In Libya, traffickers allegedly make migrants pay for a place in a closed detention center. They claim this is a fast-track method for the migrants to be evacuated and resettled in Europe. This information is false, but several hundred people have already fallen victim to the scam.
According to the UN refugee agency, the Gathering and Departure Facility in the capital of Libya is so overcrowded that it can no longer functions as a transit center for vulnerable migrants.
Vincent Cochetel, the UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean, called on European states in Brussels on Wednesday, December 4 to offer more resettlement places for refugees in Libya. So far, only Italy has offered a firm commitment.
UNHCR is trying to reduce the number of migrants in an EU-funded center in Tripoli, noting that the situation in the center is very difficult.
A group of migrants staying at a gathering and departure facility (GDF) in the Libyan capital Tripoli have been accusing the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, which administers the camp alongside the UN-backed Libyan government, of "starving them out" in order to relieve pressure on the over-crowded and over-burdened facilities. A charge the UNHCR denies.
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.
African migrants and refugees relocated to Rwanda are relieved to have escaped the hellish conditions in Libyan camps. But they will not give up on their original goal to reach Europe and are starting to feel restless.
African migrants and refugees relocated to Rwanda are relieved to have escaped the hellish conditions in Libyan camps. But they will not give up on their original goal to reach Europe and are starting to feel restless.
The procedures for family reunification for migrants in Italy are taking longer than planned; that's according to a new report by UNHCR in conjunction with Caritas and the Communitas consortium.
Hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are living in dire conditions, unprotected and exposed to extreme human rights violations on a daily basis, according UN refugee agency UNHCR.
Some 732 people are officially recognized as stateless in Italy. But the real number could be between 3,000 and 15,000 people, according to a UNHCR report on statelessness in Italy, Portugal, and Spain.
A new sports center for migrants evacuated from Libya has opened in Niger's capital, Niamey. It is hoped that the center, built by the UN refugee agency UNHCR, will help the migrants to overcome trauma.