Schwerin, Germany | AFP | Germany’s anti-migrant populists made a strong showing at Sunday’s state polls, scoring ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party as voters punished the German leader over her liberal refugee policy. The xenophobic Alternative for Germany (AfD) clinched around 21 percent in its first bid for seats …
Read More »UNHCR fears 500 dead in Mediterranean shipwreck
Rome, Italy | AFP | The UN refugee agency said on Wednesday it feared around 500 migrants from Africa had drowned in the Mediterranean after witnesses said their overcrowded boat sank. UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami said in a statement sent to AFP that survivors from Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt …
Read More »We are all migrants, Pope says as he takes 12 refugees to Vatican
Lesbos, Greece | AFP | Declaring “we are all migrants,” Pope Francis on Saturday brought a message of hope to thousands of people facing expulsion from Greece as he slammed the world community for failing to end the wars fueling the crisis. In an emotional visit that saw people kneeling …
Read More »Mali and EU agree on African immigration programme
Bamako, Mali | AFP Mali and the European Union agreed Friday to combat immigration into Europe by financing projects to fight its causes and promote legal migration, according to a joint statement released on Friday. Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, began a …
Read More »Unwanted in Juba
By Jocelyn Edwards Harassment, beatings for Ugandan migrants in South Sudan Okello (not his real name), a 19-year-old orphan from Uganda, came to South Sudan in search of a better life. Having lost both of his parents and without a job in his own country, he hoped to cash in …
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