Voice of Migrants

As Europe tries to curb the refugee crisis, migrants seek new routes to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

[voiceofmigrants]

Migrants at Turkish-Greek border: We want another life

Migrants wait to leave from the village of Skala Sikaminias. People hoping to enter Greece from Turkey appeared to be fanning out across a broader swathe of the roughly 200km-long land border, maintaining pressure on the frontier after Ankara declared its borders with the European Union open

[voiceofmigrants]

Do more to protect and support Child Refugees and Migrants

European States must step up their efforts to protect child refugees and migrants who have endured not only difficult and dangerous journeys but continue to face risks and hardship once in Europe, including unsafe accommodation, being incorrectly registered as adults, and a lack of appropriate care, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has urged. UNHCR’s latest Desperate Journeys report, published today, notes that from January to September 2019, some 80,800 people arrived in Europe via Mediterranean routes – down from 102,700 in the same period of 2018. Of those who arrived, more than a quarter were children, many travelling without their parents. “These children may have fled conflict, lost family members, been away from home for months, even years, with some enduring horrific abuses during their journeys, but their suffering doesn’t stop at the border,” said Pascale Moreau, Director of UNHCR’s Europe Bureau. “Across Europe, unaccompanied children in particular are frequently housed in large centres with minimal oversight, exposing them to further abuse, violence and psychological distress and increasing the risk that they will move on or disappear.”  Greece has received the majority of arrivals across the Mediterranean region this year – more than Spain, Italy, Malta, and Cyprus combined. So far, more than 12,900 children have arrived in Greece by sea, including almost 2,100 unaccompanied or separated children, many of them from Afghanistan, Syria and other countries characterized by conflict and violence. Conditions in overcrowded and unsanitary reception centres on the Greek Aegean islands are hugely concerning. The Greek authorities have announced measures to alleviate overcrowding and there are positive examples of best practice models being implemented, including community-based foster care. However, as of the end of September, most unaccompanied children in Greece were still in unsuitable accommodation. Given the extremely risky conditions they face, UNHCR appeals to European States to open up places for their relocation as a gesture of solidarity and speed up transfers for children eligible to join family members. While there have been many positive steps across Europe towards improving protection, the report notes that more needs to be done to address some of the challenges children continue to face. Among its recommendations, the report calls on European States to urgently end the use of immigration detention for children, appoint trained guardians or social workers and ensure that refugee and migrant children can receive an education. Across Europe, children may also struggle to be recognised as a child and the report calls for holistic and multi-disciplinary methods to be used when assessing a child’s age. By taking the steps outlined in this report, States will be able to increase the protection given to children on the move and be better equipped to determine how their best interests can be met, which may include solutions outside Europe. Courtesy : UNHCR

[voiceofmigrants]

"Lifejacket Graveyard a landfill site filled with discarded apparatus

Lesbos, Greece View of the so-called ‘Lifejacket Graveyard’, a landfill site filled with discarded apparatus used by migrants to get to the island

[voiceofmigrants]

Refugees flood Turkey's border as it opens to Europe...

 Refugees in Turkey head towards European frontiers after an official declared that borders had been thrown open, a response to the escalating war in Syria. Greece has blocked any new asylum applications for the next month after Turkey "opened the doors" for migrants to travel to the EU. Greek officials earlier said they had stopped nearly 10,000 migrants crossing the land border with Turkey. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece had increased "the level of deterrence at our borders to the maximum." Turkey says it cannot deal with the amount of people fleeing Syria's war. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was allowing migrants to try to get into neighbouring EU member states Greece and Bulgaria as of Friday. His decision came after at least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in air strikes in Idlib province in northern Syria this week. Turkey is hosting 3.7 million Syrian refugees, as well as migrants from other countries such as Afghanistan - but had previously stopped them from leaving for Europe under an aid-linked deal with the EU. But Mr Erdogan accused the EU of breaking promises made in 2016, when Ankara agreed to help shore up the EU's south-western border. The EU's border protection agency Frontex said it was on "high alert" on Europe's borders with Turkey. Courtesy : BBC News

[voiceofmigrants]

Demonstration of refugees and migrants outside the Kara Tepe camp

A woman reacts to teargas used by riot police during a demonstration of refugees and migrants outside the Kara Tepe camp.

[voiceofmigrants]

Burkina Faso humanitarian camps house tens of thousands displaced by fighting

Barsalogho, Burkina Faso A girl poses for a portrait in a camp for internally displaced people in a small town that hosts 10,000 people fleeing inter-community violence Photograph: Olympia de Maismont/AFP/Getty Images As Burkina Faso takes over the presidency of the G5 Sahel group of nations, the landlocked country is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. More than 100,000 people are displaced in the country according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, forcing the authorities to roll out emergency assistance measures. Some have fled their villages following ethnic clashes, while others are victims of terrorism. FRANCE 24 visited a camp for internally displaced people in Foubé, located 150 kilometres from the capital Ouagadougou, in the heart of the bush. To cope with an ever-increasing population, food is carefully rationed in the camp, though stocks are runnning dangerously low.  

[voiceofmigrants]

Hundreds of irregular migrants are stranded in Bosnia

People living in makeshift tents wait for the border gate to be opened. Hundreds of irregular migrants are stranded at the country’s border with Croatia after attempting to enter Europe

[voiceofmigrants]

Inside a makeshift migrant camp in Mexico

Migrants, most of whom were sent back to Mexico while they await asylum hearings under a U.S. policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, shelter in makeshift encampments in the Mexican border city of Matamoros.

[voiceofmigrants]

Air strike on Libyan migrant detention center

At least 44 people were killed and more than 130 wounded in an air strike on a migrant detention center in the Libyan capital Tripoli, the U.N. mission to the country said. On 3 July 2019, an airstrike by General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) hit the Tajoura Detention Center outside Tripoli, Libya, while hundreds of people were inside the facility. The detention center was being used as a holding facility for migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe when a storage hangar that it used as a residential facility was destroyed in an aerial bombing. The United Nations Human Rights Council stated that "It was known that there were 600 people living inside" the facility.  At least 53 people were killed and 130 were wounded. The LNA's apparent recklessness and its alleged targeting of unarmed civilians were condemned by outraged responses, which came from all over the world. The airstrike also raised scrutiny of the European Union's policy of cooperating with militias to detain migrants, and funding and training the Libyan Coast Guard which apprehended most of the migrants and refugees.

[voiceofmigrants]

Honduran migrants ride a freight train on their way north

Salto del Agua, Mexico Honduran migrants ride a freight train on their way north. The group’s next stop will be Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz state.

[voiceofmigrants]

Migrants at Turkish-Greek border: ′We want another life

Migrants wait to leave from the village of Skala Sikaminias. People hoping to enter Greece from Turkey appeared to be fanning out across a broader swathe of the roughly 200km-long land border, maintaining pressure on the frontier after Ankara declared its borders with the European Union open

[voiceofmigrants]

Do more to protect and support Child Refugees and Migrants

European States must step up their efforts to protect child refugees and migrants who have endured not only difficult and dangerous journeys but continue to face risks and hardship once in Europe, including unsafe accommodation, being incorrectly registered as adults, and a lack of appropriate care, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has urged. UNHCR’s latest Desperate Journeys report, published today, notes that from January to September 2019, some 80,800 people arrived in Europe via Mediterranean routes – down from 102,700 in the same period of 2018. Of those who arrived, more than a quarter were children, many travelling without their parents.

“These children may have fled conflict, lost family members, been away from home for months, even years, with some enduring horrific abuses during their journeys, but their suffering doesn’t stop at the border,” said Pascale Moreau, Director of UNHCR’s Europe Bureau. “Across Europe, unaccompanied children in particular are frequently housed in large centres with minimal oversight, exposing them to further abuse, violence and psychological distress and increasing the risk that they will move on or disappear.” 

Greece has received the majority of arrivals across the Mediterranean region this year – more than Spain, Italy, Malta, and Cyprus combined. So far, more than 12,900 children have arrived in Greece by sea, including almost 2,100 unaccompanied or separated children, many of them from Afghanistan, Syria and other countries characterized by conflict and violence. Conditions in overcrowded and unsanitary reception centres on the Greek Aegean islands are hugely concerning.

The Greek authorities have announced measures to alleviate overcrowding and there are positive examples of best practice models being implemented, including community-based foster care. However, as of the end of September, most unaccompanied children in Greece were still in unsuitable accommodation. Given the extremely risky conditions they face, UNHCR appeals to European States to open up places for their relocation as a gesture of solidarity and speed up transfers for children eligible to join family members.

While there have been many positive steps across Europe towards improving protection, the report notes that more needs to be done to address some of the challenges children continue to face. Among its recommendations, the report calls on European States to urgently end the use of immigration detention for children, appoint trained guardians or social workers and ensure that refugee and migrant children can receive an education. Across Europe, children may also struggle to be recognised as a child and the report calls for holistic and multi-disciplinary methods to be used when assessing a child’s age. By taking the steps outlined in this report, States will be able to increase the protection given to children on the move and be better equipped to determine how their best interests can be met, which may include solutions outside Europe.

Courtesy : UNHCR

[voiceofmigrants]

Refugees flood Turkey's border as it opens to Europe...

 Refugees in Turkey head towards European frontiers after an official declared that borders had been thrown open, a response to the escalating war in Syria. Greece has blocked any new asylum applications for the next month after Turkey "opened the doors" for migrants to travel to the EU. Greek officials earlier said they had stopped nearly 10,000 migrants crossing the land border with Turkey. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece had increased "the level of deterrence at our borders to the maximum." Turkey says it cannot deal with the amount of people fleeing Syria's war. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was allowing migrants to try to get into neighbouring EU member states Greece and Bulgaria as of Friday. His decision came after at least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in air strikes in Idlib province in northern Syria this week.

Turkey is hosting 3.7 million Syrian refugees, as well as migrants from other countries such as Afghanistan - but had previously stopped them from leaving for Europe under an aid-linked deal with the EU. But Mr Erdogan accused the EU of breaking promises made in 2016, when Ankara agreed to help shore up the EU's south-western border. The EU's border protection agency Frontex said it was on "high alert" on Europe's borders with Turkey. Courtesy : BBC News

[voiceofmigrants]

"Lifejacket Graveyard’, a landfill site filled with discarded apparatus

Lesbos, Greece

View of the so-called ‘Lifejacket Graveyard’, a landfill site filled with discarded apparatus used by migrants to get to the island

[voiceofmigrants]

Demonstration of refugees and migrants outside the Kara Tepe camp

A woman reacts to teargas used by riot police during a demonstration of refugees and migrants outside the Kara Tepe camp.

[voiceofmigrants]

Burkina Faso, humanitarian camps house tens of thousands displaced by fighting

Barsalogho, Burkina Faso

A girl poses for a portrait in a camp for internally displaced people in a small town that hosts 10,000 people fleeing inter-community violence

Photograph: Olympia de Maismont/AFP/Getty Images

As Burkina Faso takes over the presidency of the G5 Sahel group of nations, the landlocked country is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. More than 100,000 people are displaced in the country according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, forcing the authorities to roll out emergency assistance measures. Some have fled their villages following ethnic clashes, while others are victims of terrorism. FRANCE 24 visited a camp for internally displaced people in Foubé, located 150 kilometres from the capital Ouagadougou, in the heart of the bush. To cope with an ever-increasing population, food is carefully rationed in the camp, though stocks are runnning dangerously low.  

[voiceofmigrants]

Hundreds of irregular migrants are stranded in Bosnia

People living in makeshift tents wait for the border gate to be opened. Hundreds of irregular migrants are stranded at the country’s border with Croatia after attempting to enter Europe