News highlights: More EU money to road project Eritrea despite forced labour, EU funding benefits Libyan militia, Refugee sit-in protest escalates in Niger

In this week’s news highlights: Additional €60 in EU funding for road project in Eritrea despite criticism for use of forced labour; Spanish authorities allegedly sent back asylum seekers illegally; Eight important developments in the last decade that impacted migration; Fine withdrawn for captain of rescue vessel; Migrant deal EU-Sudan possibly contributes to abuse migrants and refugees; Red Sea-bordering countries establish a regional council; Ambassador to Eritrea becomes new Ethiopian minister of foreign affairs; Funding to Libya in hands of militia; Shelling close to refugee facility in Tripoli; Libyans increasingly try to cross the Mediterranean Sea; Drawings of circumstances in libyan detention center; UNHCR officials accuse asylum seekers of setting fire in a refugee camp in Niger; And 300 people intercepted at the Algerian coast.

News highlights: Libyan decree to affect NGOs, Protests in Ethiopia, EU Parliament rejects motion on search and rescue

In this week’s News Highlights: Protests lead to killings of civilians in Ethiopia; Returnees to Ethiopia face difficult conditions; Follow the journey of Eritrean refugees; Human rights in Eritrea the topic of seminar in European Parliament; Right-wing groups in the European Parliament vote against improving rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea; Rescue ship waits 11 days at sea; Eritreans in the Netherlands protest against the presence of the Eritrean regime; Photographer reports on the inequality of the new lives of refugees in Europe; New decree to neutralize rescue NGOs in Libya’s waters; Arrest warrant for Libyan human trafficker; Libyan coast guard threatens rescue vessels with shots; Migrants and refugees evacuated from Libya to Rwanda still looking for safety; and new report on the Global Compact for Migration.

Petition and letter to free five Eritrean refugees detained in Egypt after peaceful protest

Letters by Human Rights Concern Eritrea and Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights ask for the immediate release of five detained Eritreans in Cairo, Egypt. The five were arrested on July 21, 2019, and are held in an undisclosed location without access to legal representation. The detained are part of a group of around 500 Eritreans who demonstrated peacefully against alleged mismanagement and corruption by Cairo’s UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) office. Their trial is set today (7 August 2019).