Pope Francis celebrated Mass on the 105th World Day of Migrants and Refugees. During the mass he called for particular attention to be paid to "all those on the periphery who, together with migrants and refugees, are victims of a throwaway culture." He entreated those listening to make sure that “no one was left behind.”
Migration caused by natural disasters and violent conflict is on the rise: In the first half of 2019 alone, more than 10 million new people lost their homes due to extreme weather and political instability. Humanitarians and activists are warning of a "climate apartheid" and an "unprecedented" threat to human rights.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has voiced concern for a number of policies carried out by European countries which she feels express a “lethal disregard” for migrants. In a speech on Monday, Bachelet said actions by some European countries to criminalize NGOs have had “deadly consequences for adults and children seeking safety.”
Justice for Rita – that's what a few dozen activists demanded from the Brandenburg state interior ministry in Potsdam. The 32-year-old migrant had been found dead in the woods near a secluded refugee home in July, more than two months after she had gone missing.
The United Nations want Italy to do more to prevent the exploitation of migrant farmworkers and to dismantle the illegal labor system known as "caporalato."
Zozan Yasar is a Kurdish journalist from Turkey. Denied access to education, Zozan taught herself to read and write and went to university to get a degree before working as a journalist. As a Kurd, she struggled to officially register her Kurdish name with the government in Turkey. After arrests and harassment, she was eventually forced to seek asylum in the UK.
The rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch published a report saying that thousands of young people are forced into indefinite national service despite a peace deal with Ethiopia. This practice of conscription apparently drives many into exile and migration.
The Times of Malta has published a report claiming that migrants were subjected to ill treatment on a film set for an Italian production. Among them was a pregnant women. Several crew members reportedly resigned following the incident.
The Bangladeshi community in Italy is the second largest in Europe. However, many women are still struggling to acclimatize, not least because of their husbands. Michele Bertelli reports from Rome.
Despite its record of abuses, Libya’s EU-funded and -trained coast guard is the bloc’s preferred partner to prevent migrants from reaching European soil. Having intercepted some 20,000 people in 2017 alone, the coast guard in the Mediterranean is efficient; it is not as good, however, at abiding by the law. InfoMigrants takes a look at the funding, training and questionable monitoring of the loosely organized force whose members are often former militia.
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.
An Administrative Court in Germany suspended the return of an Iranian asylum seeker and her 10-year-old child to France under the so-called Dublin Regulation. The court ruled that there was sufficient proof that two might be subjected to severe hardship, and spoke of a potential for a “violation of human rights” in this particular instance.