Latest Political refugees News

Aspects of US restrictions on asylum-seekers may violate international protections, UNHCR chief says

Jun. 13, 2024 13:01 PM EDT

GENEVA (AP) — The head of the U.N. refugee agency said Thursday he understands that the Biden administration enacted new restrictions on asylum-seekers entering the United States, but cautioned that some aspects of the executive order may violate refugee protection required under international...

UK's glum Conservatives try to shift the mood with a promise of tax cuts as polling day nears

Jun. 11, 2024 10:09 AM EDT

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday implored British voters, and his own party, to throw him a lifeline in the U.K.'s election, pledging to cut taxes and reduce immigration if his Conservative Party is reelected on July 4. With the Conservatives trailing the...

Hundreds of asylum-seekers are camped out near Seattle. There's a vacant motel next door

Jun. 07, 2024 08:59 AM EDT

KENT, Wash. (AP) — Kabongo Kambila Ringo stood outside the tent where he has been staying with his pregnant wife and ate from a clear plastic tray of Girl Scout cookies melting in the midday sun. He was one of around 240 asylum-seekers camping in a grassy lot along a highway south...

Italy's premier visits Albania as controversial plan to hold Italy-bound migrants nears its start

Jun. 05, 2024 10:27 AM EDT

SHENGJIN, Albania (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni traveled to Albania on Wednesday to thank its government for its unique role in agreeing to host thousands of asylum-seekers while Italy processes their claims, and to tour migrant centers she said will be ready in August. ...

Asylum-seekers looking for shelter set up encampment in Seattle suburb

Jun. 04, 2024 23:01 PM EDT

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — Asylum-seekers who have been looking for shelter in Washington state, mainly from Angola, Congo and Venezuela, have set up an encampment in a Seattle suburb. The asylum-seekers moved to the site next to an empty motel south of Seattle in Kent, on Saturday,...

Cyprus president says a buffer zone splitting the island won't become another migrant route

Jun. 04, 2024 13:07 PM EDT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The president of Cyprus said Tuesday that he won’t “open another route” for irregular migration by letting through more than two dozen asylum-seekers now stranded in a U.N.-controlled buffer zone that bisects the war-divided island nation. President...

The Netherlands veers sharply to the right with a new government dominated by party of Geert Wilders

May. 16, 2024 04:50 AM EDT

THE HAGUE (AP) — Anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders and three other party leaders agreed on a coalition deal early Thursday that veers the Netherlands toward the hard right, capping a half year of tumultuous negotiations that still left it unclear who would become prime minister. ...

Hundreds of Syrian refugees head home as anti-refugee sentiment surges in Lebanon

May. 14, 2024 10:44 AM EDT

ARSAL, Lebanon (AP) — More than 300 Syrian refugees headed back home to Syria in a convoy on Tuesday, leaving two remote northeastern towns in crisis-stricken Lebanon where anti-refugee sentiment has been surging in recent months. Lebanese officials have long urged the...

Families of the victims of attacks on displaced people in Congo mourn their dead

May. 08, 2024 11:56 AM EDT

GOMA, Congo (AP) — Families of the victims of last week's bomb attacks on two camps of displaced people in eastern Congo gathered to mourn their loved ones at a ceremony on Monday evening. During the ceremony in the city of Goma in the North Kivu Province, mourners sang and lit candles in tribute...

Biden has rebuilt the refugee system after Trump-era cuts. What comes next in an election year?

May. 05, 2024 09:30 AM EDT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A church volunteer stood at an apartment door, beckoning inside a Congolese family for their first look at where they would live in America. “Your new house!” volunteer Dan Davidson exclaimed as the couple and the woman's brother stepped into the...