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LAMPEDUSA, ITALY - MAY 24: Refugees and migrants are seen swimming and yelling for assistance from crew members from the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) 'Phoenix' vessel after a wooden boat bound for Italy carrying more than 500 people capsized on May 24, 2017 off Lampedusa, Italy. Numbers of refugees and migrants attempting the dangerous central Mediterranean crossing from Libya to Italy has risen since the same time last year with more than 43,000 people recorded so far in 2017. In an attempt to slow the flow of migrants Italy recently signed a deal with Libya, Chad and Niger outlining a plan to increase border controls and add new reception centers in the African nations, which are key transit points for migrants heading to Italy. MOAS is a Malta based NGO dedicated to providing professional search-and-rescue assistance to refugees and migrants in distress at sea. Since the start of the year MOAS have rescued and assisted 3572 people and are currently patrolling and running rescue operations in international waters off the coast of Libya. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Press Release

Greece: Smuggling charges against humanitarian workers who saved refugees must be dropped

Responding to the release on bail of volunteers and staff who provided life-saving assistance to refugees, Kondylia Gougou, Amnesty International’s Greece Researcher said: “Whilst we welcome the news that these dedicated humanitarians will be back with their families tonight after more than 100 days behind bars, the fact that they still face absurd charges and potentially long prison sentences is an outrage. “This case is just the latest example of how authorities are mis-using anti-smuggling laws to target activists and criminalize rescue. To detain dedicated volunteer humanitarians who helped people in need defies logic. People who selfless act in these ways should be…

December 4, 2018

Nawal Benaissa, 36 yeards-old, is a mother of 4 who joined Hirak early on and became one of its main female leading voices. She took part to several protests with her husband and children and has been very active on social media. Her Facebook profile gained more than 80 000 followers, before authorities asked her to shut down during one of her detention in custody. She was arrested and held in custody for few hours four times between June and September 2017. This last time she was sued and on mid-February 2018, she was sentenced to 10 months suspended sentence and a fine of 500 hundred dirhams for inciting to commit an offence (by speech, cries or threats made in the places where public meetings, either through posters exposed to the public or by any means fulfilling the condition, advertising, including electronically, on paper and by audio-visual channel, if the provocation has not been followed by effect. Article 299 of the penal code). Her lawyer has appealed the sentence, the Court of Appeal has yet to rule. Benaissa responded to the court's decision on her Facebook page by expressing her continued support for the Rif protests. "I am proud to take part in the protests in the region and I denounce the imprisonment of Hirak activists. I demand their immediate release," she wrote. Few weeks ago, she moved from the northern city of Al Hoceima to another Moroccan city in order to flee harassment from authorities.

Press Release

Amnesty International launches world’s biggest human rights campaign

Women human rights defenders around the world are facing unprecedented levels of abuse, intimidation and violence, said Amnesty International as it launched its global Write for Rights campaign, in a bid to shine a spotlight on brave women who have been harassed, jailed, tortured or even killed for their human rights work. Women continue to face multiple forms of discrimination, targeted because of their gender and other characteristics, as well as for their human rights work. However, women refuse to stay silent and have been at the forefront of the battle for human rights in 2018. “Across the world, women are…

November 28, 2018

Yellow and white graphic with the Amnesty international logo on the bottom left and the word

Press Release

US government endangers asylum seekers with unlawful policies

Unlawful US border policies are leaving thousands of asylum seekers stranded in Mexico, where they are facing threats of deportation to their countries of origin, where they potentially face serious harm, Amnesty International said today following a research mission last week. Conditions could only worsen under a reported deal between both countries that, if agreed, would force asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while their claims are processed, rather than allow them to enter the United States. As a result of Amnesty International’s research focusing on the treatment of refugees and migrants in the caravans in Guatemala, the southern Mexican state…

November 26, 2018

Sheet of paper Report

Papua New Guinea: Australian and PNG leaders must act urgently to save lives on Manus Island

The misery of indefinite detention in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is pushing increasing numbers of refugees and people seeking asylum to suicide attempts and self-harm, a new report by the Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) and Amnesty International finds today. In the report, Until when? The forgotten men on Manus Island, RCOA and Amnesty International paint a stark picture of a traumatized refugee population which has been hit hard by Australia’s recent healthcare and counselling service cuts, as well as continued threats to their safety. “The worsening health and safety crisis on Manus Island demonstrates that Australia’s offshore processing system has failed.…

November 21, 2018

Migrants seeking for asylum in the United States await near the US-Mexico border at El Chaparral crossing in Tijuana, Mexico on May 7, 2017. (Photo by GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP/Getty Images)

Press Release

Court Grants Temporary Relief to Desperate Families Seeking Asylum

In response to a court decision temporarily blocking the Trump administration from denying asylum to people seeking protection arriving between ports of entry, Amnesty International USA executive director Margaret Huang issued this statement.

November 20, 2018

Press Release

This World Children’s Day, Children Must be Safe and Free from Detention

Ahead of World Children’s Day on November 20, Amnesty International is calling for all children currently being held at the Dilley Detention Center to be freed with their families, and for the USA to end its plan of expanding family detention centers. The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, is currently the largest immigration detention center in the United States, holding hundreds of families. The capacity for the Center is now at 2,400 beds. Seven-year-old Mario is one of the children that remains behind bars at Dilley after being separated from his mother, Andrea, for 73 days for…

November 19, 2018

LAMPEDUSA, ITALY - MAY 24: Refugees and migrants are seen swimming and yelling for assistance from crew members from the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) 'Phoenix' vessel after a wooden boat bound for Italy carrying more than 500 people capsized on May 24, 2017 off Lampedusa, Italy. Numbers of refugees and migrants attempting the dangerous central Mediterranean crossing from Libya to Italy has risen since the same time last year with more than 43,000 people recorded so far in 2017. In an attempt to slow the flow of migrants Italy recently signed a deal with Libya, Chad and Niger outlining a plan to increase border controls and add new reception centers in the African nations, which are key transit points for migrants heading to Italy. MOAS is a Malta based NGO dedicated to providing professional search-and-rescue assistance to refugees and migrants in distress at sea. Since the start of the year MOAS have rescued and assisted 3572 people and are currently patrolling and running rescue operations in international waters off the coast of Libya. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Press Release

Libya: Refugees and migrants refuse to disembark ship in desperate plea to avoid detention and torture

Libyan, European and Panamanian authorities must ensure that at least 79 refugees and migrants who are on board a merchant vessel at the port of Misratah are not forced to disembark to be taken to a Libyan detention centre where they could face torture and other abuse, said Amnesty International today. The refugees and migrants, including a number of children, were found as they attempted to reach Europe by boat across the Mediterranean. Amnesty International understands that Italian and Maltese maritime authorities were involved in the operation, carried out by the merchant ship Nivin. Flying a Panamanian flag, the Nivin…

November 16, 2018

Rohingya refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine state arrive near the Khanchon border crossing near the Bangaldeshi town of Teknaf on Septebmer 5, 2017. Nearly 125,000 mostly Rohingya refugees have entered Bangladesh since a fresh upsurge of violence in Myanmar on August 25, the United Nations said September 5, as fears grow of a humanitarian crisis in the overstretched camps. The UN said 123,600 had crossed the border in the past 11 days from Myanmar's violence-wracked Rakhine state. / AFP PHOTO / K M Asad (Photo credit should read K M ASAD/AFP/Getty Images)

Press Release

Myanmar: Rohingya returns plan puts thousands at risk

Bangladesh and Myanmar authorities must immediately halt plans to send Rohingya refugees back to Rakhine State, Amnesty International said today.

November 14, 2018

Press Release

Cruel European migration policies leave refugees trapped in Libya with no way out

A year after shocking images purporting to show human beings being bought and sold in Libya caused a global outcry, the situation for migrants and refugees in the country remains bleak and in some respects has worsened, said Amnesty International. Findings published by the organization today highlight how EU member states’ policies to curb migration, as well as their failure to provide sufficient resettlement places for refugees, continue to fuel a cycle of abuse by trapping thousands of migrants and refugees in appalling conditions in Libyan detention centres. “One year after video footage showing human beings being bought and sold like merchandise shocked the world,…

November 12, 2018

Yellow and white graphic with the Amnesty international logo on the bottom left and the word

Press Release

Trump’s Proclamation to Restrict the Rights of People Seeking Asylum

In response to President Trump’s Proclamation to limit the rights of people seeking asylum along the Southern border, Amnesty International´s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo said: “President Trump’s Proclamation is yet another attempt to destroy the United States´ long tradition to guarantee the fundamental human right to seek protection from life-threatening fear and persecution. Asylum is not a loophole, it is a lifeline. This policy needlessly places the lives of thousands of people in danger. U.S law states that any individual can seek asylum, whether or not they are at an official point of entry. “Beyond Trump’s dehumanizing rhetoric are mothers,…

November 8, 2018

Migrants seeking for asylum in the United States await near the US-Mexico border at El Chaparral crossing in Tijuana, Mexico on May 7, 2017. (Photo by GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP/Getty Images)

Press Release

President Trump must abandon plan to close southern border to Central Americans seeking asylum

In response to reports that President Trump plans to take executive action blocking refugees and people seeking asylum from Central America from entering the United States to request protection, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International, said: “The Trump administration is defying international law and manufacturing a crisis at the border by proposing policies that would cause catastrophic and irreparable harm to thousands of families who had no choice but to leave home in order to keep their children safe from harm.” “President Trump has shown callous disregard for the plight of those making this dangerous journey from Honduras and…

October 26, 2018

'Showing our love for Hungary' on 26 April 2018, ahead of a European Parliament meeting on Hungary, at which the Hungarian Foreign Minister addressed MEPs .EIO Director Iverna McGowan spoke to the media.

Press Release

Hungary: Amnesty launches legal challenge to shameful law on migration that targets civil society

Amnesty International will challenge in court the constitutionality of Hungary’s controversial law that criminalizes with up to one year in prison, individuals and organizations working on migration, the organization announced today. The law, which came into effect earlier this year, is a threat to the freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly. “The Hungarian authorities’ are persistently intimidating those who challenge their xenophobic policies. This law takes this intimidation campaign a step further by criminalizing their legitimate work to protect the rights of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees” said Clare Algar, Europe Director at Amnesty International. The complaint, which was…

October 15, 2018