migrants - The African Mirror

Nov

2020

At least 5 migrants die in shipwreck off Libya, NGO says

AT least five people have died in a migrant shipwreck in the central Mediterranean, Spanish charity Open Arms has announced, warning that the number of fatalities could grow as rescue operations continue. Some 100 people had been travelling for about two days on a dinghy that collapsed in international waters off Libya where it was assisted by Open Arms, the NGO said. It said it was carrying out the rescue operation on its own, with just two speed boats and six rescuers. "That's what happens when you leave people at sea for days," the charity wrote on Twitter. On Tuesday,…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Study sheds light on how South Africa can best tackle prejudice against migrants

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

STEVEN GORDON, Senior research specialist, Human Sciences Research Council XENOPHOBIA is a serious problem in South Africa. Cross-border migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the country face harassment and discrimination. Hundreds of incidents of anti-immigrant hate crime have been reported in the past decade alone. To address this, the government launched the National Action Plan to Combat Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in March 2019. The plan recognises that without quality data the government will struggle to design effective policies to change public attitudes towards foreigners. Targeted communication campaigns can be very effective in expanding tolerance between groups…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

At least 11 die as migrant boat sinks off Tunisia

NEWS

AT least 11 migrants from Africa died when their boat sank off Tunisia, as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to the Italian island of Lampedusa, a Tunisian security official said. Tunisia's coast guard recovered the bodies of eight women and three children off the coast near Sfax late on Sunday, he said. About 30 people had set out on the boat, aiming to reach Italy, officials said. The coast guard is searching for the other missing people. Last year, about 90 African migrants drowned after their boat capsized enroute to Europe from Libya, one of the worst such accidents…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Three Libyans arrested for burning Nigerian man to death

NEWS

THREE Libyans killed a Nigerian man by setting him on fire in Tripoli, the interior ministry has said, in what a U.N. agency described as "another senseless crime against migrants in the country". The Tripoli-based interior ministry said in a statement it had arrested the three suspects in the case, adding that they had used petrol to set the victim on fire at a factory. Federico Soda, Libya country chief for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), a U.N. migration agency, said those responsible must be held accountable. There are half a million migrants in Libya according to IOM, some…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Concerned about Channel crossings, UK minister vows to toughen asylum rules

WORLD

ESTELLE SHIRBON BRITAIN’S interior minister has pledged to reform what she described as a broken asylum system and to stop people arriving through illegal routes from making "endless legal claims to remain in our country". Home Secretary Priti Patel, who presents herself as tough on issues of law, order and immigration, has denounced as unacceptable a rise seen during the summer in the number of small boats carrying migrants across the Channel from France. The numbers attempting the crossing, about 5,000 so far this year, are tiny compared with migrant flows in many other parts of the world, and human…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

World becoming less tolerant of migrants – Gallup poll

WORLD

EMMA BATHA THE world is becoming less tolerant of migrants, according to a poll released on Wednesday as Europe prepared to unveil a new asylum plan in the wake of a blaze at an overcrowded camp in Greece that left thousands without shelter. Seven European countries, led by North Macedonia, Hungary, Serbia and Croatia, topped the Gallup index of the world's least-accepting countries. But the sharpest changes in attitudes were in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, which have seen an influx of Venezuelans fleeing turmoil at home. Canada was the most welcoming country toward migrants, followed by Iceland and New Zealand,…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Ethiopia brings some migrants home as concern over Saudi camps grows

HUMAN RIGHTS

EMELINE WUILBERCQ ETHIOPIA will repatriate nearly 2,000 migrants from Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks, a government minister has said, amid growing international concern over conditions in migrant detention camps. Ethiopia is estimated to have tens of thousands of workers in Saudi Arabia and is under pressure to bring them home after the coronavirus left many stranded there with no work and no money. But Tsion Teklu, a state minister for foreign affairs, said the country did not have the resources to bring back the estimated 14,000 detained in Saudi camps that the United Nations this week warned were overcrowded…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

At least 24 migrants drowned off Libya – IOM

NEWS

TWO dozen migrants and refugees on board a rubber dinghy trying to cross from Libya to Europe are believed to have drowned after their boat capsized, the UN's International Organization of Migration has announced. Three boats were thought to have departed from Libya's Zawiyah on Sunday night. The Libyan coast guard found 45 people onboard two boats and brought them back but the third had capsized, the IOM's Safa Msehli said at a Geneva briefing. "Two bodies were retrieved and very few survivors have reported to IOM staff at the disembarkation point last night so at least 22 others have…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Thousands homeless after fire guts migrant camp on Greek island

WORLD

THOUSANDS of migrants were left without shelter on Wednesday after overnight fires gutted their overcrowded camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, and authorities warned that some asylum seekers who tested positive for COVID-19 could spread the virus. The Moria camp, which hosts more than 12,000 people, was "probably totally destroyed", one Greek migration official said. Authorities said they were investigating arson at the sprawling camp. Early Wednesday evening, a new fire broke out, sending those who remained on site fleeing. A Reuters witness reported seeing a 'huge' column of black smoke emerging from the camp. Live images showed people…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

At least 45 African migrants die off Libya in worst shipwreck of 2020 -UN

NEWS

AT least 45 African migrants and refugees have perished in the Mediterranean Sea in the largest recorded shipwreck off the Libyan coast this year, U.N. agencies said on Wednesday. The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in a statement disclosing Monday's accident, called for stepping up search and rescue capacity to respond to distress calls. "Some 37 survivors, mainly from Senegal, Mali, Chad and Ghana, were rescued by local fishermen and later detained upon disembarkation," the statement said. "They reported to IOM staff that 45 others, including five children, lost their lives when the vessel's…