Arturo Chang Wednesday April 8, 2026 Najib Warsame says Somali asylum claimants often spend months unable to work as they wait for their immigration claims to be processed. (Submitted by Najib Warsame) A hard-line immigration push in the United States is sending more Somalis to Manitoba in search of asylum, according to a Winnipeg refugee advocate who says anxiety in the community has risen sharply. Najib Warsame said many of the people he has recently assisted came to the province after feeling targeted by U.S. President…

A deadly Easter weekend crossing in the central Mediterranean left two migrants dead and dozens more feared missing after a boat traveling from Libya toward Europe ran into trouble near the Italian coast. Two merchant vessels recovered the bodies of two migrants and rescued 32 survivors, according to rescue charities Mediterranea Saving Humans and Sea-Watch. Citing accounts from those pulled from the water, the groups said 71 other people were lost at sea. The victims were transferred to an Italian coast guard patrol boat…

Liberal Party roiled by leaked plan to ban migration from parts of 13 countries Australia’s Liberal Party is scrambling to contain internal fallout after a hardline migration proposal, developed in former leader Sussan Ley’s office after the Bondi terror attack and never taken to shadow cabinet, was leaked to media. New opposition leader Angus Taylor moved quickly to distance himself from the plan on Monday night, as senior figures said they were blindsided by its contents and the way it was crafted. Guardian Australia…

Leaked Liberal immigration plan aimed to ban migrants from conflict-held regions across 13 countries and sharply tighten visa rules, but the party’s former shadow immigration minister says he never proposed or agreed to the measures and has “serious concerns.” The draft was prepared under ousted Liberal leader Sussan Ley and slated for release on Feb. 16 after an earlier delay following the Bondi terror attack. It was not taken to shadow cabinet before last week’s leadership change, and new Opposition Leader Angus Taylor had…

TRIPOLI — A rubber boat carrying 55 migrants from several African countries overturned off the coast of Libya after taking on water about six hours after leaving al-Zawiya, the U.N. migration agency said, in one of the deadliest incidents this year on the Libya‑Europe route. Only two women from Nigeria survived and received emergency medical care from the International Organization for Migration, the agency said. Survivors told IOM officials the overcrowded dinghy departed late at night and capsized north of Zuwara. One…

IOM: 53 dead or missing after migrant boat capsizes off Libya; two women survive Fifty-three migrants, including two babies, are dead or missing after a rubber boat carrying 55 people capsized off Libya’s northwest coast, the International Organization for Migration said. The boat departed from Zawiya on Thursday and overturned off nearby Zuwara on Friday, according to the IOM, citing accounts from the two survivors. Both are Nigerian women rescued by Libyan authorities during a search-and-rescue operation, the agency said.…

The Netherlands has sentenced an Eritrean national, Amanuel Walid, to 20 years in prison after finding him guilty of leading a transnational migrant-smuggling network that operated through Libya, Dutch prosecutors said Friday. Walid was convicted on a string of charges that included human smuggling, extortion, violence and money laundering. Prosecutors said members of the network detained migrants in Libya, subjected many to severe abuse in detention camps, and forced relatives in the Netherlands to pay ransoms — a pattern…

Spain’s left-wing government has approved a decree to grant legal status to an estimated 500,000 undocumented migrants, a sweeping regularisation that underscores Madrid’s divergence from tougher migration policies elsewhere in Europe. Migration Minister Elma Saiz said those who qualify will be able to work “in any sector, in any part of the country,” framing the plan as both an economic necessity and a rights-based reform. “We are talking about estimations, probably more or less the figures may be around half a million…

Tokyo court orders North Korea to pay €440,000 to victims of ‘paradise on Earth’ repatriation scheme Tokyo — A Japanese court has ordered North Korea to pay €440,000 in damages to four plaintiffs who say they were lured to the country by a propaganda campaign promising a “paradise on Earth,” in a rare legal rebuke that rights advocates called historic. The Tokyo District Court ruled Monday that the four had “most of their lives taken away” and awarded each at least 20 million yen (about €110,000) in compensation. The case…

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan security forces have rescued more than 200 migrants from a clandestine underground prison in the southeastern town of Kufra, exposing what authorities described as brutal and degrading detention conditions along one of the world’s deadliest migration routes. Officials said the detainees — including women and children from sub-Saharan Africa, primarily Somalia and Eritrea — were found in multiple cells nearly three meters below ground. Some had been held for up to two years. The suspected trafficker…