“To go back is not easy, to go to Europe is not easy, to stay here is not easy,” says ‘Biggy’, a 31-year-old Nigerian migrant who has been in Morocco for four years. Neatly dreadlocked and nearly two metres tall, he carries the scars of the beatings he’s received from Moroccan and Spanish border guards. He has tried and failed umpteen times to scale the fence or cross by rowboat into Spain.
Ukraine's frontline cuts across the country like a jagged scar. Despite a February ceasefire, the fighting hasn't stopped. In March and April, Kristina Jovanovski had rare access to rebel-held areas to investigate the humanitarian disaster that has unfolded on Europe's doorstep. Here is her exclusive report on why aid isn't getting through.
When they fled the town of Tawergha during Libya's revolution, they thought it would be just for a few weeks until the violence died down. Four years later, families remain stuck in limbo, surviving in a under-served makeshift camp, not knowing when or if they may ever be able to return home.
On 5 May, 194 migrants and asylum seekers survived a shipwreck off the coast of Sicily and were brought to the port of Catania by the cargo ship that rescued them. IRIN spoke to some of the survivors.
“To go back is not easy, to go to Europe is not easy, to stay here is not easy,” says ‘Biggy’, a 31-year-old Nigerian migrant who has been in Morocco for four years. Neatly dreadlocked and nearly two metres tall, he carries the scars of the beatings he’s received from Moroccan and Spanish border guards. He has tried and failed umpteen times to scale the fence or cross by rowboat into Spain.
When the hundred or so residents of Dalchowki village in southcentral Nepal first received assistance, it did not come from the government, the United Nations or one of the many large international NGOs now pouring into the country following the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit one week ago. It came from a small, spontaneously-born network of local volunteers who are often the first on the scene.
As the aerial bombardment of Yemen stretches towards a third week and the country's civil war continues its downward spiral, more and more civilians are becoming trapped in the crossfire. Long among the Middle East's poorest people, it is ordinary Yemenis who are increasingly bearing the brunt of Saudi-led air strikes and Houthi rebel reprisals.
Thousands of asylum seekers, many of them from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, are being denied entry to the European Union via Turkey’s border with Bulgaria. According to testimonies from asylum seekers, they are not only denied the opportunity to apply for asylum, but turned back by Bulgarian border police and, in many cases, beaten.
The number of people affected by severe flooding in southern Africa continues to rise, and more rain is predicted.
Malawi has reported 50 deaths and 153 missing, Mozambique 84 fatalities and Madagascar, which has been battered by Tropical Storm Chedza, 13. The overall number of people affected by in these countries stands at 638,000 in Malawi (of which 121,000 have been displaced from their homes), 90,000 in Mozambique and 100,000 in Madagascar.
International Criminal Court has opened a preliminary investigation into the situation in Palestine, following Palestine’s joining the court. But prosecutions related to this summer’s Gaza war a long way off: Since the court began operating in 2002, it has opened 21 cases in nine situations but to date only two people have been convicted. This interactive map tracks all the ICC's cases globally.
