Category Archives: Refugees

Croatian police use violence to push back migrants, president admits

Posted on by

Human Rights Watch calls on Croatia to end illegal practice of forcing people back over Bosnian border

After months of official denials, Croatia’s president has admitted that the country’s police are involved in the violent pushbacks of migrants and asylum seekers apprehended inside the country.

The best chance for thousands of refugees stuck in Bosnia is to cross its border with Croatia to make it to the European Union. For the past year there has been repeated evidence of police using force against those who have made it across the border and then dumping them back in Bosnia.

Continue reading...

Rose seeds from Syria: the refugee family cultivating a new life | Jenny Gustafsson

Posted on by

Sweet-smelling success for Syrians who have settled in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley is dampened by growing anti-Syrian sentiment

When the plastic bucket is filled with roses, Nahla al-Zarda takes it into the kitchen, where she separates the petals from the buds. She soaks them in boiling water, which blushes pink.

“I love this colour. It will be even stronger when the drink is ready,” she says.

Continue reading...

Man dies as police shootout follows firebomb attack on immigration centre

Posted on by

Authorities say man threw incendiary devices and tried to ignite propane tank at Tacoma Northwest Detention Centre in Washington state

A 69-year-old man armed with a rifle threw incendiary devices at an immigration jail in Washington state early on Saturday morning, then was found dead after four police officers arrived and opened fire, authorities said.

The Tacoma police department said the officers responded about 4am to the privately run Tacoma Northwest Detention Centre, a US Department of Homeland Security detention facility that holds migrants pending deportation proceedings.

Continue reading...

‘I saw hell’: under fire inside Libya’s refugee detention centres | Sally Hayden

Posted on by

As deadly airstrikes prompt plans to release detainees, fears rise for those trapped in the country amid claims of serious abuses

Kosofo was hiding in the bathroom when a deadly airstrike ripped through the ceiling of the hall he was locked inside, in Tripoli’s Tajoura migrant detention centre last week.

“I saw the hell with my eyes. I saw things that I had seen during the Darfur war,” says the Sudanese man in his 20s, who has asked to go by a nickname for his own safety.

Continue reading...

Rescued refugees land in Sicily as another ship defies Salvini

Posted on by

Charity vessel carrying 41 docks in Lampedusa after two days stranded at sea

Forty-one refugees and migrants disembarked overnight at the port of Lampedusa after a charity vessel that rescued them off Libya defied an attempt by Italy’s far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, to close ports to NGO boats.

The Italian-flagged Alex, run by the NGO Mediterranea, was escorted by the Italian coastguard and on Saturday the ship was seized by police, the captain was put under investigation for allegedly aiding illegal immigration, and the rescuees eventually disembarked. Mediterranea was fined €16.000 (£14,300).

Continue reading...

Survivor of shipwreck off Tunisia describes vessel going down

Posted on by

Malian was one of four out of over 80 people on board who were rescued after raft sank

One of only four survivors after an inflatable raft carrying more than 80 people capsized off the coast of Tunisia has recounted his ordeal as 54 rescuees from a separate shipwreck headed to Malta.

Soleiman Coulibaly, from Mali, said he had spent two days clinging to a piece of wood after the engine caught fire and the inflatable sank.

Continue reading...

More than 80 feared dead as migrant boat capsizes off Tunisia

Posted on by

Four men were pulled from sinking vessel with one later dying in hospital, says official

More than 80 people trying to reach Europe from Libya are feared dead after their boat capsized off the coast of Tunisia, according to the UN migration agency.

The boat sank on Wednesday off the port town of Zarzis and 82 of the migrants who had been onboard were missing, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. Fishermen pulled four men from the sinking boat, said Lorena Lando, the agency’s head in Tunisia. One of the four died later in hospital.

Continue reading...

Why attack on Libya detention centre was grimly predictable

Posted on by

The EU has long been aware of the terrible plight of migrants detained or trapped in Libya

Shocking as the precise circumstances are behind the deaths of at least 44 people in an airstrike that hit a detention centre in Tajoura in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, it is a predictable incident.

Even as footage circulated online claiming to show blood and body parts mixed with rubble and migrants’ belongings from the air raid blamed on the forces of the warlord Khalifa Haftar, it emerged the detainees had been housed in a hangar next to a weapons store – the likely target of the strike.

Continue reading...

More than €1m raised for rescue ship captain detained in Italy

Posted on by

Money will go towards paying Carola Rackete’s legal fees if charges are brought

Two online campaigns to help the German captain of a rescue ship under house arrest in Italy have between them raised more than €1m.

Carola Rackete’s arrest on Saturday, after she forced her way into port in Lampedusa carrying migrants and refugees she had rescued off Libya, prompted a fundraising appeal by two prominent German TV stars that by Tuesday morning had raised €917,195 from more than 33,000 donors.

Continue reading...

Captain defends her decision to force rescue boat into Italian port

Posted on by

Carola Rackete says act of ‘disobedience’ in Lampedusa was necessary to avert tragedy

An NGO rescue boat captain who has risked jail time after forcing her way into Lampedusa port in Italy with 40 migrants onboard has defended her act of “disobedience”, saying it was necessary to avert a tragedy.

“It wasn’t an act of violence, but only one of disobedience,” the Sea-Watch 3 skipper, Carola Rackete, told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Sunday, as donations poured in for her legal defence.

Continue reading...

Syrian refugees forced to destroy their own homes in Lebanon

Posted on by

Demolition ordered by military leaves 5,000 families homeless again, says charity

Syrian refugees in Lebanon are being forced to tear down their own homes in the face of an aggressive new campaign by the Lebanese authorities to pressure refugees into returning home.

In the border town of Arsal, informal settlements that house 55,000 refugees were the scene of frantic activity under the hot summer sun on Friday as young men took apart the breeze-block homes with pickaxes, hammers and drills, covering the ground in rubble and dust.

Continue reading...

‘If you pay, you’ll go’: Dadaab residents claim bribery is price of getting home

Posted on by

Somali people at Kenya’s sprawling refugee camp allege that UN staff want money for everything from food to repatriation

Four years ago, Asha made what seemed like an impossible decision. She knew the journey from Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp back to her native Somalia was risky. But after an attack by the Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab, the Kenyan government had threatened to close the vast, sprawling camp for security reasons. Asha feared for her family’s safety if Kenyan soldiers moved in to evict them.

“I wanted to be gone before the rough-up,” recalls Asha. “I didn’t want my girls raped by [the] military forcing them on buses. I wanted to protect myself too.–

Continue reading...

Number of asylum seekers sent back to Italy triples in five years

Posted on by

EU countries sending growing numbers back to country of arrival in bloc

The number of asylum seekers returned to Italy from elsewhere in Europe under a controversial EU regulation has almost tripled in five years, amid concern over their treatment in Italy and Germany.

Under the terms of the Dublin regulation, member states can send people back to their country of arrival in the EU – usually Italy or Greece.

Continue reading...

Former Manus Island detainee tells UN ‘human beings are being destroyed’

Posted on by

Abdul Aziz Muhamat delivers a plea for urgent action to the Human Rights Council

Since Abdul Aziz Muhamat left Manus Island for the last time, he has climbed a mountain in his new home of Switzerland, and then returned to advocating for the resettlement of the hundreds of men and women he left behind.

The Sudanese refugee spent more than six years in Australia’s offshore processing and detention system in Papua New Guinea, before he was granted residency in the European nation earlier this month.

Continue reading...

Bangladeshi migrants in Tunisia forced to return home, aid groups claim

Posted on by

Relatives say more than 30 people stuck at sea told to go home or lose food and water

More than 30 migrants from Bangladesh who were trapped on a merchant ship off Tunisia for three weeks have been sent back to their home country against their will, according to relatives.

They were among 75 migrants rescued on 31 May by the Maridive 601, an Egyptian tugboat that services offshore oil platforms, only to spend the next 20 days at sea near the Tunisian coast.

Continue reading...

Refugees Got Talent: UN-backed show aims to change perceptions

Posted on by

Poet, dancer and a reggae singer were among those displaying their skills in Sicily

A teenage poet from Nigeria, a reggae singer from Sierra Leona and a Colombian dancer were among those competing in Sicily this weekend in a UN-backed talent show aimed at reshaping the narrative around migrants.

Refugees Got Talent, the first event of its kind to be held on an international level, featured dozens of people seeking shelter from war-torn countries, as well as victims of human trafficking. This weekend, 13 finalists showed off their skills in Catania, performing songs, music, art and theatre in front of a judging panel that included the British actor Douglas Booth.

Continue reading...

From Somali refugee to England’s first female Muslim football referee

Posted on by

Jawahir Roble’s love of football was forged on the streets of wartorn Mogadishu. Now she is training and inspiring young female footballers in the UK

On a sunny afternoon, a group of mothers in hijabs sit on the bench of a football pitch, watching their daughters play football at the Stonebridge recreation ground in north-west London.

As World Cup fever grips the UK, the girls’ enthusiasm for the training session is matched by their obvious adoration of their coach and referee, Jawahir Roble, known as JJ to her friends.

Continue reading...

Canada took in more refugees than any other country in 2018, UN says

Posted on by

Canada resettled 28,100 refugees last year, overtaking the US for the first time since the 1980 Refugee Act, UN report found

Canada took in more refugees than any other country in the world in 2018, according to a United Nations report, knocking the US from its position as global leader in resettling people fleeing war, persecution and conflict.

Canada resettled 28,1000 refugees in 2018, overtaking the US for the first time since the 1980 Refugee Act, said the report from the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Migrants stranded at sea for three weeks now risk deportation, aid groups warn

Posted on by

Group of 75 people survive prolonged ordeal but could now be made to leave Tunisia

A group of migrants who spent nearly three weeks trapped onboard a merchant ship in torrid conditions face possible deportation to their home countries after they were finally allowed to disembark in Tunisia, aid groups have warned.

The 75 migrants, about half of whom are minors or unaccompanied children, were rescued on 31 May by the Maridive 601 only to spend the next 20 days at sea as European authorities refused to let them land.

Continue reading...