Italian and French police with the support of Europol has uncovered a criminal group that allegedly trafficked thousands of Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi immigrants from Asia to several European countries. That's according to investigative sources from Monday.
Migrants in the northern Italian city of Turin can now access a virtual map showing services from the closest toilet to the opening hours of the legal aid office. 'OASI on the street' - the app - was launched last week. Its creators, themselves refugees, hope that it will help migrants to make well-informed choices as well as offering immediate practical support.
French police on Tuesday conducted a massive evacuation of the makeshift migrant camp set up in an industrial zone on the outskirts of the port city of Calais. The local aid groups that witnessed the early morning raid, say they have no idea where the evacuated migrants have been taken.
Last month, France removed the cash withdrawal function from the ADA card - a special card reserved for asylum seekers in France – and transformed it into an “electronic-payment-only” card. The change has had a huge impact on the card’s users, who say they now struggle to pay for the most basic necessities, and many struggle to pay their rents.
French police said they removed around 600 Tibetan asylum seekers from a makeshift camp near Paris on Tuesday.
The French Ministry of Defense announced in February 2019 that it would deliver six semi-rigid speed boats with gun ports to the Libyan coast guard by Spring 2020. On December 2, the government announced they would be halting this delivery after several NGOs filed a lawsuit against the action.
53,000 migrants, some with refugee status, have been evacuated from make-shift street camps in the Paris area over the past four years. Yet the camps keep springing up and hundreds are being forced to sleep rough, as the French authorities fail to find a solution.
Toll-free phone numbers and slashed waiting times for an appointment with asylum application services… Those are just some of the recommendations that Paris’s administrative court on Tuesday handed the French government in a bid to improve the Paris region’s failing migrant services.
Every asylum seeker deserves the chance to prove his or her right to protection. That’s the philosophy behind Asylos, a group of volunteers based around the world who do research to fill in critical gaps in information about asylum seekers' claims. InfoMigrants spoke to Asylos about their work.
Despite the encroaching winter weather and the news of the dangers of attempting to reach the UK in refrigerated containers, it appears that some migrants are still willing to risk everything in order to attempt to migrate from the French coast to the UK. Some are setting sail in small boats across the Channel and others are hoping that less frequented routes via Ireland might provide a route to Britain.
Two charity boats, carrying a total of 140 migrants saved from Mediterranean waters, have been given permission to board and disembark their passengers in Italian ports after a number of EU nations agreed to take in some of the rescued migrants. However, there have also been more deaths at sea over the weekend.
Amnesty International has been conducting a campaign after the conviction of a French mountain guide for “facilitating irregular entry [of migrants]” in the Alps between France and Italy. Following an appeal, Pierre Mumber, the mountain guide was acquitted of the charges on November 21.