News Highlights: Closure of migrant reception centre, Refugees released from Tajoura detention centre, Letter on the special rapporteur mandate

In this week’s news highlights: Matteo Salvini shuts one of the largest migrant reception centre in Sicily; Sea Watch 3 captain Carola Rackete sues Matteo Salvini for defamation; Madrid plans to tax Open Arms NGO with fines for rescuing migrants; Sea Eye NGO boat allows to disembark 65 migrants in Malta; EU Commissioner Dimitri Avramopoulos urges the EU to reform migrants’ arrival process; Sudanese citizens slowly access internet on mobile phone after one-month-shutdown; No progress detected one year after peace deal between Eritrea and Ethiopia; Organizations call for support of the mandate renewal of the Special Rapporteur on Eritrea; Eritrea: Former Sawa students of Eritrean military high school describe practices of Eritrean authorities; Refugees detained in Libyan detention centre share horrific experiences of the military strike; UN arrays emergency assistance for refugees in Tajoura; Migrants in Tajoura centre start hunger strike to be evacuated.

Conference ‘Eritrea and the Ongoing Refugee Crisis’ draws large crowd

A mixed crowd of policy makers, experts, lawyers and other interested people came together last Thursday, 19th of October, in Brussels for the Conference ‘Eritrea and the Ongoing Refugee Crisis’. The conference, which was the result of long preparation, was organised by EMDHR, EEPA, pro-asyl, Connection E.v., War Resisters’ International, and Eritrean Law Society. It was hosted by the representation of the state of Hessen to the European Union.

News Highlights: Infringement proceeding for relocation, new report on Eritrea, Sudan starts trial against human rights activist

In this week’s news highlights, the European Commission triggers procedures for sanctions against Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary on relocation quotas; a new report was published on human trafficking in the Horn of Africa; UN Special Rapporteur on Eritrea releases a new report and holds an interactive dialogue in the 35th session of the Human Rights Council; and South Sudanese president Kiir refused to attend a regional summit on South Sudanese security issues.