Category Archives: Migration

Captain of migrant rescue ship says Italy ‘criminalising solidarity’

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Pia Klemp, one of the Iuventa 10, says it is ‘ridiculous’ that she could face jail

A captain of a search-and-rescue ship potentially facing up to 20 years in jail in connection with her role in saving 6,000 people from drowning in the Mediterranean has accused the EU of letting people die and the Italian authorities of “criminalising solidarity”.

Pia Klemp, 35, who skippered the Iuventa, a vessel run by an NGO, stands accused with nine others of aiding and abetting illegal migration in relation to their role in seeking to rescue people in danger after fleeing the Libyan coast for Europe.

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US fought for right to launch fresh case against two Rwandans accepted by Australia

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Exclusive: court documents show US attorney wanted to be able to prosecute pair again for ‘horrendous’ crime, before they came to Australia in refugee swap deal

Two Rwandans accepted into Australia were accused of crimes so “grave” and “horrendous” that the United States fought for the right to prosecute them a second time, court documents show.

The Australian government sparked controversy last month for accepting two Rwandan militants previously accused of murdering tourists in targeted 1999 attacks in the Bwindi Impenetrable national park in Uganda.

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Cold, alone and scared: teenage refugee tells of Channel crossing

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A teenager from Afghanistan who survived the ‘dark, cold and dangerous’ journey talks about her ordeal – and hopes for the future

Most people were still asleep on Christmas Day when Ameena landed in England. She remembers stumbling onto the Kent beach in total darkness, retching with sea sickness.

“When I arrived I was vomiting everywhere,” the teenager told the Observer during the first media interview with an unaccompanied child refugee who has entered the UK by boat.

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Venezuela’s ‘staggering’ exodus reaches 4 million, UN refugee agency says

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  • Social and political crisis drives tide of migrants
  • Colombia and Peru host half of fleeing Venezuelans

More than 4 million Venezuelans have now fled economic and humanitarian chaos in what the UN’s refugee agency called a “staggering” exodus that has swelled by 1 million people since last November alone.

Related: Venezuela at the crossroads: the who, what and why of the crisis

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Mexico tightens southern border security as another day passes with no tariff deal

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Under pressure from Trump, Mexico has launched a crackdown on the Guatemala border, arresting activists and holding migrants

As Donald Trump’s deadline for new tariffs on Mexican imports draws near, Mexico has stepped up security along its porous border with Guatemala – deploying police and soldiers to its southern frontier and arresting prominent migration activists.

Trump last week pledged to impose 5% tariffs on Mexican products on 10 June unless Mexico stops Central American migrants from travelling through its territory.

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Italy’s far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, escalates attack on judges

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Three magistrates singled out over their challenges to government’s hardline immigration policies

A simmering row over the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary in Italy has erupted after the far-right interior minister publicly singled out three magistrates who have challenged his hardline anti-immigration policies.

In an escalation of his battle with the judges and the courts, Matteo Salvini said he would ask the state attorney to examine whether the magistrates should have abstained from passing verdicts in cases involving immigrants because their opinions conflict with government policy on security and immigration.

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Aung San Suu Kyi finds common ground with Orbán over Islam

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On a rare trip to Europe, Myanmar leader and Hungary PM discuss issue of ‘growing Muslim populations’

From her failure to speak out against ethnic cleansing to imprisoning journalists, the reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi in the west has taken a battering in recent months.

But the leader of Myanmar has found a new ally in far-right, staunchly anti-immigrant Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán.

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Denmark’s centre-left set to win election with anti-immigration shift

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Social Democrats expected to return to power this week after backing once far-right policies

Tacking left on welfare and right on immigration looks likely to pay off for Denmark’s Social Democrats, who are widely expected to return to power this week as voters desert the centre-right government and the far right.

A poll this weekend predicted the centre-left party, led by Mette Frederiksen, will be the country’s largest with about 27% of the national vote after the election on Wednesday, while the “red bloc” of left-leaning parties it leads is on course for more than 55%.

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ICC submission calls for prosecution of EU over migrant deaths

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Member states should face punitive action over deaths in Mediterranean, say lawyers

The EU and member states should be prosecuted for the deaths of thousands of migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean fleeing Libya, according to a detailed legal submission to the international criminal court (ICC).

The 245-page document calls for punitive action over the EU’s deterrence-based migration policy after 2014, which allegedly “intended to sacrifice the lives of migrants in distress at sea, with the sole objective of dissuading others in similar situation from seeking safe haven in Europe”.

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‘Do they actually care?’ Rwanda survivors don’t understand why Australia took in rebels

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Rwandan community doesn’t want genocide victims’ families living in Australia to experience additional trauma

Celestin Ngoga knows what happens when Rwanda’s traumatic history comes hurtling into the present.

He’s been on European streets with genocide survivors when they encountered their attackers by chance. It can happen in English classes, he says, or on the train, or in shopping centres.

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US was ‘certain’ Rwandan pair in Australia were members of banned ‘terror group’

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Former prosecutor says US was confident when charges were brought that the two men were part of a Hutu rebel group

The attorney who brought charges against two Rwandan men recently resettled in Australia says the United States was “certain” they were members of a Hutu rebel group that was later designated a terror group by the US government.

The comments again raise questions about how the pair managed to pass Australia’s tough and vigorously applied character and security checks, under which others have been deported for minor offences or historical associations with criminal groups.

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Resettlement of Rwandan rebels labelled a ‘frustrating’ hypocrisy

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‘There never seems to be any consistent rule or fairness,’ specialist migration lawyer

A 28-year veteran of migration law whose Rwandan clients have all been denied Australia’s protection says the resettlement of two members of a violent Hutu rebel group shows a “frustrating” double standard.

Australia’s deal with the US to take in two former members of the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda, once designated a terrorist group by the US, has prompted consternation among some experts and lawyers. The pair were languishing in US detention after the collapse of a case against them for the slaughter of tourists in Uganda in 1999.

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‘When Franco was alive, it was safer’: inside Spain’s far-right battleground – video

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Vox became the first far-right party to enter Spain's parliament since the Franco era when it won 24 seats in the general election. Last week, the party fought its first mayoral campaign in El Ejido, a town in Andalucia with a population of 90,000 people, 30% of whom are migrants, often working in the 150 sq miles of fruit and vegetable greenhouses that surround the town. We follow the campaign and talk to Spaniards and migrants to find out why this socialist stronghold of 40 years is turning to the right

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Refugee swap Rwandans: how did they pass Australia’s ‘character test’?

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Two men accused of killing tourists were resettled despite being members of a group on a terrorist exclusion list, as judge in their case brands them ‘dangerous’

Two Rwandans who were let into Australia under a secret US aslyum deal could have been rejected under Australia’s strict and vigorously enforced character test, a migration law expert has said.

The assessment comes as an American judge who heard their US asylum case insisted they were “dangerous” and had posed a threat to the safety of the US.

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Transfer of vulnerable child refugees from France to UK to end, charities say

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Home Office refuses to confirm plans, but campaigners warn Dubs scheme closure would leave minors facing ‘daily risk’ of abuse

The scheme to transfer vulnerable child refugees from France to Britain is being ended, the Guardian has learned, leaving hundreds of lone children facing a “daily risk” of exploitation in Dunkirk and Calais.

Charities in France say they have been told by French authorities that only nine more children, who have already been identified, will be transferred to the UK under the Dubs scheme for unaccompanied child refugees.

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How Australia ended up taking in Rwandans accused of killing tourists

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Australia’s government faces questions over secret deal with US in which the men were granted humanitarian visas

Just hours out from a federal election, the Australian government is facing questions over its decision to grant humanitarian visas to two Rwandan men accused of the brutal 1999 murder of tourists in Uganda.

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has said that the men were subject to – and cleared – security checks, and on Friday distanced himself further by suggesting the approvals occurred when his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull was prime minister.

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Morrison knew in 2016 of Australia’s resettlement of Rwandans accused of killings

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Exclusive: US advice was that the men, who have refugee status and were accused of murdering tourists in Uganda in 1999, presented no security threat

The national security committee of cabinet was briefed about all aspects of the American refugee swap deal in late 2016, including the resettlement of two Rwandan men accused of murdering tourists in Uganda.

Guardian Australian understands the NSC was briefed, and the then treasurer, Scott Morrison, the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, and the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, were aware of all the elements of the agreement signed by Malcolm Turnbull and Barack Obama in 2016.

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I have seen the tragedy of Mediterranean migrants. This ‘art’ makes me feel uneasy

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The vessel that became a coffin for hundreds has gone on display at the Venice Biennale. It intends to stir our conscience – but is it a spectacle that exploits disaster?

On the night of 18 April 2015, about 180 kilometres from the Italian island of Lampedusa, a fishing boat capsized with hundreds of migrants on board. Among the waves and beneath the ship’s 23-metre hull, 700 passengers who had dreamed of a better life drowned in the waters of the Mediterranean.

Last week that giant, rusty vessel arrived in Venice on the occasion of the city’s Biennale art festival, where it went on display on Saturday in an installation designed by the artist Christoph Büchel.

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Up to 70 dead after boat capsizes trying to reach Europe from Libya

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Survivors report fishing vessel coming to their rescue 40 miles of coast of Tunisia

As many as 70 people trying to reach Europe from Libya have drowned after their vessel capsized in the deadliest such incident in the Mediterranean since January.

According to survivors, at least 16 of whom were rescued, the boat left Zuwara in Libya, where renewed warfare between rival factions has gripped the capital, Tripoli, in the past five weeks. The vessel capsized 40 miles off the coast of Sfax, south of Tunis, as it headed towards Italy.

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Footage shows refugees hiding as Libyan militia attack detention centre

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At least two people reportedly killed in shooting at Qasr bin Ghashir facility near Tripoli

Young refugees held in a detention centre in Libya have described being shot at indiscriminately by militias advancing on Tripoli, in an attack that reportedly left at least two people dead and up to 20 injured.

Phone footage smuggled out of the camp and passed to the Guardian highlights the deepening humanitarian crisis in the centres set up to prevent refugees and migrants from making the sea crossing from the north African coast to Europe.

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