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Executive Summary for November 20th

We review the latest refugee-related issues, including France taking in the first refugees evacuated from Libya, the U.K. facing criticism as the first refugee child arrives from Greece after a year-long wait and Israel set to deny asylum and deport 40,000 Africans.

Published on Nov. 20, 2017 Read time Approx. 3 minutes

First Refugees Evacuated From Libya to Resettle in France

France has announced that it will take in a group of refugees just evacuated from Libya. The 25 refugees, moved last week to Niger, will now be taken to France.

Pascal Brice, the director general of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons, visited Niger to confirm the transfer.

“It is above all a way of saving people who have come out of a hell, with torture, rape and abduction of children,” Brice told Agence France-Presse, adding that he was concerned that refugees were “almost all victims of sexual violence.”

France has been under pressure from Italy to make good on its promises to help relieve pressure from irregular migration. France has agreed to lead a coalition of the willing in resettling some refugees evacuated from Libya.

The U.N. refugee agency plans to identify and evacuate as many as 40,000 refugees from Libya via a new transit center in the capital, Tripoli. Security for the center will be provided by Nepalese soldiers, some of whom have already deployed.

The relocation scheme for the refugees was initially expected to include only E.U. countries, rather than add to the pool of hundreds of thousands of UNHCR-registered refugees awaiting resettlement. However, Brice appeared to suggest that the Libya-Niger evacuation scheme would rely on North American support, as well: “The challenge now is that other countries, Europeans, Americans, Canadians, join this process,” he said.

First ‘Dubs’ Refugee Child to Arrive in U.K. From Greece

The first refugee child is expected in the U.K. from Greece this week under a misfiring transfer scheme. The 15-year-old Syrian has been made to wait more than a year since being identified as eligible.

During that time, social workers told the Observer, he has been held at times in a police cell and has attempted suicide. The U.K. Home Office was told by a West London council that it had a place for the teenager 14 months ago but received no reply.

“It is absolutely clear from my visit that the long delay has caused this child terrible harm,” said Giannoula Kefala, the council’s principal social worker. “It has been apparent for a long time that the available resources in Greece cannot cater for this child’s needs. Recent hospital records make clear that the ongoing uncertainty is having a devastating impact.”

The troubled teenager, who has lost all contact with family in Syria, will be the first of what was meant to be nearly 300 children brought to the U.K.

However, the Home Office has dragged its feet over the “Dubs amendment,” so called after the British Labour politician Lord Dubs who sponsored an amendment to the 2016 Immigration Act that introduced the scheme, and only a handful of unaccompanied minors are now expected to relocate.

The eligibility terms were changed in March by the U.K government and only four children have met those terms since April. As few as 40 minors are now expected to be able to take advantage of the scheme.

A lawyer for the Greek aid agency Praksis, Antonia Moustaka, said: “Many children on the Dubs list have run away, having lost hope after long-promised transfers never materialized.”

Israel to Deport 40,000 Refugees It Denounces as ‘Infiltrators’

Israel is set to deport 40,000 African refugees after closing a detention center. The move, announced on November 19, will apply mainly to Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers.

The Israeli government, which referred to the refugees as “infiltrators,” said they would be given three months to leave before being deported.

“The infiltrators will have the option to be imprisoned or leave the country,” Israel’s Public Security Ministry said in a statement.

It is unclear whether the asylum seekers will be sent home or to a third country.

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