MIGRATION

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 …

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 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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

About 220,000 applications for regularisation in Italy have been submitted by resident foreigners without papers since 1 June, when the scheme was launched as part of COVID-19 economic rejuvenation measures, according to Deputy Interior Minister Matteo Mauri. The minister made the revelation on 13 October after a meeting at the prefecture of Foggia in the region of Puglia, where he …

Maisha Akwaaba Project raises awareness of the dangers and risks of irregular migration through advocacy work of the returnees but also to empower them to be able to build a decent and sustainable livelihood in Ghana

Perhaps no other phrase uttered during Angela Merkel's long chancellorship has made such an impact. The words "Wir schaffen das" ("We can do it") were meant to express confidence in the face of a huge, self-imposed task. How has Germany and those who came to seek asylum in the country managed since then?

The FrauenComputerZentrumBerlin e.V.  is offering a free digital empowerment training program to improve the media competence of women migrants and refugees in the city. The course, which begins on 12 August, aims at improving the computer and language skills of the participants, who will learn how the Internet, computer and smartphone work and how they can use these technologies independently …

The issue of mental health is one of those taboos among Black people. Even the World Bank identified that ‘Mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders, affect millions of people worldwide. They impose an enormous global disease burden that leads to premature mortality and affects functioning and quality of life’. It is high time, we in the …

A man has been charged to the Aschaffenburg district court on Thursday (16 July) for having called for the commission of a criminal offence on a website on the subject of “citizen asylum”. The accused man from Hanau is listed as the person responsible in the imprint of the website, as the court and public prosecutor’s office confirmed on Wednesday. …

For the first time since the beginning of the corona pandemic, a group deportation flight took off from Frankfurt Airport on Tuesday (14 July). On board the plane to Islamabad in Pakistan were 19 Pakistani nationals who had been deported mainly from Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. This was confirmed by the federal police at Frankfurt Airport to the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. …