News

Oury Jalloh, a Sierra Leonean refugee died under mysterious circumstances in a police cell in the city of Dessau on 7 January 2005. According to police accounts, the then 21-year-old African was arrested after leaving a discotheque early in the morning of the fateful day. He had been reported by a street cleaner who felt intimidated when he asked to …

An online campaign has been launched for the retrial of the controversial death of Oury Jalloh. The Sierra Leonean refugee died in police custody in the eastern German city of Dessau on 7 January 2005. In different court proceedings, the police have always maintained that the African killed himself by setting on fire the mattress on which he was shackled. …

Organisations of people of African descent have called for a public protest against the trade in sub-Saharan migrants in Libya on Saturday, 25 November. The event, named ‘Demonstration to End the Enslavement, Rape, Torture and Killings of Blacks in Libya’, will take place in front of the Libyan Embassy in Berlin. Organised by, among other organisations, Black Community Hamburg, Lampedusa …

A recent report by the German Federal Statistical Office has found that people with a migration background differ markedly from those without a migration background in key areas, such as education, employment and income, reports Chloe Lyneham/DW. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), which conducts regular reporting on integration, has found that the differences between persons with and without a migration …

Legendary Ivorian reggae musician, Alpha Blondy, known in private life as Seydou Kone, has waded into the debate for sub-Saharan African leaders to help protect their citizens wherever they find themselves. His recent call is on the African Union and the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, to take decisive action on migrant abuse in the North African country of Libya, …

A man who apparently burned to death in a German police cell in 2005 could not have lit the fire himself, according to new documents. A prosecutor who had defended police now says there should be a murder investigation. Ben Knight of Deutsche Welle reports. Oury Jalloh, who died in police custody in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt in 2005, could …

CNN report showing trade in sub-Saharan migrants in Libya has sparked outrage in Africa and the global Black community, Sola Jolaoso reports. A grainy cell phone video showing unidentified African men being sold in an auction in Libya was obtained by CNN last month. One of the ‘slaves’ being sold is a Nigerian, whom the American news channel estimated to …

A new survey ranks Germany as having the best global image, reports Deutsche Welle. Germany has replaced the United States as the country with the best “brand image,” according to a new study of 50 countries released Thursday. The Nation Brands Index (NBI) survey by German-based market research firm GfK and the British political consultant Simon Anholt measured public opinion …

Italy’s southern city of Salerno held a mass funeral on Friday for 26 young women from Nigeria who drowned earlier this month trying to cross the Mediterranean. Twenty-six coffins were laid out in Salerno’s Monumental Cemetery on Friday morning, watched by a military guard, local politicians, rescue workers and journalists. A Catholic archbishop and a Muslim imam both said prayers. …

The head of human rights at the United Nations has lashed out at the EU’s migration policy towards Libya. In a statement on Tuesday (14 November), UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said forcing rescued people at sea to return to Libya for detention was inhuman. “The suffering of migrants detained in Libya is an outrage to the …

Zimbabwe’s military appeared to be in control of the country on Wednesday as generals denied staging a coup but used state television to vow to target “criminals” close to President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe’s decades-long grip on power was dramatically weakened as military vehicles blocked roads outside the parliament in Harare and senior soldiers delivered a late-night television address to the …

A night to remember for Sweden as they qualify for next year’s World Cup in Russia but catastrophe for Italy. For the first time since 1958 the Azzurri will miss out on the finals – They failed to score in two legs against Sweden, enabling the Scandinavians to go through with a 1-0 aggregate playoff victory.. Italy’s Coach Gian Piero …

The new system will allow those entitled to benefits to directly collect cash at tills, rather than using distributors at job centres, reports Emma Beswick. Germany’s unemployed will soon be able to collect benefits at checkouts in certain supermarkets and chemists as part of a government bid to cut costs, according to newspaper WELT AM SONNTAG. Set to kick off …

Following a series of politically-motivated murders in Cameroon in the past week, the Society for Threatened Peoples (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker, GfbV) has warned against an escalation of violence and a possible civil war in the country. “The dispute over the discrimination of the English-speaking minority in the central African state must be urgently resolved through political negotiations in order …

Six members of a cargo ship kidnapped last month off the coast of Nigeria’s Port Harcourt have been freed, their German employer said Sunday. “Peter Doehle Schiffahrts-KG are pleased to report that the six crew members of her container vessel Demeter who were taken hostage on 21 October and have spent the past two and a half weeks in captivity, …

Police have detained six Nigerian in Ruhrgebiet who they allege have smuggled women into the country and forced them into prostitution. The police in the West German city of Oberhausen have arrested a couple from Nigeria who they alleged have smuggled women from Nigeria into the Ruhr area (Ruhrgebiet) in order to force them into prostitution. Also four more suspects …

Côte d’Ivoire have failed to qualify for next year’s competition after losing 2-0 to Morocco on Saturday in Abidjan. Morocco needed only a draw in their last group game to finish top of the table ahead of the Ivorians, who had to win at home to make a fourth straight appearance at the World Cup. The Ivorians have reached the …

Beginning from 2018 France is set to adopt a new migration law, which will include tougher rules for people whose asylum applications have been rejected. The bill is currently being debated in France’s lower house of parliament. Anne-Diandra Louarn/InfoMigrants takes a look at the main points of the new law. Addressing the lower house of parliament on Wednesday, 8 November, …

A recent study by Link Campus University of Rome confirms that 70 per cent of migrants who travel from Libya to Italy have been victims of human trafficking. The first results of a study conducted by Rome’s Link Campus University and the War and Peace Studies Centre reveal that about 70 per cent of migrants who arrived on Italian shores …

The Federal Statistical Office has revealed that 2 percent of the people who lived in Germany at the end of 2016 had lodged asylum applications. That’s more than double the figure for 2014. Ben Knight reports. On Friday, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) revealed that 1.6 million people were officially registered as “seeking protection for humanitarian reasons” in Germany at …