More than 800 people made the journey on Saturday, bringing the total for the year so far to almost 21,000
More than 800 people crossed the Channel in small boats on Saturday, the highest number on a single day so far this year.
The latest provisional government data put the figure at 872 people in 15 vessels, suggesting an average of about 58 people in each one.
Continue reading...Israeli PM also orders plan to remove all African asylum seekers after protests by rival groups of Eritreans
The Israeli prime minister has said he wants Eritreans involved in a violent clash in Tel Aviv to be deported immediately and has ordered a plan to remove all of the country’s African asylum seekers.
The remarks on Sunday followed bloody protests by rival groups of Eritreans in south Tel Aviv the day before that left dozens of people injured. Eritreans, supporters and opponents of Eritrea’s government, faced off with construction lumber, pieces of metal and rocks, smashing shop windows and police cars. Israeli police in riot gear fired teargas, stun grenades and live rounds while officers on horseback tried to control the protesters.
Continue reading...Statement comes amid concern about allegations Saudi forces have killed hundreds of migrants
Germany ended a training programme for Saudi border forces, who have been implicated in the mass killing of migrants at the country’s border with Yemen, after it was alerted to reports of “possible massive human rights violations”, the German interior ministry has said.
In a statement to the Guardian, the ministry said training undertaken by the federal police service for the Saudi border force had been “discontinued after reports of possible massive human rights violations became known and, as a precaution, are no longer included in the current training programme [for Saudi security forces]”.
Continue reading...Reports about China’s ‘influence’ made public more suspicious of Chinese-Australian communities, according to 70% of respondents to UTS survey
First-generation migrants from China believe Australian media reporting has fuelled unfriendly or suspicious attitudes towards them, new research shows.
The report, published by the University of Technology Sydney, explores the hopes and fears of members of Chinese Australian communities, including a parent whose child came home from school asking: “Mum, is China going to invade us?”
Continue reading...Footage provides latest shocking glimpse of conditions endured by refugees in north African country
Footage has emerged showing a woman lying dead on the floor of a migration detention centre in Libya in the latest shocking glimpse of the conditions endured by refugees in the north African country.
The clip, believed to have been filmed two weeks ago and shared with the Guardian by a group who arrived in Tunisia from Libya, shows a room inside the Abu Salim detention centre in Tripoli.
Continue reading...Amnesty links wildfires and lack of legal migration routes to deaths of 19 people believed to be asylum seekers
Refugees and migrants in Greece are facing off against the “two great injustices of our times”, Amnesty International has said, as it linked wildfires and scant access to legal migration routes to the deaths of 19 people believed to be asylum seekers.
As wildfires continue to rage across swathes of Greece, authorities in the country said they were working to identify the charred remains of 18 people found this week in the dense forests that straddle the country’s north-eastern border with Turkey.
Continue reading...Experts say army received bribes from people smuggling until 2015 law associated with Mohamed Bazoum
Observers have linked Mohamed Bazoum’s support for European Union policies aimed at stifling migration routes through north Africa to his ousting as president of Niger last month.
Army officers toppled Bazoum on 26 July, as Niger became the fourth west African country since 2020 to have a coup, following Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali.
Continue reading...Court to decide whether to remove them as Greg Abbott and other Republican governors defend militarization of border with Mexico
A federal judge heard arguments on Tuesday about whether state authorities should remove huge buoys installed to stop migrants crossing the river that divides Texas from Mexico.
The court hearing in Austin came a day after Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, and a group of hardline Republican governors gathered on the riverbank to defend local militarization of the US-Mexico border – while also acknowledging that the 1,000ft (305-meter) floating barrier had been adjusted after complaints that it had mostly drifted into Mexican territory.
Continue reading...Article says Commons could bypass the parliamentary standards machinery after Labour leader says MP should be forced out. This live blog is closed
Starmer says there is a massive mismatch between what the government is saying about how things are going well with the economy, and the lived experience of people.
O’Brien suggests the two teenagers Starmer met today would have been happier if Starmer was still committed to getting rid of tuition fees.
I do think the current scheme is unfair and ineffective and that is why we will change it, so the current scheme will be changed by the incoming Labour government and we will set out our plans.
I am not going to pretend that there isn’t huge damage to the economy and that has meant that some of the things that an incoming Labour government would want to do we are not going to be able to do in the way we would want in the way that we would want.
We are working up our proposals on that and I will fully come back and talk them through when we got them.
Continue reading...Prime minister says he is ‘not complacent’ and figures showing fall in crossings compared with 2022 show his approach is working
Rishi Sunak and Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, were both given a chance to show off their painting skills when they visited a nursery in Harrogate this morning. According to PA Media, they were both painting bees. Keegan’s bee would merit a gold star. Sunak’s looks more like a parrot with a squint.
In his pooled TV interview, Rishi Sunak also stressed the government’s commitment to extending access to free childcare. He said:
It is really important to me that young families have access to high quality affordably childcare. That is why the government is expanding its offer of free childcare.
Currently working families can access 30 hours of free childcare for three and four-year-olds. As part of our big reforms we are extending that all the way down to little ones as young as nine months.
Continue reading...Report by Human Rights Watch details alleged attacks using explosive weapons and small arms on Saudi Arabia-Yemen border
Saudi border guards have been accused of killing hundreds of Ethiopians using small arms and explosive weapons in a targeted campaign that rights advocates suggest may amount to a crime against humanity.
The shocking claims are made in a detailed investigation by Human Rights Watch, which interviewed dozens of Ethiopian people who said they were attacked by border guards while they tried to cross into Saudi Arabia from Yemen.
Continue reading...Tory attempt to capitalise on Channel crossings draws attention to immigration and strengthens opposition lead on issue
Government attempts to make capital out of the issue of Channel crossings in a special “small boats week” appear to have backfired with the public, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.
“Small boats week”, earlier this month, was dogged by a series of disasters, including figures showing record numbers of crossings; the evacuation, due to a health scare, of the Bibby Stockholm barge used to house migrants, and the deaths of at least six people when a small boat capsized and sank in the Channel.
Continue reading...At least two of detained Iraqis and Sudanese suspected to have links to human trafficking networks
Four people have been arrested in France after the deaths of six men whose boat capsized while crossing the Channel.
French judges are considering charges including involuntary manslaughter against the Iraqi and Sudanese suspects, according to reports.
Continue reading...Walking Borders said it told authorities in four countries on 20 July about vessel with more than 100 asylum seekers onboard
A Spanish NGO alerted authorities from four countries on 20 July about a boat carrying an estimated 130 asylum seekers that was found earlier this week with just 38 survivors and the bodies of seven dead people on board.
Relatives of those onboard said the large fishing vessel had left Fass Boye, a seaside town in Senegal on 10 July, and was heading for Spain’s Canary Islands. The boat was spotted on Monday about 150 nautical miles (277km ) north of the Cape Verdean island of Sal.
Continue reading...Fishing vessel with 100 asylum seekers was travelling from Senegal to Spain’s Canary Islands
More than 60 people are believed to have died after the boat they were travelling on from Senegal was found off Cape Verde, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.
At least 63 asylum seekers are thought to have died, while the 38 survivors include four children between the ages of 12 and 16, an IOM spokesperson told AFP.
Continue reading...Moderate Tories fear the party’s attack on human rights will alienate many voters and damage the UK’s global standing
The Conservatives risk being seen once again as the “nasty party” by trying to win votes with a divisive attack on human rights, senior party figures have warned.
Rishi Sunak is under increasing pressure from his party this weekend over his pledge to stop the boats crossing the Channel. It follows another week that ended in Channel deaths after the capsizing of a boat, while the total number of people making the dangerous crossing since 2018 rose above the 100,000 mark.
Continue reading...Thirteen people rescued after Europe-bound vessel sank near city of Gabes, says coastguard
At least two Tunisians including a baby died when their Europe-bound boat sank off the north African country’s south-eastern shores, the coastguard said, adding five others were missing.
The vessel carrying 20 Tunisians went down at 2am 120 metres (395ft) from the beach in Gabes, a statement said, as search operations continue.
Continue reading...Robert Jenrick had said government would do ‘whatever is necessary’ to stop small boat crossings
The UK would be an international outlier along with Russia and Belarus if it left the European convention on human rights, a leading law body has warned, after a senior minister signalled that the move could be an option to stop small boat crossings.
Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, said the government would do “whatever is necessary”, even if that meant pulling out of the ECHR, the 70-year-old pan-European treaty that protects human rights and political freedoms in the continent.
Continue reading...Four people rescued say vessel had set off from Sfax in Tunisia and had taken on water in stormy conditions
At least 41 people are feared to have died after a boat sank in rough seas off the Italian island of Lampedusa in the central Mediterranean, Italian authorities and the UN said on Wednesday.
Four survivors who were rescued on Wednesday morning by a Maltese bulk carrier and eventually moved to a patrol boat from the Italian coastguard, said they had been on a vessel that set off from the Tunisian port of Sfax six days ago and sank on its way to Italy’s shores.
Continue reading...No 10 backtracks on minister’s claim 500 asylum seekers could be on barge by end of week
According to a report in the Times, Liz Truss named 16 people on her original honours list – four for peerages, and 12 people getting other honours. Two people have declined, but there are still 14 names on the list, the Times says, one person for every four days she was in office.
The Labour MP Chris Bryant says resignation honours lists should be abolished.
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