TimeLine Layout

January, 2018

  • 10 January

    Deportations illegal if torture likely, rules Germany’s top court

    Germany’s top court has ruled that a person cannot be deported to their country of origin if at risk of torture. A German-born Turkish Salafist had appealed his return, saying he would be tortured in his home country. Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe on Tuesday ruled that a person may not be deported to their country of origin if …

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  • 9 January

    Nigeria warns Libya on maltreatment of its citizens

    The Nigerian government has warned its Libyan counterpart against molesting Nigerians in the North African country. Abuja said it made clear to Libyan authorities that it has “zero tolerance” for such treatment. The warning followed reports of enslavement and maltreatment of Nigerians stranded in Libya. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, made this known on Monday as another batch …

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  • 9 January

    Germany: AfD rebukes Jens Maier over racist tweet about Noah Becker

    AfD federal lawmaker Jens Maier has been warned by his party over a racist tweet about the son of tennis legend Boris Becker. But Maier, who called Noah Becker a “half-negro,” can remain in the party. The national executive of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on Monday officially reprimanded Bundestag member Jens Maier over a racist tweet …

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  • 9 January

    Germany: Merkel launches coalition talks with Social Democrats

    Germany’s Christian Democrats (CDU), its sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) sat down on Sunday (7 January)  to kick off five days of exploratory talks. This week they want to finally revive the grand coalition that has been ruling the country since 2013. Some think this is Angela Merkel’s last chance at forming a …

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  • 8 January

    Mediterranean migrant arrivals in Europe drop by half  in 2017

    About half as many migrants reached Europe by sea in 2017 than 2016, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday, with curbs finally cutting traffic on the deadly route from Libya to Italy. Two years after more than a million people entered the EU, mostly fleeing war in the Middle East and poverty in Africa, the IOM recorded …

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  • 8 January

    Thousands of demonstrators demand justice for Oury Jalloh

    Several thousands of protesters turned out in Dessau on Sunday to demand justice for Oury Jalloh who died in mysterious circumstances in police custody in the eastern German city 13 years ago. Oury Jalloh died in a police cell in Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt, thirteen years ago, but the circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear until today. More than four thousand supporters …

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  • 8 January

    France received record 100,000 asylum requests in 2017

    More than 100,000 people requested asylum in France in 2017, a “historic” number and an increase of 17 per cent on the year before, according to the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA). In a statement on Monday, OFPRA director Pascal Brice said the figures show that “France is one of the top countries for …

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  • 8 January

    Boris Becker speaks out on AfD politician’s racist comment about his son

    After several days of public silence, tennis living legend Boris Becker has finally spoken up on the controversy surrounding AfD politician Jens Maier’s racist comment about his son. The member of the German parliament had attacked Noah Becker, calling him a “little half-negro” on Twitter over an interview in which the son of the former Wimbledon champion compared Berlin with …

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  • 7 January

    Joint Declaration of the Member Countries

    Following is the Joint Declaration of the Member Countries on the Regional meeting for Europe, Central Asia and North America on the International Decade for People of African Descent: Representatives of States from Europe, Central Asia and North America participated in a regional meeting which took place in Geneva on 23 and 24 November 2017, with the participation of experts …

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  • 7 January

    A turning point in Ethiopia?

    Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn dropped a veritable bombshell last week, when he announced that political prisoners would be released and that a detention centre in the capital that had become notorious for torture would be closed. What made this all the more surprising was that the government had never before even acknowledged the existence of political prisoners (when dissidents …

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