18-year-old Abdullah from Darfur was held south of Tripoli by a smuggler who tortured him to try to get a ransom. When the money did not arrive, the smuggler covered the Sudanese teenager with gasoline and set him on fire, InfoMigrants was told. Abdullah is now in hospital in Tripoli in a serious condition.
Cedric dreamed of reaching Germany to escape poverty in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. The young man contacted a travel agency to obtain a student visa for Ukraine and, from there, hoped to get to Germany. But nothing went as planned. Stranded in Ukraine, he has lost everything.
In its offices in northern Paris, the French Office of Immigration and Integration (Ofii) is offering COVID-19 vaccinations to everyone who comes to file their asylum applications. For this population on the move, it is also an opportunity to take stock of their health in general.
Farhad has been stuck in Belarus, at the border with Poland, for the past three weeks. This 34-year-old Iraqi Kurd has already tried three times to cross the border, without success. Housed in a warehouse in Bruzgui with more than a thousand people, he told InfoMigrants that migrants are now being given an ultimatum by the Belarusian authorities: go to Poland or go home.
21-year-old Harish from Iraqi Kurdistan has been living in one of the Grande-Synthe camps, near Calais, for 10 days. In the course of just a few weeks of travelling around Europe, Harish has found himself at the heart of the two major hotspots of the migratory crisis, on the Polish border and the French coast.
Syrians in eastern Poland spoke to InfoMigrants about the violence they suffered at the hands of Belarusian soldiers as they tried to cross the border and their difficulties getting to Minsk.
Hundreds of undocumented workers in the Paris region have been on strike since Monday to demand legalization of their employment status. Employed in catering, delivery and waste collection, they have been on the front line during the pandemic.
Emerald* arrived in Lithuania in early July. This young Congolese woman lived for a while in the Pabadré camp before being moved to another camp, Medininkai, on the Belarusian border. She spoke to InfoMigrants about her daily life, between practical difficulties and despair at having her asylum application rejected.
After a fire destroyed the Moria camp in September 2020, the reception procedure for migrants in Greece was supposed to improve. But, over the last year, the practice of "pushbacks" has become widespread and the conservative Greek government has passed several laws that significantly tighten the conditions for obtaining international protection in the country.
Christian* arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos from Turkey in September 2019. This young Congolese man lived for more than a year in the overcrowded Moria camp and then on the street after a fire destroyed it. He is currently living in the new Kara Tepe camp, which was supposed to be a temporary solution. But he tells InfoMigrants how this situation does not seem to be changing.
One year after a fire destroyed the Moria refugee camp, living conditions in the facility on Lesbos are still preventing children from having access to normal schooling and a safe environment – yet both are crucial for their development.
"There will be no more Moria", was the promise made by Greek and European authorities after a fire destroyed the overcrowded camp on Lesbos in September 2020. A year later, living conditions on the island are still disastrous and Greece is creating new laws to restrict access to international protection.