Exclusive: 12 die as Malta uses private ships to push migrants back to Libya

Posted on May 19, 2020 by Admin

Survivor reveals further evidence to Guardian and La Repubblica of Malta’s deadly strategy to intercept migrants crossings

Further evidence of Malta’s strategy to push migrants back to the conflict zone of Libya has been revealed by a woman who survived a Mediterranean crossing in which 12 people died.

A series of voice messages obtained by the Guardian have provided confirmation of the Maltese government’s strategy to use private vessels, acting at the behest of its armed forces, in order to intercept migrant crossings and return refugees to Libyan detention centres.

Coronavirus cases among refugees on Lesbos spark fresh calls for evacuation

Posted on May 14, 2020 by Admin

NGOs say infections among arriving refugees show urgent need to move more migrants from Moria camp to mainland

Two migrants arriving by sea to the Greek island of Lesbos tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday, leading to increased calls for evacuation of the overcrowded local camps.

The Moria camp in Lesbos has so far not reported cases of the virus, though two other camps and a hotel where asylum-seekers are staying were locked down in April after positive coronavirus tests were returned.

French court scraps olive farmer’s conviction for helping migrants cross border

Posted on May 13, 2020 by Admin

Amnesty International says appeals ruling will affect ‘acts of solidarity’ throughout Europe

A French court has scrapped all charges against an olive farmer who helped migrants enter the country illegally, the final chapter in a groundbreaking case that defined so-called “crimes of solidarity”.

Cedric Herrou, who helped about 200 migrants cross the border from Italy into southern France, was given a four-month suspended sentence in August 2017.

Croatian police accused of spray-painting heads of asylum seekers

Posted on May 12, 2020 by Admin

UN has asked the government to investigate latest allegations of abuse against migrants crossing on Balkan route from Bosnia

Croatian police are allegedly spray-painting the heads of asylum seekers with crosses when they attempt to cross the border from Bosnia.

The Guardian has obtained a number of photographs of what has been described by charities as the “latest humiliation’’ perpetrated by the Croatian authorities against migrants travelling along the Balkan route.

Refugee families reunited in UK after rescue flight from Greece

Posted on May 11, 2020 by Admin

Vulnerable people from Greek refugee camps reunited with close family at Heathrow

Some 47 highly vulnerable migrants have arrived in the UK on an “unprecedented” family reunion flight from Greece.

British refugees travelled to Heathrow to greet nephews, brothers, husbands and wives after Monday’s flight brought people from Syria, Somalia and Afghanistan to join close family in the UK. The reunion was the result of two months of intense lobbying by the campaign group Safe Passage and the British peer Alf Dubs.

‘Finally, at last’: vulnerable migrants to leave Greece for UK

Posted on May 11, 2020 by Admin

Group including teenagers Walid and Mustafa will be reunited with relatives after grim odyssey

Until last week, Walid and Mustafa had never met. Owing to their disparate backgrounds, they might not have had anything in common, bar their age: both turned 18 this year.

But the fresh-faced, bright-eyed teenagers have been brought together by a common desire to escape danger in their respective homelands – Syria and Somalia – and rebuild lives shattered by war.

Family reunion rescue flight to bring vulnerable migrants from Athens to UK

Posted on May 10, 2020 by Admin

Exclusive: Greek PM intervenes to help 50 asylum seekers reach UK despite ban on direct flights

An unprecedented family reunion rescue flight is due to leave Athens, bringing 52 vulnerable migrants, including several minors, to join family in the UK.

The flight on Monday is the result of intense efforts by refugee families in the UK with the support of campaign group Safe Passage and the peer Alf Dubs. It was organised with collaboration from the UK and Greek governments after direct flights between Greece and the UK were suspended in March.

‘There is no future’: the refugees who became pawns in Erdoğan’s game

Posted on May 8, 2020 by Admin

First the asylum seekers were used to further Turkey’s regional ambitions, now they are made to suffer in quarantine camps

At the beginning of March, thousands of refugees gathered in the shadow of the Pazarkule border gate in Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he would “open the gate” to Europe.

The move was a reaction to the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in Idlib province on 28 February and designed to exert pressure on the EU and Nato to support its military operation in northern Syria.

Rohingya refugees sent to remote Bangladeshi island after weeks at sea

Posted on May 3, 2020 by Admin

Hundreds more refugees still stranded on boats after being turned away by Malaysia

Rohingya refugees believed to have spent weeks stranded on cramped boats at sea have been sent to a remote, uninhabited island by Bangladesh, while hundreds more remain adrift.

Dozens of Rohingya landed on the coast of southern Bangladesh on Saturday, an official said, with some sent to Bhasan Char, a silt island in the estuary of Bangladesh’s Meghna river.

£40m for islanders exiled from British territory goes unspent

Posted on May 3, 2020 by Admin

Chagossians promised aid go hungry as coronavirus renders them jobless in a foreign state

Chagos Islanders living in exile from the territory claimed by Britain, and left destitute by the coronavirus downturn, have been refused support by the UK government, leaving some unable to buy enough food.

They question why a £40m support package – which was announced by the UK government in 2016 to assist Chagossians living in the UK, Mauritius and Seychelles – isn’t being used to help them during this time. The fund has gone largely unspent since its launch.

Malaysia cites Covid-19 for rounding up hundreds of migrants

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Admin

In move condemned by UN, refugees including Rohingya arrested amid rising climate of xenophobia

Malaysian authorities have rounded up and detained hundreds of undocumented migrants, including Rohingya refugees, as part of efforts to contain coronavirus, officials said.

Authorities said 586 undocumented migrants were arrested in a raid in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Friday. Armed police walked people through the city in a single file to a detention building, according to activists. The UN said the move could push vulnerable groups into hiding and prevent them from seeking treatment.

‘Let the boats in’: Rohingya refugees plead for stranded relatives to be saved

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Admin

Two boats still stranded at sea as Malaysia accused of using Covid-19 as an excuse to turn them back

Rohingya refugees whose relatives, including children, have been stranded for weeks on cramped boats have urged international governments to act before they perish at sea.

Two boats carrying around 500 people were last spotted off Bangladesh about a week ago, but are believed to have returned to the high seas. The refugees on board, who were fleeing desperate conditions in camps in Bangladesh, had attempted to reach Malaysia but appear to have been turned away. Bangladesh has also said it will not allow the boats to dock.

Record 50 million people internally displaced in 2019, study finds

Posted on April 28, 2020 by Admin

Covid-19 is likely to impact aid for people forced from their homes by conflict and disaster around the world, experts warn

A total of 50.8 million people around the world were recorded as internally displaced last year, forced from their homes by conflict and disaster. This is the highest number ever, and 10 million more than in 2018.

Annual statistics published by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) calculated that by the end of 2019, 45.7 million people were internally displaced – effectively becoming refugees in their own country – as a result of violence in 61 countries. An additional 5.1 million people in 96 countries had been displaced by disasters.

Rwandan police chief accused of sexual assault of child refugee at UN centre

Posted on April 27, 2020 by Admin

Boy, 16, evacuated from Libya under EU scheme, alleges incident took place at Gashora transit facility during coronavirus curfew

An allegation that a Rwandan police commander sexually assaulted a child refugee has rocked an EU-funded scheme, under which hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers have been evacuated from detention centres in Libya.

The allegation was made by a 16-year-old Eritrean boy, who had returned to Gashora transit centre, south of Kigali, after a coronavirus-related curfew on 13 April.

Coronavirus pandemic is becoming a human rights crisis, UN warns

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Admin

Report released on authoritarian responses, surveillance, closed borders and other rights abuses

The coronavirus pandemic must not be used as a pretext for authoritarian states to trample over individual human rights, or repress the free flow of information, the UN secretary general António Guterres warned today in a fresh attempt to bring the UN’s influence to bear on the crisis. He said what had started as a public health emergency was rapidly turning into a human rights crisis.

Government responses to the crisis have been regarded as disproportionate in countries including China, India, Hungary, Turkey and South Africa.

Malaysia and Thailand urged to help stranded Rohingya refugees

Posted on April 17, 2020 by Admin

Amnesty International makes plea over hundreds of people stuck on as many as five boats

Hundreds more Rohingya refugees remain stranded at sea, rights groups have warned, just one day after it emerged that dozens of people died onboard a boat that was refused entry to Malaysia and left adrift for two months.

On Friday, Malaysia’s air force confirmed it had denied entry to a second boat carrying about 200 Rohingya people, claiming it had done so to prevent further spread of the coronavirus within the country, which remains under lockdown.

Food rations to 1.4 million refugees cut in Uganda due to funding shortfall

Posted on April 14, 2020 by Admin

World Food Programme announce 30% relief reduction, as farms and businesses shut in Covid-19 lockdown, fuelling hunger fears

Food rations have been cut to more than 1.4 million vulnerable refugees in Uganda by the World Food Programme (WFP) because of insufficient funds.

Announcing a 30% reduction to the relief food it distributes to refugees and asylum seekers, mainly from neighbouring South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, the WFP in Uganda warned that further cuts could follow.

Calls in Italy to rescue people at sea after fears of more migrant deaths

Posted on April 13, 2020 by Admin

Politicians urge government to act as EU states are accused of abandoning boats in distress

Italian parliamentarians have urged the government to rescue people at sea amid fears that many migrants may have drowned over the weekend as they tried to make their way to Europe from Libya.

EU member states have been accused of abandoning people at sea after failing to respond to information provided by NGOs that four boats, carrying 258 migrants between them, were in distress.

Covid-19 spreading quickly though refugee camps, warn Calais aid groups

Posted on April 9, 2020 by Admin

With over 1,000 refugees and migrants left without proper sanitation, water supplies or food there is no way to contain virus, say volunteers

The last remaining volunteers working with refugees and migrants in northern France have warned that Covid-19 is spreading quickly through the makeshift camps where over 1,000 people are sheltering without proper sanitation, water supplies or food.

Care4Calais, one of the only organisations still providing emergency services to migrants and refugees in Calais, said the number of people exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19 rose from two to nine in just three days last week.

‘The NHS needs them’: UK urged to join countries mobilising migrant medics

Posted on April 8, 2020 by Admin

As several countries relax immigration rules for medically-trained refugees and migrants in the wake of coronavirus, campaigners are calling for Britain to follow suit

Campaigners have welcomed the relaxation of immigration restrictions by governments across Europe and the Americas to allow doctors, nurses and other key workers from refugee and migrant communities to join efforts against coronavirus.

And they urged countries still preventing medically-trained asylum seekers from working – including Britain – to follow suit

Roundup Newswires

Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network

Category Archives: Refugees

Exclusive: 12 die as Malta uses private ships to push migrants back to Libya

Coronavirus cases among refugees on Lesbos spark fresh calls for evacuation

French court scraps olive farmer’s conviction for helping migrants cross border

Croatian police accused of spray-painting heads of asylum seekers

Refugee families reunited in UK after rescue flight from Greece

‘Finally, at last’: vulnerable migrants to leave Greece for UK

Family reunion rescue flight to bring vulnerable migrants from Athens to UK

‘There is no future’: the refugees who became pawns in Erdoğan’s game

Rohingya refugees sent to remote Bangladeshi island after weeks at sea

£40m for islanders exiled from British territory goes unspent

Malaysia cites Covid-19 for rounding up hundreds of migrants

‘Let the boats in’: Rohingya refugees plead for stranded relatives to be saved

Record 50 million people internally displaced in 2019, study finds

Rwandan police chief accused of sexual assault of child refugee at UN centre

Coronavirus pandemic is becoming a human rights crisis, UN warns

Malaysia and Thailand urged to help stranded Rohingya refugees

Food rations to 1.4 million refugees cut in Uganda due to funding shortfall

Calls in Italy to rescue people at sea after fears of more migrant deaths

Covid-19 spreading quickly though refugee camps, warn Calais aid groups

‘The NHS needs them’: UK urged to join countries mobilising migrant medics