| EU ministers meet amid tensions over asylum policy. Interior ministers from 28 European countries are meeting in Innsbruck today as many of them face mounting pressure at home to stem arrivals of migrants and asylum-seekers. The informal meeting comes shortly after Austria took over the rotating EU presidency. Austria is expected to propose a change in EU asylum policy that would require asylum-seekers to make their claims from outside Europe, according to AFP. Deutsche Welle reports that German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer met with his Italian counterpart, Matteo Salvini, on Wednesday. After the meeting, Seehofer said he was optimistic about reaching a deal with Rome to return asylum-seekers already registered in Italy who reach the German border. Salvini said that a broader strategy to protect Europe’s external borders would be the pre-condition of any such deal. | | |
| Conflict in Colombia’s border region forces 16,000 from homes. Fighting between the Los Pelusos group, an offshoot of the now dissolved People’s Liberation Army, and the National Liberation Army (ELN) over control of drug trafficking routes in the Catatumbo region , which straddles the border between Colombia and Venezuela, has displaced at least 16,000 people since mid-March, reports the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Unable to sustain themselves, some 70 per cent of the displaced have returned to their homes, but they have done so “at their own risk” according to OCHA. Three community leaders and nearly 30 civilians have been killed in Catatumbo, and nearly 3,000 children are unable to attend school. Cuba-hosted peace talks with the ELN are ongoing. | | |
| A look inside a camp for Syria’s displaced. When Syrian government forces retook control of several Damascus suburbs earlier this year, many residents chose to evacuate to areas of northern Syria still under opposition control. Among them was Rami al-Sayyed, who left Yarmouk, once home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Syrians, for Jandaris, a bleak camp that shelters 6,000 people. He took his camera with him and has been documenting life in the camp : the rows of tents, the children swatting flies and the devastation after a family’s tent caught fire. In this piece for the New York Times, Sayyed reflects on the loss of his home and the sense of despair in the camp. | | |
| Thousands flee latest spate of violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region. Clashes between farmers and herders in Plateau State in late June have forced 38,000 people to flee their homes, according to media reports. Most are now staying in congested camps where the International Committee of the Red Cross is assisting 22,000 displaced people with food and other essentials. Others are being hosted by local families who are struggling to make do with scarce resources. The European Commission’s humanitarian aid operation (ECHO) reports that, since the start of the year, the conflict in the Middle Belt region has claimed 1,000 lives and displaced approximately 300,000 people. | | |
| Libyan officials tell different story of why Mediterranean crossings have dropped. EU initiatives have been widely credited with dramatically reducing the number of refugees and migrants attempting to reach Europe by sea from Libya, but Libyan officials in this IRIN report claim that factors within their country have played a greater role and warn that a busier summer of attempted crossings lies ahead. Libyan Coast Guard officials interviewed by IRIN said they remain overwhelmed and under-resourced and that a lack of equipment and a UN arms embargo has rendered them powerless to respond to well-armed militias and smugglers. They attributed the drop in arrivals to Europe to a crackdown on smuggling networks in the coastal town of Sabrata as well as an outbreak of violence in Sebha, a smuggling hub in the south, that has forced smugglers to take more circuitous routes to the coast. | | |
| Training schemes give new hope to refugees in France. Reuters reports on the HOPE programme , which trains refugees for jobs that companies struggle to fill, especially in manufacturing. Although refugees have the right to work in France, many struggle to find employment. Since launching in 2016, the programme has trained 1,000 refugees at a cost of 20,000 euros each, mostly financed by the employers. The refugees’ strong motivation and work ethic has surprised many of the employers and trainers. To help more businesses follow suit, UNHCR and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently launched a 10-point action plan that identifies challenges, opportunities and best practices for integrating refugees in the labour market. | | |
| Academic, activist and life-long advocate for refugee rights Barbara Harrell-Bond died at her home in Oxford on Wednesday. She founded both the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University and the Refugee Law Project in Uganda before dedicating her final years to building a global movement for refugee legal aid through the Rights in Exile programme. This clip is from a recent documentary about her extraordinary life. | | |
Over 600 people attempting to cross the Central Mediterranean have drowned or gone missing in the last four weeks – nearly half the total number of deaths so far in 2018.
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