News

Anna Swaboda, a member of power4africa e.V., reports on a demonstration against anti-Black racism in the eastern city of Dresden on Sunday. “The only thing that should be separated according to colour is laundry” was the message on a banner at the Black Lives Matter demonstration on Sunday afternoon in Dresden. Several hundreds of people gathered at Dresden’s Neumarkt square …

Migrants and refugees in the EU can apply to reunite with their children and bring them to Europe if the children are minors. But what if they reach maturity during the application process? They can still be reunited with their parents, because what matters is the age they were when the application was filed, the European Court of Justice has …

The head of Nigeria’s agency responsible for the development of drugs and vaccines has described the much-touted herbal tea from Madagascar, COVID-Organics, as not effective in the treatment of the coronavirus infection. Speaking in an interview with the Nigerian daily newspaper Vanguard, Dr Peter Adigwe, said analysis carried out by his organisation, the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development …

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. …

  The racist attack on Noël Martin in June 1996 was one of the most internationally reported incidents of neo-Nazi violence in Germany in the 1990s. The attack left the British-Jamaican paralysed from the neck down and yet he found the strength to continue living, setting up a charitable foundation which campaigns against racial intolerance and promotes exchanges between German …

Dapo Olorunyomi, the publisher/editor-in-chief of the Nigerian online newspaper Premium Times, has been honoured with the 2020 International Press Freedom Award by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Olorunyomi was awarded for dedicating his life to holding the powerful to account and his “fierce advocacy” for press freedom. Three other exemplary journalists – Shahidul Alam (Bangladesh), Mohammad Mosaed …

Professor Charles Egbu has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of Leeds Trinity University. The Nigerian scholar will take up his new position on 1 November 2020. In a statement on its website, the institution said Egbu would take over from Margaret A House, the outgoing VC, who had held the office for seven years. . Reacting to his appointment, Professor Egbu said: …

Zindzi Mandela, South Africa’s ambassador to Denmark, has died at the age of 59. Ms Mandela – the daughter of Nelson and Winnie Mandela – died in the early hours of Monday (13 July) in a Johannesburg hospital.  She was the youngest daughter of the couple and is reputed to have spent many years involved in South Africa’s freedom struggle. …

The police of North African countries to prevent refugees from crossing the Mediterranean to Europe. EU Interior Ministers and their North African counterparts have agreed. Amnesty sharply criticises agreement. Europe is also relying on African police to stop refugees crossing the Mediterranean. Germany’s Federal Ministry of the Interior announced in Berlin, the interior ministers of EU countries and North African …

Pope Francis has likened the living conditions in migrant detention centres in Libya to concentration camps. He made the comments on  Wednesday during a mass commemorating the pontiff’s journey to the Italian island of Lampedusa seven years ago, his first pastoral visit outside Rome after his election. Sertan Sanderson reports Pope Francis used the German term “Lager” during his sermon, …

  Will you be sent back to Italy if you had your fingerprints taken there, but then applied for asylum in another EU country? What happens if you are to be deported under the Dublin Regulation but you refuse? We put these questions and more to a number of experts, including German lawyer Albert Sommerfeld. Marion MacGregor reports The Dublin …

Estimates of the number of Ghanaians living outside their homeland range from one to three million out of a general population of about 30 million. Ghanaians in Germany are reputed to form the second largest of the country’s diaspora populations in Europe, after the United Kingdom. Journalist, translator and community activist Sam Atsu Nove*, who first arrived in Germany in …

Dr Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, member of the European Parliament, MEP, has criticised Germany’s Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer, for stopping the planned investigation into racial profiling in the country’s police services. In a press statement issued on Wednesday, Ms Herzberger-Fofana, who represents Germany on the platform of the Green party in the European parliament, said Seehofer by his decision “denies the existence …

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) has warned against racial profiling, as well as “systemic racism and inequalities” in Europe. “Racial profiling constitutes a specific form of racial discrimination and must be expressly prohibited by law,” ECRI, a human rights monitoring body, said in a statement published on 6 July. “It generates a feeling of humiliation and injustice …

The decision of the Federal Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, to call off an investigation into racial profiling in the police is drawing anger and criticisms not only of migrant associations but also political parties, including the junior governing coalition partner SPD. Following the Black Lives Matter protests in Germany, questions are being raised about racism in the country’s …

The Zentralrat der afrikanischen Gemeinde in Deutschland (Central Council of the African Community in Germany or ZAGD) has relaunched its website and introduced a new logo on Tuesday. The move by the organisation, an umbrella body for African associations in Germany, is part of its efforts to increase its visibility in the country. The relaunch ceremony, held by video conference …

A group of associations and NGOs have set up a camp for young migrants in the heart of Paris to highlight the plight of homeless asylum-seekers in France. While they wait for their paperwork to be handled, they do not benefit from any care, causing many to literally live in the streets. Charlotte Oberti reports A stone’s throw from the …

Italian authorities have broken up a network facilitating illegal immigration from Ghana to Italy, the Italian news agency ANSA has reported.  The group is said to have  a contact point in Ghana which facilitated migration to Italy and other countries using false documents. ANSA reported that police carried out three arrest warrants issued by the preliminary investigation judge at the …