News Highlights: NGOs raise alarm over Mediterranean rescue and returns, Ethiopia joins AfCFTA, expert panel Sudan mandate extended
8 Feb 2019

News Highlights: NGOs raise alarm over Mediterranean rescue and returns, Ethiopia joins AfCFTA, expert panel Sudan mandate extended

by | posted in: European Union, Horn of Africa region, Israel, Libya, Mediterranean Sea, UNSC, Weekly news highlights | 0

In this week’s News Highlights: Ethiopia joined the AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Agreement); UNSC expert panel mandate for Sudan extended; Sudanese women’s role in the protests; EU High Representative to visit Horn of Africa; Israel continues to impede refugee rights, say activists; more than 50 organisations express concern to EU leaders over rescue and return; Oxfam Italia and Sicilia Borderline publish a report on Italy/Libya deal; new border management agreement between Europe and Montenegro; COC Netherlands published a report on LGBTI asylum policy in the Netherlands; Libya to tighten its southern borders with EU cooperation; and conflict in Libya’s oil fields.

Fighting in Libya causes desperate situations for refugees in detention centres
18 Jan 2019

Fighting in Libya causes desperate situations for refugees in detention centres

by | posted in: Africa, Detention, European Union, Libya, Mediterranean Sea, Torture, UNHCR | 0

Fighting broke out around the Tripoli area in Libya this week, leaving refugees in desperate situations. After a militia group failed to withdraw from the Qasr Bin Gashir area south of Tripoli, the protection force of the UN-backed government attacked. Other clashes in the area threatened the unstable ceasefire as well. Reports from the Bin Gashir detention centre, run by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), state that the refugees have been without food and water for two days.

News Highlights: Protests in Sudan, EU reportedly negotiating with Egypt on migration, asylum-seeker to sue UK government
10 Jan 2019

News Highlights: Protests in Sudan, EU reportedly negotiating with Egypt on migration, asylum-seeker to sue UK government

by | posted in: Africa, Asylum Seekers, Deportation, Detention, Eritrea, European Commission, European Union, Germany, Horn of Africa region, Human Trafficking, IOM, Italy, Libya, Mediterranean Sea, Migration, Netherlands, Refugees in the EU, Somalia, Sudan, The Netherlands, Torture, Trauma, Unaccompanied Minors, UNHCR, United Nations, Weekly news highlights | 0

In this week’s news highlights: Protests in Sudan intensify; Canadian Supreme Court to hear case on human rights abuses in Eritrea; Eritrea and Kenya sign agreement; refugees at high risk of being kidnapped for ransom in the Horn of Africa, new report shows; protest during Ethiopian-Eritrean border opening; new president of Somali Puntland region; fewer migrant arrivals via sea in 2018, but deaths remain high; EU negotiating migration agreement with Egypt: report; Italian mayors defy certain new immigration rules; deal enables migrants to disembark in Malta; asylum-seeker to sue UK government for funding Libyan detention centres; “unimaginable horrors” in Libya: UN report; and EU’s EUBAM Libya mission mandate extended to strengthen borders “in cooperation with Libyan authorities”.