Migrant Crisis

According to the UNHCR report, 4.8 million Afghan migrants and 2.5 million members of their host communities will be assisted in 2024

A total of 8,565 migrants died on land and sea routes worldwide last year, the UN migration agency said Wednesday, a record high since it began tallying deaths a decade ago. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said the biggest increase in deaths last year was on the treacherous Mediterranean Sea crossing, to 3,129 from 2,411 in 2022. However, that was well below the record 5,136 deaths recorded on the Mediterranean in 2016 as huge numbers of Syrians, Afghans and others fled conflicts toward Europe. IOM said the total number of deaths among migrants in 2023 was nearly 20 per cent more than in 2022. It said most of the deaths last year, about 3,700, came from drowning. The Geneva-based migration agency cautioned that the figures likely underestimate the real toll, and factors such as improved data collection methods play a part in its calculations. "Every single one of them is a terrible human tragedy that reverberates through families and communities for years to com

To make these jobs more accessible, the state is proposing to create "transitional" titles with requirements more in line with the candidates' qualifications

Christmas Day meant the same as any other day for thousands of migrants walking through southern Mexico: more trudging under a hot sun. There were no presents, and Christmas Eve dinner was a sandwich, a bottle of water and a banana handed out by a local church to some of the migrants in the town of lvaro Obregn, in the southern state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala. Migrants spent Christmas night sleeping on a scrap of cardboard or plastic stretched out under an awning or tent, or the bare ground. In the morning, it was waking as usual at 4 a.m., to get an early start and avoid the worst of the heat, walking to the next town, Huixtla, 20 miles (30 kilometres) away. Karla Ramrez, a migrant from Honduras who was travelling with other adults and four children, got to lvaro Obregn too late Sunday to get any of the food being given out by the church. So they had to buy whatever little they could afford. It was sad: we have never, ever been in the street before, Ramrez said. Our ...

European Union leaders and top officials hailed on Wednesday a major breakthrough in talks on new rules to control migration, but critics said the reforms will weaken the rights of asylum-seekers and encourage more morally dubious deals with countries that people leave to get to Europe. After overnight talks, visibly exhausted EU lawmakers emerged expressing relief that agreement was found on the core political elements of the Pact on Asylum and Migration a major overhaul of rules that many hope will address the challenges posed by migrant arrivals over the last decade. It's truly a historic day, said European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, flanked by lawmakers responsible for the key parts of the agreement. With migration likely to be a hot campaign issue ahead of EU elections next June, Metsola said, it was vital to make a breakthrough. Let's not underestimate the risk if we had not reached such a deal, she told reporters. This means, hopefully, that member states will fee

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday approved sweeping new powers that allow police to arrest migrants who illegally cross the US border and give local judges authority to order them to leave the country, testing the limits of how far a state can go to enforce immigration laws. Opponents have called the measure the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since a 2010 Arizona law denounced by critics as the Show Me Your Papers bill that was largely struck down by the US Supreme Court. Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, and Texas' law is also likely to face swift legal challenges. The law, which takes effect in March, allows any Texas law enforcement officer to arrest people who are suspected of entering the country illegally. Once in custody, they could either agree to a Texas judge's order to leave the US or be prosecuted on misdemeanour charges of illegal entry. Migrants who don't leave could face arrest again under more serious felony ...

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday launched a fight-back in favour of what he dubbed as the toughest anti-immigration law ever amid turmoil within the governing Conservative Party after a bruising Cabinet resignation and open attacks by backbenchers over his government's controversial policy to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda. Addressing a hurriedly organised press conference from Downing Street, the 43-year-old British Indian leader referred to his heritage as a child of immigrants to highlight how his family used the legal route before becoming proud British nationals. Illegal immigration undermines not just our border control, it undermines the very sense of fairness that is so central to our national character, said Sunak. We play by the rules, we put in our fair share, we wait our turn. That some people can just cut all of that out, you've not just lost control of your borders, you've fatally undermined the very fairness and trust on which our system is based, he

More than 400,000 Afghans returned to their home country following the ongoing crackdown on illegal foreigners in the country, Pakistani authorities said Monday. Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesperson of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, confirmed the number and told The Associated Press that the majority have been using the border crossings of Torkham and Spin Boldak to return home. An estimated 1.7 million Afghans had been living in Pakistan when authorities announced its nationwide crackdown, saying that anyone without proper documents had to leave the country by October 31 or else get arrested. However, Pakistani officials said the other 1.4 million Afghans registered as refugees need not worry as only people without proper documentation were sought after. In the 1980s, millions of Afghans fled to neighboring Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of their country. The numbers witnessed a spike after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. Pakistan also introduced

Migrants with criminal records in Australia will face up to five years in prison for breaching their visa conditions under emergency legislation introduced Thursday in response to a High Court ruling that foreigners can't be detained indefinitely. The government said it has released 84 foreigners most of whom have convictions for crimes including murder and rape since the court ruled last week that indefinite detention of migrants is unconstitutional. The decision reversed a High Court ruling from 2004 that had allowed stateless people to be held in migrant centers for any length of time in cases where there were no prospects of deporting them from Australia. The legislation introduced in Parliament by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles would let the government order certain migrants to wear electronic tracking bracelets and to comply with curfews. Failure to comply with those visa conditions could be a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in prison. The released migran

The latest influx of refugees is in addition to the thousands who have already taken refuge in the northeastern state since 2021. Mizos share ethnic ties with the Chin community.

With this addition, all asylum claims from Indian nationals who arrive on small boats or illegally on other routes will be deemed inadmissible. There will be no appeals and they will be sent back.

In a series of comments on immigration that have drawn some criticism from within her own party ranks, UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman has warned against a hurricane of migrants landing on the country's shores unless tough action is taken. The 43-year-old Indian-origin Cabinet minister, whose parents migrated to Britain from Mauritius and Kenya, told the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Tuesday that their immigration was a mere gust compared to the millions more expected in the coming months and years. Her hard-line speech hit out at European human rights legislation that made it difficult for the UK to tackle the challenge of boat-loads of bogus asylum seekers. The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming, said Braverman in her address to the Tory activists. Because today the option of moving from a poorer country to a richer one is not just a dream for billions of peop

A New Yorker upset that the city has been housing homeless migrants on his block has set up a loudspeaker to deliver an unwelcoming message to his new neighbours: "Immigrants are not safe here. The message, recorded in six languages, blares all day from a loudspeaker on Scott Herkert's well-groomed front lawn on Staten Island, exhorting migrants to go back to another part of the city because the community doesn't want them. It urges people brought to a temporary shelter inside a long-vacant Roman Catholic high school not to get off the bus. The message also claims the building has rats and cockroaches. It is one of several ways some people have let shelter residents know they are not welcome. Hundreds of protesters have also held a large rally outside the former school, urging the city to house migrants elsewhere. The women and families placed by the city inside the former Saint John Villa Academy have heard the message loud and clear. We have to close our eyes and close our ears,

Six people died and dozens of others were rescued from a boat carrying migrants that capsized Saturday while trying to cross the English Channel, French authorities said. About 50 people were rescued, France's Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea said. Authorities initially said six of those rescued were in serious condition and one of them died after being flown by helicopter to a Calais hospital. They later announced that five others had died. Several British and French ships were involved in the early morning search and rescue effort after a patrol boat reported that a migrant boat was sinking off Sangatte. The Boulogne prosecutor's office is investigating.

European Union interior ministers on Thursday made a fresh attempt to overcome one of the bloc's most intractable political problems as they weighed new measures for sharing out responsibility for migrants entering Europe without authorisation. Europe's asylum system collapsed eight years ago after well over a million people entered most of them fleeing conflict in Syria and overwhelmed reception capacities in Greece and Italy, in the process sparking one of the EU's biggest political crises. The 27 EU nations have bickered ever since over which countries should take responsibility for people arriving without authorisation, and whether other members should be obliged to help them cope. Arriving for the meeting in Luxembourg, the EU's top migration official, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said it was an extremely important day to resolve what has been a marathon issue for Europe. Of this marathon, we have maybe 100 metres left. So, we are so close to actually find an ...

Industry bodies said at least 10 per cent of normal cargo is being diverted from Sri Lanka to Indian ports due to multiple reasons like congestion and shortage in fuel availability

Tens of thousands of migrants, who have been living in Germany for years without permission to remain in the country, will be eligible for residency after the government approved a new migration bill

The policy will cover workers who left the company before October 2019, Supermax said in a statement filed with the stock exchange

The number of migrant children housed at Biden administration's largest emergency shelter for those who crossed the US-Mexico border alone has dropped by more than 40 per cent since mid-June

Little attention has been paid to relief and social protection to migrant workers during state lockdowns this year, study says.