Dozens of African migrants were rescued this week from what international migration agencies say is the largest shipwreck this year off the Libyan coast, but the death of at least 45 others has renewed attention to policies that fail to protect Mediterranean Sea migrants. The International Organization for Migration (IOM)…
More than 200 million migrants across the globe send remittances to their home countries, many of them on the African continent, and that means some 800 million family members depend on them. In low- and middle-income countries, that amounted to US$554 billion last year, more than either the world’s official…
Pope Francis attended the final day of a meeting of Roman Catholic bishops from Mediterranean nations, focusing his message on the human dignity of migrants crossing the region and the need to establish peace within it. The bishops from 19 nations met in the southern Italian port city of Bari,…
While there are quite a few issues confronting participants of the G7 meetings in France – from the wildfires in the Amazon to the “surprise” appearance of the Iranian foreign minister – they haven’t overshadowed the importance of Africa on the agenda. That’s made clear by the number of African…
The United Nations refugee agency responded quickly on Tuesday to a decision made by Italy’s parliament that will impose harsher penalties against those people and organizations involved in migrant search and rescue on the Mediterranean Sea. The UNHCR said that under the changes, fines for private vessels that rescue migrants…
What is being called the single greatest loss of life on the Mediterranean Sea this year has claimed an estimated 150 migrants traveling by boat from Libya, according to early reports from the United Nations refugee agency on Thursday. The shipwreck happened off the coast of Al Khoms, between Tripoli…
More than a third of all Africans consider migration in search of opportunity, especially as the continent’s young and educated populations continue to grow, according to new data from the Afrobarometer research organization based in Ghana. “Potential emigrants are overwhelmingly motivated by a hunger for jobs and economic opportunity,” said…
The cost of remittances for African migrants was the focus of a three-day meeting in Ghana, as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and other stakeholders looked at how to improve access. While the money sent home to families in sub-Saharan Africa is on the rise, the cost to transfer…
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking in Greece, conceded that a migration deal struck between Turkey and the European Union in 2016 isn’t working as planned but Europe will continue to support its implementation. That deal affecting Middle Eastern and North African migrants immediately ended crossings from Turkey into Greece, with…
Rwandan President Paul Kagame, current head of the African Union, has blamed Europe for the Mediterranean migrant crisis while discussing China’s engagement with Africa, all in an interview with Austrian media outlet that caught the attention of Beijing on Tuesday. Kagame sat for the interview with Die Presse while attending…
At least 25 people are dead or missing after some passengers in a group of six migrant boats were stranded on the Mediterranean Sea before rescuers reached them off the Spanish coast on Thursday. A spokeswoman for the UN Refugee Agency, UNCHR, said the Spanish Coast Guard found the boats…
Global leaders meeting in Morocco have adopted the Global Compact for Migration, an international strategy to deal with migrant flows first introduced at the United Nations General Assembly two years ago. The compact approved by 164 countries on Monday is meant to end the trauma of migrant experiences across Africa and…
The Government of Morocco, under pressure to stem the tide of African migrants crossing into Spain, has established new entry visa rules for travelers from some African nations. Reuters reports that the new requirements apply in up to seven countries that have historically had no visa requirement to visit Morocco….
More than 1,700 people have died this year on the Mediterranean Sea migration route to Europe, and both UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and IOM, the UN Migration Agency, appealed jointly to European governments on Wednesday to change their “dangerously toxic” discourse on migration. “The current tenor of the political debate…
A key climate report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released Monday warns that the global community must act decisively and dramatically to try and limit catastrophic impacts from climate change – and that some impacts remain unavoidable even if global warming is held to the 1.5°C level….