Regional: Abuses against children are fueling migration to the European Union, reports Human Rights Watch (HRW). Many children who arrive on Greece’s shores en route to mainland Europe, are fleeing recruitment as soldiers; child marriages; attacks on schools; and other effects of war and discrimination.
HRW calls on the EU to financially support Greek authorities to expedite processing of families with children and unaccompanied children, and avoid compounded trauma by not detaining children, in line with recommendations from the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Migrant children in Djibouti, mostly from Ethiopia and Somalia, are accessing basic schooling and vocational training, against the grain of dominant regional strategies of immigration detention.
Saudi Arabia: The health and welfare of 396 men awaiting repatriation to India, being held in a 40 by 40 foot windowless room in an immigration detention facility in Riyadh, are under serious threat as the men continue to be stuck in “nightmarish limbo”.
Libyan officials suspect there may be up to one million transiting immigrants in the country, planning to board boats and embark on the perilous sea-crossing to Europe. So far this year 76,000 migrants have made the 260-mile crossing into Europe from Libya, with 40,000 remaining in Italy.
Libyan Justice Minister Al-Mabrouk Omran rejected a report released by Human Rights Watch detailing the widespread torture and other ill-treatment of immigrants being held in detention facilities in Libya, despite mounting evidence that the Libyan regime risk international investigation and prosecution for practicing torture.