| German interior minister presents contentious asylum plan. Horst Seehofer unveiled a package of 63 measures aimed at reducing asylum numbers on Tuesday, a month after it was blocked from publication by Chancellor Angela Merkel. Deutsche Welle reports that the document does not include the compromises made last week after the Social Democratic Party vetoed the idea of “transit centres” at Germany’s southern border to quickly process and return asylum-seekers registered in other EU countries. The proposal calls for more “anchor centres” where newly arrived asylum-seekers would be housed for the duration of their asylum procedures and could be deported quickly if their requests were denied. Other proposed measures include more controls at the EU’s external borders, cutting cash payments to refugees and tougher sanctions for those who fail to attend integration courses. Dominik Bartsch, UNHCR’s representative in Germany, said the tone of the plan was “worrying”. “The decisive question has to be how refugees can be effectively protected, not how they can be processed as fast as possible and then push the responsibility for them onto others," he said. | | |
| Hundreds of South Sudanese killed and raped by government forces, says UN. UN human rights monitors have accused government and aligned forces in South Sudan of carrying out “deliberate, ruthless and brutally violent” attacks on civilians in opposition-controlled areas of Unity State that killed at least 232 people between mid-April and late May this year. A report jointly published on Tuesday by the UN human rights office (OHCHR) and the UN Mission in South Sudan, documents the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, with at least 120 women and girls raped or gang-raped and another 132 women abducted and kept as sex slaves or porters. The report also documents evidence that fleeing civilians were shot in the back and that those too sick or old to flee were burnt alive. Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, called on the perpetrators of these "horrific crimes" to be held accountable and demanded justice for the victims. On Monday, South Sudan’s opposition rejected a peace deal that would have reinstated their leader, Riek Machar, as vice president. | | |
| The Rohingya are victims of ethnic cleansing, and the world has failed them, says Guterres. In an opinion piece for the Washington Post, UN Secretary-General António Guterres writes that he was unprepared for the “bone-chilling” accounts he heard last week when he spoke to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh who had fled widespread violence and killings in Myanmar. Praising “the compassion and generosity of the Bangladeshi people”, he nevertheless said the response to the crisis must be a global one. “Far more resources are desperately needed to avert disaster and give fuller expression to the principle that a refugee crisis calls for global sharing of responsibility,” he writes. | | |
| A problematic homecoming for Nigerians who fled militants. Earlier this year, the Nigerian government told residents of the north-eastern town of Bama that the Boko Haram militants who had invaded their town four years ago had been defeated and it was safe to return. In April, the government escorted 3,600 of them home from camps for the displaced, but according to this report by the New York Times, they found partially rebuilt homes , a lack of toilets, one functioning well and no protection from continued attacks. Aid workers and government officials have expressed concerns that political pressure to reopen the town has caused a new set of challenges. Meanwhile, the government has plans for 100,000 displaced people to return to far-flung communities in the north-east. | | |
| Red Cross calls for major overhaul of UK’s immigration detention system. The British Red Cross has called for significant reforms to a system that currently allows for indefinite detention of asylum-seekers and migrants. According to the Independent, five of 26 detainees interviewed by the Red Cross had attempted suicide and 25 said they had had no access to mental health services. The charity recommended banning the practice of detaining without warning asylum-seekers reporting to immigration centres and allowing people to live in their communities while their immigration cases are resolved. | | |
| Refugees boost Rust Belt economy in upstate New York. The arrival of more than 16,000 refugees over the past four decades has helped revitalize the economy of Utica, a Rust Belt city in upstate New York. Refugees now make up a significant portion of the workforce at local factories and have opened dozens of restaurants, shops and other businesses. This report by CNBC describes Utica as “a unique social laboratory ” where initial investments to help newly resettled refugees get established are paying off. Changes in the US resettlement programme have seen the numbers of refugees arriving in Utica drop by half in the past year, a reduction that could shrink the city’s workforce. | | |
| Jacob Ahoua is very busy man. An Ivorian refugee living in a camp in Ghana, he's an award-winning farmer, as well as a businessman, interpreter and teacher. Join him for a packed day of baking, farming and teaching. | | |
Germany says it received 93,316 asylum applications in the first half of 2018, 16 per cent fewer than in the same period last year. The top three nationalities were Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans.
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