migration - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

Women battle when trying to take climate change cases to court – South Africa and Nigeria study shows why

ACROSS domestic courts in Africa, climate cases have been decided in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, with some cases pending in Uganda. However, climate litigation is still fairly new. Climate lawsuits are an important way to access justice. This is particularly true for African women because, as research has shown, climate change affects women more than men in key areas including farming, health, water, access to electricity, migration and conflict. PEDI OBANI, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Bradford I research how the law can be applied to cases of climate change, inclusive development, water governance and sustainability. In…

Dec

2023

By SUBAN ABDULLA and NATALIE THOMAS

Love or country: UK families caught up in Sunak’s plan to cut migration

WORLD

IN early December Rebecca Kaya was celebrating after she and her Kurdish husband Baran finally hit their savings goal to qualify for a British visa so the couple could move from Icmeler in Turkey to Britain. A few days later Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hiked the amount a British person must earn to sponsor a foreign partner to move to Britain - raising their fears that the savings threshold will also jump and their nest egg will not be enough. The new policy came days after official data put legal net migration to Britain at a record high of 745,000…

Dec

2023

By MICHAEL HOLDEN

Explainer: What is the UK’s Rwanda migrant deportation bill?

NEWS

BRITISH Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's new bill, which seeks to send immigrants who arrive illegally in Britain to Rwanda, faces a contentious vote in parliament on Tuesday. A month after the British Supreme Court declared the policy unlawful, Sunak hopes the new legislation will fulfil his pledge to stop people arriving across the Channel in small boats. Here are details about the plan and the migration issue: WHY IS IMMIGRATION SUCH AN ISSUE IN BRITAIN? Taking back control of the country's borders and ending the free movement of people was a major factor that led to the 2016 vote for…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Migrant shipwreck in southern Italy kills at least 58, including children

WORLD

GIANNI DANIELE and ALVISE ARMELLINI AT least 58 people died, including several children when a wooden sailing boat carrying migrants from Turkey to Europe crashed against rocks near the southern Italian coast early, authorities said. The deadly incident reopened a debate on migration in Europe and Italy, where a recently-elected right-wing government has introduced tough new laws for migrant rescue charities, which drew criticism from the United Nations and others. The provisional death toll stands at 58, Manuela Curra, a provincial government official, told Reuters. She said 81 people survived, with 20 hospitalised including one person in intensive care. As emergency services…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Spain, Morocco seek reset of testy relationship at Rabat summit

WORLD

BELÉN CARREÑO and AHMED ELJECHTIMI SPAIN and Morocco have agreed to set aside their differences, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said, as they seek to repair a relationship marked by frequent disputes over migration and territory. Sanchez was speaking at a summit in Rabat where the two countries signed as many as 20 agreements to boost trade and investment, including credit lines of up to 800 million euros ($873 million). "We have agreed on a commitment to mutual respect, whereby in our discourse and in our political practice we will avoid everything that we know offends the other party, especially regarding our…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

2020 in review: Migration and forced displacement

HUMAN RIGHTS

COVID-19 put an unprecedented dampener on global mobility this year, but it didn’t stop people being displaced from their homes or asylum seekers and migrants attempting dangerous journeys to cross borders and seas in search of safety and economic opportunity. At the beginning of the year, the number of people forcibly displaced by conflict, persecution, and human rights violations stood at around 79.5 million. By June, it had risen to over 80 million, despite restrictions on movement and calls from the UN for a global ceasefire during the pandemic. If anything, the coronavirus only exacerbated the factors pushing people to migrate, while rendering…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Climate change, migration and urbanisation: patterns in sub-Saharan Africa

ENVIRONMENT

ROMAN HOFFMAN, Postdoctoral researcher, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research THE link between climate change and migration has gained both academic and public interest in recent years. Many studies have found that environmental hazards affect migration. But the links are nuanced and depend on the economic and sociopolitical conditions in the respective regions of origin. So what causes people to move and where do they go? And what is the relationship between these decisions and changes in climatic conditions? To answer these questions we conducted a meta-analysis to systematically analyse previous findings in the literature on environmental migration. We combined…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Insights from Morocco into how smartphones support migration

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

MOHA ENNAJI, Professor, Université Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah FOR undocumented migrants and refugees travelling to new countries, accurate information is vital. Because of this, smartphones – mobile phones that perform many of the functions of a computer, like accessing the internet – have become an important tool. They give migrants access to applications such as Google Maps, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter. These can provide them with information from social media and close contacts. In a recent study, my colleague Filippo Bignami and I investigated the role of smartphones in irregular migration. We wanted to know how they helped migrants reach…