| European standoff leaves hundreds of people at sea. Almost 350 refugees and migrants remained stranded on two boats in the Mediterranean over the weekend as a standoff between nearby European countries deepened. A boat operated by the German NGO Mission Lifeline, which rescued 234 people on Thursday, and a Danish cargo ship, which picked up 113 people off the coast of Libya on Friday morning, were both barred from docking in Italy or Malta. On Sunday, Italy received six separate calls from boats in distress, but instructed rescue ships in the area that the vessels were Libya’s responsibility. On the same day, the Libyan coastguard reported that it had picked up and returned to shore nearly 1,000 people and recovered 10 bodies in several operations. Aid groups warned that the standoff is already costing lives and urged EU leaders to come up with solutions when they meet at a summit on Thursday and Friday. An emergency meeting between 16 EU leaders on Sunday produced “a lot of goodwill”, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but no concrete conclusions. The new Italian premier, Giuseppe Conte, presented a 10-point proposal calling for a “paradigm shift” in how Europe manages migration. | | |
| Thousands flee Syria’s Daraa as offensive intensifies. Communities in southwest Syria’s Daraa governorate have come under heavy attack in the past week, driving thousands of civilians to flee to safer areas along the border with Jordan and Israel. Aid workers told Reuters that hundreds of families had arrived in the towns of Tayba and Mataiyah, just a few kilometres from the Jordanian border, in recent days. By Friday, nearly 6,000 displaced people had been registered, according to UN figures, while local councils reported figures as high as 25,000. The offensive threatens a de-escalation zone agreed by the United States, Russia and Jordan last year. | | |
| Gap between refugee resettlement needs and places available widens. UNHCR said today that the number of refugees in need of resettlement to a third country was expected to reach 1.9 million in 2019 , 17 per cent higher than in 2018, while the number of resettlement places globally had dropped by more than half to just 75,000 in 2017. “We urgently need more countries to enter the ranks of resettlement states and for those already on board to find ways to increase their programmes,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. UNHCR’s Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement will take place in Geneva this week. | | |
| US still working to reunite over 2,000 children with their families. The Department of Homeland Security issued a fact sheet late on Saturday stating that 522 children in the custody of US border officials had already been reunited with their parents, while 2,053 children in the government’s custody remained separated from their families. An executive order issued by President Donald Trump last week halted the practice of separating families at the US-Mexico border, raising questions about how children sent to shelters and foster homes scattered across the country would be reunited with their detained parents. | | |
| Algeria leaves migrants in the Sahara. The Associated Press reports from Niger’s border with Algeria, where migrants expelled by Algeria emerge from the desert, often after having wandered for days in temperatures of up to 48 degrees Celsius. Survivors told AP that others in their group had collapsed or gone missing during the 15-kilometre trek from the Algerian border to Assamaka, an isolated frontier post in northern Niger. The International Organization for Migration has recorded more than 11,000 men, women and children crossing on foot from Niger since last May. Survivors told AP they had been rounded up by Algerian authorities, crammed into open trucks, dropped in the desert and pointed in the direction of Niger. | | |
| Syria must be more secure before refugees return, says Merkel. During a joint news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister-delegate Saad al-Hariri in Beirut on Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that more secure conditions were needed before refugee returns could take place. Earlier this month, Lebanon’s caretaker foreign minister Gebran Bassil accused UNHCR and foreign countries of preventing Syrian refugees from returning home and ordered a freeze on residency permits for UNHCR staff. UNHCR has stated that it does not discourage returns that are “based on individual free and informed decisions”. | | |
| Guinean refugee Mamadou talks about his experience of joining WeWork, the US-based company that specializes in shared workspaces. WeWork has set a goal of hiring 1,500 refugees within five years and is asking its network of member companies and the broader business community to make their own commitments to hire or support refugees. “There are a lot of refugees like me and they have a goal, they just need a little help,” says Mamadou. | | |
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