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 anoth…
Migration & Borders
Published stories in Migration & Borders.
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…
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…
Trump and European right cite Ceuta migrant surge
US President Donald Trump and several European right-wing politicians used the migrant surge into Spain's Ceuta enclave on Friday to argue for tougher migration policies and to criticise political opponents. Fox News quoted Trump as saying images from Ceuta w…
Ceuta migrant surge: Spain says Schengen not at risk
Spain said the July 30 migrant rush into Ceuta, which authorities say killed 75 people, did not compromise Europe's Schengen free-travel area. Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Tuesday that Spain had returned 70,000 of the 72,000 migr…
Ceuta influx: Spain rejects Morocco warning claim
Spain rejected a Moroccan official's claim that Rabat had warned Madrid that a Spanish court ruling on migrant returns would create problems before last week's mass crossing into Ceuta. At least 50,000 people, mostly Moroccans, entered the Spanish exclave in…
Ceuta migrant surge fuelled by disinformation, analysts say
Online disinformation helped drive the July 30 mass entry of tens of thousands of migrants from Morocco into Spain's North African territory of Ceuta, analysts told AFP. Official Spanish figures say 72,000 people entered Ceuta from Morocco, mostly by swimming…
Ceuta: Denmark backs Spain, seeks stronger EU borders
Denmark said Tuesday it was “very satisfied” with Spain's response to the mass entry of migrants into Ceuta, while urging stronger controls at the European Union's external borders. Danish Immigration and Integration Minister Morten Bodskov said Spain had act…
Ceuta crisis: UK offers Spain help, Burnham says
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Friday that Britain had offered help to Spain as it deals with a surge of migrants crossing from Morocco into its Ceuta enclave. Burnham told reporters the situation was “a matter for the Spanish government first and foremo…
Ceuta migrant children face abuse risk, aid groups warn
Unaccompanied migrant children sleeping rough in Ceuta are at risk of abuse and exploitation after last week’s mass entry from Morocco, aid groups warned on Th…
Ceuta: Macron offers Spain help, orders more checks
French President Emmanuel Macron ordered France to strengthen controls at its border with Spain and said France was ready to help Spanish authorities manage a migrant influx into Ceuta, a presidential aide said Friday. The aide said France could provide suppo…
Greek island visas give Turkish tourists easier EU entry
Greece's visa-on-arrival scheme for nearby Aegean islands is giving Turkish tourists a faster route into part of the EU, easing trips that previously required a full Schengen visa. Introduced in April 2024 and known in Turkey as the “door visa,” the scheme in…
Spain Schengen suspension call backed by Finland
Finland has backed Italy's call for Spain to be excluded from Europe's Schengen passport-free zone over the migration crisis in Ceuta, Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said Friday. Rantanen wrote on X that Spain had “completely failed to protect the Sc…
South Africa seeks migration talks after violence
South Africa called on July 30 for an Africa-wide conference on migration after weeks of deadly anti-migrant violence and tensions over undocumented foreign workers. The foreign ministry said the meeting would revisit a decade-old African Union decision to tr…
Milei bars foreigners over Argentina 'hate' messages
Argentine President Javier Milei imposed an emergency decree Thursday barring or expelling foreigners deemed to have spread or incited “hate messages” against Argentina or its people, drawing opposition criticism and legal concerns over how it would be enforc…
Channel migrant crossings hit 2026 record at 752
The British government said 752 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats on Wednesday, the highest daily total recorded so far in 2026. The figure, released by the interior ministry on Thursday, broke the previous 2026 daily record of 710 arrivals set in J…
Ceuta situation almost normal, minister says
The situation in Spain's Ceuta enclave has returned to almost normal, a minister said Saturday, after a surge of migrant crossings from Morocco left at least 67 people dead. Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska earlier said at least 67 people ha…
Channel migrants: four die in two crossing attempts
Four migrants died in two separate attempts to cross the Channel from France to Britain, French authorities said Thursday. The French maritime prefecture said three bodies were found early Thursday on a small boat that had approached the coast near Dunkirk to…
Syria Kurds still wait to return under Damascus deal
Displaced Syrian Kurds from Ras al-Ain are still waiting to return home despite a January deal between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and Damascus that included their return. Residents of the Talaeh camp outside Hasakeh say former Turkish-backed fig…
Germany defends deporting Afghan with no conviction
Germany defended deporting an Afghan national who had not been convicted of a crime, after refugee rights groups criticised the move. The deportee was among 31 Afghans on a flight that left Germany for Taliban-run Afghanistan on Tuesday. The flight was part o…
Rohingya repatriation would risk lives, Malaysia group says
Malaysia's main Rohingya rights group urged Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's government on Thursday to halt the planned repatriation of about 5,000 Rohingya asylum seekers to Myanmar, saying their lives would be at risk. The Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights…
Refugee Convention turns 75 as UN warns on asylum
The Refugee Convention marked its 75th anniversary on Tuesday as the United Nations warned that the right to asylum is under increasing political pressure. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih spoke at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, where the con…
Trump rule could speed asylum-seeker deportations
The Trump administration instituted a rule change on Tuesday that could fast-track deportations of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers. Under the new rule, some asylum applications will be sent directly to Justice Department immigration judges without a p…
Malaysia Detains 110 Rohingya Asylum Seekers
Malaysian police detained 110 Rohingya asylum seekers at a UNHCR facility in Kuala Lumpur after the group went there following a reported eviction threat, Amnesty International and authorities said. The group, including men, women and children, travelled by b…
350,000 Haitians in US face loss of Temporary Protected Status
An estimated 350,000 Haitians living in the United States under Temporary Protected Status faced the loss of legal permission to live and work in the country from the end of Monday. The Supreme Court said last month that the Trump administration could end TPS…
Nigeria accuses South Africa of complicity as 160,000 flee anti-migrant violence
Nigerian and South African diplomats held tense talks in Abuja on Monday after Nigeria accused Pretoria of complicity in attacks against African immigrants that have driven more than 160,000 people from South Africa. Officials from both countries described ea…
Ghana to return 1,000 more nationals from South Africa after anti-migrant violence
Ghana said 1,000 more of its nationals would be flown home from South Africa on Sunday and Monday following violent protests against migrants. The Ghanaian foreign ministry said special flights would begin arriving during the two days, describing them as the…
South Africa migrant exodus leaves farms and factories short
South Africa's migrant exodus is leaving farms, factories and households short of workers after more than 160,000 foreign nationals left amid anti-migrant protests, deadly violence and intensified immigration enforcement. The figure is based on an AFP tally o…
Eleven indicted in US over deaths of migrants in freight railcar
A US federal grand jury has indicted 11 people accused of running a migrant smuggling operation that ended with seven people dead in a freight railcar, the Justice Department said. The department said the defendants allegedly smuggled undocumented migrants in…
German court backs Afghan woman's visa appeal in refugee scheme case
Germany's constitutional court on Friday backed an Afghan woman's appeal against an interior ministry decision to deny her a visa, even though she had previously been approved for entry. The woman had been accepted under a refugee scheme set up by Germany's p…
Displaced Central Africans seek aid after Am-Dafock fighting
Families displaced by fighting near the Central African Republic's border with Sudan are sheltering in difficult conditions in Birao, where they say they need food, medicine, water, latrines and better shelter. Zakaria Hassan fled with his children and a few…
Wu Chi-wai granted six-month UK stay after Heathrow detention, lawyer says
Former pro-democracy Hong Kong lawmaker Wu Chi-wai has been admitted to Britain as a visitor for six months after being held at Heathrow airport and facing removal, his lawyer and Hong Kong Watch said Monday. Wu, 63, holds a British National (Overseas) passpo…
Nine Cuban canoeists defect during Canada competition, source says
Nine members of a 12-person Cuban canoeing team defected during a visit to Canada for a competition, a source close to the matter said Thursday. The athletes were taking part in the third Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Cup in Montreal. The competition ran f…
UN experts criticise US immigration judge dismissals
Two United Nations special rapporteurs condemned what they called the mass arbitrary removal of immigration judges in the United States and said the politicisation of immigration courts must stop. Margaret Satterthwaite, the special rapporteur on the independ…
UN experts cite abuse reports involving migrants at Tunisia-Libya border
UN experts voiced alarm on 16 July over reports that thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa may have been subjected to arbitrary detention, collective expulsion and human trafficking on the Tunisia-Libya border and in Libya. The experts said they were…
Rights groups urge EU to suspend Tunisia migration support
Dozens of human rights organisations urged the European Union to suspend migration support to Tunisia under a deal they said was fuelling abuses. The EU signed the agreement with Tunisia in 2023 to provide financing intended to help curb small-boat crossings…
Liberia repatriates 17 nationals from South Africa
Liberia repatriated its first group of nationals from South Africa on Wednesday, bringing home 17 people as anti-immigrant tensions remained high in South Africa, Liberia's foreign ministry said. The Liberians landed at Roberts International Airport near Monr…
Ten Ethiopians presumed drowned in Zambezi crossing
Ten Ethiopians are believed to have drowned after a canoe carrying migrants capsized while trying to cross the Zambezi River from Zambia into Botswana, Zambian officials said Wednesday. Police and immigration officials said in a joint statement that 15 Ethiop…
Trump tells ICE to resume traffic stops after fatal shootings
US President Donald Trump criticized a Department of Homeland Security decision to pause Immigration and Customs Enforcement traffic stops after two fatal shootings in less than a week. DHS halted the practice after a Colombian man was shot dead in Biddeford,…
US immigration officer fatally shoots man in Maine
A US immigration officer fatally shot a man in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday, in the second such fatal shooting by federal immigration agents in less than a week. Rights groups identified the man as a 26-year-old Colombian. US media identified him as Joan Sebas…
Mexico files complaints over deaths involving US immigration authorities
Mexico said it was filing legal complaints in US federal and local courts over the killing of several Mexican citizens by US immigration authorities, while saying it does not seek conflict with the United States. President Claudia Sheinbaum said her governmen…
Media report record 128 migrants reached England in one Channel boat
British media said a boat carrying 128 people reached the coast of England on Friday, the highest reported number for a single Channel crossing. The Home Office said 225 migrants arrived in England on Friday across three boats. The PA news agency and the BBC…
Zimbabweans return from South Africa after anti-migrant violence
Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans have left South Africa in recent weeks after violent anti-migrant protests. South Africa has long attracted migrants, but the source said protests and deadly violence against foreigners have swept the country for weeks. Fringe…