The British government says its priority is providing sanctuary to those in dangerous conflict zones post-Brexit. Effectively, this means that unaccompanied children without relatives in the UK no longer have a safe passage to Britain, say campaigners.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR said that refugee resettlement was at a "record low" in 2020. The agency called on more countries to offer resettlement places in the future in order to save lives.
The German government has announced that it will accept several thousand refugees next year who were originally due to arrive in Germany in 2020 but were hindered due to restrictions relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of 120 refugees from Sudan and the Central African Republic were resettled to France through the International Organization for Migration (IOM), according to a statement published by the UN agency on December 1. The refugees left N'Djamena (Chad) with a chartered flight on November 25.
The number of resettled refugees is expected to be the lowest in almost two decades this year, according to the UN refugee agency. Roughly 15,000 refugees were resettled between January and September, compared to 50,000 during the same period in 2019.
Almost 3,200 people are being held in eleven detention centers in Libya, according to IOM and UNHCR insiders. This includes many refugees fleeing armed conflicts and persecution.
The German newspaper Die Welt reported that Germany accepted almost 10,000 migrants and asylum seekers between 2016 and March 2020 under the EU-Turkey deal. The numbers were released following a question to the interior ministry from a member of the liberal FDP party.
Germany is following Luxembourg's lead and plans to take in refugee children from Greece. How are cities like Berlin and the agencies that will accommodate these badly shaken boys and girls preparing?
Ylva Johansson EU's commissioner for home affairs has rung the alarm bell over a possible coronavirus outbreak in one of the overcrowded Greek migrant camps. She told DW this must be avoided at all cost.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has urged countries not to "close avenues to asylum" as part of measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus. He is worried that some countries could completely block the right to seek asylum.
A number of EU member states want to take in refugee children stuck in Greece. However, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn now says the coronavirus pandemic has made that impossible.
The EU has taken drastic action to attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19, effectively shutting borders to non-citizens. Germany will stop taking in refugees, including thousands stranded at the Turkish-Greek border.