UK’s asylum system abuses women’s dignity

President Joe Biden had scrapped the Trump-era policy on his first day in office. But a Texas judge has now ordered its reinstatement.

The highest number of asylum requests came from Syria, while over 17% of first-time applications were on behalf of children born in Germany under the age of one.

2022 is not yet one month old, but already around a thousand people have made "irregular" crossings from France to the United Kingdom – putting a spotlight back onto the issue of migration between the European Union and its former member state. Margaritis Schinas is European Commission Vice-President, and the Commissioner in charge of migration and asylum issues. He tells FRANCE 24 he wants "clarity" from the UK over how it wishes to proceed in tackling the issue of thousands of people risking their lives each year to cross the English Channel.

we spoke to members of two refugee communities currently blocked in countries and requesting resettlement. First, in Indonesia, members of the Hazara ethnic minority from Afghanistan told us about their rising desperation to be moved to a third country after police violence and a suicide in their community. Some of these refugees have spent over a decade in Indonesia, where they are unable to drive, work or go to school.

In recent weeks, more and more Ukrainian and Russian nationals have been flocking to the US-Mexican border crossing of San Ysidro in a bid to seek asylum in the United States. Ukrainians manage to cross the border without too much difficulty, but Russians don't get such a warm welcome. A piece of US legislation known as Title 42 allow US authorities to turn away would-be refugees to prevent the spead of Covid-19. As a result, Russians are joining the ranks of thousands of migrants stranded in Mexico waiting to file their asylum applications. FRANCE 24's Quentin Duval reports.

British Premier Boris Johnson has announced a proposal to send unauthorized migrants to Rwanda for processing. The African country has in the past been slammed for a range of human rights violations.

Rwanda has struck a £120 million deal with the UK to take in asylum seekers that arrive in Britain illegally. Tens of thousands of people could be resettled under the agreement over the years. Refugee groups have slammed the move as unethical and expensive. Human Rights Watch tells us the move is cynical and unsafe.

UK plan to fly asylum-seekers to Rwanda draws outrage Britain announced a deal with Rwanda on Thursday to send asylum-seekers thousands of miles to the East African country, which it said would deter people-smugglers, but has been called inhumane.

Kigali is hitting back at critics, justifying the controversial deal to relocate asylum seekers in Britain to Rwanda. Human rights groups and the United Nations have slammed the agreement as "unethical."

Wishma Sandamali, a 33-year-old Sri Lankan woman, died in a Japanese detention centre in March of last year. Her death sparked debate on the treatment of the 1,500 asylum seekers currently in detention in Japan. Many of them claim they are being treated inhumanely. Despite its economic might, Japan takes in few refugees. In 2020, it accepted less than 100 asylum seekers, while France, whose population is half the size of Japan's, took in 24,000. Our correspondents report from the city of Nagoya, where Wishma died.

A Rwandan government official has said the first 50 asylum seekers, sent from the UK under a controversial scheme, could arrive by the end of the May.

The UK is set to deport an unspecified number of migrants of various nationalities to Rwanda, in a controversial deal that was given the green light by British courts. Rwandans are watching events unfold with skepticism.