H-1B visa fee: Trump proposes $103,265 employer charge
US President Donald Trump's administration proposed Monday to impose a $103,265 fee on employers hiring foreign workers through the H-1B skilled visa programme…
Migration & Borders — August 2026
Colombia president orders migrant deportation crackdown
Colombia's President Abelardo de la Espriella has ordered an immigration crackdown, telling authorities to begin detaining undocumented foreigners convicted of…
Mediterranean migrants face Libyan threats, aid group says
Migrants crossing the central Mediterranean and rescue ships helping them face increasing threats and harassment from Libyan groups, SOS Mediterranee said Mond…
More than 150 migrants rescued off Crete in three days
Greek authorities coordinated the rescue of more than 150 migrants off the island of Crete over three days, the Athens News Agency reported on Sunday. ANA sai…
Tunisia migrant boat sinking: 12 bodies recovered
Tunisia's national guard said it had recovered 12 bodies from the sea after a migrant boat sank off the country's southeastern coast, with two people still mis…
Spain arrests five over Ceuta migrant trafficking
Spanish police have arrested five people over alleged migrant trafficking from Ceuta to mainland Europe, saying suspects charged migrants up to $10,500 for boat crossings to the Iberian peninsula. Police said four of those arrested belonged to a trafficking n…
315 migrants rescued off Mauritania, coastguard says
Mauritania’s coastguard said on August 21 that it rescued 315 migrants, including 40 children, from a wooden boat drifting off the country’s Atlantic coast. T…
Cuban migrants: 15 rescued by Mexico navy after days at sea
Mexico's navy said Thursday it had rescued 15 Cuban migrants, including four minors, after the group went missing at sea last week. Cuban and US media reporte…
Ceuta migrants: Spain to add 1,800 shelter places
Spain announced temporary shelters for 1,800 migrants in Ceuta on Thursday, saying the facilities are meant to ease a humanitarian crisis after last month's mass border crossing from Morocco. The migration ministry said the new shelters would be expanded prog…
Liberia receives first 20 US deportees
Liberia received its first group of 20 people deported from the United States on August 20, after agreeing to accept up to 1,200 foreign nationals within a yea…
Eswatini repatriates two US deportees
Two migrants deported from the United States to Eswatini have returned to their home countries, the southern African kingdom said Tuesday. The men, from Mauri…
Big Bend border project paused after Texas backlash
US President Donald Trump's administration paused construction on a $1.7 billion border project at Big Bend National Park in Texas after bipartisan local opposition to work on the protected public lands. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott…
South Africa asks SADC for unity after anti-migrant backlash
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa urged leaders at a Southern African Development Community summit in Durban on Monday, August 17, to work together on migration after anti-migrant protests and violence led more than 176,000 foreign nationals to leave in…
42 Europe-bound migrants rescued off Mauritania
Mauritania's coastguard said it rescued 42 migrants, including women and children, from a drifting boat off Nouadhibou late on Sunday, August 16, after the vessel had engine trouble while travelling from Gambia toward Europe. The coastguard said the group inc…
Seven migrants dead, 50 rescued off Libya, charity says
Italian rescue charity Emergency said Monday it rescued 50 people from a double-deck wooden boat in international waters off Libya and recovered seven bodies. Emergency said it spotted the overcrowded boat in the early hours and began a rescue operation from…
Morocco youth still eye Europe despite economic boom
Young Moroccans are still drawn to Europe despite Morocco's growing economy, after 72,000 would-be migrants crossed from Morocco to the Spanish exclave of Ceuta last month. About 70,000 of the migrants were pushed back in the days immediately after the crossi…
Migrant charity says 11 bodies spotted off Libya
SOS Mediterranee said a monitoring plane operated by migrant-assistance NGOs spotted 11 decomposing bodies in the sea off Libya on Friday. The charity said some of the bodies still had clothes on and others were kept afloat by tire inner tubes. The plane was…
240,000 refugees in South Sudan to lose UN food aid
UN food and nutrition assistance for the most vulnerable 240,000 refugees in South Sudan will end within weeks unless urgent funding arrives, the World Food Programme and UNHCR said Friday. The agencies said the final assistance for those refugees will be pro…
US deportees allege police abuse in Equatorial Guinea
US deportees held in a hotel in Equatorial Guinea say they face escalating police violence, intimidation and pressure to leave for their home countries. Ahmed Soliman, 30, told AFP that masked police officers entered his hotel room two weeks ago, dragged him…
South Africa official says over 60,000 migrants left
More than 60,000 foreign nationals have left South Africa during weeks of anti-immigrant protests and violence, Border Management Authority commissioner Michae…
US deportation of 11 to Eswatini unlawful, Amnesty says
Amnesty International has called the latest US deportation of 11 people to Eswatini unlawful, saying the African kingdom should stop accepting transfers under…
Mozambique says two citizens killed in South Africa unrest
Mozambique said two of its citizens were killed and two others hospitalised after what it called xenophobic violence near Johannesburg, while South African pol…
38,000 Malawians flee South Africa unrest
Malawi said Friday it had brought 38,094 nationals home from South Africa between June 7 and July 8 as foreigners left amid anti-migrant threats and violence.…
South Africa anti-migrant unrest sends thousands home
More than 15,000 Malawians left South Africa ahead of an unofficial June 30 deadline set by anti-immigrant campaigners, authorities said, as returnees describe…
US uses Africa for deportation deals, ex-officials say
Two former State Department officials told AFP that the United States is using visa pressure and financial incentives to push African governments into acceptin…
Eswatini receives 11 more US deportees
Eswatini's government said it received 11 new deportees from the United States on Wednesday, most of them from African countries. The government said the group was flown into Eswatini on two planes and was the fourth batch to arrive since July last year under…
US deports about a dozen people to Eswatini
The United States deported about a dozen people to Eswatini on Wednesday, an American immigration lawyer and local sources told AFP, in the latest transfer under a third-country deportation arrangement. The deportees were not from Eswatini. Alma David, a US i…
Afghan returnees need jobs, UN refugee chief warns
UN refugee chief Barham Salih urged international support for millions of Afghans returned from Iran and Pakistan, warning during a Kabul visit on Wednesday that failure to help them reintegrate could deepen social and security problems. More than six million…
Ceuta migrants: 294 arrested in Morocco, Le360 says
Scores of would-be migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, were intercepted on Saturday in northern Morocco near the border with the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, an AFP correspondent saw. Local media outlet Le360 reported that 294 people were arrested, includi…
Channel migrant boat carried record 230, SNSM says
A small boat carrying 230 migrants crossed the Channel to Britain, setting a record for a single vessel, France's SNSM lifeboat service and UK media said. SNSM said the passengers, including more than 20 children, were counted aboard a rubber dinghy as it dep…
Syrian Kurds' Ras al-Ain return suspended after attack
Authorities in northeastern Syria temporarily suspended the return of displaced Syrian Kurds to Ras al-Ain on Monday after members of a first returning group were attacked, a local security official said. Hundreds of people had gone back to the town months af…
Palestinian Christians leave West Bank amid hardship
Palestinian Christians are leaving or considering leaving the West Bank as worsening economic and security conditions, movement restrictions and settler attacks deepen fears about the community's future. Between 40,000 and 45,000 Christians are estimated to l…
Rwanda says Europe migration talks have no deal yet
Rwanda's government says it has held initial migration talks with some European countries, but that no agreement has been reached. Government spokesperson Yolande Makolo, asked by Rwanda's Royal FM radio station about a possible agreement with Italy, said dis…
Spain migrant smuggling network: 78 arrested
Spanish police said Friday they had dismantled one of the largest criminal networks involved in smuggling migrants across the Mediterranean, arresting 78 people and seizing 18 high-speed boats. Police said the network allegedly used the boats to carry synthet…
South Africa migrant exodus hits farms and factories
South African farms, factories and households are struggling to replace foreign workers after thousands left within weeks to escape fatal anti-migrant protests and intensified immigration enforcement. Fringe anti-foreigner groups had set June 30 as an unoffic…
Zhang Xinyan reaches Canada after Thai detention
Chinese activist Zhang Xinyan has arrived in Canada after months in a Bangkok immigration detention centre, where she feared deportation to Hong Kong or mainland China. Zhang, 55, landed in Vancouver on August 3 after legal and diplomatic interventions. Thai…
Trump targets birth tourism in citizenship order
US President Donald Trump signed an order Thursday targeting people who he said enter the United States as tourists while intending to give birth, making another attempt to curb birthright citizenship after a Supreme Court setback. “They've taken birthright c…
US visa social media vetting to expand, report says
The US government plans to expand social media vetting for visa applicants, including foreign journalists, the Daily Signal reported Thursday, August 6. The Daily Signal said it had obtained an internal memo outlining a State Department plan that would requir…
Myanmar refugees get Thai IDs and legal work access
Myanmar refugees living in camps in Thailand are receiving non-citizen identity cards and permission to work legally, a change that lets some leave long-isolated border shelters for paid jobs. Thailand began issuing the cards in June after decades in which My…
African migrants deported from US seek Cameroon protection
Thirty-six Africans deported from the United States to Cameroon have started legal proceedings in Yaounde seeking legal status in Cameroon and protection from onward deportation, their lawyer Fru Awah said Wednesday. Awah said the complaint before Cameroon's…
South Africa anti-migrant march injures three foreigners
Three foreign nationals were injured in South Africa on Wednesday when a protest against undocumented migrants turned violent, police in KwaZulu-Natal said. Police said the injuries occurred after protesters began looting shops in Kranskop, about 150 kilometr…
Malaysia says 5,000 Myanmar refugees won't be sent back if at risk
Malaysia will not send 5,000 refugees back to Myanmar if authorities conclude their lives would be at risk, government spokesman Fahmi Fadzil said Wednesday, while preparations continued for a possible repatriation. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said last week…
UK returns 1,087 Channel migrants to France under deal
The United Kingdom has forcibly returned 1,087 people to France under a "one in, one out" Channel migration deal, while admitting 1,117 others from France by the end of June. The treaty came into force on August 6, 2025, and has been extended to the end of Se…
Ceuta migrant death toll rises to 75 as EU backs Spain
The death toll from attempts to reach Ceuta rose to about 75 as European Union ministers backed Spain's handling of a mass migration crisis in the North African enclave. Spanish officials said Tuesday that 72,000 people entered Ceuta from Morocco last week an…
Salvadoran man dies in ICE detention in New Jersey
Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, a 41-year-old man from El Salvador, died after a medical emergency while held in US immigration detention in New Jersey, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. ICE said Monday that Lopez-Cornejo had been detained on June 18 after the a…
Channel boat fire: 173 migrants rescued
French and British authorities rescued 173 migrants after their boat caught fire during an attempted Channel crossing on Tuesday, forcing people to jump overboard near the boundary between French and British waters, French officials said. French maritime auth…
France says Reform UK Channel migrant plan would violate law
France condemned Reform UK's proposal to use Britain's Royal Navy to stop small boats crossing the English Channel and return migrants to France if the party wins power. The French interior ministry told AFP the plan would violate French sovereignty, maritime…
Afghan migrants: 14 bodies found in desert
Officials said the bodies of 14 Afghans trying to reach Iran have been found in a desert in southwestern Afghanistan, weeks after their vehicle broke down and they continued on foot. Authorities had been searching for the group since the driver of the vehicle…