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 the Libyan coast guard.
Italy's ombudsman for the rights of detainees has said that some 2,839 foreign nationals were repatriated from the country in the first 6 months of 2019 and that roughly 5,600-6,000 are expected to be repatriated by the end of the year.
The Italian Guarantor for the Rights of Detained Persons visited repatriation centers (CPR) in Rome, Potenza, Bari, and Brindisi, and said migrants are living in deplorable conditions. It called on the government to take action.
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has reiterated his demand that all Afghans obliged to leave the country shall be deported to Afghanistan. Right now, only criminal offenders and people who disguised their identity can be sent back to the country.
Many Somali refugees have decided to return home from Yemen because of the worsening security situation, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR reports. Last week, 125 refugees boarded a ship to return to Somalia.
Since 2016, Germany has deported about 600 Afghans whose applications for asylum were rejected. When they land, they are given €150 and left to fend for themselves. Observers say this practice is irresponsible.
The Italian interior ministry has announced it will reopen the centre for repatriations in Rome at the beginning of June. It also said work is underway to open another four similar structures across Italy.
A number of fires were set by migrants in the Bari-Palese repatriation center in the southeastern region of Apulia in Italy on Saturday night. At least three housing units were damaged and three people tried to flee.
Only a tiny fraction of the Syrians who have fled as refugees to Germany have returned to their homeland using German government financial aid.
Lebanon is continuing to send back small groups of refugees to Syria. In the past 24 hours, dozens of refugees who had fled the war in Syria have been returned from different parts of Lebanon.
In 2018 the number of Afghans sent back to Afghanistan from Germany more than doubled compared with the number in 2017. The information emerged from the German government in response to a request from the left-wing party, Die Linke.
Italy's watchdog for the rights of detainees has reported that some 4,000 people were held in Italian migrant repatriation centers in 2018. Only 43 percent of them were subsequently repatriated, the authority said.