A prominent labor union in Cyprus is among those calling for an investigation into the deaths of four Egyptians believed to have died in a fast-moving wildfire that authorities say was among the worst in recent memory. The four men were all migrant farm workers, according to the Pancyprian Federation…
Smugglers forced dozens of migrants overboard in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, forcing some 80 people to their deaths by tossing them into the sea after leaving Djibouti. The International Organization for Migration said at least 200 passengers were aboard the boat when it departed, but the traffickers started…
Italy has agreed to accept nearly 300 Mediterranean Sea migrants stranded aboard the Ocean Viking rescue ship, but the country’s interior minister says they have to go in quarantine along with the ship’s crew as the country deals with a large cluster of deadly coronavirus cases. The ship operated by…
United States authorities say a Congolese woman died at a hospital in the state of Texas on Christmas Day after seeking entry at the U.S. border with Mexico. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency said the 41-year-old woman from Democratic Republic of Congo arrived with her family at…
At least 58 people have died off the coast of Mauritania as a boat loaded with migrants destined for Spain sank in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Another 83 were able to swim to shore near the city of Nouadhibou, where authorities and NGO…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria is in South Africa for a three-day official visit, where he will meet with his South African counterpart, President Cyril Ramaphosa. Buhari’s plane touched down Wednesday evening at the South African military airbase in Waterkloof, according to a statement from the Nigerian presidency. The two…
About 25 African migrants die every week – some 1,300 annually – before they ever leave the African continent or take the risks of the dangerous Mediterranean Sea or Gulf-route journeys. That’s according to International Organization of Migration, which has published new numbers through its Missing Migrants Project (MMP) report….
Migrants trapped in deteriorating conditions in Libya may be headed to Rwanda, following the announcement Tuesday of a deal between the central African nation, the African Union and the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, to evacuate them. “Under the agreement, the Government of Rwanda will receive and provide protection to…
President Cyril Ramaphosa took to the airwaves Thursday evening to deliver another message on South Africa’s escalating violence over migrants, which has claimed at least 10 lives and led to the arrest of more than 400 people. It’s also started to spread to other nations, with Nigeria reporting attacks on…
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday condemned the violence against foreigners that has been sweeping across parts of the country, as mobs loot and attack immigrants and the businesses they own. “The attacks on people who run businesses from foreign nationals is something that is totally unacceptable,” Ramaphosa said…
Another 200 migrants were rescued on the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, this time as they attempted to make the crossing from Morocco into Spain. These migrants from sub-Saharan countries, traveling in three boats, are the latest in the all-too-familiar story of Africans who travel through Libya and other nations, desperately…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Unaccompanied minors aboard the Spanish sea rescue ship Open Arms were permitted to disembark at the Italian port of Lampedusa on Saturday, one day after the head of the rescue organization warned the situation aboard the ship – where migrants have been trapped for two weeks – was rapidly deteriorating….
The juxtaposition of the headlines was jarring, in a way that seemed newly unbearable despite all we’ve learned in recent years about African migrants seeking a pathway to Europe, the horrific realities they encounter in transit and in Libya – and the complicity of European governments in their suffering. The…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
An Italian judge released migrant rescue ship captain Carola Rakete on Tuesday from a house arrest order in place since the weekend, after the German captain defied Italy’s ban on accepting migrants at its ports and docked at Lampedusa. “We are relieved our captain is free!” said the Sea Watch…
A weeks-long standoff between the Italian government and migrant rescuers on the Mediterranean Sea came to an end early Saturday as the captain of a Sea Watch ship entered a port at Lampedusa and then faced immediate arrest. Carola Rakete was taken into custody as about 40 migrants who had…