A South African OM missionary joins volunteers from a local Czech church to bring hope to asylum seekers at the Kostelec nad Orlici Residence Centre.

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However, a coroner says she was unable to conclude Amir Safi had intended to end his life.

Chris Curtis, the Labour MP for Milton Keynes North, says it is "is neither safe nor appropriate".

Children's Geographies; 04/01/2024
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While politicians on both sides of the aisle embrace “tough on immigration” policies, asylum seekers hoping to enter the U.S. are turning to grassroots organizations for information, safety, and dignity

Why Europe must end limbo for Afghans seeking asylum Expert comment Anonymous (not verified) 14 October 2021

With a focus on evacuations from Afghanistan, the situation in Europe is often forgotten as thousands of asylum seekers continue to wait for their cases to be settled.

Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, European leaders shared messages to welcome those evacuated, but the reality of European responses to displacement in Afghanistan paints a more contentious picture. 

As of July 2021, 33,325 cases of Afghan asylum applicants were pending in Germany, in France 18,410 people were waiting on a decision, while in Greece the numbers were 13,660. 

Arguably, such numbers are manageable given European states’ size and their functioning asylum systems but, while 56 per cent of Afghans in Europe receive protection status, a large proportion is still in limbo in differing European countries’ asylum systems. 

Europe hosts fewer than ten per cent of the three million UN-registered displaced Afghans globally, as neighbouring countries carry the burden of Afghanistan’s forced displacement: Iran hosts almost one million Afghan refugees and Pakistan 1.5 million, and these numbers double when adding undocumented or Afghan passport holders.
 
But despite these manageable numbers, national authorities in Europe often leave people waiting for months or even years to receive an asylum decision. Deportations to Afghanistan were halted only after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul and even then there was resistance to this from certain European countries, while Austria suggested setting up ‘deportation centres’ in countries neighbouring Afghanistan. 

Europe remains a fortress

The European Commission’s Draft Action Plan responding to the events in Afghanistan confirmed the willingness of the European Union (EU) to continue returns to non-European ‘third countries’. So Europe remains a fortress, despite pledging support for ‘the safe and orderly departure of foreign nationals and Afghans who wish to leave the country’. 

The wall by Greece at its border with Turkey and Poland’s treatment of Afghan asylum seekers trapped at its border with Belarus illustrate this hardline stance. The president of the European Council Charles Michel and EU Home Affairs Chief Ylva Johansson both confirm the priority is to secure European borders. 

This is further backed up by the European Council’s latest set of Conclusions on Afghanistan which focuses on security and ‘preventing illegal migration’ while avoiding reference to any domestic asylum efforts or the establishment of protection pathways for Afghans. 

This disconnect is not new. At the national level, reports of illegal pushbacks on European land and sea borders alarmingly intensified in 2020 as authorities intercepted and sent migrants back to neighbouring countries without assessing asylum claims. 

At the EU level, development aid to countries such as Afghanistan has long been conditional on their governments’ adherence to the bloc’s migration objectives of preventing asylum seekers from reaching European borders and facilitating the repatriation of those refused asylum in Europe. 

But this latest displacement crisis from Afghanistan exposes clear inconsistencies in European approaches to asylum and humanitarianism. Migration remains a divisive issue in European politics, but European governments must act promptly to support Afghans already residing in their territories alongside establishing robust international commitments.

Time for concrete action

European countries should firstly improve the treatment of those Afghans currently in limbo within their respective asylum systems by expediting pending Afghan asylum applications and family reunification cases, re-examining rejected asylum applications, and facilitating integration.

Secondly, national authorities should not return asylum seekers to Afghanistan or any third countries deemed ‘safe’. For Europe to coordinate evacuations from Afghanistan while simultaneously deporting asylum seekers undermines the international refugee regime and threaten Europe’s global credibility. 

In 1945, Maraquita Sargeant was admitted to a mental institution in Australia against her will and remained their for 22 years - produced by Matt Cleaves and George Clipp

The U.S. refugee protection system, while generous in many respects, has become less robust over the last two decades. The unique and often diverse needs of emerging refugee populations have exposed severe limitations in the standard resettlement approach.This report examines U.S. legal and policy responses to those seeking protection and addresses the barriers, gaps, and opportunities that exist.

A South African OM missionary joins volunteers from a local Czech church to bring hope to asylum seekers at the Kostelec nad Orlici Residence Centre.

When Zima did her weekly grocery shopping in March, she was shocked by the prices.“A package of chicken that used to cost HK$39 (US$5) was HK$50,” she recalled. A litre of milk went up from HK$35 to HK$49, and the tomatoes she used to pay HK$8 for were now HK$12.She worried her family of three might not have enough to eat for the month, because they would run out of money.The 32-year-old fled Pakistan in 2015 together with her husband and son, claiming religious persecution as members of the…

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has been blasted for hypocrisy, having been outspoken on some social issues while helping the Australian government deport asylum seekers. 

Could the plight of one Kiribati family foreshadow a future inundated with climate-change castaways?

We take a trip to a former Civil War-era insane asylum that has been called one of the most haunted places in America.

This is a multimedia project produced by The Irish Times in association with The Mary Raftery Journalism fund. Written by Carl O'Brien with photographs and video by Bryan O'Brien, the site was designed and built by Paul Scott.

Volunteers prepare and deliver meals during Ramadan.

THE accommodation more often than not leaves a lot to be desired.

By Patrick Markey

QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Ousted Ecuadorean PresidentLucio Gutierrez and his family fled Quito for asylum in Brazilon Sunday four days after street protests against hisincreasingly unpopular government forced him from office.

The deliberate concealment of objects throughout history has been linked to superstition, but for a patient at this notorious psychiatric asylum it was an act of resistance.

As thousands gathered across the country for the Light the Dark vigils in support of Syrian asylum seekers, more than 100 people gathered in the small town of Castlemaine in central Victoria.

Tours of the 152-year-old Aradale Mental Asylum have been cancelled due to lead paint contamination. Operators fear this may be the end of the road for the historic site.

The Federal Government is ordered to pay $206,000 in legal fees for a two-year-old Tamil girl who has been embroiled in a high-profile legal battle to stay in Australia with her family.

This online community is reaching out to asylum seekers, providing friendship and support.

In the Sydney suburb of Auburn, a mock refugee camp has been used to show people the conditions millions of asylum seekers across the globe find themselves in every day. Visitors have had the chance to hear personal stories from refugees and asylum seekers on how they came to Australia, and what happened when they arrived.

A Tamil asylum seeker family is granted a midair injunction to prevent their deportation to Sri Lanka, as Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says the family has been found not to be owed protection.

The youngest daughter of a Tamil asylum seeker family facing deportation to Sri Lanka will remain in Australia until Wednesday after a ruling by the Federal Court.

The lawyer for a Tamil family facing deportation from Australia says she is deeply concerned about access to her clients now they have been relocated to Christmas Island.

The mother from the Tamil family at the centre of an immigration row says her children are constantly crying and pleading to leave a Christmas Island facility, as hundreds of people rally around the country to urge the Government to let them stay in Australia.

Pro-refugee activism and the travel history of a Tamil father could see a Biloela family at the centre of an immigration row deported, an experienced immigration lawyer says.

Best known for his provocative signs, Father Rod Bower from the NSW Central Coast announces plans to run for the Senate as an independent candidate.

What President Trump calls a border crisis is in fact a crisis in the asylum system—one worsened at every turn by his administration’s harsh policies and rhetoric. Rather than spend $5.7 billion on a wall, it would be far more effective to use the money to retool an overwhelmed asylum system, adapt outmatched border enforcement infrastructure to respond to the changing composition of arrivals, and work cooperatively with Mexico to tackle the factors propelling Central Americans to flee.

The House is set to vote on two bills that would largely dismantle the U.S. asylum system at the southern border by significantly narrowing grounds to apply for asylum, eliminating protections for the vast majority of unaccompanied minors, and unilaterally declaring Mexico a safe third country. The result would be a sharp reduction in the number of people permitted to seek humanitarian protection, as this commentary explains.

Governments on the receiving end of migrants and refugees reinforced their commitment to returns in 2017, sending or coercing migrants to move back to impoverished or violent homelands. The Dominican Republic pushed out some 70,000 Haitians and native born of Haitian descent, while more than 500,000 Afghans left Iran and Pakistan. Though many of these migrants chose to return, in practice the line between forced and voluntary returns is blurry.

Through a set of interlocking policies, the Trump administration has walled off the asylum system at the U.S.-Mexico border, guaranteeing that only a miniscule few can successfully gain protection. While the Migrant Protection Protocols, more commonly known as Remain in Mexico, have been a key part of throttling asylum applications, two newer, far less visible programs hold the potential to complete the job, as this article explores.

Long a country of emigration—13 million Italians went abroad between 1880 and 1915—Italy has also experienced significant inflows of Middle Eastern and sub-Saharan African workers in recent decades. Italy has also been on the frontlines of Europe's refugee crisis. This country profile examines Italy's shifting migration patterns, policy responses over time, and debates.

During the 2015–16 migration crisis, European asylum systems were stretched to a breaking point. Yet many of the structural issues that contributed to failures to register newcomers, insufficient reception capacity, and growing backlogs of asylum cases existed before—and many remain unresolved. This report critically evaluates Common European Asylum System legal and operational shortcomings at a time when reform is on the table.

As European asylum systems are tested again by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has injected the need for social distancing during processing and in reception centers, it appears lessons learned during the 2015-16 migration and refugee crisis may be fading. Chief among them: A number of Member States have phased out their buffer capacity. This MPI Europe commentary explores the diametrically different approaches taken to asylum during the pandemic.

Brussels is searching for bright ideas on how to fix the Common European Asylum System. While recent EU-level legal reforms have stalled, this report examines the many innovative, operations-focused approaches Member States have used since the 2015-16 migration crisis to improve registration and reception systems, asylum case processing, and options for returning failed asylum seekers.

Marking the release of an MPI report, this webinar examines the challenges and successes major host countries in Europe and North America are experiencing in providing high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) services for children from refugee and asylum seeker families.

WASHINGTON — Asylum seekers and refugees who arrived in Germany in the leadup to and during the 2015-16 European migration crisis have integrated into the labor market at a slightly faster rate than previous refugee cohorts, a Migration Policy Institute (MPI) report finds.

Brussels and Gütersloh, 05.03.2020 — Anticipated reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), which was high on the agenda as nearly 2 million asylum seekers arrived at Europe’s door in 2015-16, quickly fell victim to EU Member State competing views on what constitutes equal burden-sharing, domestic politics around migration and the urgency of first addressing overtaxed national asylum systems.

As the top destination in Europe for asylum seekers in recent years, Germany has rolled out a number of integration policy changes. Based on an early look at how newcomers’ integration is progressing, the report finds the policies have had ambiguous implications. The report also provides insights into the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the asylum seeker and refugee population.

In this webinar, the authors of three papers on the experiences of refugee children present their findings, with a focus on how such experiences affect their mental health and education.

Glasgow : Hedderwick, 1822.

Asylum seekers make up a large portion of the "guardian angels" Quebec Premier François Legault has praised in his daily COVID-19 briefings: the orderlies who have no guarantee they'll be allowed to stay in Canada.