Lin Taylor

Rights campaigners are warning that a raft of new policies from European governments aimed at deterring migration from Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries may shut out or even criminalise refugees.

Amid significant gains by far-right parties in the European Parliament in a June ballot, more countries across the continent are imposing measures to address rising anti-immigration sentiments among voters.

The deadline to apply for a free identity document to vote in Britain's July 4's general election expires on Wednesday and the Electoral Commission says marginalised groups are less likely to have valid forms of identification.

Unlike many countries, Britain does not have national identity cards, but new rules require voters to show a valid photo ID at polling stations.

The British parliament has passed a divisive law to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promising that flights will take off by July, but legal hurdles could yet hold up or delay the policy.

The "Safety of Rwanda" bill aims to cut immigration by deterring migrants from arriving without permission, but refugee rights groups say it criminalises genuine asylum seekers, and Britain's Supreme Court ruled last year that the East African nation was not a safe country to send people.

As women suffer systematic discrimination at the hands of authorities in countries including Afghanistan and Iran, global human rights campaigners are pushing for "gender apartheid" to be recognised as a crime under international law.

If gender apartheid is included in a draft U.N. crimes against humanity treaty, countries that adopt it would be obliged to criminalise it and take action against offenders. 

The urgency of Abdirizak Ahmed's efforts to fight a measles outbreak in Ethiopia hit home last month when two of the aid worker's colleagues lost children to the disease, which is making a comeback from Africa to India and Britain.

"Both boys died before they reached the 13th month or 14th month of life ... It's devastating," said Abdirizak, who works for charity Save the Children in the Horn of Africa country, which reported 10,000 cases in 2023 - the world's highest toll after Yemen, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and India, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data. 

Low pay, staff shortages and a tough job - no wonder Britain's care homes are struggling to fill vacancies.

Now, industry leaders say that could get even harder due to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's plans to stop foreign workers being able to bring family members with them if they come on visa programmes to take up UK health and care jobs.

The world's wealthiest 1% of people own nearly 43% of all global financial assets and emit as much carbon as two-thirds of the planet's poorest, according to an Oxfam report on Monday ahead of a gathering of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Heads of state will join chief executives, business elites and other prominent figures this week to discuss pressing global issues - from geopolitical instability and climate change - at the WEF's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

When Taha Amin-Ismail Khalifeh dialled into a conference call with his Israeli employer last month, the Palestinian hotel worker expected a briefing on how the Israel-Hamas war was affecting business. Instead, he and 40 others were laid off.

Khalifeh, who lives in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, had worked as a housekeeper in the hotel in East Jerusalem for more than 20 years.

Britain will keep its foreign aid spending at 0.5% of economic output until its fiscal situation improves, according to a government White Paper on international development.

Britain's Conservative government reduced overseas aid from 0.7% to 0.5% of gross national income (GNI) in 2020 to free up cash for domestic spending during COVID-19, slashing billions from programmes supporting the world's poorest.

When Mishaal was granted refugee status in August after arriving in Britain in 2021, it was the first time the stateless Kuwaiti had received legal recognition in his life.

As a member of the bedoun community - which accounts for around 85,000 people in Kuwait, according to official data - Mishaal said he finally felt he was able to "live as a human being" and plan his future.