emma wallis

• Bangladesh
• United Kingdom

Mahbuba Jebin has been involved in politics since she was a student in Bangladesh. She was a member of the student wing of the current ruling party, the Awami League. For years she lived a life of privilege and power. However, her decision to marry a member of the opposition BNP party put her at odds with many in her own party. A campaign of intimidation started which led her to flee the country she loves and seek asylum in the UK. Despite all the difficulties, she continues to write every day.

• Turkey
• United Kingdom

Zozan Yasar is a Kurdish journalist from Turkey. Denied access to education, Zozan taught herself to read and write and went to university to get a degree before working as a journalist. As a Kurd, she struggled to officially register her Kurdish name with the government in Turkey. After arrests and harassment, she was eventually forced to seek asylum in the UK.

• United Kingdom

At FoodCycle, groups of volunteers cook donated food, which would otherwise have been thrown away, for communities in need around the UK. One of their projects in London is run at the Happy Baby Community for migrant and refugee women and their children. One of the volunteer project leaders is Pepe Clavijo, a Venezuelan migrant who wants to give something back to the community.

• Afghanistan
• Iran
• Lebanon

The charity Migrateful was set up two years ago to help refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants in the UK teach cooking classes in a bid to help them on their journey to integration. It currently operates in London and Kent and is about to launch in Bristol.

• Lebanon
• United Kingdom

In 2008, Ahmed was shot while working as a paramedic in Lebanon during an internal conflict between Shia and Sunni. He arrived in the UK three years ago after a second shooting made him fear for his life. He has been seeking asylum ever since. While his case is still pending, he can’t work and is destitute. Last September he started teaching Lebanese cooking classes with ‘Migrateful’ and the charity has become ‘like a family’ to him.

• Germany
• Italy
• Libya

As a result of new amendments to Italy’s security decree, fines up to one million euros could be imposed on private rescue organizations who attempt to disembark rescued migrants in Italy or defy refusals to enter Italian waters. The latest amendments were passed into law by Italy’s upper house, the Senate, on Monday, August 5.

• Libya

Migrants are being allowed to leave the Tajoura detention center in the Libyan capital Tripoli, about two weeks after it was hit by an air strike which killed at least 53 people and injured 130 others. The UNHCR Libya is trying to register and provide assistance to many who have left but what will happen to them next?

• Germany
• Greece
• Italy

Calls for a political solution to sharing out the migrants arriving from the Mediterranean have been coming from almost all sides of the debate for some time. Now the EU Commissioner responsible for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, has proposed a new solution.

• Italy

Opened in 2011, Cara di Mineo was once Europe’s biggest camp for migrants and asylum seekers. Located about an hour’s drive outside of Catania, it was infamous for violence, deaths and scandals. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini arrived in Sicily on July 9 to ‘turn off the lights’ of the camp, fulfilling another of his personal promises.

• Italy
• Libya

Stand-offs between the Italian government and private rescue organizations have become fairly commonplace in the last year. With each side laying claim to having the right on their side, it can sometimes be difficult to understand what is going on. So InfoMigrants decided to look more closely at the International Law of the Sea for some clarification.

• Denmark

Denmark’s new social democratic government has slightly softened its stance on immigration since the election campaign, following three weeks of talks with three other left-leaning parties who have agreed to support the government. So what is the government’s new policy towards migration?

• Libya

Vincent Cochetel, the UN Special Envoy on Migration accused the EU of “blindness” when it comes to the plight of refugees and migrants in Libya. Following Tuesday’s airstrike which hit a migrant detention center in Libya, he once again asked the international community to rethink its policy of returning migrants rescued at sea to Libya.