Displaying items by tag: migrants

Migrants have clashed with Spanish police in Madrid after the death of a Senegalese street vendor who they say had been chased by officers. Protesters set fire to a motorbike and dustbins and threw stones. At least 19 people were lightly injured in the clashes, and ten police officers were hurt. Officials say Mame Mbaye Ndiaye, said to be in his mid-30s, was found unconscious and died of a heart attack. Protesters said he had arrived in Spain by boat twelve years ago. He reportedly worked as a vendor illegally and sent money back to his family. Last year it was reported that the number of asylum-seekers arriving in Spain had tripled in a year, because it was seen as a safer route into Europe.

On 6 February police arrested over 20 people across the UK in a huge operation to tackle a Kurdish gang smuggling hundreds of illegal immigrants into the UK for up to £10,000 a time. Over 300 officers coordinated by the National Crime Agency raided properties in Northumbria, Cleveland, Sussex and London to arrest suspected traffickers. Hundreds of Iraqi Kurds, men, women and children, are being brought into the UK in lorries and on ferries by the gang, paying up to £10,000 each. A number of car washes were also raided, in what is said to be a bid to shut down the gang's money laundering operation. Senior investigating officer Mark Spoors said all of the agency's targets had been arrested, and a significant trafficking network has been disrupted.

Research commissioned by the government suggests that migrants may be responsible for most of Germany's rise in violent crime. Researchers say the findings are not surprising because many migrants are single males aged 14-30. This group is most likely to commit crime, irrespective of nationality. Migrants are twice as likely to be reported to police for alleged violent crimes as German nationals, and a third of all victims of violent crimes by migrants are other migrants. The report comes as Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right CDU/CSU, after its poor showing in the recent election, prepares for coalition talks with the centre-left SPD. Over a million migrants and refugees, fleeing war and abuses, have entered Germany through the open-door policy, which has led to tensions at home.

In a rare move, 17 Church of England bishops have united with church leaders of other denominations to urge the government to end indefinite detention, This move followed a BBC documentary describing Brook House immigration centre as 'a toxic, brutal and a failing environment where self-harming is commonplace'. Data from the Migration Observatory showed that in the final quarter of 2016, 2,573 of the 7,078 migrants released from detention had been held for more than 28 days, and 53 had been held for over a year. In a letter to the Telegraph on 6 September, the bishops say they are 'deeply concerned' by the findings, and accuse 'some politicians and sectors of the media' of dehumanising immigrants. The complaint was organised by former G4S manager and now whistle-blower and priest, Nathan Ward.

Faiez Serraj, head of the UN-backed unity government in Tripoli, has said that Europe is at risk from terrorists posing as migrants unless western capitals help Libya stem the numbers crossing the Mediterranean. He claimed that would-be terrorists were among the tens of thousands of people passing unvetted into Italy across its open southern borders. If this is the case, all the EU will be affected. His comments follow last week’s terrorist attacks in Spain, which police have linked to radical groups in North Africa. Nearly 98,000 migrants have crossed from Libya to Italy this year, almost as many as last year, and there are at least another 700,000 in the country. There is clear evidence of a modern-day slave trade on these routes, and Italy’s social and democratic fabric is under threat amid growing public intolerance to migrants.

Italy's coastguard reports that at least 34 migrants (some of them children) have drowned off the Libyan coast. The overcrowded boat was carrying about 500 migrants when it listed, sending about 200 people into the water, and triggering a frantic search for survivors. Good weather has prompted an increase in the number of migrants leaving Libya for Italy. The waters are busy with Italian and Libyan coastguard boats, humanitarian vessels, and even scavenger boats hoping to recover abandoned equipment. An NGO reported a Libyan coastguard vessel firing gunshots as it conducted a rescue. The boat was already carrying migrants, presumably picked up from other vessels, who panicked and threw themselves overboard, only to be shot at. ‘We cannot say whether and how many dead there were,’ the 25-year-old captain, named Jonas, was quoted as saying. ‘We had to be careful not to get a bullet ourselves. We are speechless against this crude violence.’