Page 4 - Migrants

Saudi guards have killed hundreds of migrants crossing border, says report

Border guards in Saudi Arabia have fired machine guns and launched mortars at Ethiopians trying to cross into the kingdom from Yemen, likely killing hundreds of the unarmed migrants in recent years, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday. The rights group cited eyewitness reports of attacks by troops and images that showed dead bodies and burial sites on migrant routes, saying the death toll could even be possibly thousands. The United Nations has already questioned Saudi Arabia about its troops opening fire on the migrants in an escalating pattern of attacks along its southern border with war-torn Yemen. A Saudi government official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly, called the Human Rights Watch report unfounded and not based on reliable sources, without offering evidence to support the assertion. Yemen's Houthi rebels, who allegedly make tens of thousands of dollars a week smuggling migrants over the border, did not respon

6 dead, dozens rescued from sinking migrant boat in English Channel

Six people died and dozens of others were rescued from a boat carrying migrants that capsized Saturday while trying to cross the English Channel, French authorities said. About 50 people were rescued, France's Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea said. Authorities initially said six of those rescued were in serious condition and one of them died after being flown by helicopter to a Calais hospital. They later announced that five others had died. Several British and French ships were involved in the early morning search and rescue effort after a patrol boat reported that a migrant boat was sinking off Sangatte. The Boulogne prosecutor's office is investigating.

Hundreds of migrants in southern Mexico form group to head toward US

Nearly a thousand migrants that recently crossed from Guatemala into Mexico have formed a group to head north together in hopes of reaching the border with the United States. The group, made up of largely Venezuelan migrants, walked along a highway in southern Mexico, led by a Venezuela flag with the phrase Peace, Freedom. SOS. The men, women, children, and teenagers were followed by Mexican National Guard patrols. Migrants said they crossed into Mexico illegally through a river dividing the two countries. They said they decided to organise the group and start out because many had been sleeping on the street and had run out of money to buy food. We just want to move forward, to fulfill our American dream and work, because we're all workers here, one Venezuelan, Roseli Gloria said while taking a brief rest along the highway. She carried a backpack and a piece of rolled-up foam for sleeping. She said she had been in Mexico for a week before joining the group. Participants in the gro

Migrant tragedy at sea as EU leaders forge ahead with tougher borders plans

As rescue efforts in the Mediterranean Sea flagged last week, and bodies were found more frequently than survivors from among the more than 500 people missing after an overcrowded fishing trawler sank, the European Commission's president was asked for her thoughts. It is horrible, what happened, and the more urgent is that we act, Ursula von der Leyen told reporters at the headquarters of the European Union's executive branch in Brussels. The priorities, she said, should be to help the authorities in Tunisia where people bound for Europe sometimes leave from to stabilise its economy and better manage migration, and to finalise the long-awaited reform of the EU's asylum rules, which is unlikely to happen before next year. Never mind that the trawler left from Libya, or the admittedly slim chance that survivors might be found, or that the disaster might be the worst ever in the Mediterranean. Von der Leyen's reply stood in stark contrast to the actions of a predecessor a decade ...

At least 79 dead after overcrowded migrant vessel sinks off Greece

A fishing boat crammed to the gunwales with migrants trying to reach Europe capsized and sank Wednesday off the coast of Greece, authorities said, leaving at least 79 dead and many more missing in one of the worst disasters of its kind this year. Coast guard, navy and merchant vessels and aircraft fanned out for a vast search-and-rescue operation set to continue overnight. It was unclear how many passengers were missing, but some initial reports suggested hundreds of people may have been aboard when the boat went down far from shore. An aerial photograph of the battered blue vessel released by the Greek coast guard showed scores of people covering practically every inch of deck. Greece's caretaker prime minister, Ioannis Sarmas, declared three days of national mourning, "with our thoughts on all the victims of the ruthless smugglers who exploit human unhappiness". Coast guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou told state ERT TV that it was impossible to accurately estimate the number of ...

Bakery operators fined $60,480 for exploiting Indian worker in Australia

The notices required the firm to calculate and back-pay entitlements to two workers, including an Indian, it employed between 2016 and 2018

India's migrant millions: Caught between jobless villages and city hazards

"There are not enough jobs, and they are not good enough to attract people for the long term, not good enough wages to invest in housing, to get their children to the cities to study"

The migratory human

Sedentary people living in nation-states was never the inevitable outcome of human evolution, argues Sam Miller in his new book

Migrants leaving TN for festivals in north, not due to attacks: Industry

None of the labourers the police spoke to at the railway station said they were leaving due to the fear of violence

Illegal immigrants will not be able to apply for asylum: UK PM Sunak

Sunak's government is expected to push legislation cracking down on illegal immigration later this week, with a special emphasis on illegal immigrants arriving in boats across the English Channel

BJP creates ruckus in Bihar assembly over attack on migrants' in Tamil Nadu

The opposition BJP on Friday created a ruckus in the Bihar assembly before staging a walkout, demanding that a team of members of the House be sent to Tamil Nadu to verify reports of attacks on Bihari migrants workers in Tamil Nadu. Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary took a grim note of the unruly behaviour of some of the BJP MLAs who had entered the well and placed chairs on the table of the reporting staff. He asked Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary to advise the Chair on suitable action against the errant members to which the latter assented while lambasting the BJP for trying to derive political mileage. "They have an issue with our Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav having visited Tamil Nadu on a personal invitation from the chief minister of that state. Even if reports of violence against migrants were true, would it have entailed officials and dignitaries from both states snapping all ties, the minister said. Earlier, Yadav, who was present in the House, ...

Migrant boat breaks apart southern coast of Italy; many dead, 58 survivors

The Italian coast guard and firefighters have recovered more than 30 bodies after a wooden migrant boat broke apart in rough seas on Sunday near the southern coast of Italy's mainland, authorities reported. State TV quoted the local prefect's office as saying that by late morning 33 bodies had been recovered and 58 people were rescued. The Italian news agency AGI said that among the bodies was that of a baby a few months old. Quoting unidentified port authorities near the coastal town of Crotone, in Calabria, the toe of the Italian peninsula, RAI state radio said the boat was carrying more than 100 migrants when it ran into trouble at dawn in the Ionian Sea. The Italian news agency Lapresse later quoted unidentified officials among rescue forces as saying there could have been as many as 180 people aboard. State TV said some 27 of the survivors made it to shore, apparently on their own. Wooden pieces of wreckage littered the beach at Steccato di Cutro, near the point where the bo

People here are welcoming and supportive, say migrants in Nagaland

Shambhu Prasad, a native of Bihar, has been in Nagaland's Mon district for about three decades now, and wants his son to make a living in this northeastern state, too. His wife, Basanti Devi, is also supportive of his idea and wants their three children to earn their daily bread in Mon. "We have lived all of our adult lives here. There are problems at times. But then, is there a place without any problem?" Prasad said, seeking to refute a "perception" that survival of "outsiders" here is difficult. Alam, 70, who came here from Assam's Karimganj decades ago, said he and his family can never imagine a life outside Mon, which has accepted them with open arms. Alam, Prasad and several such migrants, who are now voters in Mon Town constituency, are keenly looking forward to the upcoming assembly elections. The 60-member Nagaland Assembly will go to polls on February 27, while the counting of votes will be taken up on March 2. Employment opportunities for the migrants are still few in

Immigrants continue to face cruelty, says Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah

He says while there has been a change in how people talk about migrants, what remains unchanged is the kind of panic the issue creates and the way the media presents it

Machines for migrants

Inclusion of migrant voters is important

On eve of Biden's Mexico border visit, migrants fear new rules by govt

Several hundred people marched through the streets of El Paso Saturday afternoon, and when they arrived at a group of migrants huddling outside a church, they sang to them no estan solos you are not alone. Around 300 migrants have taken refuge on sidewalks outside Sacred Heart Church, some of them afraid to seek more formal shelters, advocates say, amid new restrictions meant to crack down on illegal border crossings. This is the scene that will greet President Joe Biden on his first, politically thorny visit to the southern border Sunday. The president announced last week that Cubans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and Venezuelans will be expelled to Mexico if they enter the U.S. illegally an expansion of a pandemic-era immigration policy called Title 42. The new rules will also include offering humanitarian parole for up to 30,000 people a month from those four countries if they apply online and find a financial sponsor. Biden is scheduled to arrive in El Paso Sunday afternoon before ..

Migrants dropped near V-P Harris' home as Texas calls for Biden's attention

Three buses of recent migrant families arrived from Texas near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in record-setting cold on Christmas Eve. Texas authorities have not confirmed their involvement, but the bus dropoffs are in line with previous actions by border-state governors calling attention to the Biden administration's immigration policies. The buses that arrived late Saturday outside the vice president's residence were carrying around 110 to 130 people, according to Tatiana Laborde, managing director of SAMU First Response, a relief agency working with the city of Washington to serve thousands of migrants who have been dropped off in recent months. Local organizers had expected the buses to arrive Sunday but found out Saturday that the group would get to Washington early, Laborde said. The people on board included young children. Some were wearing T-shirts despite temperatures hovering around 15 degrees Fahrenheit (-9 degrees Celsius). It was the coldest Christmas Eve on

Migrants near US border wait for asylum ruling amid falling temperatures

Hairdresser Grisel Garcs survived a harrowing, four-month journey from her native Venezuela through tropical jungles, migrant detention centres in southern Mexico and then jolting railcar rides north toward the U.S. border. Now on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande across from El Paso, Texas, she's anxiously awaiting a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision on asylum restrictions expected to affect her and thousands of other migrants at crossings along some 3,100 kilometers of border from Texas to California. And she's doing so while living outside as winter temperatures plunge over much of the U.S. and across the border. She told of fleeing economic hardship only to find more hardship, such as now having to shiver through temperatures colder than any she's ever experienced. Riding the train was bad. Here the situation is even worse. You just turn yourself over to God's mercy, said Garcs, who left a school-aged daughter behind, hoping to reach the U.S. with her husband. Their savings

US SC temporarily halts expiration of asylum-limiting policy Title 42

The US Supreme Court has temporarily halted the expiration of an asylum-limiting policy which was set to end this week

Plan for asylum seekers' deportation to Rwanda lawful, says British court

A British court has ruled that the government's plan to send asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda is lawful