(AP) An Italian naval ship carrying migrants was en route Wednesday to Albania to have asylum applications processed under a five-year deal to handle asylum claims outside the European Union’s borders that has already hit a legal roadblock. An Italian interior ministry […]
(AFP) A Sicilian court on Monday dealt a fresh blow to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s migrant policy by declaring applications for asylum from Egypt could not be fast-tracked. Egypt was included on the government’s list of so-called “safe” countries to which […]
(Politico) When Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau headed over to the Elysée palace to meet President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, he wasn’t looking for commonality. He went to stand his ground. Macron and Retailleau spoke face to face for the first [time] since […]
(Reuters) Italy’s government on Monday passed a decree aimed at overcoming court objections to its flagship immigration plan that is aimed at deterring boat migrants by sending them to detention camps in Albania. The plan, launched last week, was immediately undermined as […]
(AP) A court in Italy on Friday ruled against the right-wing government’s move to detain 12 migrants at newly opened centers in Albania, highlighting a key hurdle in the administration’s plan to outsource some of its migrant processing to the Balkan country. […]
(Euronews) Ursula von der Leyen has offered her strongest endorsement yet to the controversial project of establishing so-called “return hubs” outside the European Union territory to transfer asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected. The idea was reflected in a letter the […]
(AP) Italy is transferring the first group of migrants to Albania, the Interior Ministry said Monday, as part of a contentious plan to process thousands of asylum-seekers outside its borders. A naval ship departed from the island of Lampedusa with 16 men […]
(NY Times) The Muslim cleric preparing to lead what, if everything goes as planned, will become the world’s smallest state, has laid-back plans for the tiny new country. His hoped-for Muslim state in Tirana, Albania’s capital, will be a Vatican-style sovereign enclave […]
(AFP) British Prime Minister Keir Starmer praised his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni on Monday for her efforts in reducing illegal migration, saying his “government of pragmatism” sought new approaches to the hot-button topic. On his first visit to Italy since his centre-left […]
(Reuters) An Italian prosecutor on Saturday asked a judge to sentence right-wing League leader Matteo Salvini to six years in prison over his 2019 decision to prevent more than 100 migrants from landing in the country. The then interior minister, who is […]
(DPA) A 29-year-old man armed with a machete and a knife visited a police station in western Germany, yelled the Arabic-language phrase “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”) and threatened to kill officers, investigators said on Friday. The man, who has Albanian citizenship, […]
(Breitbart) Dividends have begun to pay off for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s migration strategy as figures have shown a near-two-thirds reduction of illegal arrivals over last year. Statistics released this week by the Italian Interior Ministry showed that 41,530 illegal immigrants landed […]
(DPA) A controversial debate in Germany over whether to resume deportations of convicted criminals to Syria and Afghanistan was the main topic of discussions as interior ministers from the country’s 16 states convened just outside of Berlin on Wednesday evening. The state […]
(Politico) Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda asylum policy has repeatedly been declared illegal by U.K. judges, is yet to send any migrants to Rwanda, and has so far failed to rescue the British prime minister from the verge of electoral oblivion. That hasn’t put […]
(AFP) Fifteen EU states want “new ways” to handle irregular migrants, including sending some to third countries, in a demand made as the bloc plots out how to implement a recently adopted overhaul of its asylum rules. The countries presented their joint […]
(AP) Albania’s Parliament voted Thursday to approve a deal for the country to hold thousands of asylum seekers for Italy, despite protests from opposition lawmakers and human rights groups. Under the five-year deal, Albania would shelter up to 3,000 migrants rescued from […]
(Reuters) Irregular immigration to the EU from Western Africa rose more than ten times on the year in January, according to the bloc’s Frontex border agency, which expects overall arrivals to grow in 2024 and says halting the movement of people completely […]
(Reuters) As record numbers of Syrian refugees reach the shores of Cyprus, the Nicosia government wants the European Union to consider declaring parts of their war-torn homeland safe to repatriate them to, the Cypriot interior minister said. “Starting a discussion to re-evaluate […]
(AP) Greek police have arrested six people who they say are members of a large human trafficking gang that violently extorted money from migrants to assist them in crossing into neighboring Albania and travel to European Union countries to the north. The […]
(AP) It is a familiar sight in this remote rural town: a migrant in a headscarf and thick winter coat carrying her belongings to the overcrowded reception center as a storm brews over the flat landscape. For many here and across this […]
(AP) Albania agreed Monday to give temporary shelter to some of the thousands of migrants who reach Italian shores while their asylum bids are being processed, offering its neighbor across the Adriatic Sea some relief in managing some of the arrivals. The […]
(AFP) The man who killed a schoolteacher in northern France last week was charged with terror offences on Tuesday, a prosecutor said, after revealing that he had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State extremist group in an audio recording before his attack. […]
(Reuters) Europe is seeing a rise of “Islamist terrorism” and all states are threatened, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday during a visit to Albania, after Islamist killings of a teacher in France and two Swedish football fans in Belgium. Macron […]
(AP) French President Emmanuel Macron held a special security meeting on Monday amid heightened alert against feared terror threats, as a high school where a teacher was fatally stabbed in an attack last week has been evacuated over a bomb threat. Several […]
(Reuters) The number of immigrants deported from European Union countries rose by 29% in the second quarter of 2023, mostly sent back from France and Germany, statistics agency Eurostat said on Friday, as the bloc tries to control exceptionally high arrivals. Of […]
(AP) Pope Francis challenged French President Emmanuel Macron and other European leaders to open their ports to people fleeing hardship and poverty, insisting Saturday that the continent isn’t facing a migration “emergency” but rather a long-term reality that governments must deal with […]
(Breitbart) An asylum seeker from Afghanistan has been jailed for twice raping a 12-year-old girl with learning disabilities in a migrant hotel in London. Sakhidad Ahadi, 25, was sentenced at the Croydon Crown Court to twelve years in prison for grooming and […]
(Sky News) Rishi Sunak has insisted his plan to stop small boat crossings in the Channel is “working” — despite more than 1,000 people making the journey over the weekend. The prime minister said he has always acknowledged that crossings “will increase […]
(AP) Albanian authorities on Tuesday raided a camp for members of the exiled Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq to seize 150 computer devices allegedly linked to prohibited political activities, and several people were injured. Albanian Interior Minister Bledi Cuci and the head of […]
(Iran International) The Albania-based opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) has accused the Islamic Republic of a terror attack on its building north of Paris. In a statement the group claimed a building belonging to its supporters in the city of Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône was attacked […]
(AP) Albanian police on Friday said they have arrested six migrant traffickers for allegedly organizing an illegal border crossing for people from Arab countries and opening fire on border police. No injures were reported. A police statement said that the traffickers were […]
(Arab News) Two-thirds of small boat arrivals in Britain last year who were detained pending deportation claimed to be victims of modern slavery, the Times reported. The figures are likely to frustrate Home Office officials, with the slavery claims leading to delayed […]
(AP) Albanian law enforcement authorities on Tuesday charged an Albanian man with supporting terror attacks in Western Europe on social media. A statement from the special prosecutor’s office against corruption and organized crime accused Bledar Zeneli of promoting and urging terror attacks, […]
(National-UAE) Afghans fleeing their home country could be abandoned under the government’s migration bill, a think tank has warned. Figures suggest nearly a quarter of migrants who crossed the English Channel to the UK in the first three months of this year […]
(NY Post) An ISIS-loving radical Islamic extremist from Yonkers was busted by the feds Friday for plotting to kill the city’s police officers and mayor beginning on the street where the local St. Patrick’s Day parade was set to go down, authorities […]
(National-UAE) The Home Office plans to fast-track thousands of asylum cases from a handful of countries, including Syria and Yemen, as the backlog of people waiting for an initial decision climbs to almost 161,000. About 12,000 asylum seekers from nations that have […]
(Swiss Info) The Swiss Centre for Islam and Society at the University of Fribourg completed its first further education course for imams in autumn. Hansjörg Schmid, director of the centre, takes stock of the experience. The 12-month course attracted a great deal […]
(Sky News) Rishi Sunak’s flagship policy to stop Albanian migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats is unlikely to reduce overall illegal immigration because of “infinite” demand, Home Office sources have warned. The prime minister’s five-point plan, launched last month, specifically […]
(BBC) Some 44 migrants have been brought to shore in the UK, in the first small boat crossing of the new year. The migrants were picked up by the UK’s Border Force and taken to Dover. French authorities say another two boats […]
(Reuters) Ministers from Britain, Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands on Thursday agreed plans to step up co-operation to tackle irregular immigration across Europe and try to stop people smugglers working in the English Channel. Britain’s interior minister Suella Braverman met her […]
(AFP) UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his counterpart in Tirana Edi Rama on Thursday agreed to do more to stem the flow of Albanians making small-boat crossings of the Channel. Albanians are now the largest single group among record numbers of migrants […]
(Sky News) A group of more than 50 MPs has written to PM Rishi Sunak, urging him to introduce emergency legislation which will cut small boat crossings of the Channel. The group, which includes former cabinet ministers, called for the rapid implementation […]
(AFP) Britain agreed to pay France another 72.2 million euros ($74.5 million) to prevent migrant boat crossings in the English Channel under a new deal signed on Monday that underlines improving ties between the neighbours. Around 42,000 people — most of them […]
(AFP) Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama lambasted the British government on Wednesday for allegedly “discriminating” against Albanians, after a top UK official singled out the nationality for their role in illicit migration to the country. Small-boat crossings of the Channel from mainland […]
(AFP) British and Belgian law enforcement officers on Monday said they had arrested three people suspected of being part of an Albanian people-smuggling ring. The Belgian Federal Police detained two men aged 34 and 44 from Basingstoke in southern England at the […]
(BBC) Almost 1,000 migrants crossed the English Channel in 24 small boats on Saturday, the Ministry of Defence says. It brings the total number of migrants making the journey from France so far this month to 6,395. Government figures collated by the […]
(BBC) The UK is spending almost £7m a day on hotels for asylum seekers — and the cost is likely to rise, MPs on the Home Affairs Committee have heard. The figure is more than £2m higher than the government said it […]
(AFP) Spanish police said Saturday they have broken up a gang suspected of smuggling Albanian migrants including children into Britain, hidden as stowaways in dangerous conditions aboard ferries and merchant ships. Officers arrested seven suspects, all Albanians from an “important criminal organisation,” […]
(BBC) A 30-year-old man has been arrested as part of an investigation into the smuggling of people across the English Channel in small boats. The Albanian national was detained by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers in Surbiton in south-west London. He is […]
(BBC) The home secretary said she will change the law to stop migrants crossing the Channel in small boats. Suella Braverman told the Conservative party conference on Tuesday she will prevent modern slavery laws being “abused” by people smugglers. The government needs […]
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