| Dozens drown off Morocco’s coast. At least 30 people died in a shipwreck in the Western Mediterranean on Monday afternoon, according to the Moroccan navy and a Spanish aid organization. The International Organization for Migration told Reuters that the boat had been adrift since Sunday with 60 people on board. Helena Maleno, a Morocco-based activist with Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras, said the boat’s passengers first contacted her early Sunday and that she had alerted Spanish authorities with their approximate location. Spain’s Maritime Safety and Rescue Agency said the information was conveyed to Moroccan authorities as the location Maleno provided was within that country's jurisdiction. News of these latest deaths at sea emerged on the five-year anniversary of a shipwreck off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa that claimed the lives some 368 refugees and migrants. | | |
| An epidemic of misery at Moria. This long read by Patrick Kingsley for the New York Times takes a deeper look at the many recent reports of a mental health crisis at the severely overcrowded Moria reception centre on the Greek island of Lesvos. NGO workers have described conditions in the centre as worse than in many refugee camps in crisis zones. The overcrowding is so severe that asylum-seekers reportedly spend up to 12 hours a day queuing for meals. This Guardian report focuses on the high levels of depression, self-harming and even suicide attempts among the 3,000 minors living at Moria, many of them from war-torn countries such as Syria and Afghanistan where they had already experienced trauma. | | |
| The long road to citizenship for Thailand’s stateless people. In recent years, Thailand has been making in-roads towards its goal of zero statelessness by 2024. Stateless persons can now access basic education and health care and state hospitals issue birth certificates to all children born in Thailand, but in this Reuters report activists claim that applying for citizenship remains a “challenging and complex ” process that depends on applicants having the right documents. Among the 487,000 stateless persons registered with the Thai government are indigenous hill dwellers and children of refugees from Myanmar who were born in Thailand but lack birth certificates. | | |
| Fate of Syria’s Idlib hangs in the balance. IRIN takes a closer look at the deal brokered by Turkey and Russia last month to establish a de-militarized zone in Syria’s rebel-controlled Idlib province. The agreement has so far staved off a government offensive and averted a humanitarian crisis, but details of the agreement have yet to be fleshed out or made public and it’s still unclear whether rebel groups will comply with the 15 October deadline to withdraw their fighters from the buffer zone. Aid groups point out that, even with a deal in place, the humanitarian situation in Idlib and the surrounding areas – home to as many as 2.5 million people – remains grim. | | |
| Refugee-led football teams in Italy provide rare space for integration. According to this report by Al Jazeera, there are at least 250 refugee-led football teams across Italy. Some are refugees-only, but others are mixed, such as St Ambroeus FC in Milan. Many of the mainly young West African players on the team have humanitarian protection, an alternative protection status that they risk losing as Italy plans to restrict its use under a new security decree. At a time when hostility towards refugees and migrants has increased in Italy, Al Jazeera describes football clubs like St Ambroeus as “a precious space for integration”. | | |
| Refugees and migrants tell their own stories through photographs. The 25th annual exhibition by the Open Society Documentary Photography Project, “Another Way Home ”, brings together eight projects led by 13 photographers and artists who are exploring the topic of migration. Rather than featuring the images of suffering often associated with the refugee experience, the projects focus on themes of identity, community and resilience. Several of the participants are refugees or migrants themselves, while others have collaborated with immigrant communities to create and share their stories. The New York Times features some of the images from the exhibition. | | |
| Syrian refugee and violinist Mariela Shaker talks to the Chronicle of Higher Education about how a scholarship at Monmouth College in Illinois gave her a way out of Aleppo – an opportunity she wishes were available to more Syrians still trapped in the country and unable to continue their education. Having graduated from Monmouth, Shaker now performs all over the world. “Music can be much more powerful than words,” she says. “When you lose your home, music is all that’s left to tell the story.” | | |
From 3 October 2013 until today, 17,900 migrants and refugees have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea – an average of 10 people per day over a five-year period.
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