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Deportation laws in Germany: What you need to know

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer is calling for harsher deportation laws after asylum-seekers attacked pedestrians in Bavaria. So far, who gets deported – and who makes that call –  is a complex matter. Carla Bleiker reports. Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has said he would send proposals to the government aimed at changing German deportation laws in an effort to …

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Can Netflix lift Nollywood to new global heights?

Distribution of Nigerian movies on Netflix started around 2015. Alessandro Jedlowski, a scholar at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, takes a look at the global streaming giant’s intervention in the Nigerian film industry and predicts what long-term impact this could have on the worldwide marketing of Nollywood. Global streaming service Netflix set its eyes a few years ago on …

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Germany, South Africa, 3 others join UN Security Council

Germany, Indonesia, South Africa, the Dominican Republic and Belgium, took up their seats on the UN Security Council as non-permanent members on 1 January 2019. They were elected last June to serve two-year terms on the 15-member Security Council. The other five non-permanent members on the Council are Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Kuwait, Peru and Poland. Five countries have permanent …

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First Nigerian Appointed Lufthansa’s General Manager

Lufthansa Group has appointed Adenike Macaulay as the General Manager, Sales for Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea. In a statement by the airline, Macaulay would oversee all the commercial and sales activities of Lufthansa Group Airlines in Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea from 1 January 2019. It noted that she was the first female and Nigerian to take the position. Macaulay started …

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Germany-based group advises aspiring migrants in Nigeria

The Migration Enlightenment Project Nigeria (MEPN), a Germany-based initiative promoting safe migration, has noted that criminal human trafficking networks continued to be the main driver of irregular emigration in Nigeria. In view of the thousands of Nigerians stranded in various transit and destination countries around the world where they’re exposed to human rights abuses, the MEPN has issued a brief …

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Germans increasingly afraid of being financially insecure in old age, says study

More and more Germans are worried about not being able to make ends meet when they retire, a new study has shown. Rising energy costs and low interest rates are also feeding fears of financial insecurity. More than half of all Germans are afraid of being financially insecure in old age, German newspaper Die Welt has reported, citing a study …

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Germany: Important New Laws and Regulations in 2019

Many new laws and legislative changes, affecting employees, the unemployed, families and retirees, came into force on 1 January 2019. The African Courier takes us through some of the most important changes that we should know. Minimum wage rises The statutory minimum wage (der gesetzliche Mindestlohn) rises from 8.84 euros to 9.19 euros on 1 January 2019. From 2020, employers …

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Germany’s 4G mobile network one of the worst in Europe, new report says

Germany is well behind its European neighbours when it comes to coverage with high-performance mobile network technology, a study shows. And data rates could do with improvement too, reports Timothy Jones. Germany has worse LTE (4G) mobile phone network coverage than many of its European neighbours, according to a study by the Aachen-based consulting firm P3, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. …

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Migrants still experiencing “unimaginable horrors” in Libya, says new UN report

Murder, torture, arbitrary detention, gang rape, forced labour, extortion: A recent United Nations report details the horrors suffered by migrants and refugees in Libya. The authors call on the European Union to increase rescues efforts in the Mediterranean and to facilitate the work of humanitarian ships. Julia Dumont and Monique El-Faizy report. A recent report, jointly published on 18 December …

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Pan-Africanists gathered in Accra demand continental unity

Participants from different African countries and the diaspora gathered in Accra between 8-13 December to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the first All-African People’s Conference (AAPC). The event marks the 1958 congress, which also took place in Accra and that brought together freedom fighters from all over Africa, including independent and colonised states, to strategise on how to free the …

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