African migration

The Immigrant Times reporting from Africa

> Europe returns migrants to Africa

> Humanitarian crisis threatens Uganda refugee camps

> Dozens killed in Dafur refugee camp

> UN Refugee Commissioner warns Europe against aid cuts

Since the beginning of January 2025, Europe has intercepted some 19,000 migrants on the ‘Mediterranean route’ to Europe and returned them to Libya.

EUROPE / LIBYA

European authorities return tens of thousands of migrants to 'unsafe Libya'

October 2025: The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that 1,004 migrants were intercepted and returned to Libya during the last week of September, according to its latest maritime update.

The operations, which took place from September 21 to 27, 2025, resulted in disembarkations at multiple points along the Libyan coast, including Zwara, Tripoli, Alkhums, and Misrata.

This latest weekly figure adds to a bleak annual total. So far in 2025, some 19,000 migrants have been intercepted and sent back to Libya. The IOM’s data breakdown reveals that most of those returned are men (16,640), along with 1,720 women and 696 children.

The report also highlights the extreme dangers of the Central Mediterranean route. From the beginning of January to the end of September 2025, at least 460 deaths and 423 missing persons have been recorded, though the IOM notes these figures are estimates and subject to revision.

The situation represents a continuing trend of high migrant interceptions off the Libyan coast. The 2025 numbers to date are already approaching the total for the entire previous year, when 21,762 migrants were returned to Libya in 2024. The figure for 2023 was 17,190.

In a critical disclaimer, the IOM reiterates that it plays no role in the interception operations themselves and, crucially, does not consider Libya to be a safe port for migrants.

Source: The International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Further reading: Mauritania accused of human rights abuse against African migrants ||

UGANDA

UN Refugee Agency calls for more funding to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Uganda refugee camps

August 2025: Uganda is on the verge of hosting two million refugees as escalating crises in Sudan, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) drive hundreds of people to cross the border daily in search of safety and lifesaving aid.

Since the start of 2025, an average of 600 people per day have arrived in the country, with numbers expected to reach two million by year’s end. Already Africa’s largest refugee-hosting country and the third largest globally, Uganda is currently home to 1.93 million refugees, over a million of whom are below the age of 18. Of these, over 48,000 children and adolescents have arrived alone. Yet, the humanitarian response currently faces one of the worst funding crises in decades.

“International emergency funding runs out in September (2025). More children will die of malnutrition, more girls will fall victim to sexual violence, and families will be left without shelter or protection unless the world steps up. Uganda has opened its doors, its schools and its health centres. This model can succeed, but it can’t do it alone," said Dominique Hyde, Director for External Relations with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Uganda’s progressive refugee policy allows refugees to live, work and access public services, but funding shortfalls are drastically impacting aid delivery and threaten to undo years of progress. The cost of addressing the needs of one refugee in Uganda is estimated at approximately $16 per month in 2025. However, unless UNHCR receives more funding, we will only be able to deliver assistance of $5 a month per refugee. As food, water and medicine supplies shrink, rates of malnutrition, especially in children under five, are rising at an alarming pace.

As resources continue to be stretched, refugees are being forced to make life-altering choices to survive, including dropping out of school. Reports of gender violence are on the rise, as well as an increasing risk of suicide among refugee youth amid a decline in mental healthcare staff.

By the end of July of this year, UNHCR only had resources to support less than 18,000 individuals with cash and essential relief items, enough to cover just two months of new arrivals at the current pace.

“War disrupts lives without warning, forcing people to leave everything behind. Many refugees face growing desperation; no resilience can replace what’s been lost. Uganda has shown great generosity, yet the burden should not fall solely on communities far from the conflict. Responsibility lies with those driving and enabling the violence. Peace is the only lasting answer, and until it comes, refugees' dignity must be protected," added Hyde.

Currently, Uganda's refugee response is only 25 per cent funded. UNHCR is calling for more urgent and sustained international support and solidarity, including from development actors, to ensure refugees and their local communities can live safe and more dignified lives.

Source: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency

SUDAN / DAFUR

Paramilitary militia reported to have killed dozens in a Sudan refugee camp

August 2025: According to various reports, more than 40 people were killed and numerous others injured in an attack by the RSF (Rapid Support Forces) militia on a refugee camp in the North Darfur region of Sudan.

A military spokesperson described a large-scale attack by the militia from several sides, which was ultimately repelled. According to activists who organised self-help in the camp, some people were killed in their homes. (The information cannot be independently verified.)

Experts from Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab, who have been analysing satellite images and verifying social media posts from the conflict zone since the beginning of the bloody conflict in Sudan, confirmed that images show more than 40 vehicles in the north-west of the refugee camp near the provincial capital El Fasher. A blockade of escape routes from El Fasher can also be seen.

The RSF, whose leader, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has been fighting for power in the African country with Sudan's de facto ruler, Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, since April 2023, had already attacked and destroyed the Samsam refugee camp near El Fasher earlier this year.

Several hundred thousand people were living in the camp at the time. El Fasher itself has been under siege by the RSF since May last year. According to the UN, more than twelve million people have been displaced by the conflict.

According to the UN, the last city in North Darfur still under government control is facing a catastrophic food situation as supply routes have been cut off. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), staple foods such as sorghum and wheat, which are used to make traditional flatbread and porridge, cost up to 460 per cent more in El Fasher than in the rest of Sudan because no food can be delivered to the city.

According to eyewitness reports, some families have been eating animal feed and food waste to survive.

The Rapid Support Forces are a paramilitary organisation, formerly operated by the Sudanese government. Members of the force have been accused of committing human rights violations in different parts of Sudan, including Darfur and Khartoum. Alleged acts of violence include the burning of villages, ethnic killings and rape.

Source: Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA

RWANDA / USA

Rwanda has agreed to take in migrants deported from the US for an undisclosed ‘sizeable’ cash grant

August 2025: Rwanda has reached a deal with the US government to take in migrants deported from the United States, becoming the third African nation to do so, amid complaints that governments in Africa are being pressured by the White House to receive them. While the exact financial amount Rwanda will receive has not been publicly disclosed, officials confirmed that the US will provide funding in the form of a cash grant.

A Rwanda government spokesperson told the press that when approved, the migrants would be provided with workforce training, health care, and accommodation support to jump-start their lives in Rwanda. “They will contribute to the fastest-growing economy in Africa.”

Key Details of the Agreement

• Number of migrants: Up to 250 individuals

• Type of support: Rwanda will offer workforce training, healthcare, and accommodation to help migrants integrate

• Approval process: Rwanda retains the right to vet and approve each proposed for resettlement

• Exclusions: Rwanda will not accept child sex offenders or individuals with ongoing criminal cases

• Flexibility: The agreement may be expanded beyond 250 migrants by mutual consent

In recent years, Rwanda has positioned itself as a destination for migrants removed from Western countries, previously striking similar deals with the UK and EU. Analysts suggest the most recent deal may serve Rwanda’s strategic interest in strengthening ties with the Trump administration. The financial grant is seen as part of a broader trend where wealthier nations pay others to host deportees.

In 2022, Rwanda reached a controversial migrant deal with the United Kingdom to receive deported asylum seekers who arrived illegally in the UK. The deal did not materialise due to legal disputes and was subsequently scrapped after Keir Starmer became prime minister in July 2024. Rwanda suggested at the time that it had no plans to reimburse the more than $300 million it received from the UK for the deportations.

AFRICA / USA / EUROPE

UN Refugee Commissioner warns Europe of the consequences of cuts to international aid

August 2025: The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has warned European governments that reducing international aid, particularly to African countries, would lead to global insecurity and instability and drive more migrants to Europe. In an address at King’s College London and in an interview with the Financial Times (FT), Filippo Grandi outlined how cuts in foreign aid payments announced by the US and several European countries had already impacted the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The Commissioner told the FT that since Donald Trump assumed the US presidency in January of this year, his agency’s budget had been drastically reduced, making it nigh impossible to fulfil any of its tasks. “The US President cut his country’s funding from $2bn to about $390mn this year. But European countries such as France, Italy and Germany have also cut support, compounding a crisis.

“The UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced in February 2025 that the UK would fund increased defence spending by reducing its internal aid budget from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent of gross national income. The Netherlands has cut its aid budget by 30 per cent, redirecting funds to projects directly contributing to Dutch interests, while Belgium and France have made similar reductions, cutting aid by 25 per cent and 37 per cent, respectively.”

The UN agency has laid off a third of its staff and put programmes worth $1.4 billion on hold.”

In his address at King’s College, Grandi emphasised the deep interconnection between humanitarian aid, defence, and security, highlighting a growing paradox in policy priorities. He pointed out that while European nations have increased defence spending in response to potential cuts in US support, they have not shown the same urgency in sustaining international aid. He said, unlike in the area of defence, adequate provisions are not being made to try to create more capacity to deliver aid.

Grandi urged politicians to be courageous and abandon what he called a narrative of impossibility, which frames supporting forcibly displaced and stateless populations as an insurmountable problem. He explained that this narrative often leads to the portrayal of refugees and migrants as a burden or threat, complicating the search for workable solutions and enabling governments to retreat behind this complexity and focus on controls such as arming borders and limiting arrivals.

Emphasising that refugees are not a burden but potential contributors, Grandi pointed to progressive models in countries like Colombia and Kenya, where innovative policies have allowed displaced populations to integrate and contribute economically. He noted that 71 per cent of refugees are hosted in poor or middle-income countries, mostly in a country next to their own.

Notes: Filippo Grandi spoke at King’s College in April 2025 and was interviewed by the Financial Times in July 2025.

In August 2024, King’s College was awarded University of Sanctuary status in recognition of its commitment to being a place of safety, solidarity, and empowerment for those forcibly displaced from their home countries.