(Reuters) Lithuania said on Monday it would complete a 508-km (315-mile) fence along its border with Belarus by September next year to stop migrants it says are crossing in record numbers orchestrated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have […]
(Reuters) Austria’s conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz opposes taking in any more people fleeing Afghanistan now that the Taliban have seized power, he said in remarks published on Sunday. Austria took in more than one percent of its population in asylum seekers during […]
(Reuters) The leaders of Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia came together on Saturday to condemn Belarus for allowing migrants to illegally cross its borders into the European Union. “All European Union member states have a duty to protect borders and to stop […]
(Reuters) Switzerland will not accept large groups of refugees arriving directly from Afghanistan, the government said on Wednesday, as a Swiss army unit arrived in Kabul to assess the situation. The neutral Alpine country has promised to evacuate local workers for a […]
(Reuters) Greece does not want to become the entry point into the European Union for Afghans fleeing the escalating conflict in their homeland, Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said on Tuesday, calling for a common EU response to the crisis. Greece was on […]
(Reuters) A dozen Belarusian officers in riot gear illegally crossed into Lithuanian territory on Tuesday while pushing a group of 35 Iraqi migrants over the border, Lithuania’s border guard service said. Lithuania, a member of the European Union, accuses Belarus of deliberately […]
(Reuters) Austria, which has insisted that it plans to keep deporting illegal immigrants back to Afghanistan even as the Taliban seized Kabul, on Monday suggested setting up “deportation centres” in nearby countries as an alternative. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s conservatives have made a […]
(Reuters) Austria stuck on Saturday to its hard line on sending home Afghans whose requests for asylum fail even as Taliban insurgent advances prompted other European Union countries to reconsider similar stances. “It is easy to call for a general ban on […]
(Reuters) Spain on Friday started sending hundreds of Moroccan youths, who in May crossed into its North African enclave of Ceuta, back to Morocco after reaching an agreement with Rabat, Spanish media reported, signalling an improvement in ties after a long row. […]
(Reuters) The EU’s border agency is trialling new high-tech surveillance equipment to detect migrant boats, just as rapid gains by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have raised the prospect of a surge in people fleeing to Europe. A balloon system equipped with cameras […]
(Reuters) The number of migrants illegally entering the European Union by crossing the Western Balkans has almost doubled this year, EU border agency Frontex said on Thursday, with the majority coming from Syria and Afghanistan. Frontex said 22,600 migrants were detected illegally […]
(Reuters) Latvian border guards turned back dozens of migrants into Belarus overnight under a new state of emergency designed to stem a flow of arrivals the European Union says is orchestrated by Minsk. At daybreak on Wednesday some 30 migrants — including […]
(Reuters) Latvia declared a state of emergency along its border on Tuesday and Lithuania decided to erect a fence in new measures to deter migrants they say Belarus is encouraging to cross illegally in order to pressure European states. Rising numbers of […]
(Reuters) Six EU member states have warned the bloc’s executive against halting deportations of rejected Afghan asylum seekers arriving in Europe despite major advances of Taliban militants in their country. The Taliban, fighting to reimpose strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster, […]
(Reuters) A record number of migrants have crossed the Polish border with Belarus since Friday, the Border Guard said on Monday, amid accusations Minsk is using illegal crossings to pressure European Union states. Poland and Lithuania have seen a surge in illegal […]
(Reuters) European Union home affairs ministers will discuss a surge of illegal border crossings from Belarus to EU member state Lithuania at an extraordinary meeting on Aug. 18, the Slovenian EU presidency said on Friday. Representatives of the EU border agency Frontex […]
(Reuters) Poland accused Belarus of sending a growing number of migrants over the border in retaliation for Warsaw’s decision this week to give refuge to Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, a Belarusian athlete who refused to return home from the Tokyo Olympics. A deputy interior […]
(Reuters) The European Court of Human Rights has temporarily halted the imminent deportation from Austria of an Afghan whose request for asylum was turned down, a relief group supporting the man said on Tuesday. The ECHR decision, published on the website of […]
(Reuters) U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration will launch a new program to resettle certain Afghans as refugees in the United States, an administration official and two knowledgeable sources said on Sunday. The U.S. State Department was expected to announce the setting-up of […]
(Reuters) The European Union will consider sanctions against migrant smugglers and those involved in human trafficking to address a surge in “irregular” border crossings from Belarus, the bloc’s top diplomat on Friday said. Lithuania, an EU member state, has reported an uptick […]
(Reuters) European Union border agency Frontex will deploy 60 border guards with helicopters and vehicles to Lithuania’s frontier with Belarus next week, after a surge in migrants crossing illegally, which the EU says has been orchestrated by Minsk. In response to EU […]
(Reuters) Lithuania’s foreign minister and the EU’s top diplomat accused Belarus on Monday of using illegal migrants as a political weapon to put pressure on the European Union because of the bloc’s sanctions on Minsk. Belarus was flying in migrants from abroad […]
(Reuters) Lithuania on Wednesday accused Belarus of flying in migrants from abroad to send to the European Union and said it would build a barrier on the border and deploy troops to prevent them crossing illegally into its territory. Belarus decided to […]
(Reuters) The European Union “speaks with one voice” in condemning a decision by Belarus to allow illegal migrants to cross into Lithuania in response to EU sanctions, European Council President Charles Michel said on Monday. The Lithuanian government declared a countrywide emergency […]
(Reuters) Italian police said on Monday they had arrested four men accused of sending funds to people across Europe and the Middle East who were collecting on behalf of Islamic State, in an investigation that led to a larger suspected terrorism-funding network. […]
(Reuters) European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday pledged support for Lithuania, which is experiencing a quickly growing flow of migrants though its 679-kilometre border with Belarus. The Lithuanian government declared a country-wide emergency on Friday as 150 migrants crossed […]
(Reuters) French police on Friday herded onto buses hundreds of migrants who 24 hours earlier had pitched tents in front of the Paris City Hall to protest lack of accommodation. There were no incidents as the migrants were cleared. But Yann Manzi, […]
(Reuters) Germany will fully support a European pact on migrants, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Italian daily la Repubblica in an interview published on Monday, adding that progress on the distribution of the burden was finally needed. “We should find a key […]
(Reuters) U.S. authorities pursuing a sweeping fraud investigation suspect some 4,000 Iraqis of filing fraudulent applications for resettlement in the United States as refugees, and they are re-examining cases involving more than 104,000 others, according to State Department reports reviewed by Reuters. […]
(Reuters) Laboratory technician Sara Zemmahi was running to be a local councillor backed by President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party until last month when it withdrew its support. Her transgression: wearing her hijab in a campaign poster. The 26-year-old and the three other […]
(Reuters) A Swiss law giving the police new powers to fight terrorism could expose people to torture abroad and risks harming children, human rights and legal experts told Reuters ahead of a nationwide referendum on the law. After a series of attacks […]
(Reuters) Europe could easily manage hundreds of migrants arriving on its shores if it had more predictable state-led systems to deal with such matters, the U.N.’s refugees chief said, pointing to the arrival of hundreds on Italy’s Lampedusa island at the weekend. […]
(Reuters) Fifteen boats packed with hundreds of migrants landed on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Sunday, and officials said they were expecting numbers to increase as the weather improved. More than 1,400 people got off the vessels at the Mediterranean […]
(Reuters) Police officers from three other European Union nations will help their colleagues in Slovenia to monitor its border with Croatia, amid concerns about a possible increase in illegal migrants as weather conditions improve. More than a million migrants and asylum seekers, […]
(Reuters) An Iranian diplomat sentenced to 20 years in prison for planning a bomb attack in France has dropped an appeal in Belgium and will serve his sentence, his representative said on Wednesday. Belgian authorities have said they will oppose any potential […]
(Reuters) Sixteen-year-old Mariem Chourak is a devout Muslim who considers wearing a hijab an expression of her devotion to the Prophet Mohammad, but a proposal by French senators might soon deny her the freedom to do so in public spaces. The amendment […]
(Reuters) French Prime Minister Jean Castex paid tribute in a nationally televised ceremony on Friday to an administrative police worker stabbed to death last week at a police station, saying she was [a] victim of “Islamist terrorism.” The killing of Stephanie Monferme, […]
(Reuters) Despite mounting pressure from lawmakers and civil society organisations, Denmark is determined to push ahead with efforts to return refugees to war-torn Syria as it claims conditions in parts of the country have improved. On Tuesday, the EU’s top migration official […]
(Reuters) Hundreds of people including Muslim imams paid tribute on Monday to a female French police official stabbed to death last week by a French resident of Tunisian origin who shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is greatest.” The police administrative worker, a […]
(Reuters) United Nations human rights experts urged Switzerland on Thursday to repatriate two Geneva sisters from a squalid camp in north-eastern Syria five years after the girls were allegedly abducted by their mother who joined Islamic State (IS). A senior Swiss foreign […]
(Reuters) Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy’s right-wing League party, must stand trial on charges of kidnapping over his decision to prevent more than 100 migrants from landing in the country in 2019, a judge ordered on Saturday. Salvini, who was interior minister […]
(Reuters) Denmark’s public prosecutor said on Thursday it had charged three members of an Iranian Arab opposition group for financing and supporting terrorist activity in Iran in collaboration with Saudi Arabian intelligence services. The three members of the Arab Struggle Movement for […]
(Reuters) The Swiss government on Tuesday defended a new anti-terrorism law that will be put to a nationwide referendum in June and that includes restrictive measures on child suspects. Under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, a committee collected signatures to force a […]
(Reuters) A prosecutor said on Saturday that Italy’s right-wing League leader Matteo Salvini should not be sent to trial over illegally detaining migrants in a case being considered by a court in the Sicilian city of Catania. The high-profile case, for which […]
(Reuters) The head of the European Commission said it will make a proposal to Turkey to ensure the flow of funding for refugees that the country hosts, adding that Ankara must however respect human rights and the rule of law. Ursula von […]
(Reuters) U.S. border agents in recent months arrested two Yemeni men on a terror watchlist in separate incidents as they crossed the border with Mexico illegally, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced on Monday. The men, arrested in January and March near […]
(Reuters) Greece “can do more” to investigate reports it has pushed asylum-seekers back to Turkey, a senior European Union official said on Monday, as Greek authorities pledged a new migrant reception centre on the island of Lesbos would open in time for […]
(Reuters) EU lawmakers should reject a proposed law that forces Google, Facebook and Twitter to remove terrorist content within an hour of publication because of the risks to fundamental rights, 61 civil rights groups said on Thursday. The European Commission drafted the […]
(Reuters) An Italian prosecutor formally called on Saturday for right-wing League leader Matteo Salvini to be tried for kidnapping over his decision to prevent more than 100 migrants from landing in the country in 2019. Salvini’s decision, made when he was interior […]
(Reuters) Cyprus has been stretched beyond its limits in accommodating asylum seekers and migrants and needs support from its European Union partners, a government official said on Friday. Previously overlooked as a migratory route, the eastern Mediterranean island has seen an increase […]
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