Refugees

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – California on Friday banned private prisons and immigrant detention centers under a bill signed by the liberal state’s governor.The measure stipulates that beginning next year, the state’s Department of…

HEMMINGFORD, QUEBEC – Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer pledged on Wednesday that if elected his party would take steps to limit illegal border crossings by migrants who first travel to the United States and then proceed to…

More than 95,000 people have sought asylum in Australia after arriving by plane in the past five years, but more than 84% were found not to have a valid claim. The shadow minister for home affairs, Kristina Keneally, said the refusal…

PARIS – French lawmakers are grappling with one of the country’s thorniest issues.On Monday, they began debating immigration, at a time when tent cities have expanded in urban areas across the country and asylum demands are…

LAMPEDUSA, ITALY – Italian coast guard ranks recovered the bodies of 13 women who died after a crowded migrant boat capsized in bad weather as rescue craft approached it off the coast of Lampedusa, local authorities said on…

ATHENS – Greek authorities were transferring around 570 migrants from an overcrowded camp on the island of Lesbos on Sunday, officials said.A regularly scheduled ferry left Lesbos carrying the migrants, who used to live in the…

BRUSSELS – The captain of a humanitarian rescue ship who was arrested for docking in an Italian port without authorization took aim Thursday at the European Union for outsourcing to conflict-ravaged Libya the handling of migrants…

NAIROBI – Burundian refugees who returned home on Thursday say they left camps in Tanzania because women are often raped when they go looking for firewood and because Tanzanian police have beaten and arrested men.Reuters…

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is planning to expand the collection of DNA from migrants who cross U.S. borders, and to include the information in a massive criminal database operated by the FBI.The effort is separate from…

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – When President Donald Trump dramatically slashed the number of refugees allowed into the U.S., he also gave state and local governments the authority to refuse to accept them for the first time in…

LESBOS, GREECE – Jan Ali Razaiem said he made the long journey from his home in Afghanistan to Greece for a better future for his two sons.Instead, he has been forced to settle for the squalor of Moria, a filthy overcrowded…

BRUSSELS – A Uighur refugee living in Belgium complained Tuesday that Chinese authorities had cracked down on his family after they applied for the right to join him.Abdulhamid Tursun’s case has raised controversy in Belgium, where…

ATHENS – Around a thousand migrants staged a fresh protest Tuesday in Europe’s largest migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, two days after a deadly fire at the vastly overcrowded facility.The demonstrators, mainly women and…

The Immigration Services Agency announced Tuesday a set of measures to prevent the recurrence of deaths from detention center hunger strikes and called on an expert panel to study how it can expedite often prolonged deportation…

LESBOS, GREECE/ATHENS – Greece said Monday it wanted to start sending back thousands of migrants to Turkey, a day after a deadly fire sparked riots at an overcrowded camp on the island of Lesbos.The decision, taken at an emergency…

ISTANBUL – Turkey’s air force on Sunday downed an unidentified drone on the Syrian border after it breached Turkish air space multiple times, the defense ministry said.The drone detected near the border by the military intruded…

TRIPOLI – At least 71 illegal migrants rescued after four days in distress at sea were brought to shore east of the Libyan capital Tripoli early on Sunday but then fled and no attempt was made to capture them, a navy official…

ATHENS – A fire broke out on Sunday at a container inside a crowded refugee camp on the eastern Greek island of Lesbos close to Turkey and then the refugees clashed with police, the emergency services said.Thick smoke could be seen…

SAN DIEGO – A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s move to vastly extend authority of immigration officers to deport people without allowing them to appear before judges, the third legal setback for its immigration…

LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS – Asian American groups are objecting to the Trump administration’s efforts to step up deportations of Cambodians, as dozens of refugees with criminal convictions are being ordered to report to federal…