Category Archives: Migration

Dan Tehan condemns ‘big Australia’ policy but won’t reveal Coalition’s immigration plan

Posted on by

Shadow immigration minister wants ‘better Australia’ but refuses to say what level of migration Coalition would pursue in government

The shadow immigration minister, Dan Tehan, has criticised a “big Australia” policy but refused to say what level of migration the Coalition would pursue in government, saying only that it wants “a better Australia”.

In an interview with the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, Tehan was repeatedly challenged to spell out the Coalition’s view on acceptable migration levels, but said: “I can tell you what it shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be as high as what it is today.”

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Over 3,000 stranded as boat captain arrests halt Darién Gap migration

Posted on by

Attempt to stop movement through perilous rainforest leaves people stuck in two remote Caribbean towns

Migration towards the US through a perilous but increasingly well-trodden rainforest border crossing has ground to a halt after the Colombian navy arrested two boat captains for trafficking migrants.

But the attempt to stop movement through the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama has left more than 3,000 people stranded in two remote Caribbean towns, where officials fear the bottleneck could cause a public health emergency.

Continue reading...

Jeremy Hunt ‘could adopt Labour tax-raising plans’ – as it happened

Posted on by

Chancellor reportedly considering energy windfall levy as well as scrapping the non-dom status

The Conservative peer and former MP Stewart Jackson has also made the point about Rishi Sunak’s comments yesterday echoing what Suella Braverman has been saying. (See 9.25am.) He suggests Sunak is a weathercock, “buffeted by events”.

Rishi Sunak is now saying what #SuellaBraverman rightly said four months ago, and for which she was sacked. Tony Benn astutely divided politicians as between signposts and weathercocks. One can think ahead, the other is buffeted by events. We know which one is which, don’t we?

We commend the prime minister on his powerful speech at the CST dinner last night, pledging more funding to protect the Jewish community, outlining a new protocol to safeguard our elected representatives and effectively police protests, and drawing a clear line between democratic dissent and mob intimidation.

The last few months have seen an extreme rise in antisemitic hate in the UK, which has had a significant effect on British Jews. The prime minister’s announcement has made it clear - those bringing chaos to our streets and academic institutions will no longer be allowed to act with impunity.

Continue reading...

One person dead and two missing in Channel boat incident

Posted on by

Officials say 179 people trying to cross Channel were rescued after four French-led operations

One person has died and two others are missing in the Channel after an incident involving a small boat, French rescue services have said.

According to the Préfecture maritime Manche et mer du Nord, four French-led rescue operations took place in the Channel on Wednesday, coordinated by the regional operational surveillance and rescue of Gris-Nez.

Continue reading...

Watchdog urges EU rescue rules change after migrant boat disaster off Greece

Posted on by

Ombudsman says papers show EU agency made four offers to help Greece with surveillance of boat that sank, but got no response

The rules governing the EU’s border and coastguard agency Frontex must be urgently revised if Europe is to avoid a repeat of last year’s tragedy off the coast of Greece in which about 600 people are thought to have died, an official investigation has found.

In one of the worst disasters in the Mediterranean sea in recent years, the Adriana, a dangerously overcrowded fishing trawler en route to Italy from Libya, capsized and sank in the middle of the night near Pylos on 14 June. Only 104 survivors were rescued and 82 bodies recovered after the ship, estimated to have been carrying more than 750 people, sank off the Peloponnese.

Continue reading...

Prosecutors target smuggled people who were forced to pilot small boats

Posted on by

Campaigners say Ibrahima Bah should be treated as a victim of trafficking after he was forced to steer a boat. Instead he faces at least six years in jail

Ibrahima Bah will spend at least the next six years and three months in custody. He will do so for manslaughter, and for smuggling dozens of people into the UK on a perilous small-boat journey across the Channel during which at least four died.

In the words of the migration minister Michael Tomlinson, it was “right that he has been brought to justice” because Bah “put dozens of lives in extreme danger by taking charge of a perilous and illegal small boat crossing”.

Continue reading...

Videos show migrants stripped of clothing in freezing temperatures at Serbian border

Posted on by

Exclusive: footage of semi-naked men is evidence of increasing abuse during illegal pushbacks on Europe’s borders, say rights groups

Videos appearing to show groups of men stripped of their clothing in near-freezing temperatures and being forced back from the Serbian border into North Macedonia are evidence of escalating mistreatment of migrants at European borders, according to human rights groups.

Two videos shown to the Guardian by Legis, a North Macedonian NGO, show a line of semi-naked men on a stretch of road near the Serbian-North Macedonian border.

Continue reading...

Councils call for funding help as more Ukrainian refugees become homeless

Posted on by

Continuation of war has left more refugees unsettled, with councils stepping in to to relieve most cases of homelessness

Councils have called for urgent review of funding for Ukrainian refugees amid alarm that 9,000 have reported as homeless and many more are needing longer-term support – with no sign of the war ending after two years.

The government announced on Sunday that it would extend by another 18 months the three-year visas of Ukrainians who escaped the war.

Continue reading...

Ukrainians can extend UK visas by 18 months in new scheme

Posted on by

Refugees will have ‘certainty and assurance’ says Home Office, but charities say move insufficient as many face homelessness

Ukrainians who sought sanctuary in the UK after the Russian invasion will be permitted to extend their visas for an extra 18 months, the Home Office has announced.

More than 200,000 Ukrainians visa holders have arrived in the UK since March 2022, with the first visas to expire in March next year. The Home Office said that the new scheme would provide “certainty and assurance” for Ukrainians in the UK.

Continue reading...

‘It’s non-negotiable’: French MPs angry at move to restrict citizenship on Mayotte

Posted on by

Far right says measure should be adopted across France but critics say change breaches fundamental constitutional rights

Emmanuel Macron has been accused of walking a dangerous legal and political tightrope with a proposal to restrict access to French nationality for people born on the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte to immigrant parents.

The far right has welcomed the move, which critics say breaches fundamental constitutional rights, and insisted it should be applied to the whole of France.

Continue reading...

‘The only option is to be patient’: Sudanese refugee waits on Spanish asylum claim filed from Morocco

Posted on by

Lawyers see Basir’s case as test of European policies that fail to provide safe routes to sub-Saharan asylum seekers

For 25-year-old Basir, it was a ray of hope after fleeing Sudan more than a decade ago. For his lawyers, the asylum request he made from Morocco was the ultimate test of whether Spain – and more broadly the EU – was willing to provide safe migration routes to some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

Thirteen months later, the answer is a resounding no. Little has changed for Basir, a Christian, who was left for dead at 15 in an attack that killed his father and brother. He continues to live rough on the streets of Morocco, scrambling to land odd jobs so he can buy food. He asked that his real name not be used for safety reasons.

Continue reading...

France unveils plan to curtail right to French citizenship in Indian Ocean island of Mayotte

Posted on by

Interior minister Gérald Darmanin plans to change constitution to remove birthplace right to citizenship on island that is part of France

French authorities have announced a controversial plan to amend the constitution to revoke birthplace citizenship on the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, claiming it would help stem an immigration crisis.

The reform was announced by interior minister Gérald Darmanin on Sunday after he arrived on the island, the country’s poorest department (administrative region), following three weeks of protests there.

Continue reading...

Italian court jails people smuggler over shipwreck that killed at least 94 migrants

Posted on by

Gun Ufuk, 29, sentenced to 20 years in prison over deadly sinking that occurred metres from shore

An Italian court has sentenced a people smuggler to 20 years in prison for involvement in a shipwreck last year that killed at least 94 migrants.

The court in the southern city of Crotone found Gun Ufuk, a 29-year-old Turkish national, guilty of crimes including causing a shipwreck and aiding illegal immigration. It also ordered him to pay a €3m fine and pay damages to civil plaintiffs.

Continue reading...

EU leaders unveil €210m Mauritania deal in bid to curb people-smuggling

Posted on by

Plan includes energy and infrastructure projects with aim of strengthening stability in Sahel

The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, have unveiled plans for a €210m partnership with Mauritania in an attempt to curb people-smuggling to the Canary islands and launch new energy and infrastructure projects benefiting both sides.

Figures soon to be published by Frontex, the EU’s border agency, are expected to show that the number of people risking their lives by making the perilous journey from west African shores to the Spanish islands has risen dramatically in the past year.

Continue reading...

Council of Europe calls on UK not to process asylum claims in Rwanda

Posted on by

People may be exposed to abuses such as torture and degrading treatment in Rwanda, says watchdog

Europe’s leading anti-torture watchdog has called on the government to process asylum claims in the UK rather than sending people to Rwanda because of the risk they may be exposed to human rights abuses there.

In a report published on Thursday, the Council of Europe’s committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment raises a litany of concerns after an 11-day visit to the UK in March and April last year.

Continue reading...

Number of people arriving by boat in Canaries from west Africa jumps 1,000%

Posted on by

Atlantic route to chain of islands is deadliest migration passage to Spain with 6,007 people dying last year

The number of people from west Africa who braved the sea in boats to reach Spain’s Canary Islands jumped more than 1,000% in January from a year before, according to data released by the country’s interior ministry.

A total of 7,270 people reached the archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean between 1 January and 31 January, a nearly 13-fold increase from 566 people in the same month in 2023, the ministry said on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Refugee files complaint to UN against Spain over 2014 border deaths

Posted on by

Country accused of violating torture convention in hope of finding justice decade after incident in which at least 15 people died

A 25-year-old from Cameroon has filed a complaint to the UN against Spain, accusing the country of multiple violations of the convention against torture in hope of seeking justice after an incident in 2014 during which at least 15 people died while trying to enter Spanish territory from Morocco.

“A decade has passed and still not a single person has been held accountable for the death and injury of so many,” said the man, who asked to be identified by the pseudonym Ludovic.

Continue reading...

Dublin not expecting EU objections to new trade rules for Northern Ireland – UK politics live

Posted on by

Irish foreign minister says he does ‘not anticipate any particular difficulties in respect of the EU side’

Back at the home affairs committee James Daly (Con) asks why so few police investigations end up in people being charged.

James Cleverly, the home secretary, says the Crown Prosecution Service is independent. He wants to make sure investigations are as professional as possible.

Continue reading...

African Union Commission calls for ‘paradigm shift’ at Italy-Africa summit

Posted on by

Moussa Faki welcomes Giorgia Meloni’s plan to strengthen relations but says ‘we are not beggars’

The chair of the African Union Commission has said “we are not beggars” as the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, outlined a plan aimed at helping African countries to prosper in return for curbing illegal immigration.

Speaking at the much anticipated Italy-Africa summit in Rome, Moussa Faki welcomed Italy’s overtures for a mutually beneficial strengthening of relations with the African continent, but said: “We cannot be satisfied with mere promises that can’t be kept.”

Continue reading...

People smugglers recruiting skippers from central Asia on Turkey to Italy route

Posted on by

Boat drivers from former Soviet republics often have very little experience and no idea what they are doing is illegal, say NGOs

People smugglers are increasingly recruiting people from former Soviet republics in central Asia to pilot boats carrying migrants from Turkey to Italy, say NGOs and lawyers.

The migrants are taken by sea from Turkey to Italy, often using sailing boats, as an alternative to the longer overland route through the Balkans where border guards in Croatia and Slovenia have engaged in illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers at the EU border.

Continue reading...