Refining oil illegally is so lucrative in Nigeria that many engage in the practice despite the dangers and a government crackdown. Some of those involved told DW they had no other option to earn a living.

Romania's capital is buried in smoke from burned trash that comes from all over Europe. The dubious business is being investigated. Prosecutors and activists are sounding the alarm about organized crime structures.

At least 80 people have died in an explosion at an illegal oil refinery in southeastern Nigeria, emergency officials say. The disaster highlights the country's problems with oil theft amid high levels of poverty.

Nigerian civil servant and mother of four Grace Ekang has been having chest pains lately, and when she sneezes, black stains appear on her handkerchief. Inside her house in the Rivers state city of Port Harcourt, Ekang has noticed that the soot gathering on her floor is getting heavier. She and other residents blame this on illegal, makeshift oil refineries scattered across the Niger Delta.

Journalists' film footage of armed and masked men in uniform beating back people on the Croatian-Bosnian border has fueled debate about so-called pushbacks. But what exactly does the law say?

Cigarettes in Indonesia are already among the world's cheapest, but in times of economic hardship, a boom in illegal cigarettes is continuing.

The Mediterranean island of Cyprus is now the European country that receives the most asylum seekers relative to its population. In 2020, this nation of 875,000 registered 7,000 applications for asylum. With borders on the Balkan route largely closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and migration policies tightening, Cyprus now finds itself on the frontline. More and more migrants from Syria, Lebanon and sub-Saharan Africa are taking great risks to get to the island in the hope of reaching Europe.

Emergency workers, ambulances and mourning relatives of victims are seen near the site of an explosion in an illegal coal mine that left 12 people dead in the Colombian department of Boyaca.

Drivers of commercial buses, popularly called ‘Danfo', along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, are protesting over the incessant extortion they face from state officials. They are accusing the men of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences Unit (Task Force) and officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) of extortion.

Officials in Nigeria, known as a hub for illegal wildlife trafficking have seized a record amount of pangolin scales and claws and elephant tusks as the government attempts to combat the trade, the head of customs said on Wednesday.

The illegal activity has caused major environmental damage in Colombia, one of the world's most biodiverse countries. Officials say the spike in mining is also deeply concerning "because it has ties to organized crime."

The Eviatar settlement, named after a murdered Israeli, is set to be evacuated. The Defense Ministry will then take over the area and plans to transform it into a military base.