Last month, Dejen Asefaw was rescued with hundreds of other migrants in the Mediterranean Sea and brought to Sicily. The 24-year-old graduate from Eritrea, who endured forced military service and prison at home, hopes to be granted asylum in Europe.
France and Germany raised concerns on Monday over a European Commission plan to redistribute migrants reaching Italy and Greece, saying it must take better account of efforts they have already taken to help asylum-seekers.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's government and leaders of Germany's powerful regions agreed on Friday to speed up processing of asylum applications but put off a decision on increasing support for towns and cities struggling with a surge in refugees.
African migrants camped in the northern French port of Calais in hopes of eventually reaching Britain are subject to police beatings and harassment, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
Syrians have overtaken Afghans as the largest refugee population aside from Palestinians, fleeing to more than 100 countries to escape war in their homeland, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
The Australian government failed to protect asylum seekers in its custody during a deadly riot at an immigration detention center earlier this year, and as such was guilty of human rights abuses, said a Senate inquiry report released on Thursday.
A group of Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives has called on President Barack Obama to suspend deportations of Central American families until problems are resolved at the newly opened detention facilities holding women and children.
The surge in child migration from Central America is receding but the United States is aggressively pushing ahead with plans to expand detentions, a little-publicized part of a broader campaign to deter illegal migrants.
Citizens in Germany, one of the most sought-after destinations for refugees, should be allowed to host asylum seekers in their homes to ease the pressure on the government to provide adequate housing for them, a politician said on Friday.
Justin Mugenzi was legally cleared of any role in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. But an oversight in the international justice system means he remains a virtual prisoner in a United Nations safe house in the eastern African state of Tanzania.
German opposition lawmakers appealed to the Constitutional Court to oblige the government to bring ex-U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden to Germany to testify before a parliamentary committee investigating espionage.
Australia will reintroduce a controversial temporary visa system to deal with a huge backlog of asylum seekers, its immigration minister said on Thursday, despite criticism the stopgap process leaves refugees in limbo.
The Obama administration is routinely arguing against the release on bond of Central American women and children at a New Mexico detention center in a policy shift meant to discourage others like them from entering the United States, say lawyers for the detainees.
