Refugees

The scheme will allow UK charities, universities and employers to sponsor eligible refugees, with the first arrivals expected in autumn 2027

The Trump administration is cutting the time refugees have to contest the termination of their status, a move critics say could put tens of thousands of people who fled persecution and wars in their home countries on a path to deportation. The new policy, which goes into effect Wednesday, reduces from 30 to 10 the number of days refugees have to challenge the revocation of their status. It is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to restrict and transform a program that has served for decades as a pathway for refugees. The goal of the new policy, according to the document, is to "mitigate potential risks" associated with people who were admitted as refugees but were not eligible for refugee status. The policy does not say exactly how many people could be affected, but it specifically refers to refugees admitted during President Joe Biden's administration, when it says there was an "alarming erosion of the integrity" of the refugee program. Refugee advocates dispute th

Britain's government said it will open safe, legal routes for eligible refugees, while also changing human rights laws to make it easier to deport people who are in the country illegally. The new routes will allow community groups, universities and employers to sponsor refugees to come to the UK. Authorities said the plan was inspired by a similar "community sponsorship" programme in Canada that has settled some 400,000 people in the country since 1979. "I will open new legal routes for genuine refugees, while closing loopholes that have been too often abused," Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said Friday. At the same time, Mahmood said, a new immigration law will seek to prevent "abuse" of human rights laws and crack down on "vexatious claims." It will tighten the definition of family so that it is restricted to immediate family members only. Critics have said the European Convention on Human Rights is often cited to prevent the deportation of people who have no right to stay in the

Mayyu Ali's terrifying yet hopeful memoir makes one think about how seemingly innocuous processes like birth registration are loaded with political significance

New US DHS memo could require thousands of refugees to return to custody for review, prompting legal warnings and sharp backlash from advocacy groups

The Trump administration has issued a sweeping new order that could lead to the arrest of tens of thousands of refugees who are lawfully in the United States but do not yet have permanent residency, overturning years of legal and immigration safeguards. A memo filed by the Department of Homeland Security ahead of a Thursday federal court hearing in Minnesota says refugees applying for green cards must return to federal custody one year after they were admitted to the US for review of their applications. DHS "may maintain custody for the duration of the inspection and examination process," said the memo, which was filed Wednesday. Advocacy and resettlement groups slammed the order, which will likely face legal challenges and could sow confusion and fear among the nearly 200,000 refugees who came to the United States during the Biden administration. The order is the latest in a series of immigration restrictions by the Trump administration, which has upended longstanding policies tow

A total of 511 people, including 19 Bangladeshis, have been arrested in three districts of Uttarakhand under Operation Kalnemi' so far, officials said on Friday. Operation Kalnemi is a statewide campaign launched by the Uttarakhand government in July 2025 to identify, crack down on, and arrest individuals indulging in illegal activities such as hypocrisy and fraud under the guise of religion and faith. According to a government statement, more than 4,800 people have been verified in Haridwar, Dehradun and Udham Singh Nagar districts under the drive, of whom 511 have been arrested. Those arrested included 19 Bangladeshis illegally residing in the state, of whom 10 have been sent back to the neighbouring country, while action is underway against the other nine, the statement said. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the campaign is not against any particular community, but is aimed at protecting law and order and the dignity of Devbhoomi'. Dhami also clarified that while faith w

More than two million Afghan refugees are still living in Pakistan despite over a million returning to their country in 2025. In November alone, 171,055 Afghans returned to Afghanistan, with 37,899 deported through the Chaman, Torkham and Barabcha borders, Dawn reported from the statistics of a UN refugee agency. Also in November, over 31,500 Afghan Proof of Registration Cards (PoRs) card holders were sent to Afghanistan through UNHCR's repatriation centres. Heightened Pakistan-Afghanistan border tensions in November disrupted humanitarian operations, restricted cross-border movements, and prompted temporary relocation of UN agencies from the Chaman border area. Despite intensified implementation of the third phase of the Illegal Foreigners' Repatriation Plan (IFRP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the UNHCR and partners ensured that essential and life-saving services were provided, including resumption of women and girls safe spaces and child friendly spaces, continued legal and mental

Studies show that refugees often have gut microbiomes that look different from those of people who have not experienced displacement

Nearly 200,000 refugees in the US face re-interviews, frozen green card processing and possible loss of status

The measures, modelled on Denmark's strict asylum system, were announced late on Saturday (local time) as PM Starmer comes under pressure from surging popularity for the anti-immigrant Reform UK party

With right-wing populism on the rise, refugee protection is seen as a problem. This book examines how protection works across contexts, shaped by history and geopolitics

Trump had earlier said to the global leaders at UN that uncontrolled migration is harming nations, false asylum claims must end, and open borders "experiment" should stop

The League considered these statements to be a violation of the sovereignty of Arab states and an attempt to undermine security and stability in the region

In response to the worsening crisis, Tom Fletcher, the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, has allocated $10 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to assist returnees from Iran

UNHCR head in Afghanistan, Arafat Jamal, said that the country is not well prepared to receive this influx of returnees

Fatima Omas Abdullah wakes up every morning with aches and pains from sleeping on bare ground for almost two years. She did not expect Sudan's civil war to displace her for so long into neighbouring Chad. There is nothing here, she said, crying and shaking the straw door of her makeshift home. Since April 2023, she has been in the Adre transit camp a few hundred metres from the Sudanese border, along with almost a quarter-million others fleeing the fighting. Now the US- backed aid system that kept hundreds of thousands like Abdullah alive on the edge of one of the world's most devastating wars is fraying. Under the Trump administration, key foreign aid has been slashed and funding withdrawn from United Nations programmes that feed, treat and shelter refugees. In 2024, the US contributed USD 39.3 million to the emergency response in Chad. So far this year, it has contributed about USD 6.8 million, the UN says. Overall, only 13 per cent of the requested money to support refugees in Ch

The latest figures from the UNHCR's global report reveal that the number of people displaced across the world had risen to 122.1 million as of April 2025, up from 120 million a year earlier

The bench was hearing a plea challenging the Madras HC order directing a Sri Lankan Tamil to leave India after serving his sentence under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act

A judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to admit some 12,000 refugees into the United States under a court order partially blocking the president's efforts to suspend the nation's refugee admissions programme. The order from US District Judge Jamal Whitehead followed arguments from the Justice Department and refugee resettlement agencies over how to interpret a federal appeals court ruling that significantly narrowed an earlier decision from Whitehead. During a hearing last week, the administration said it should only have to process 160 refugees into the country and that it would likely appeal any order requiring it to admit thousands. But the judge dismissed the government's analysis, saying it required not just reading between the lines of the 9th Circuit's ruling, "but hallucinating new text that simply is not there. This Court will not entertain the Government's result-oriented rewriting of a judicial order that clearly says what it says, Whitehead wrote Monday. The