MIGRATION

Despite a rise in labour and family migration, the OECD noted a drop in humanitarian migration, for example, from refugees fleeing conflict.

It started as a rumour, but it’s now official. There is a programme to transfer migrants stranded in Libya to Rwanda, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday in Geneva. The measure is part of an “emergency transit mechanism”, to evacuate people at risk of harm in detention centres inside the county. Babar Baloch, UNHCR spokesman, said the agreement …

Twenty Nigerians were deported to their home country on 19 August. Our correspondent Raphael Adenaike was at the Lagos airport when the deportees arrived and they narrated their personal ordeals and experiences with the German police, immigration officials and medical doctors as well as the Nigerian Embassy to Raphael (read article here). Raphael also spoke with pro-refugee activists in Lagos …

The authorities in the southern German state of Bavaria have announced that a Nigerian who went on a rampage recently at an Anchor Centre (Ankerzentrum), a big holding camp for refugees, has been deported to Nigeria. The news was broken on Thursday to the Bayerischer Rundfunk by the Bavarian State Office for Asylum and Repatriation (Bayerische Landesamt für Asyl und …

A week after 20 Nigerians were deported to their home country, refugee support groups in Germany have raised alarm that at least 2,400 Gambian refugees in the country were slated deportation. The groups, Flüchtlingsrat Baden-Württemberg (Refugee Council Baden-Württemberg), a non-profit organization that advises refugees and advocates for their rights, and the Gambia Helfernetz (Gambia Helpers Network), have written to Gambian …

Our Correspondent in Nigeria, Raphael Adenaike, was at the Lagos airport when Nigerian deportees, including a single mother of one, arrived from Germany on Monday 19 August. The deportees, whose asylum applications had been rejected, narrated their personal ordeals and experiences with the German police, immigration officials and medical doctors as well as the Nigerian Embassy to Raphael. With little …

Nigeria has again faulted claims that there were 30,000 of its citizens who are irregular migrants in Germany awaiting repatriation. The Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, said the figure was unrealistic against the background that there’re only 32,000 Nigerians legally resident in the country. “So how could there be 30,000 Nigerians irregularly living in the country?” he …

The so-called ‘Orderly Return Law’ (das Geordnete-Rückkehr-Gesetz) was approved in June. It went into force on Wednesday (21 August). It gives authorities and police more powers to enforce deportation orders. Critics fear more refugees could now be legally detained. The tightening of rules governing the deportation of rejected asylum-seekers took effect on Wednesday. Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) said …

Nearly one quarter of Germany’s population of 82 million has an immigrant background, according to statistics released Wednesday (21 August). Germany’s statistical agency Destatis said 20.8 million people in 2018 had a so-called “migrant background,” defined as a person who is a migrant or has at least one parent not born as a German citizen. That’s an increase of half …

No fewer than 20 Nigerian migrants have been deported by the German authority, The African Courier can confirm. The migrants arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport at 4:30pm on Monday (19 August). The African Courier gathered that the returnees were picked randomly at different times and detained in a deportation prison prior to their repatriation. READ MORE New law for …

About 100 protesters gathered in Gotha, state of Thuringia, on Saturday to protest against deportations to Nigeria and what they described as “the intimidation of the authorities and police”. Participants from Berlin, Erfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Göttingen, Jena and Wuppertal converged on the eastern German town in response to the call of refugees stationed in Gotha. Organised by pro-refugee groups, …

Every day, young Africans out of sheer desperation endanger their lives in their quest to cross the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea for a better life in Europe. More than 20,000 have drowned in the past seven years while many more are even believed by experts to have perished in the desert. The main factor pushing young people to leave …

The African Network of Germany (TANG) has opened a new office in Dortmund. The organisation implements projects to support its objectives, among which is the promotion of the integration of Africans in German society. TANG, founded in 2013, also facilitates the engagement of diaspora Africans in the development of their countries of origin. The Dortmund office, which formally opened for …

Sea-Watch rescue ship’s captain, Carola Rackete, has expressed the hope that the new EU commission would work to let boat-rescued migrants enter Europe. Rackete, who is under investigation in Italy for docking her boat in the Italian port of Lampedusa without permission in early July, said: “I sincerely hope that the European Commission now, after the new election of the …

If you want to move to Germany to join a family member or spouse, a German family reunification visa will allow you to live and work in Germany. However, applicants have to meet certain requirements, one of which is passing a German language test in their home countries. But too many spouse reunification visa applicants often fail due to the …

The Federal Government has appointed Dr Sylvie Nantcha as a member of a technical commission on migration. The task of the 24-member commission is to identify “the root causes of flight and irregular migration” and it has until the end of next year to make concrete recommendations for action on how to tackle the issues. Flight and migration are among …

As I write this article, 44 migrants, mostly Africans, who were rescued in the Mediterranean by the humanitarian organisation Sea Eye off the Libyan coast on Monday, are desperately looking for where to be allowed to disembark in Europe. The migrants’ dilemma follows the Sea-Watch 3 controversy in June, when the rescue boat forcibly docked in the Italian port of …

Fifty-three migrants, mostly sub-Saharan Africans, were killed on Wednesday when a faction in the Libyan civil war carried out an air strike that hit a migrant detention centre near Tripoli. More than 130 others were injured. The internationally-recognised Government of National Unity (GNA) blamed the attack on forces loyal to renegade General Khalifa Haftar, but his militants have denied it. …

The weeks-long standoff between Sea-Watch 3 and the Italian government ended with the arrest of Captain Carola Rackete, who has now been freed. But international maritime law and a country’s own laws often don’t chime, say experts. Carola Rackete, captain of the search and rescue vessel Sea-Watch 3, was arrested on Saturday by Italian authorities for “resisting a warship” after …

National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Friday said a total of 14,036 Nigerians have voluntarily returned home under the Assisted Voluntary Returnees Programme which began in April 2017. The Nigerians, who were stranded in Libya, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ireland, France, Gambia, Austria, Poland, Morocco and Liberia, were brought back by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the European …