Hundreds of refugees trapped in Libyan detention centers are to be evacuated to Rwanda, the UN has announced. A first group of 500 refugees and asylum seekers are expected to be transferred in the coming weeks.
Asylum seekers detained at a migrant center in Malta on Monday staged a protest, demanding to be released. It was the second demonstration in a week.
The UK is one of few countries in Europe to implement a de facto policy of indefinite detention for immigration cases. The Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group (GDWG) is one group calling for an to end that policy. It was set up almost 25 years ago in Crawley near Gatwick Airport. As well as campaigning, its volunteers visit those in detention and try and provide help in their cases.
Famous writers and poets who listen to refugees’ tales and then turn them into accounts or poetry to relay them to the general public -- that's the concept behind the Refugee Tales book series. Now on its third edition, the tales are based on a series of walks which began in 2015 in order to raise awareness about the situation of many refugees and migrants in detention in the UK.
Libyan authorities in Tripoli have announced the shutdown of three migrant detention centers in Misrata, Khoms and Tajoura, which was hit by air strikes that killed at least 53 people.
The EU has said that the current migration management system used by Libya must end. The bloc stressed that it remains committed to fighting human trafficking.
Luxembourg foreign minister Jean Asselborn has said that the EU should consider bringing back ships for Operation Sophia, both for rescue purposes and to fight against trafficking.
The UN's special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants criticized Hungary's 2015 decision to declare a state of emergency over the so-called refugee crisis. He added that the measure amounted to little more than scare tactics, and criticized the country's transit zones as being detention facilities.
A controversial migrant detention center in Libya has reopened two weeks after an airstrike killed more than 50 people there. The United Nations had called for the compound located close to the front-lines of the country's civil war to be emptied.
The UN agencies IOM and UNHCR have called for the international community to make protecting human rights a priority in its involvement in Libya.
Following the deadly air strike that hit a migrant detention center in Libya’s capital Tripoli, aid organizations including MSF and UNHCR are becoming increasingly worried about and critical of the situation at refugee detention centers in Libya. They call on the EU, which is defending its course, to cancel their cooperation with Libya's coast guard.
It is estimated that about 6,000 people are currently locked up in 24 detention centers across Libya. Now the Libyan authorities are pondering their release following the airstrike on the Tajoura detention center.