Category Archives: Refugees

Libya’s refugees face being cut off from aid due to coronavirus

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Fear of being left without money or food following suspension of some NGO activities adds to already desperate situation

Hundreds of refugees forced to leave a UN-run centre in Libya earlier this year, including survivors of the Tajoura detention centre bombing, are among those worried about being cut off from aid in the coronavirus outbreak.

Last week, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) announced it would suspend some activities in Libya, including work at a Tripoli community day centre and a registration centre where new arrivals can sign up for help. UNHCR will also stop making visits to detention centres until staff are given personal protective equipment, though a spokesperson said the agency will increase phone counselling and outreach to refugee community leaders. Both UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration have halted resettlement flights for refugees and migrants globally.

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Coronavirus live news: global death toll passes 15,000 as WHO warns spread of virus is accelerating

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Edouard Philippe, the French prime minister, has said that country’s lockdown could last several more weeks, with new restrictions – including limits on daily exercise outside the home – now in place:

Any morning constitutional/jogging now has to be within 1km of home, 1 hour max, alone, and only once per day. https://t.co/3CvQzDtZpb

The International Olympic Committee is facing almost irresistible pressure to postpone the Tokyo Olympics this week rather than wait until its mid-April deadline – with a growing number of athletes, governments and national federations saying it is unfair to keep them in limbo during the coronavirus pandemic.

Veteran IOC member Dick Pound told USA Today that the Games would be postponed, likely to 2021, with the details to be worked out in the next four weeks. “The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.”

Related: Athletes across globe call for Olympic postponement as countries pull out

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World’s most vulnerable in ‘third wave’ for Covid-19 support, experts warn

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Fears that lack of coronavirus testing and supplies could mean refugees and those caught in crises are left behind

The world’s most vulnerable people could be last in line for support to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, experts have warned.

Countries already dealing with humanitarian and refugee crises face a struggle to find the resources to deal with the pandemic by the time it reaches them, specialists said in a webinar hosted by the New Humanitarian news agency on Thursday.

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The Greek refugees battling to prevent Covid-19 with handmade face masks

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Camp residents set up mask factory and awareness teams amid fears overcrowding and poor sanitation will spread virus

In some of the most dangerously overcrowded Greek refugee camps, it has become a race against time to raise awareness about Covid-19 and ensure an outbreak does not spread among an already vulnerable population.

In the infamous Moria camp on the island of Lesbos close to 20,000 people live in a space designed for just under 3,000.

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NGOs raise alarm as coronavirus strips support from EU refugees

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NGOs warn lone children in particular have been effectively abandoned as Covid-19 forces support services to shut

Governments across Europe are facing calls to urgently put into place measures to protect refugees and migrants – in particular lone children – as the coronavirus epidemic sees volunteer numbers plunge and many vital support services close.

On Tuesday, groups working with refugees and unaccompanied children in France and Greece implored the authorities in both countries to provide urgent help to refugees and unaccompanied minors, whom they say have been effectively abandoned by the authorities.

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Erdoğan in talks with European leaders over refugee cash for Turkey

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Border issue and other matters discussed in conference call with Germany, France and UK

Turkey has pressed European leaders to make fresh cash pledges to prevent tens of thousands of refugees from leaving the country and trying to reach Europe amid a Russian-Syrian offensive in north-west Syria.

After intense bombardment in Idlib province last month, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, encouraged thousands of refugees in the country to move on towards the Greek islands and the Baltics, in a repeat of the surge to Europe in 2015.

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Child killed in Lesbos refugee camp fire

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Blaze broke out in living container, exacerbating tensions inside the dangerously overcrowded Greek camp

A child has died in a fire in the Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, according to the Hellenic Fire service. The fire broke out in one of the living containers situated inside the camp on Monday afternoon and was fanned by strong winds, but has since been brought under control.

The child has not been named and the cause of the fire is as yet uncertain.

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Migrants on Greek islands to be offered €2,000 to go home

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One-month EU scheme offers more than five times usual sum in bid to ease pressure in camps

Migrants on the Greek islands are to be offered €2,000 (£1,764) per person to go home under a voluntary scheme launched by the European Union in an attempt to ease desperate conditions in camps.

The amount is more than five times the usual sum offered to migrants to help them rebuild their lives in their country of origin, under voluntary returns programmes run by the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM).

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Revealed: the great European refugee scandal

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Evidence obtained by the Guardian exposes a coordinated and unlawful EU assault on the rights of desperate people trying to cross the Mediterranean

As night fell on 26 March 2019, two small boats made their way north across the Mediterranean. The rubber crafts were flimsy; it would be nearly impossible for those onboard to make it to Europe without help. From the north, a twin-propeller aeroplane from the European Union naval force approached. From the south, the coastguard from the country they had just fled, Libya, was coming.

The aircraft arrived first but there would be no rescue from Europe. Instead the flight, callsign Seagull 75, radioed the Libyans telling them where to find the boats. But Libya’s would-be interceptors would need more than just the coordinates. “OK sir, my radar is not good, is not good, if you stay [over the boat] I will follow you,” said the coastguard, according to recordings of VHF marine radio picked up by a nearby ship.

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Lesbos coronavirus case sparks fears for refugee camp

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Wave of anti-migrant violence has left refugees without food and medical care – and more vulnerable to disease than ever before

News of a confirmed case of Covid-19 on Lesbos has sparked fears of the impact of an outbreak at the overcrowded Moria refugee camp, where refugees live in dire conditions with appalling hygiene and little medical care.

The troubling conditions in the camp have worsened this week, and tensions on the island have seen several NGOs forced to reduce or close services over safety fears.

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EU and Turkey hold ‘frank’ talks over border opening for migrants

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Brussels agrees to rehouse up to 1,500 children as conditions in Greek camps deteriorate

EU leaders in Brussels held “frank” talks with president Recep Tayyip Erdoğanon Monday over his decision to open Turkey’s border to migrants travelling to Europe, as deteriorating conditions in Greek camps led to the bloc agreeing to rehouse up to 1,500 child refugees.

The presidents of the European commission and council, Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, sought a way to save the current migration deal with Turkey during difficult discussions with Erdoğan in Brussels.

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Refugees told ‘Europe is closed’ as tensions rise at Greece-Turkey border

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Teargas fired by both sides amid political standoff over people displaced by war in Syria

The EU has told migrants in Turkey that Europe’s doors are closedas Greek and Turkish police fired teargas at their shared border amid growing tensions over the plight of Syria’s refugees.

In a blunt message, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said: “Don’t go to the border. The border is not open. If someone tells you that you can go because the border is open … that is not true.

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With its heavy-handed response to the border crisis, Europe is making a bad situation worse | Daniel Trilling

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Turkey’s decision not to stop migrants crossing its borders will force politicians to reveal what they plan to do with them

“April 4th, 1984. Last night to the flicks,” runs a diary entry by Winston Smith, the protagonist of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. “One very good one of a ship full of refugees being bombed somewhere in the Mediterranean. Audience much amused by shots of a great huge fat man trying to swim away […] audience shouting with laughter when he sank.” Orwell is so often reduced to cliche, but this quote has been stuck in my mind since footage was circulated online this week of a Greek coastguard boat apparently trying to capsize a migrant dinghy in the narrow strip of sea between Turkey and Greece’s Aegean islands.

Related: Turkey deploys 1,000 police at Greek border as tensions rise

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Aerial footage shows queues near Greek-Turkish border – video

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Hundreds of refugees and migrants were queuing and camping near the Turkish-Greek border on Thursday. This footage was shot from a Turkish government helicopter while the interior minister, Süleyman Soylu, was inspecting the region. Last week Turkey announced it would no longer abide by a 2016 deal with the EU to reduce illegal migration

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The humanitarian crisis in Turkey shines a light on Europe’s failures | Elif Shafak

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Turkey was once on course to join the EU. The desperate refugees trapped on its border reflect a broken relationship

To understand Europe, we need to look more carefully at its borders. Too often, the debates on the future of Europe focus on a few leading nations and overlook the periphery. Yet the fate of the continent is deeply and inevitably connected with what’s happening along its fringes. And there is no bordering country that has as complex and confusing a relationship with Europe as Turkey – it was, after all, the Ottoman empire that was first referred to as “the sick man of Europe”.

Related: Migration: EU praises Greece as 'shield' after Turkey opens border

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Putin and Erdoğan in last-ditch talks to secure Syria ceasefire

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Russian and Turkish leaders will try to hammer out yet another deal to stabilise Idlib

A summit between the leaders of Turkey and Russia on Thursday may be the last chance to work out a deal that avoids further calamity in north-west Syria.

Faced with increasing military losses in Idlib province and a potential wave of people fleeing the fighting, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is eager for a ceasefire – and Vladimir Putin is ready to bargain.

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Germany tweets to deter Syrian refugees, fearing ‘repeat of 2015’

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Government says it will support Greece as thousands of people arrive at Turkish border

The German government – anxious about the political consequences of a “repeat of 2015” – is tolerating Greece’s decision to suspend asylum claims at its borders and has launched a social media campaign to deter Syrian refugees from embarking on a journey to central Europe.

About 12,500 people are estimated to be waiting on the Turkish side of the Greek border after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Saturday that he would open his country’s borders for refugees fleeing the nine-year war in Syria to cross over into Europe.

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‘Now we don’t have to be afraid’: Syrian family who made it to safety in Turkey

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Turkish border with Syria remains closed to most but some have escaped horrors of Idlib

In a video shot by her father, three-year-old Salwa listens intently to the rumble of military hardware in the distance. “Is it a plane or a shell?” he asks as they sit together on the sofa. “Shell!” she shouts, giggling hysterically when it explodes.

Turning the sounds of airstrikes and shelling into a game is how Abdullah Mohammed, 32, protected his daughter from the trauma of Syria’s war. Last week the family made it to the safety of Antakya, just over the Turkish border. Dancing around her new home in a pink princess dress, for the first time in her life Salwa doesn’t have to listen to the sounds of the conflict.

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