A first contingent of 134 Iraqis took off from Athens on Thursday, August 6, in Greece’s first voluntary returns flight. The scheme, funded by the European Union is aimed at relieving pressure on Greece, which is struggling to cope with the amount of migrants and asylum seekers who have reached its shores.
Police in Paris have evacuated more than 1,250 people from a migrant camp on the bank of a canal in the suburb of Aubervilliers. Migrant support groups condemned the move and said permanent solutions needed to be found.
The UN refugee agency has organized its first art competition, the Youth with Refugees Art Contest. The contest was aimed at young designers from all over the world and inspired by the theme "everyone counts in the fight against the virus, including refugees."
Around 1.83 million people who sought protection on international, humanitarian or political grounds were registed in Germany in 2019, only slightly more than in the previous year. The majority came from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
A lot has been written about the situation in overcrowded camps on the Greek islands of Lesbos, Samos and Chios but not so much focus has been placed on migrants living in closed camps in Kos and Leros. Refugee Rights Europe has lifted the lid on conditions there in an in-depth report entitled “Invisible Islands.” They document conditions that some of InfoMigrants’ facebook users have confirmed.
A regulation introduced by Italy's former interior minister Matteo Salvini that denies asylum seekers the possibility to be listed in the official registry has been rejected by the country's Constitutional Court. The regulation had been brought in as part of a ''security decree'' and complaints that it was unconstitutional had been filed by courts in Milan, Ancona and Salerno.
When Ali Rahimi arrived in Austria in September 2015, he was full of hope. Hope that he would be able to live in peace and learn to read and write. Since his deportation, he lives in constant fear for his life.
In the Moria camp on the island of Lesbos a young man has died after he was stabbed during a fight. The medical charity MSF says conditions in the migrant camp created the ‘perfect storm’ for violence.
The asylum-seekers from Russia, Iran and Afghanistan filed a complaint after spending months sleeping rough. The ECHR ordered France to pay damages, saying the men suffered "degrading treatment."
Hungary is depriving migrants of their right to ask for asylum, an advisor at the European Court of Justice said Thursday. He argued that significant parts of Hungary’s migration and asylum policies violate EU law.
Thousands of migrants are suing the German authorities for suspending the time limit to return asylum seekers to the country where they first entered Europe during the coronavirus crisis. Without the suspension, over 2,500 asylum seekers would have been able to remain in Germany to have their asylum claim processed.
Asylum applications in Europe increased by 11% in 2019 compared with the previous year. The European asylum support office expects the overall rise to continue, despite the current pandemic-related slump. Asylum applications in the EU account for one-third of the global total.