#refugee-migration

#refugee-migration

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.

Muge Tuzcu Karakoc is certain that without an integration course, she would probably still not have properly settled in Germany by now. The Turkish journalist has been living in Germany for seven years. But it was only in 2024, when she started studying German every day alongside Ukrainians, Syrians, and Iranians that she felt the country she now lives in really opened its doors to her.

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.

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.

Germany has no equivalent of the US' specialized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, though that would change if the Bavarian branch of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) had its way. Apparently directly inspired by the actions of ICE under President Donald Trump's administration, an internal paper from the far-right party seen by the German newspaper taz this week proposed that a new authority be created within the Bavarian state police named the Asyl-, Fahndungs- und Abschiebegruppe (AFA), or the "Asylum, Tracing and Deportation group."

The Common European Asylum System (CEAS) is the European Union's legal framework to create uniform, fair, and efficient standards for processing asylum applications. The system's reform, agreed in 2024, will become legally binding in Germany and throughout the EU in June, 2026. EU member states had a two-year implementation period during which the new rules including stricter border procedures were transposed into national law.

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.

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.