Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Hundreds of African migrants launched a hunger strike to protest Israel’s implementation of its controversial policy to expel or indefinitely imprison them, a spokesman for the group said Wednesday. Israel has resolved to expel thousands of Eritreans and Sudanese who entered illegally over the years, …
Read More »Pope condemns media denigration of migrants
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis on Monday criticised media which “denigrates” migrants through emotive or incomplete reporting on their situation. “Some months ago I saw a newspaper headline about a small town in Italy which read, ‘this is the town where there were the most rapes this …
Read More »Valentine’s Day a rosy opportunity for jobless Colombians
Tabio, COLOMBIA | AFP | Valentine’s Day is a crazy rush for Colombia, one of the biggest flower exporters in the world, resulting in huge demand for labor in greenhouses near Bogota. That’s how Rubiela Mendez and William Perez found themselves shivering in a cold they’d never known, preparing roses …
Read More »African migrants in Israel opt for jail over deportation
Holot Detention Centre, Israel | AFP | At a detention centre in Israel’s Negev desert, African migrants facing deportation say they would rather be imprisoned than sent to a country they know nothing about. “I won’t go there,” Abda Ishmael, a 28-year-old Eritrean, said in excellent Hebrew outside Holot, an …
Read More »Morocco repatriates its last migrants from Libya
Rabat, Morocco | AFP | Morocco on Saturday said it has started the third and final operation to repatriate its nationals stranded in Libya, a stepping stone to illegal migration to Europe. The ministry of expatriates and migration said the operation was launched on Friday and aimed at bringing home …
Read More »Migration to dominate southern EU meet in Rome
Rome, Italy | AFP | The heads of seven southern European states gather in Rome on Wednesday to tackle one of the stubbornest thorns in the EU’s side: flows of migrants from war-torn and impoverished countries. The leaders of Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain will meet in the …
Read More »Israel plans to force out thousands of African migrants
Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israel plans to force tens of thousands of African migrants to leave over the next three months by threatening to arrest those who stay, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday. Under the plan, some 38,000 migrants who entered Israel illegally, mainly Eritreans and Sudanese, will …
Read More »From Libya’s migrant hell to Italy’s handbag fashion world
LAMA DI RENO, Italy | AFP | From forced labour in Libya to a job as a founding member of an Italian fashion start-up, Bassirou has come a long way in two years, thanks to his skills with scissors. The 26-year-old Burkina Faso native is the star student of a …
Read More »Niger evacuates 500 of its nationals from Libya
Niamey, Niger | AFP | Niger has flown home more than 500 of its citizens from Libya as part of an urgent repatriation plan which will see up to 4,000 people evacuated, the foreign ministry has said. The move follows global shock over the atrocities suffered in Libya by African migrants, …
Read More »Returning Nigerians express relief after ‘hell’ of Libya camps
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nigerian migrants expressed relief as they arrived home on Tuesday from Libya, describing the “hell” of harsh conditions in detention camps where they had been held. African heads of state have condemned the treatment of undocumented migrants in Libya, including widespread violence and apparent slave trading. …
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