Five police officers were slightly injured during a protest at the Turin migrant repatriation center in northern Italy on Monday. Some migrants set fire to mattresses and other objects; five people were arrested.
A reported 445,000 undocumented migrants were apprehended in Turkey in 2019, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said in an interview to CNN Turk. The previous year, the number of irregular migrants held was 268,000.
A new CPR center, where migrants are detained while they await deportation, has opened in Gradisca d'Isonzo, in northeastern Italy, near the border with Slovenia. The facility can host up to 150 people.
For migrants in Germany considering going back to their home country, returning voluntarily is a viable option. On top of existing return programs, the German government supports a series of reintegration projects for returnees in various countries of origin around the world. We take a look at the different voluntary return and reintegration support schemes.
A justice in Turin, Italy, ordered a last-minute suspension of the illegitimate repatriation of a young migrant originally from The Gambia. The migrant had been transferred to a repatriation center because even though he had the necessary requirements for obtaining a legal stay permit in Italy, he hadn't managed to obtain one due to a delay in communications with his home country.
In Niger and the Sahel region in west-central Africa, the trade in goods and people has been big business for centuries. In the last few years, people smuggling was an officially recognized profession. In some cases, smugglers even paid taxes. But in the last year, that business has been experiencing a downturn as a series of laws, passed originally in 2015, have begun to bite, causing the former smugglers to look elsewhere for an income.
The Turkish government says 370,000 Syrian refugees have returned to their home country from Turkish territory since 2016. They are now allegedly living in areas under Turkish control thanks to cross-border military operations that began in 2016.
A new revolt broke out this weekend in the Turin migrant repatriation center. Migrants set some structures on fire on Sunday, November 24, following a hunger strike declared by others on Saturday.
Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese said 5,940 migrants have been repatriated thus far in 2019, a number that she said was "insufficient" and showed that "more intense action on the part of Europe" was needed.
The European Commission has asked Italy to guarantee an effective and human repatriation program. Last week, Italy had announced a new decree to accelerate the expulsion of migrants from 'safe countries' who have no right to stay.
The Gay Center, an organization for LGBT rights in Italy, has expressed concern over a new decree concerning asylum seekers. A Gay Center spokesman on Monday said that countries offering no protection to LGBT people or those criminalizing same-sex relationships are listed as 'safe' countries of origin in the new repatriation program.
The Italian government has presented a new asylum decree, which would see the waiting time for an asylum decision cut from two years to just four months, resulting in faster repatriations in applicable cases. Speaking at a press conference in Rome, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said the decree would also update the list of countries considered safe for repatriations.