromise with its coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD) with regard to migrant family reunions. There is, however, still some disagreement on the finer points. Sertan Sanderson reports. More than four months after general elections, Germany seems to be …

The European Court of Justice has ruled that sexual orientation tests can’t be used to rule on asylum applications. Hungarian immigration officials should not have put a Nigerian asylum seeker through psychological tests to determine whether he was telling the truth that he was gay. Hungarian immigration officials were wrong to make a Nigerian asylum applicant undergo psychological tests to …

In commemoration of World Migrant and Refugee Day on 15 January, a young Sengalese man named Seny Diallo tells his story. After he arrived in Italy by sea, he went back to Senegal to raise awareness among young people about the dangers of irregular migration. After having been forced to cross the Mediterranean to reach Italy aboard a migrant boat …

Inhabitants of a small Italian town protested and taken action to prevent the closure of a migrant reception centre, but it was not enough. They said that the foreigners housed in the facilities were “good youths” and they always “stayed busy.” Residents of Ripabottoni, a small town in southern Italy, have protested the closing of their migrant reception centre. “Give …

Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed a new border security deal on Thursday, through which the UK will pay more to France to stop migrants trying to reach British shores. The two leaders meeting for wide-ranging talks at the Sandhurst military academy near London, agreed that the UK will pay an extra £44.5 million (50 million …

The experience of sub-Saharans in North Africa, most of whom are migrants in transit, has been marked by outright racial discrimination and social rejection. A Moroccan party has now raised the issue in the country’s parliament, proposing a law against racial discrimination. Safaa Kasraoui reports. The Independence Party (Istiqlal) of Morocco proposed on Tuesday a new law to criminalize acts …

Refugees in Germany who appeal against the rejection of their asylum applications are having growing success, a report says. Critics say the high rate of wins puts German migration authorities in a bad light. Almost one in two refugees who appeals against the rejection of an asylum application by German migration authorities wins the case before administrative courts, a German …

186,644 asylum seekers were registered last year. That’s more than 100,000 down from the 2016 figures – the Germany Interior Ministry says the massive numbers from the height of the crisis have been “overcome.” German Interior Minister Lothar de Maizière announced the figures in Berlin on Tuesday (16 January) showed that the waves of refugees arriving in Germany continue to …

The European Court of Human Rights has accepted all the appeals presented by Sudanese nationals against the Italian government for their collective forcible removal on August 24, 2016, under an agreement between the Italian police chief and his Sudanese counterpart. The ECHR has formally notified the Italian government of the appeals and asked for specific information in order to better …

French President Emmanuel Macron faces a backlash over plans to tighten immigration law as the number of asylum seekers soars, with aid and emergency agencies accusing his government of planning mass expulsions. To try to ease the tension, Macron dispatched Prime Minister Edouard Philippe to meet aid organisations on Thursday and explain legislation due to go in coming weeks to …

More than 200 persons have been reported dead or missing in a deadly start to the New Year for migrants on the Mediterranean. The Libyan Coast Guard reported Wednesday (10 January) that up to 100 migrants, majority of whom were from The Gambia, Senegal, Sudan, Mali and Nigeria, remain missing in the third deadly shipwreck on the Mediterranean Sea since …

 An electro-pop song called “Mercy” by French duet Madame Monsieur is competing to represent France in the 63rd edition of the European song contest Eurovision in May. The piece tells the unique story of a toddler born on a rescue boat in the Mediterranean Sea. “I am all those children taken by the sea”. There’s a stirring story behind the …