Category Archives: Migration

Clot theory curdles into junkets for migrants on Isle of Man

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PM welcomes vaccine safety vow, then spots new offshore home for folk trafficked here under false pretence – of getting a welcome

After a morning spent painting flowers at a primary school in his Uxbridge constituency, Britain’s prize clot returned to Downing Street to lead a press conference on clots. Blood clots to be precise.

Following the decision of some countries to suspend their Oxford AstraZeneca vaccination programmes over concerns of blood clot side-effects, Boris Johnson was happy to report that the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency had declared the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to be absolutely safe.

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‘I woke up, he was gone’: Senegal suffers as young men risk all to reach Europe

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As tourism plummets and fishing nets go empty, more are attempting the treacherous 1,000 mile journey to the Canaries

In the old Senegalese port city of Saint Louis, 12 women step off the sun-baked street and through a doorway draped with pink silk into a dim room beyond.

After greetings are over, one by one they recount their stories. Recent memories of husbands, sons and brothers they have lost at sea, revealing precious pictures on smartphones of moments when they last cradled children or kissed their families.

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Moroccan police accused of burning migrant shelters near Spanish enclave

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Refugees and migrants camped along border to Melilla say there have been repeated raids following 150 people attempting to cross

Migrants in northern Morocco said they had been forced to sleep out in the open after repeated raids by police, who allegedly burned down their shelters in camps near the Spanish enclave Melilla.

Those camped along the border said Moroccan forces returned for a fourth day on Friday despite having already torched most of their tents.

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What is Joe Biden doing to cope with a rise in unaccompanied child migrants?

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As the administration tackles Trump’s legacy February saw more minors arriving alone at the southern border than since May 2019

Joe Biden’s promise of a more “fair, safe and orderly” immigration system is facing an early test as the number of children seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border has increased this year.

Related: Surge in migrants seeking to cross Mexico border poses challenge for Biden

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Rescuers find 39 bodies off Tunisia after two boats sink

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Coastguards were able to save 165 people before rescue called off due to bad weather and nightfall

At least 39 migrants have drowned off Tunisia when two boats capsized, the defence ministry has said, as numbers risking the dangerous crossing to Europe continued to rise.

Rescuers pulled 165 survivors from the foundering boats to safety on Tuesday.

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Humanitarian crisis looms on Chile-Bolivia border as migrants cross on foot

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Chile closed land borders last year due to Covid but authorities report surge in crossings, mostly Venezuelan migrants

Activists are warning of a looming humanitarian crisis on the border between Chile and Bolivia as growing numbers of migrants brave the harsh terrain of the Chilean altiplano to cross the frontier on foot.

Chile closed its land borders last year as a preventive measure during the Covid-19 pandemic, but authorities have reported a surge in irregular crossings, mostly caused by Venezuelan migrants fleeing economic instability and political turmoil in their home country.

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Croatia: landmine from 1990s Balkan wars kills asylum seeker

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Device explodes near border with Bosnia, killing one man and injuring at least four others

A landmine from the 1990s Balkan wars has exploded, killing a migrant and injured several others in an area of central Croatia littered with unexploded ordnance.

The blast occurred on Thursday in woodland near Saborsko, close to the Bosnian border where a group of asylum seekers were attempting to traverse the country, Croatian authorities said in a statement.

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Refugee rescuers charged in Italy with complicity in people smuggling

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Staff of charities including Save the Children and MSF among dozens facing sentences of up to 20 years over humanitarian work

After an investigation lasting almost four years, Italian prosecutors have charged dozens of rescuers, from charities including Save the Children and Médecins Sans Frontières, who were accused of collaborating with people smugglers after saving thousands of people from drowning in the Mediterranean.

Investigators in Trapani, Sicily, formally closed the inquiry on Monday and charged more than 20 people, including boat captains, heads of mission and legal representatives, with crimes carrying sentences of up to 20 years.

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‘Help and you are a criminal’: the fight to defend refugee rights at Europe’s borders

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As illegal, and often violent, pushbacks of asylum seekers continue – human rights groups also report growing hostility

At the offices of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights group in Budapest, András Léderer and his colleagues have a map on which they track every asylum seeker – man, woman or child – who has been physically pushed back by police from the Hungarian border and into the forests of Serbia.

The pushbacks are illegal under international law. Yet it is Léderer and his fellow human rights activists who could face arrest and a jail sentence if they went to the border to witness what is happening there.

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Pro-choice protests in Warsaw and Myanmar coup: 20 photos on human rights this week

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A roundup of the best photography on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Algeria to Uganda

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Revealed: 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar as it gears up for World Cup

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Guardian analysis indicates shocking figure likely to be an underestimate, as preparations for 2022 tournament continue

More than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since it won the right to host the World Cup 10 years ago, the Guardian can reveal.

The findings, compiled from government sources, mean an average of 12 migrant workers from these five south Asian nations have died each week since the night in December 2010 when the streets of Doha were filled with ecstatic crowds celebrating Qatar’s victory.

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Spanish police rescue migrants hidden in waste containers – video

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Spanish authorities have rescued several people who had been hiding in recycling containers in the Spanish enclave of Melilla, on the tip of Morocco, where each year thousands of migrants attempt to reach the Spanish mainland from northern Africa. Footage released by Spain’s Guardia Civil shows individuals partially buried in a container of glass bottles and another inside a bag of toxic ash

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‘I won’t go back’: why Libyans are joining the boats leaving their shores

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Libya, a transit stop for migrants trying to reach Europe, is now facing an exodus of its own people

After witnessing abuse and discrimination, Sherif Targi*, 21, decided to leave Libya for Europe.

“I saw killing and massacres because of the conflicts between Tuaregs and the Tebu [ethnic minorities],” he says.

Targi is a Tuareg from the desert city of Ubari in Libya’s south-west. Under Muammar Gaddafi, Tuareg people were marginalised – not issued government IDs, and restricted from getting work and public services. Things didn’t improve after the dictator was ousted.

In October 2019, Targi left home, travelling more than 600 miles (1,000km) to the coastal city of Zuwara. From there, he and about 200 other people, mainly Syrians, Moroccans and Sudanese, crammed themselves on board an overloaded wooden boat, and set off on a dangerous 18-hour journey.

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Migrant boat sinks off Lampedusa with one dead and 22 missing

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Tunisian navy had to end rescue effort early due to bad weather but pulled one body from the water

One migrant is dead and 22 others are missing after their boat sank in the Mediterranean sea off the Italian island of Lampedusa, the Tunisian navy has said.

Bad weather interrupted rescue operations around 100 kilometres (62 miles) north-west of Lampedusa, the navy said on Saturday, adding that the body of one migrant had been pulled from the water, while 22 were missing.

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Hong Kong: alarm over proposed law that could ban anyone from leaving

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Barristers say proposal would give head of immigration ‘unfettered power’ to stop people leaving the city without any court process

The influential Hong Kong Bar Association has spoken out against a government proposal that could give “apparently unfettered power” to the immigration director to stop anyone leaving the city.

The Hong Kong Bar Association (HKBA) expressed alarm on Friday in a paper submitted to the city’s legislative council about the proposed law, which could bar any individual – whether resident or not – from boarding a carrier out of the financial hub.

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‘Back empty-handed’: Bangladeshis cut off from jobs abroad face rising poverty

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Whole communities supported by overseas work are at risk of extreme poverty after the pandemic forced thousands home

When the pandemic forced Firoza Begum back to Bangladesh after six months trapped in her employer’s house without pay, her husband was so angry she had returned empty-handed that he would not let her move back in to the family home.

All her savings after 14 years working in the Middle East had been spent escaping her abusive employer.

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Britain should welcome Hongkongers, but not the ‘good migrant’ narrative | Jeevan Vasager

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The idea that Hong Kong migration will give the UK an entrepreneurial rocket boost is based on imperial stereotypes

Ministers swell with pride as they speak of profound ties of history and friendship, while polling shows that a substantial majority of Britons are in favour and newspaper headlines are overwhelmingly positive.

Immigration has always been a contentious issue in Britain. So why, as the UK opens a path to citizenship for millions of Hong Kong residents, is it different this time?

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A Bosnian winter: families bid to reach Europe’s heart – in pictures

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Through mud and ice, parents and children from Afghanistan and elsewhere attempt the desperate crossing into Croatia. Few make it. Most are reportedly pushed back, time and again, often brutally. The Guardian followed some migrants on their exhausting journeys

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‘Police searched my baby’s nappy’: migrant families on the perilous Balkan route

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‘The game’ of crossing the Croatian-Bosnian border with children often results in degrading treatment and violent pushbacks, refugees say

An Afghan girl pulls her baby sister along in a pram through the mud and snow. Saman is six and baby Darya is 10 months old. They and their family have been pushed back into Bosnia 11 times by the Croatian police, who stripped Darya bare to check if the parents had hidden mobile phones or money in her nappy.

“They searched her as though she were an adult. I could not believe my eyes,” says Darya’s mother, Maryam, 40, limping through the mud and clinging to a stick.

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