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Fears of a new migration route grow as more than 800 people land on Gavdos, population fewer than 70, in a few monthsEven by the standards of small Greek islands, Gavdos is tiny. In a population of fewer than 70 people, there are just two families with four children. The rest “are all old people mostly living alone”, its mayor, Lilian Stefanaki, explains.It is...

Soaked survivors clung to hull overnight before being taken to safety by Indonesian rescue teamDozens of Rohingya refugees have been rescued from the Indian Ocean off the coast of Indonesia after spending the night balanced on the hull of their overturned boat.Seventy-five people were pulled from the stricken vessel, which was spotted on Thursday by an Indonesian search and rescue ship. Continue reading...

Families say they were promised details of relatives’ whereabouts after contacting people they thought were linked to NGO in SpainFamilies of people who disappeared on the perilous journey from Africa to Europe have said they were asked to pay hundreds of euros in exchange for information about what had happened to their loved ones.In interviews with the Guardian, three families recounted how, as part...

Médecins Sans Frontières says ‘dangerous manoeuvres’ by coastguard put refugees at even greater riskAn NGO performing search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean has accused the Libyan coastguard of hampering an attempt to save more than 170 people making the perilous journey across the sea to Europe.In a statement, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said its ship had come to the rescue of two boats...

Ombudsman says papers show EU agency made four offers to help Greece with surveillance of boat that sank, but got no responseOpinion: Emily O’ReillyThe rules governing the EU’s border and coastguard agency Frontex must be urgently revised if Europe is to avoid a repeat of last year’s tragedy off the coast of Greece in which about 600 people are thought to have died, an...

The suspension of a Congolese player for a gun gesture referring to conflict in DRC raises questions over government’s refugee policyWhen a Congolese footballer made a brief gesture after scoring in an east African league match last weekend, it felt like little more than a talking point among the spectators.Yet the gesture by midfielder Héritier Luvumbu at the game in Kigali has prompted a...

Lawyers see Basir’s case as test of European policies that fail to provide safe routes to sub-Saharan asylum seekers For 25-year-old Basir, it was a ray of hope after fleeing Sudan more than a decade ago. For his lawyers, the asylum request he made from Morocco was the ultimate test of whether Spain – and more broadly the EU – was willing to provide...

Damning report by MPs warns policy places UK’s reputation for rule of law and human rights ‘in jeopardy’The UK government’s controversial Rwanda legislation that deems the African country as a safe place to deport people to is fundamentally incompatible with Britain’s human rights obligations and places it in breach of international law, according to a damning parliamentary report.MPs and peers from the cross-party joint...

Gun Ufuk, 29, sentenced to 20 years in prison over deadly sinking that occurred metres from shoreAn Italian court has sentenced a people smuggler to 20 years in prison for involvement in a shipwreck last year that killed at least 94 migrants.The court in the southern city of Crotone found Gun Ufuk, a 29-year-old Turkish national, guilty of crimes including causing a shipwreck and...

Atlantic route to chain of islands is deadliest migration passage to Spain with 6,007 people dying last yearThe number of people from west Africa who braved the sea in boats to reach Spain’s Canary Islands jumped more than 1,000% in January from a year before, according to data released by the country’s interior ministry.A total of 7,270 people reached the archipelago in the Atlantic...

With the IDF now routinely using armed drones to watch and target militants, the worst wave of violence for almost 20 years is sweeping the West BankFor days earlier this month, many of the young men of Nur Shams refugee camp on the outskirts of the town of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank were engaged in a potentially lethal race against time.Scaling precarious...

Judge to determine whether agreement criticised by human rights groups violates constitutionA court in Albania is due to rule on whether a deal with Italy’s far-right government would violate the constitution by allowing Albanian territory to be used for reception centres for people seeking to enter the EU by sea.The agreement, announced in November by the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, would result initially...

Lax employment law cited as motivation for ice-cold crossing in which five people died off WimereuxThe mayor of the French seaside resort where five people died off the coast trying to reach the UK has blamed the British immigration system for the crisis that engulfed the town at the weekend.“What’s happening today is their fault,” said Jean-Luc Dubaële, the mayor of Wimereux, claiming Britain...