Two Nigerian migrants have taken a case against Italy and Libya to a UN Committee. The two women, with the help of a legal rights association in Italy, claim that Italy and Libya failed to protect their human rights as women and left them at risk of trafficking, exploitation and abuse.
Chris Obehi is a young Nigerian musician, singer and songwriter. After migrating from Warri, in Nigeria to Palermo, in Sicily, he began busking and mixing sounds from Nigeria with songs from his adopted culture in Sicily. The result is an award-winning new album: Obehi.
Countries hit by ecological damage and conflict are trapped in a vicious cycle where one problem reinforces the other. And climate change is expected to make things worse.
A Nigerian couple heading to Europe via Libya was separated and forced to suffer at the hands of ruthless smugglers. Thanks to a safe house supported by the UN and the medical charity MSF, the two were eventually reunited.
In Italy, thousands of Nigerian women are being forced into prostitution. The Nigerian mafia is suspected of being behind it. Insiders warn of the dangers of this 'new mafia' – with connections to Italian organized crime gangs.
Malaria remained the leading cause of disease among refugees in 2020, despite the coronavirus pandemic. Young children in sub-Saharan Africa are especially vulnerable to the mosquito-borne disease.
The UNHCR has called for a better treatment of LGBTIQ+ people forced to flee their homes. The UN Refugee Agency is currently holding a roundtable conference focused on protections for LGBTIQ+ refugees and displaced people against persecution and violence.
Lawyers working with the German Foreign Office have allegedly revealed the sexual identity of gay, lesbian and bisexual refugees to their home countries. The Lesbian and Gay Association of Germany (LSVD) referred to these instances as "human rights abuse" that has to be stopped immediately.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 4,000 people have been taken by the Algerian police to the border with Niger, to a place in the middle of the desert nicknamed "point zero". Abandoned there, some get lost and are never found. In a new report, MSF denounces these illegal deportations that continue despite border closure.
Germany deported more than 750 people to Africa in 2020. Most African countries are ill-prepared to welcome rejected asylum seekers, and the coronavirus could make matters worse, activists say.
The Italian Court of Cassation on March 5 upheld an appeal filed by a young Nigerian woman who had fled her homeland after being pressured by a relative to marry someone she did not want to. The court ruled that women migrants fleeing "forced marriages" can be granted a form of protection to enable them to remain in Italy.
At least 43 migrants died off the coast of Libya in what has been described as the first major shipwreck in the area this year. While ten were rescued, the UN expects more casualties to follow.