News Highlights: Refugees in Libya protest conditions, EU external funding re-assessed, Meeting Eritrea, Ethiopia and South Sudan

In this week’s news highlights: the EU stands responds to Hungry’s representation of its migration policy; the S&D group deplores the lack of human rights consideration in the EU migration policy; The European Parliament wants to consolidate the EU’s external funding instruments; France arrests more than 60 migrants trying to reach the UK by boat in Calais; Refugees protest against inhumane conditions in Libyan detention centres; Human traffickers profit from returns to Libya; Chad closes its border with Libya; South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea meet in Juba to strengthen their relations; US congress visits Eritrea for the first time in 14 years; and Kenya and Somalia work on peace under the mediation of Ethiopian Prime Minister.

The African Union criticizes the EU’s disembarkation platforms

The African Union (AU), with Egypt as the current chair state, is hoping to halt the plan to establish so called regional disembarkation platforms proposed by EU leaders during the summer of 2018. The Guardian’s article reveals that the AU member states, in their ‘common African position paper’, discourage African coastal states from any cooperation with Brussels as the EU’s proposition would go against international law and would cause a creation of “de facto detention centers”

News Highlights: European Parliament approves border funding, France equips Libyan coast guard, Testimony on organ trafficking in Egypt

In this week’s News Highlights:  Sudan student rallies ramp up as more arrests take place; UN Security Council discusses Eritrea – Djibouti relations; UNHCR reports on plans for refugees in Ethiopia; the UN reports high levels of violence in South Sudan;  More refugees flown from Libya to Niger; France provides equipment to Libyan Coast Guard; the consequences of economic crisis in Libya; testimony on organ trafficking in Egypt; LIBE Committee votes to increase border management funding; EU’s migration policy aids human trafficking, states article; Sea Watch 3 vessel still blocked in Sicily; documentary on Mediterranean Sea boats is nominated for Oscar; and the Council of Europe reports on refugees camps conditions in Greece.