News highlights: Hitsats camp shutdown announced in Ethiopia, Attempt to resuscitate EU-Turkey deal, UNHCR bolsters COVID-19 measures

In this week’s news highlights: Hitsats refugee camp closure in the Tigray region of Ethiopia; UN cancels meeting on Eritrea due to Coronavirus; EU-funded road project in Eritrea allegedly uses slave labour; Natasja Bijl’s novel tells the story of an Eritrean refugee; Eritrean persecution of Catholics reinvigorated; the collective trauma of Eritrea’s youth; Somali and Kenyan officials meet to discuss border dispute; EU leaders and Erdogan meet to salvage EU-Turkey deal; UNHCR strengthens COVID-19 measures; Concerns about EU’s new Africa strategy highlighted by aid groups; Greece’s decision to hold migrants on war vessel criticized by HRW; Several EU member states offer to take children in from Greece; Call for better living conditions for asylum seekers in the Netherlands; Suspicions that arms keep pouring into Libya despite embargo; Ramtane Lamamra as possible next UN envoy for Libya; And Sudanese refugees in Niger sentenced for fire in camp.

News Highlights: Malta to cooperate with Libyan coast guard, Peace Institute launched in Ethiopia, ICC renews call to surrender Libyan human traffickers.

In this week’s news highlights: Mereb Institute for peace-building is launched in Ethiopia; South Sudan delays formation government; Workshop in Kenya discusses technology and human trafficking; Pax Romana petitions for reopening Catholic health facilities in Eritrea; France creates stricter migration policies; UK care criticized in exposé on Eritrean refugees committing suicide; Europe continues building walls, 30 years after the fall of the Berlin wall; EU countries break Schengen rules; Libyan coast guard in secret discussions on cooperation with Malta; ICC requests the surrender of alleged Libyan human trafficking criminals; United Arab Emirates may be involved in the airstrike on the Tajoura detention centre; And family trying to reach Europe tells their story.

‘The Walls of Europe’

On Saturday November 9, Europe celebrated the 30-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall that marked the end of a separated Europe from two different, controlling ideologies. However, 30 years later Europe is building walls again, only this time to keep refugees and migrants from entering Europe. A report recently published by the Dutch organisation Stop Wapenhandel argues that “Europe is divided not so much by ideology as by perceived fear of refugees and migrants, some of the world’s most vulnerable people”. The report finds that Europe is spending a lot of money and technology on protecting its borders in a time where new migration policies permeate interior policies in Europe.