MIGRATION

The United Nations says 90 people are feared to have drowned off the coast of Libya, after a people smuggler’s boat capsized. The United Nations’ migration agency, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), believes just three people have survived the boat accident, in the latest migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea. The boat was carrying mostly Pakistani migrants. “At least …

The experience of sub-Saharans in North Africa, most of whom are migrants in transit, has been marked by outright racial discrimination and social rejection. A Moroccan party has now raised the issue in the country’s parliament, proposing a law against racial discrimination. Safaa Kasraoui reports. The Independence Party (Istiqlal) of Morocco proposed on Tuesday a new law to criminalize acts …

186,644 asylum seekers were registered last year. That’s more than 100,000 down from the 2016 figures – the Germany Interior Ministry says the massive numbers from the height of the crisis have been “overcome.” German Interior Minister Lothar de Maizière announced the figures in Berlin on Tuesday (16 January) showed that the waves of refugees arriving in Germany continue to …

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 …

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 …

Israel plans to deport thousands of African asylum seekers within the next three months. They have the choice of leaving for a third country or indefinite imprisonment in Israeli jails. The quit deadline fans fears among African migrants, reports Tania Kraemer. “It is a very scary moment and many people are simply in panic,” says Ghebrihiwet Tekle, a young Eritrean …

A Federal Government of Nigeria’s special delegation, led by Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama, is currently in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, to deliberate with Libyan officials on the evacuation of Nigerians trapped in the country. The Head, Press and Public Relations of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP),  Josiah Emerole, said the delegation left the …

A recent study published by Science magazine has once again highlighted a potential connection between climate and migration, stressing how, by the end of this century, climate change could lead to a significant increase in asylum requests in Europe. According to a recent study carried out by two researchers from Columbia University and published by Science magazine, climate change will …

Israel has notified thousands of Africans who entered the country irregularly that they have three months to leave or face incarceration. The Population and Immigration Authority of Israel on Tuesday (2 January) issued a notice to about 40,000 refugees, most of them from Sudan and Eritrea, to leave the country. Those who leave by the end of March will be given …

The Federal Government of Nigeria has appointed local airlines to repatriate Nigerians stranded in Libya. Following the global outrage that greeted the CNN footage showing African migrants being auctioned as slaves in Libya last November, President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to bring back Nigerians still in the North African country. He thereafter constituted a 17-man fact-finding committee headed by Minister of …

Early on the morning of Boxing Day (26 December), rescue workers spotted more than 130 migrants stranded in the Mediterranean, some 40 kilometres off the coast of Libya. They were sitting in three small dinghies, ill-equipped for the windy winter crossing, when they were finally picked up by Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms. Despite the efforts of African and European …

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Friday said a total of 6,672 Nigerians voluntarily returned from Libya from 6 January to 28 December. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Director General of NEMA, Alhaji Mustapha Maihajja, made this known while receiving a fresh batch of 257 Nigerians who arrived Lagos from Libya. Maihajja lauded the International …

Italy is to deploy hundreds of soldiers to a desert military base in Niger to confront people-traffickers who are blamed for taking Africans across the Sahara and the Mediterranean. Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has said his country would send a “non-combat” military mission to Niger to help stop people smugglers from taking people to the EU. Special forces will …

Latest figures show an overall fall in the number of new asylum requests in the EU, compared to 2015 and 2016. Asylum is a form of international protection given by a state on its territory. It is granted to a person who is unable to seek protection in his/her country of citizenship and/or residence, in particular for fear of being …

The European Union and the African Union say at least 3,100 migrants who were stranded in Libya have been returned to their home countries in the past two weeks. A new task force, which also includes the UN, aims to repatriate another 15,000 migrants from Libya by February, AP has reported. Following the CNN footage that showed African migrants in …

The wave of protests against the enslavement of African migrants in Libya continued on Saturday (9 December) with demonstrations in the British capital and the German city of Hamburg. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Libyan embassy in London to demand an end to slave auctions in the North African country. Carrying placards reading “End the Damn Slavery!!” and “Human …

Black organisations in Hamburg are calling for a public demonstration in the Merchant city on Saturday (9 December) against the enslavement, torture, rape and murder of Africans in Libya. “The Black Community in Hamburg invites all Black organizations, groups, movements, activists and individuals and their friends and supporters to a demonstration in front of the political and consular representations of …

Human rights campaign group Amnesty International has described the plan agreed by EU and African leaders in Abidjan last Thursday to evacuate migrants stranded in Libya as unworkable. Franziska Vilmar, who works on asylum law and policy at the German branch of Amnesty International, told the German international broadcaster DW at the weekend that the plan was “unrealistic because the …

Following harsh criticisms of its perceived indifference to the suffering of thousands of its citizens who are stranded in Libya, Nigeria’s federal government has finally swung into action. After meeting with heads of agencies in charge of migration in Abuja on Wednesday, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo announced that Nigeria was considering urgent and permanent solutions to the plight of Nigerians refugees …

Hundreds of people of African descent and their supporters marched through the streets of Cologne on Monday evening to express their anger and outrage at the widespread human rights violation of African migrants in Libya.   Speakers lament the racist treatment of Africans in North Africa pointing out that the CNN video footage of migrant auctioning was the tip of …