Musings From Abroad

US Home Commissioner warns Niger coup could increase EU immigration

Published

7 months ago

April 11, 2024

Home Affairs Commissioner, Ylva Johansson, has said that the coup in Niger last year could lead to a rise in people coming to the European Union illegally. This was said just hours before a key vote on changing the EU’s migration rules in preparation for an election in June.

The coup in Niger last year could lead to a lot of people coming to the EU illegally, said Ylva Johansson, the commissioner for home affairs, on Tuesday, just before a key vote on changing the EU’s rules on immigration before an election in June. A military group took over Niamey in a coup in 2023. Since then, they have removed a law that has helped stop people from West Africa from going to Europe. The EU wants to work together more closely with African countries to cut down on illegal immigrants.

“The coup in Niger concerns me a lot … That could, of course, lead to a lot of new migrants coming in a very difficult and dangerous situation,” Johansson told reporters.

United Nations figures showed that so far this year, more than 45,500 people have come into the EU without going through a normal border crossing. Last year, more than a million people, mostly Syrian refugees, came to the group. This is a lot less than the high point in 2015.

Since then, the EU’s 27 member states have been trying to cut down on illegal immigration from the Middle East and Africa by making its borders stricter and limiting refugee laws. This is because, across the continent, people are becoming more against immigration.

The EU signed a new migrant pact at the end of last year as a way to better handle migration. This was done in response to pressure from far-right parties that are expected to do well in the European Parliament election in two months.

The European Parliament will hold a final vote on that package on Wednesday. It cuts down on the time it takes for screening and asylum processes, aims to make it easier for people to be sent back to their home countries, and spells out how member states that are under a lot of pressure can get help. If agreed upon, member states would give their seal of approval in the next few days. They would then have two years to put it into effect.

Johansson thought the vote would go through. The deal was called “a huge leap in the wrong direction” by 161 civil society organizations on Tuesday, who said it violated basic rights by letting children be detained.

“The decision will impact children fleeing conflict, hunger and death for decades. The EU must get it right,” said Federica Toscano from Save the Children Europe.

Related Topics:Featured US Ylva Johansson

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Musings From Abroad

UN Security Council deliberates stance on Sudan war

Published

4 days ago

November 13, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The UN Security Council is discussing a British-drafted resolution calling on Sudan’s warring parties to stop hostilities and permit safe, quick, and unimpeded assistance supplies across borders and front lines.

The world’s largest relocation crisis began in April 2023 when the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces engaged in a power battle ahead of a planned transfer to civilian administration.

Waves of ethnically motivated violence have resulted, with the RSF mostly to blame. The RSF has blamed the action on rogue actors and denies causing harm to civilians in Sudan. Two RSF generals were named last week by a Security Council committee in the first U.N. sanctions levied during the ongoing conflict.

“Nineteen months into the war, both sides are committing egregious human rights violations, including the widespread rape of women and girls,” Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Barbara Woodward, told reporters at the start of this month as Britain assumed the Security Council’s presidency for November.

“More than half the Sudanese population are experiencing severe food insecurity,” she said. “Despite this, the SAF and the RSF remain focussed on fighting each other and not the famine and suffering facing their country.”

According to diplomats, Britain wants to vote on the draft resolution as soon as possible. A resolution must receive nine votes or more to pass and not be vetoed by the United States, France, Britain, Russia, or China.

Nearly 25 million people, or half of Sudan’s population, require aid, according to the U.N., since 11 million people have abandoned their homes and famine has spread to displacement camps. Of those, around 3 million have departed for other nations.

In its draft language, Britain “demands that the warring parties immediately cease hostilities” and “demands that the Rapid Support Forces immediately halt its offensives” throughout Sudan.

It also “calls on the parties to the conflict to allow and facilitate the full, safe, rapid, and unhindered crossline and cross-border humanitarian access into and throughout Sudan.”

Additionally, the draft urges that assistance deliveries continue to be made through the Adre border crossing with Chad “and stresses the need to sustain humanitarian access through all border crossings, while humanitarian needs persist, and without impediments.”

Sudanese authorities have permitted the U.N. and relief organisations to enter Darfur through the Adre border crossing for three months, ending in mid-November.

Musings From Abroad

South Africa worry Trump’s victory might affect climate fight

Published

1 week ago

November 10, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

South Africa’s environment minister has expressed concern about the potential effects of Donald Trump’s victory on climate change negotiations.

The demise of Germany’s coalition government this week and Trump’s election coincide with COP29 negotiations to address global warming, which experts credit for this year’s devastating hurricanes, floods, and heatwaves.

“We are concerned about America because we don’t know what they’re going to do … how (it) is going to approach COP,” South African Environment Minister Dion George told Reuters.

“Mr. Trump said that he would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, but we don’t know what will happen,” George added in a telephone interview on Friday.

International partners are concerned that the prospect of an administration led by Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, will de-motivate poor and middle-income countries who want rich nations to shoulder more of its financial burden.

South Africa, which is one of the world’s top 15 greenhouse gas emitters and accounts for 30% of the continent’s emissions, has accepted $11.6 billion from rich nations, mainly in loans, for a switch from coal to renewable energy.

This is seen as a potential model for other ‘Global South’ countries who say financing pledges of $100 billion, which took years to come through, are insufficient.

“It’s certainly not enough. We need another target,” George said. “But then the question is: as the voter base is shifting in developed economies, are they actually going to pay it?”

The South African minister said he had been reassured by German officials that Europe’s stance at the COP29 climate talks will not be hurt by Berlin’s political crisis.

George said that Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s state secretary for international climate action, had contacted him to say it will be up to the European Union to maintain leadership.

“Their position is not changed and that is how they will approach COP,” George said, adding: “They’re on Team Europe. The European Union and German have clearly set out their objectives.”