
'No progress in years' in Libya, says UN migration body
Fewer people may be crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Libya compared to recent years, but the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says underlying problems remain entrenched.
Sunday
29th May 2022
Fewer people may be crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Libya compared to recent years, but the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says underlying problems remain entrenched.
Facing with war at home and xenophobia in the Czech Republic, Ukraine's Roma refugees are falling between the cracks of Europe's great humanitarian effort.
Some 2.7 million Ukrainians have registered for protection in the EU. But many others are hesitating to do the same.
Russia was not invited to an international donor conference on Syria in Brussels given its war in Ukraine. Moscow had also recently threatened to veto a humanitarian corridor from Turkey to Syria.
Orbán's government is still beating up and pushing back non-Ukrainian migrants, including one Lebanese man who fled the Ukrainian war zone to Europe.
NGOs and academics say Poland's wall with Belarus violates EU environmental laws. The EU commission says "public safety" exemptions exist — in a possible endorsement of the 186km-long wall.
The French EU presidency is pressing to make some last-minute headway on the EU's migration and asylum reform but is still meeting resistance from a handful of member states.
Four defendants in a larger case by Italian prosecutors face 20 years in prison for having helped rescue hundreds of people from drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.
Fabrice Leggeri took on the role of the executive director of #Frontex in 2015. He posted a resignation letter earlier this week. Another senior official, Thibauld de la Haye Jousselin, may also have resigned.
German sea rescue organisation Sea-Watch is suing Frontex for refusing to disclose some 73 documents on its possible role in helping the Libyan coast guard intercept migrants in Malta's rescue zone.
The European Commission wants to set up so-called "talent partnerships" with foreign states to help fill the labour gaps in the EU — on the condition they help prevent irregular migration.
The European Commission continues to claim its actions supporting the Libyan coast guard are designed to save lives at sea. But those intercepted are often sent to detention centres where they face torture, rape and murder.
The way the EU has helped Ukrainian refugees should be a gold standard for how Europe responds to all people in need — regardless of the colour of their skin.
Reality or alarmist?: EUobserver talks to two leading experts who question the conventional assumption that climate change will drive millions of people to migrate to Europe.
Three locals near the Polish exclusion zone with Belarus say they cannot leave refugees and migrants to die or freeze in their woods. But by leaving bags of food in the woods, they risk possible fines or worse.
Tetiana Yehorova-Lutsenko is Kharkiv's regional council leader. Along with her two boys, they hid in a basement for two weeks amid Russian aerial bombardment. On Wednesday, she met Ukrainian refugees at a Polish train station.
More than 50 percent of the 300,000 refugees that arrived in the Czech Republic are children, and 80 percent of all adult refugees are women. More is needed for employment for women and access to nurseries for children.
Hardened criminals could use the Ukraine war to sneak into the EU bringing with them more firearms and drugs, European police fear.
European lawmakers sitting on a parliament committee refused to sign off on the agency's budget, in a move that adds political pressure for Frontex to right its wrongs.
EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson in Brussels said efforts need to be made to encourage refugees from Ukraine in Poland to fan out to other member states.
EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson may end up in court in Luxembourg over a fresh case dealing with the EU's border guard agency Frontex.
Poland, followed by Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic and Estonia, are under greatest pressure from the influx of Ukrainian refugees, according to an EU commission burden-sharing index.
Ahead of a visit to Brussels by Justin Trudeau, it looks likely Canada will offer to take unlimited numbers of Ukrainian refugees displaced by the Russian invasion.
It's now emerging that the exodus from Ukraine brings heightened risks that criminal gangs will take advantage of vulnerable people crossing at the borders.
There are things we can do to lessen the suffering of people caught in Ukraine and the more than one million and a half Ukrainians who have fled across the border to Poland, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and beyond.
Short-term residents in Ukraine, such as foreign students won't be given the same rights and protections in the EU as Ukrainian refugees.
The United Nations high commissioner for refugees says Europe's hospitality depends on how many refugees arrive, and how long they stay.
Racist statements by European politicians have already shocked and hurt many, and they have reinforced perceptions of Europe as inherently wedded to bigoted, Eurocentric and Orientalist narratives.
The European Commission is preparing to activate a law allowing Ukrainians to remain on EU territory for at least a year, though some member states still remain cautious.
EU states are - for the moment - showing solidarity with Ukraine and its refugees. But how long that will last depends on the duration of the conflict and the numbers in need.
Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, warned that "humanitarian consequences on civilian populations will be devastating."
Tragedies continue: a 26-year old man from Yemen has been found dead, apparently of hypothermia, in a swampy area near the Polish town of Tolipo.
The European Commission says it is working with EU states as part of a Blueprint Network to prepare contingency plans for a refugee influx.