UK politics
fromwww.independent.co.uk
1 hour agoAfghan asylum approvals plunge as UK denies women fleeing Taliban, analysis warns
The UK has significantly reduced asylum grants for Afghan women, dropping from 96% to 34% since Labour took office.
The International Organization for Migration laments one of the deadliest starts to a year since record keeping began, with more than 180 people feared dead or missing in shipwrecks across the Mediterranean over the past 10 days.
Millions of people in Sudan are surviving on just one meal a day, as the country's food crisis deepens and threatens to spread. The war has caused widespread hunger and displaced millions amid one of the world's largest humanitarian crises.
It is not normal for a healthy 41-year-old man to die less than 24 hours after being taken into government custody, said Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, a San Diego-based group that helps Afghans who sought refuge in the United States after cooperating with U.S. authorities during the war in Afghanistan.
If they let me, I will stay in Van until the war ends. If the war doesn't end, maybe I'll go back and die. Pourkaz is one of the 3.2 million people in Iran who the U.N. refugee agency estimates have been displaced since the U.S.-Israel war with Iran started. While some are seeking shelter in safer parts of Iran or one of its neighboring countries, others are returning from abroad, heading toward the fighting to protect their families and homes.
Up to 21,000 asylum seekers who have waited for a year for their claims to be processed could be allowed to enter the jobs market so they can support themselves, the Home Office has said, as part of a package of measures to be announced on Thursday. As the government seeks to empty asylum hotels, claimants who break the law, work illegally or are found to have enough assets to live without support will from June be ejected and lose their support payments.
Of these, 3,678 of them have already gone back to their home country. For German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, this is proof of the migration policy that he has been promoting: "Those who have no prospect of staying receive targeted support for their voluntary repatriation." This "targeted support" includes the cost of the flights and 1,000 (ca. $1200) per adult and 500 for minors.
Four years on from the invasion, we talk to the Ukrainians who have settled in Co Kerry, why they chose to come here, the heartbreaking stories from their homeland, and dealing with the 'small percentage of haters'
At least 7,667 people went missing or died on migration routes worldwide last year, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM). The IOM has called for improved financial support for rescue organizations, as well as the dismantling of smuggling networks that put lives at risk.
In 2025, the administration of US President Donald Trump ordered the US Agency for International Development to be closed; this year, it withdrew the country from 66 international organizations. Other Western nations that are plagued with high levels of debt and pressure to prioritize domestic challenges have slashed their foreign aid, too. According to projections, official development assistance dropped by 9-17% in 2025, amounting to some US$55 billion.
Albanese said that while it is unfortunate that children have been affected, Australia is not providing any support. As my mother would say, you make your bed, you lie in it, he said. We have no sympathy, frankly, for people who travelled overseas in order to participate in what was an attempt to establish a caliphate to undermine and destroy our way of life, he added.