(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 […]
(Canadian Press) The National Council of Canadian Muslims abruptly cancelled a meeting Monday with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, accusing his government of failing to protect Palestinians or take “tangible action” against hate crimes. “We no longer think it’s productive to speak with […]
(Politico) The European Union on Wednesday broke years of political deadlock by agreeing on a deal that will significantly change how the bloc limits migrant entry, moves migrants around EU countries and effectively makes it easier to deport unsuccessful asylum seeker applicants. […]
(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 […]
(National-UAE) European prosecutors are toughening charges against women linked to ISIS when they are returned to Europe as evidence emerges of the extent of their suspected involvement with the group. The charges are a step change in how courts are handling female […]
(AP) A wooden boat crowded with migrants smashed into rocky reefs and broke apart before dawn Sunday off the Italian coast, authorities said. Rescuers recovered nearly 60 bodies, and dozens more people were missing in the rough waters. Officials feared the death […]
(AFP) Italian authorities have detained a migrant rescue vessel run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) for allegedly breaking new government rules on life-saving missions in the Mediterranean, the charity said Friday. The Geo Barents ship was impounded late Thursday for 20 days […]
(Reuters) Italy’s parliament on Thursday passed into law a government decree establishing a code of conduct for migrant charity ships, despite criticism from the United Nations and humanitarian groups that it will imperil lives. The new set of rules is part of […]
(AFP) Twenty charities on Thursday slammed new rules on rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean introduced by Italy’s right-wing government, saying they go against international law and will result in more deaths. Under the new decree, which came into effect this week, charity […]
(Reuters) Italy’s rightist government has approved measures to fine charities who rescue migrants at sea and impound their ships if they break a new, tougher set of rules — a move that one campaign group said could threaten lives. A cabinet decree […]
(AFP) Humanitarian groups on Sunday said Italy had broken international law by refusing to let in migrants plucked from the sea as a German rescue charity said it would take legal action against Rome. As rescue ships in Catania waited for permission […]
(AP) Italy’s new far-right-led government adopted a measure Friday formalizing the closure of its ports to rescue ships run by humanitarian groups as four vessels with more than 1,000 migrants continued to press for a safe port. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told […]
(AP) Humanitarian groups caring for nearly 1,000 rescued migrants on three ships in the central Mediterranean are sounding an alarm about deteriorating conditions, but Italy’s new far-right-led government has not responded to requests for a safe [port as] it hardens its position […]
(AP) Italian authorities scrambled on Sunday to relieve overcrowding in shelters after scores of boats carrying a total of about 1,000 migrants reached Italy’s southern shores and two of its tiny islands over the weekend. Nearly 50 boats arrived between Friday night […]
(AFP) Italian anti-immigration leader Matteo Salvini warned Thursday his country would not host “the refugee camp of Europe” as he visited a migrant centre on the tiny island of Lampedusa on a campaign stop for September elections. Dozens of overcrowded boats have […]
(AFP) Charities running migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean faced a pre-trial hearing in Sicily Saturday over alleged collusion with people traffickers after a controversial probe that involved mass wiretapping. Twenty-one suspects, including crew members of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the […]
(AFP) Former hostages taking the witness stand at the trial of their alleged Islamic State group captor have described their brutal treatment in chilling detail. Eight former IS hostages have testified so far at the trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, accused of […]
(AFP) A former Doctors Without Borders (MSF) worker held for three months in Syria in 2014 by the Islamic State group testified on Thursday to the particularly brutal treatment meted out to American and British hostages. Frida Saide, a Swede, revealed details […]
(AFP) A French journalist held by the Islamic State in Syria testified Wednesday that he and other hostages were forced by their captors to sing a depraved parody of the Eagles song “Hotel California” called “Hotel Osama.” “It was terrifying for us, […]
(AP) Latvia, Lithuania and Poland continue to use questionable methods to keep out migrants trying to enter from Belarus and are denying access to aid groups trying to help people stuck in border areas, senior U.N. refugee agency and European Union officials […]
(Politico) Fifteen minutes outside the town of Vathy stands a just-completed compound, surrounded by a double barbed-wire fence. The entrance, only open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., is equipped with turnstiles, magnetic gates and X-ray machines. Guards check both ID cards […]
(AFP) From the UN to Amnesty, fears abound that a new Swiss anti-terror law, which grants sweeping new powers to police to prevent future attacks, threatens Switzerland’s heritage as a human rights leader. Shocked by the deadly terror attacks in neighbouring France […]
(AP) The European Union’s home affairs commissioner was meeting Tuesday with Greece’s prime minister and foreign minister, a day after touring two of the eastern islands in the Aegean Sea most heavily affected by migration into Europe. The EU is currently working […]
(Politico) Rome is facing pressure to abolish its offshore quarantine system for migrants and refugees following a series of alarming incidents, including several deaths, over the past year. Since May, the Italian government has isolated asylum seekers on ships after they arrive, […]
(AFP) French police on Tuesday cleared a migrant street camp outside the Stade de France stadium north of Paris where around 2,000 people, mainly Afghan and African, had been living in cramped tents. Dozens of police were deployed to carry out the […]
(AFP) Greece’s government has cautiously welcomed a plan from Brussels to reform the EU’s shaky asylum system, but charity groups working with refugees on the ground have blasted a continued “outrageous containment policy.” The “New Pact on Migration and Asylum” was unveiled […]
(AFP) Police on the Greek island of Lesbos on Thursday launched an operation to rehouse thousands of asylum seekers sleeping rough for over a week after Europe’s largest migrant camp was destroyed by fire. Officers woke the migrants in their tents and […]
(AFP) Greece on Wednesday announced a first coronavirus infection in its largest migrant camp of Moria on the island of Lesbos, where nearly 13,000 asylum seekers live in unsanitary conditions. “A 40-year-old Somali man has tested positive,” a migration ministry source told […]
(AFP) A fishing boat carrying nearly 370 migrants landed overnight on the Italian island of Lampedusa, the country’s news agencies said on Sunday, fueling anger from local officials over a recent rise in illegal arrivals. Italy has been struggling in recent months […]
(AFP) Greece on Thursday reported its first novel coronavirus infection in one of its overcrowded asylum seeker camps. A 35-year-old man from Yemen living at the camp of Vial on the island of Chios tested positive late on Wednesday, a migration ministry […]
(AFP) When Amir Hussein was finally allowed to leave the horrific migrant camp of Moria on the Greek island of Lesbos, it was supposed to be the end of a year-long odyssey. “After (experiencing) hell in Moria, we had not expected to […]
(AFP) Inside Greece’s largest asylum-seeker camp on the island of Lesbos, the coronavirus is an oft-heard threat that has kept migrant facilities around the country under lockdown since March. But knife crime is the real killer. Whereas COVID-19 has yet to surface […]
(AP) Aid group Doctors without Borders said Friday it is ending its cooperation with partner SOS Mediterranee amid disagreement over the continued rescue of migrants. Doctors without Borders, which is also known by its French acronym MSF, said it wants to continue […]
(Reuters) Medical charity [Medecins] Sans Frontieres (MSF) has urged Greece to immediately evacuate migrants from overcrowded camps on its islands due to a high risk of the coronavirus spreading swiftly among people living in squalid conditions. Greece reported its first fatality from […]
(BBC) The EU says it will pay €2,000 (£1,770; $2,225) each to migrants in overcrowded camps on the Greek islands willing to go back to their home countries. EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson announced the scheme in Athens on Thursday. It […]
(AP) The “anxiety and indignation” of Greek island residents living at the forefront of a migration crisis are justified, Greece’s migration and asylum minister said Thursday, and vowed to address dramatic overcrowding on island camps and the increasing number of new arrivals. […]
(AP) Greece announced plans Wednesday to overhaul its migration management system, replacing overcrowded refugee camps on the islands with smaller detention facilities and moving some 20,000 asylum seekers to the mainland over the next few weeks. Deputy Defense Minister Alkiviadis Stefanis announced […]
(AFP) Italy has renewed a controversial agreement signed in 2017 with [the] Libyan coastguard to block illegal migrants trying to leave from the North African country’s coast, the government has said. Libya, wracked by conflict since the 2011 uprising that killed dictator […]
(Reuters) A fire in a severely overcrowded migrant camp in Greece forced hundreds of people into the streets, compounding their plight with more refugees arriving on Greek islands daily in what an aid group called a worsening “nightmare.” Greece sent more police […]
(AFP) Italy on Saturday allowed rescue ship Ocean Viking to disembark 82 migrants on Lampedusa, in a reversal of the hardline policy under the country’s ex-interior minister Matteo Salvini. Far-right leader Salvini was forced out of office last month after bringing the […]
(El País) Spain’s High Court, the Audiencia Nacional, has recently issued arrest warrants for four women who traveled to Syria in 2014 to join the Islamic State (ISIS). All four are currently being held in two detention camps run by Kurdish militias […]
(France 24) The mayors of 13 major French cities, frustrated over a lack of shelter for asylum seekers, have penned an open letter to the government demanding it do more to address the situation. The signatories of the appeal come from an […]
(BBC) Thousands of demonstrators in Brussels have marched against a UN migration pact, adopted in Marrakesh last week. Flemish right-wing parties called the march, which took place near major EU institutions, amid fears the pact could lead to an increase in immigration. […]
Thank you for reading Eye on Islamism.