Tag: Featured

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and their left-leaning Social Democrat (SPD) coali-tion partners agreed on Thursday to tighten asylum rules, reaching a compromise on how to stem an influx of migrants that topped one million last year. The new measures include a two-year ban on family reunions for asylum seekers who are granted lim-ited refugee protection and speeding up the deportations of failed applicants, said Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, announcing the deal. A dispute over tighter immigration rules has been straining the ruling coalition, which includes Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavaria-based Christian Social Union (CSU) sister party, as well Gabriel's SPD. All three parties are eager to show voters that, despite deep divisions, t...

    Almost 1,400 civilians have died in Russian air strikes in Syria since the bombing raids began last September, it has been reported. The aerial attacks have also killed at least 965 Islamic State fighters and 1,233 others from different insurgent groups, according to UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It comes as UN-brokered peace talks are being held in Geneva, Switzerland, to try to end Syria's five-year-old civil war, which has claimed the lives of over 260,000 people and displaced more than half the population. The main Syrian opposition group heading to the discussions, the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC), has demanded a halt to Moscow's bombing campaign, which is aimed at helping Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Moscow says it is targeting ...

    Up to 80,000 migrants who arrived in Sweden last year are going to be expelled from the country, its interior minister has announced. Anders Ygeman said thousands of migrants' asylum applications had been rejected. "We are talking about 60,000 people but the number could climb to 80,000," he was quoted as saying by Swedish media. He said the expulsions would be staggered over several years. Police and authorities in charge of migrants have been asked to organise the expulsion. Migrants whose applications are rejected are normally taken out of Sweden using commercial flights. But because of the large number being rejected they would use specially chartered aircraft to take them out of the country, Mr Ygeman said. Sweden accepted more than 160,000 asylum seekers last year, p...