Austria uses language barrier to cut benefits

Foreigners who have moved to Austria but have not yet picked up the language are to be penalised under controversial reforms to the country’s social welfare system, as the right-wing government steps up its efforts to deter immigration. The Austrian government plans to penalise the unemployed by cutting €300 from their monthly benefits if they …

Congolese asylum seeker faces forced removal from UK

A Congolese asylum seeker who has been tortured by his government is facing forced removal from the UK to his home country on Christmas Day. Otis Bolamu, 38, was imprisoned and tortured by government agents in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a result of his opposition to the government of Joseph Kabila. Elections have been repeatedly …

3 irregular migrants found frozen to death in northwestern Turkey

The bodies of three people thought to be irregular migrants have been found in separate border villages in Turkey’s northwestern Edirne province, security sources said on December 4. The body of one migrant — thought to be of Afghan origin — was found in the village of Serem, while the bodies of two more migrants …

UNICEF: 15 Syria children dead due to extreme weather

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said that as many as 15 displaced Syrian children, most of them infants, have died from extreme cold and lack of medical care. The children – 13 of them less than one year old – have died in Al-Rukban refugee camp in south eastern Syria, near the border …

Syrian refugees at risk as extreme weather hits Lebanon

The lives of 70,000 Syrian refugees in makeshift camps across Lebanon are at risk as the country faces extreme weather conditions and flooding, the United Nations’ refugee protection agency has said. A heavy storm with colder temperatures and high winds, dubbed Norma by Lebanese meteorologists, has affected some 11,301 refugees at 361 different sites across Lebanon since on January …

Migrant women with newborn babies sent back to live in tents in notorious Greek refugee camp

Migrant and refugee women who give birth on the Greek island of Lesbos are being sent to live in squalid, unheated tents with their babies after as little as four days, according to a new report by Oxfam. There is no hot water and newborns, along with toddlers and older children, have to be washed …

Donald Trump Jr. compares border wall to zoo fences that hold animals in Instagram post

Donald Trump Jr. likened his father’s proposed border wall with Mexico to a zoo fence Tuesday evening, sparking a sharp backlash on social media from users who thought he was comparing immigrants to zoo animals.  “You know why you can enjoy a day at the zoo?” the son of President Donald Trump wrote in an Instagram post that …

Six people died each day attempting to cross Mediterranean in 2018

Refugees and migrants attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea lost their lives at an alarming rate in 2018, as cuts in search and rescue operations reinforced its position as the world’s deadliest sea crossing. The latest ‘Desperate Journeys’ report, released today by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, says six lives were lost on …

Oxfam condemns EU over ‘inhumane’ Lesbos refugee camp

The EU has been strongly criticised over conditions in Greece’s largest refugee camp, where Oxfam reported women are wearing nappies at night for fear of leaving their tents to go to the toilet. The British-based NGO described the increasingly dangerous state of the EU-sponsored Moria camp on the island of Lesbos, where a 24-year-old man …

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