| Latest shipwrecks off Libyan coast claim 170 lives. A boat carrying 123 refugees and migrants sank off the coast of Tajoura in Libya on Friday. Survivors said they were in the water for an hour before the Libyan coast guard rescued 16 of them. UNHCR’s Libya office tweeted that another 63 people went missing at sea on Sunday after their boat capsized. In a statement on Saturday, UNHCR said it was appalled by the loss of life and called for concerted international action to avoid further tragedies. On the same day, the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms said one of its ships had been refused permission to dock in either Italy or Malta after rescuing 59 refugees and migrants near the Libyan coast, Reuters reported. Barcelona’s mayor, Ada Colau, stepped in on Sunday and said the boat, called the Open Arms, could dock in her city. The vessel is expected to arrive there on Wednesday. An agreement reached by EU states on Friday does not oblige them to share responsibility for refugees and migrants rescued in the Mediterranean. | | |
| Fighting in Syria leaves thousands stranded at borders with Jordan and Israel. Efforts to impose a ceasefire in south-west Syria broke down at the weekend, and were followed by further airstrikes and fresh displacement. The UN estimated that 160,000 people had been displaced between 17 and 29 June. The Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations put the figure at 217,000 on Saturday, calling it “the largest and fastest displacement in Syrian history”. It said that it had lost three staff members in the past week and that seven medical facilities had been put out of service. Aid agencies reported that the situation was quickly deteriorating at several spots along the Jordanian border where thousands of families have fled and lack shelter, running water or sanitation facilities. Some 11,000 people are also thought to have reached the Israeli border in Quneitra province, close to the Golan Heights. While Jordan and Israel have provided aid to the displaced, neither government has yielded to pressure from aid agencies to open their borders. In a statement Friday, UN Secretary General António Guterres called for an immediate cessation of the military operations. | | |
| German interior minister offers to resign over migration policy. Interior Hoorst Seehofer offered to resign both from Cabinet and as head of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union late on Sunday, making the future of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government uncertain . Her Christian Democrats Party relies on the CSU to maintain the coalition government formed three months ago. In an interview with ZDF television, Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had secured verbal and formal commitments from a number of EU countries to take back asylum-seekers who arrived at Germany’s borders after having been registered in other member states. But Seehofer reportedly told colleagues that measures agreed in Brussels did not go far enough. He agreed to further talks on Monday afternoon. | | |
| Spain struggles to manage increase in sea arrivals. The Guardian reports that the arrival of thousands of refugees and migrants in Spain in recent weeks is placing pressure on the country’s migrant reception infrastructure. With reception centres full, the authorities have turned to groups like the Red Cross to shelter and feed the new arrivals, while the port city of Málaga has resorted to housing 250 people in a sports centre. | | |
| Pakistan grants new extension to Afghan refugees. As the deadline for some 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees to legally remain in Pakistan expired on Saturday, the country’s caretaker government granted an interim extension of three months . Last year, the government declared that all Afghan refugees must return to their home country, but there have been several extensions of the deadline when refugees’ Proof of Registration cards would expire. The prime minister’s office said on Saturday that the incoming government would take up the issue following elections scheduled for 25 July. | | |
| Arrival of 500 Yemenis on South Korean island leads to furore. The Financial Times reports that South Korea’s Jeju island has become the focus of a backlash against asylum-seekers following the unexpected arrival of 500 Yemeni refugees over the last two months. The Yemenis arrived on Air Asia flights from Kuala Lumpur while the island was operating a broad visa-waiver policy to encourage tourism. Yemen has since been removed from the list of nations eligible for the waiver. After more than 500,000 South Koreans signed a petition calling for the Yemenis’ asylum applications to be revoked, Seoul announced plans to tighten the country’s Refugee Act on Friday. | | |
| Mercy Akuot was only 15 when her family in South Sudan forced her to marry a much older man and drop out of school. She fled to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, where she advocates for women’s rights through music and an empowerment programme for women and girls. She was one of the speakers at the recent TEDxKakumaCamp. “As women, we have the right to make choices,” she says in this short film by Now This. “We have the right to pursue whatever dream that we have.” | | |
In June alone, almost 6,800 refugees and migrants reached Spain by sea, more than the combined number of those who reached Italy, Greece and Malta.
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