Tag Archives: migrants

Democratic lawmakers and immigration advocates pressed President Joe Biden on Wednesday to take new steps to end an immigration policy begun by his predecessor Donald Trump after the top U.S. court ordered that the “remain in Mexico” program be reinstated. The policy put in place by Trump, a Republican, forced …

The European Court of Human Rights asked the Polish and Latvian governments on Wednesday to intervene to help migrants camped on the Belarus border. The fate of the migrants has become part of a broader dispute between the European Union and Belarus and groups such as Polish refugee charity Ocalenie …

Poland will build a fence along its border with Belarus and double the number of troops there, the defense minister said on Monday, to halt a flow of migrants the European Union says is being driven by Minsk in retaliation for EU sanctions. Poland and fellow EU states Lithuania and …

Only one woman survived after an inflatable dinghy from Africa sank on its way to the Spanish archipelago. More than 50 people are feared dead after a boat capsized in the Atlantic Ocean about 220 kilometres (135 miles) off Spain’s Canary Islands. Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service said a 30-year-old woman …

Under pressure from the U.S. government to contain illegal immigration, Mexico has been quietly flying thousands of undocumented migrants to the south of the country to expedite their departure, according to officials and migrants. The government said in late May it had carried out four return flights of migrants as …

Turkey’s chief prosecutor on Friday announced the arrest of 72 more people implicated in attacks on the shops of Syrian migrants in the capital Ankara. The new detentions bring the total number of people detained since Wednesday night’s violence to 148. The unrest broke out in response to a fight …

The General Company for Iraqi Airways announced the arrival of its exceptional flight to Baghdad International Airport, which was designated to evacuate Iraqi citizens stranded in Belarus and its borders with Lithuania. The company’s administration indicated in a statement that about 240 Iraqi citizens were evacuated, and the body of …

A German rescue ship carrying 257 migrants docked in Sicily on Saturday, after Italian authorities granted permission. Another humanitarian vessel with 549 people aboard still awaits an assigned port, six days after the start of rescue operations in the Mediterranean. After several days in limbo at sea, Sea-Watch 3 sailed …

The Biden administration has taken heavy flak for its response to the surge in illegal immigration to the US via a porous southern border with Mexico. Authorities in Guatemala and Mexico have accused the White House of sparking the crisis by its ‘confusing’ messaging to potential immigrants and people smugglers. …

Two humanitarian rescue ships pulled 394 migrants from a dangerously overcrowded wooden boat in the Mediterranean overnight on Sunday in an operation lasting about six hours, a Reuters witness said. The German and French NGO ships Sea-Watch 3 and Ocean Viking rescued the migrants in Tunisian waters 68 km (42 …

Lithuania’s border guard service said it detained 171 people caught illegally crossing from Belarus into Lithuania on Tuesday night, the largest number in a single day in 2021 and bringing the total number of migrants detained so far this year to 3,027. The border service said the group of migrants, …

Turkish authorities have intercepted a boat carrying more than 200 Afghan migrants in the Aegean sea heading for Europe, Turkey’s coastguard and the International Organization for Migration said on Wednesday. The interception near Turkey’s western shores came as hundreds of Afghans cross into eastern Turkey from Iran, after a rise …

A migrant boat carrying 45 people sank off southwest Turkey, prompting the coast guard to launch a search and rescue mission, the Turkish defense ministry said Friday. The coast guard was searching for the missing boat “after receiving a tip-off” that it sank on Thursday some 260 kilometers (160 miles) …

Hundreds of undocumented immigrants, on hunger strike in Brussels for the last two months to demand residence rights, have begun refusing water, putting themselves close to death and the Belgian government in danger of collapse. Around 400 migrants, many of whom have been in Belgium for years, are already emaciated …

Greek authorities on the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos say they are drawing up a criminal case, including on charges of espionage, against 10 people, all foreign nationals, for allegedly helping migrants enter the country illegally. Police in Lesbos said on Monday the investigation had been ongoing for several months …

Belarus’ president Alexander Lukashenko is using migration to put political pressure on the European Union, it’s been claimed. It comes after Euronews reported migrant crossings on the Lithuania-Belarus border have soared this year. More than 1,500 illegal crossings have been registered in 2021, compared with just 81 for the whole …

Dozens of migrants scaled a fence and crossed the border from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Melilla on Monday, just weeks after a similar crisis that saw thousands cross the frontier and clash with security. Migrants routinely try to enter Melilla and Ceuta, Spanish territories near the Moroccan border …

A bus carrying Afghan, Pakistani and Bangladeshi migrants crashed in eastern Turkey early on Sunday, killing at least 12 people and injuring 26 others, local authorities said. The crash occurred in Van province’s Muradiye district near the Turkish border with Iran, where the vehicle caught fire after tumbling into a …

Hundreds of migrants rescued in the central Mediterranean disembarked on Friday in the southern Italian town of Augusta, in Sicily, after Rome-based maritime authorities agreed to give their ship a port. The Ocean Viking vessel, operated by SOS Mediterranee, carried 572 people, including around 180 minors, after picking them up …

Lithuania began building a barrier along its border with Belarus on Friday after accusing Belarusian authorities of flying in migrants from abroad to send illegally into the European Union. The first stretch of barrier will run 500 metres (1,640 feet) in length, measure 1.8 metres (six feet) in height and …