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- INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
ASIA (Asia News Network) EU boosts aid by €15 million for Myanmar’s internally displaced persons and refugees abroad – The European Union (EU) announced on June 20 that it will provide an additional €15 million to help those who have fled their homes in the country and Myanmar refugees abroad due to the rise of armed conflicts in Myanmar.
ATLANTIC ROUTE AND SPAIN (InfoMigrants) Canary Islands: Five migrants dead, 68 rescued by cruise ship – A luxury cruise ship rescued 68 migrants from a boat in distress that was en route to Spain’s Canary Islands, according to Spanish authorities and the cruise operator. Five people were found dead on a boat adrift south of Spain's Canary Islands in the Atlantic, the Spanish maritime rescue service said on Thursday [June 20].
EXTERNAL PARTNERS (EUobserver) Egypt’s EU-funded border guards ‘implicated in Sudanese abuse’ – The 35-page report by Amnesty International, released on Wednesday [19 June], says the roll-out of the €80m was aimed at the strengthening the operational capacity of the Egypt coast guard and border guard forces, among others objectives. But the same border guard, according to Amnesty International, has also been involved in human rights violations since the outbreak of Sudan's war in April 2023.
See more (Guardian) EU-funded Egyptian forces ‘rounding up and deporting Sudanese refugees’ – Amnesty International found Egypt “forcibly returned an estimated 800 Sudanese detainees between January and March 2024, who were all denied the possibility to claim asylum”.
EXTERNAL PARTNERS (InfoMigrants) Libyan coast guard officials hit migrants, Sea Watch says – Libyan coast guard officials are seen clubbing a few shipwrecked people on the Maridive merchant ship that had rescued them in a video posted by the Sea Watch NGO and filmed by the surveillance aircraft it operates, the Seabird. The video appears to show the coast guards approaching the merchant ship so it can hand over the group of about 60 migrants. The group of migrants were on deck at the time of the aggression.
EXTERNAL PARTNERS AND SPAIN (InfoMigrants) Spanish, Moroccan authorities ‘violently repressed’ Melilla migrants – Border Forensics – A report by Border Forensics claims that migrants were repeatedly directed to the Barrio Chino border crossing and violently repressed by Moroccan and Spanish law enforcement once trapped. The Geneva-based agency also alleges that the deaths resulting from the Melilla tragedy on June 24, 2022 “were no accident”.
FRONTEX (EUobserver) ‘Fear of repercussions’ thwart Frontex rights abuse reports – Redacted documents and minutes from the EU's border agency Frontex paint a picture of mounting frustration for its fundamental rights officer, Jonas Grimheden.
MEDITERRANEAN (AP) Italian coast guard recovers 14 more bodies of shipwreck victims off Calabria, dozens still missing – The Italian coast guard has recovered 14 more bodies from last week’s shipwreck in the Ionian Sea off the southern Italian coastline, bringing to 34 the number of known victims from the sinking. Dozens are still missing and presumed dead.
FRANCE (Euractiv) Far-right leader Bardella unveils immigration programme ahead of snap elections –The President of the Rassemblement National (RN) party, Jordan Bardella, confirmed Monday (24 June) that he intended to abolish France’s ‘droit du sol,’ the birthright to citizenship, and would restrict the Schengen area to EU citizens only after the snap elections.
GERMANY (Guardian) German conservatives urge clampdown on Ukrainian refugees’ benefits – Ukrainian refugees in Germany should have their access to welfare payments cut and should be processed through the asylum system instead, a number of leading German politicians are insisting, arguing that the current situation is becoming “difficult to communicate” to voters.
GERMANY (AA) German MP urges Ukrainian refugees to work or return home – Ukrainian refugees should either find jobs in Germany or return to safe parts of Ukraine, German lawmaker Alexander Dobrindt has said. In an interview with Germany’s Bild newspaper on Saturday [22 June], Dobrindt stressed the importance of integrating refugees into the workforce to ease the burden on the social welfare system in the country.
GERMANY (InfoMigrants) Germany: Ministers agree on cash limit for asylum seekers’ payment cards – The leaders of Germany's 16 states have agreed to limit cash payments to asylum seekers to 50 euros per month, although three states say the amount was problematic. The premiers also called on the German government to develop concrete models for outsourcing asylum procedures to non-EU countries.
See more (Euractiv) Pressure to allow asylum processing in third countries mounts on Germany’s Scholz – German states have called on the federal government to allow the outsourcing of asylum procedures to third states, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz promising at a summit on Thursday [20 June] to keep exploring options.
GREECE (EUobserver) ‘Credible’, ‘likely’ and ‘plausible’ Greek coast guard behind drownings, says Frontex document – It is ‘credible’, ‘likely’ and ‘plausible’ that four people drowned after being abandoned at sea by the Hellenic coast guard, says an internal document from the EU's border agency Frontex.
HUNGARY (Fakti) Orbán: Migration will be the focus of the Hungarian presidency – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told German media that he wants to make the issue of migration the focus of the upcoming Hungarian Presidency of the European Union. On July 1, Hungary will take over the rotating presidency of the European Union from Belgium.
IRELAND (RTE News) Borrisokane residents call on Government to let ex-asylum seekers stay in homes – A campaign is under way in Borrisokane, Co Tipperary, to allow 20 families who have been granted Leave to Remain in Ireland to stay in the accommodation which IPAS has provided for them until now.
ITALY (POLITICO) Italy’s labor minister vows to step up fight against migrant worker exploitation – “We have increased the number of labor inspectors and over the course of the year we will be able to double the number of inspections compared to those carried out in recent years,” Italian Labor Minister Marina Calderone said on Italian television channel TgCom24.
See more (BBC) Farm labourer dies in Italy after arm severed by machine – An Indian farm labourer in Italy has died after he was allegedly left on the side of the road following an accident in which his arm was severed and his legs crushed. Satnam Singh was injured by heavy machinery while working in a vegetable field in Lazio, near Rome, on Monday [17 June].
NETHERLANDS (NL Times) Ukrainian refugees who arrive in Netherlands by plane automatically detained for days – For several months, Ukrainian refugees who come to the Netherlands by plane have been detained for several days upon arrival due to a new procedure used by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND). Ukrainians who arrive by train or car are not taken into custody.
POLAND (Euractiv) Poland mulls closing border with Belarus, minister says – Poland is not ruling out closing its two remaining border crossings with Belarus to counter the hybrid activities of Alexander Lukashenko’s regime, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has said.
See more (BBC) Belarus opposition leader warns Poland over borders – Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has urged the Polish government not to shut down border crossing points between the two countries. “Keeping Belarusians connected to Europe is crucial,” she said in a post on X, adding that people could not be left “behind a new iron curtain”.
UK (Guardian) Home secretary’s aide says Rwanda policy is ‘crap’, in leaked recording – In the recording first obtained by the BBC,James Sunderland, who is James Cleverly’s parliamentary private secretary, said: “The policy is crap, OK? It’s crap,” before adding: “I have been part of this for the last two years, and I’m immersed in it and I probably shouldn’t say too much.”
UK (Guardian) Thousands of cleared asylum claims to be returned to Home Office after errors – Thousands of asylum cases that Rishi Sunak claimed had been cleared are on course to be returned to the Home Office because of soaring appeals blamed on “rushed” decisions and processing errors.
UK (Guardian) Record number of people have crossed Channel in small boats since January – Total of 12,901 people seeking asylum have crossed this year, passing previous six-month record of 12,747 in 2022.
SWITZERLAND (Swiss Info) Switzerland to send liaison officer for talks with Eritrea – The Swiss government intends to send a liaison officer to eastern Africa for talks with Eritrea. State Secretary for Migration Christine Schraner Burgener said that the country's willingness to readmit its own nationals was a prerequisite for further negotiations.
(Guardian) ‘I was shot in the leg back home’: the refugees reviving rural Spain – Depopulation can be a serious problem – ultimately, a shrinking community can’t maintain its services. But asylum seekers are bringing ghost villages back to life.
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