tag

Venezuelan migrants around the world erupted in celebration Saturday following the US-led deposition of President Nicolas Maduro, whose government oversaw one of the world's largest migration exoduses in recent history.Chants celebrating Maduro's capture were heard in the streets of Chile's capital, where Venezuelans gathered to share their joy."We are free. We are all happy that the dictatorship has fallen ⁠and that we have a free country," ⁠said Khaty Yanez, a Venezuelan woman who has spent the last seven years in Chile."My joy is too big," her compatriot Jose Gregorio said. "After so many years, after so many struggles, after so much work, today is the day. Today is the day of freedom."Since 2014, some 7.7mn Venezuelans or 20% of the population have left the country, unable to afford food or seeking better opportunities abroad, according to the UN International Organisation for Migration.Neighbouring Colombia has received the largest share of the diaspora, with around 2.8mn Venezuelans, followed by 1.7mn in Peru, according to the R4V platform, a group of regional non-governmental organisations (NGOs) assisting migrants and refugees from Venezuela set up by the UN migration agency.In Peru's capital Lima, dozens of Venezuelans gathered, many wrapped in their country's ⁠flag, to mark Maduro's deposition.Venezuelan migrant Milagros Ortega, whose parents are still in Venezuela, said she hoped to go back."Knowing that my dad was alive to see the fall of Nicolas Maduro is very emotional. I would like to see his face," she said.Peruvian President Jose Jeri said on X that his government would facilitate the immediate return of Venezuelans, regardless of their immigration status.For years, the US was a haven for Venezuelans but many were branded criminals and forced to seek refuge elsewhere during President Donald Trump's second term.In Spain, thousands of people gathered at central Madrid's Puerta del Sol and applauded as they watched Trump's press conference live.In the afternoon, groups of Venezuelans are also expected to gather to celebrate in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires.After the initial joy, doubts about Venezuela's future also set in, as Venezuelans abroad wondered what the future would hold for ⁠their country and its citizens.Andres Losada, who has lived in Spain for three years and is among the 400,000 Venezuelans residing in the country according to official data, said he is struggling between worry and joy about the situation in Venezuela."Although what people are going through in Caracas is tough, I believe that beyond that there is a light that will lead us to freedom," he added.Venezuelan security forces patrolled largely empty streets at dawn in the capital, Caracas, Saturday.Most residents stayed home, devouring the latest information on their phones, while some went to stock up on groceries in case they need to hunker down for a prolonged period.A lingering smell of explosives hung over Caracas where a few hundred Maduro supporters gathered to clamour for his freedom."I felt the explosions lift me out of bed. In that instant I thought: 'My God, the day has come,' and I cried," Maria Eugenia Escobar, a 58-year-old resident of the city of 6mn people, told AFP.The strikes started around 2am local time, with dozens of detonations some at first mistook for fireworks.Windows rattled from the shockwaves and residents rushed out onto terraces and balconies as military aircraft zoomed overhead."It was horrible, we felt the planes flying over our house," said a resident of the Coche neighbourhood, near the city's largest military complex, which was targeted in the raid.Residents saw columns of smoke rising from several parts of the city, which was soon cloaked in a fog-like haze.Witnesses spoke of bombings in La Guaira, Caracas's airport and port, in Maracay to the west, and in Higuerote to the east.A few hundred supporters gathered in Caracas to demand news of their leader's fate."Long live Nicolas Maduro," echoed a rally cry from a hastily-erected stage with speakers blaring revolutionary music."Long live!" retorted the crowd.Katia Briceno, a 54-year-old university professor, came out to protest what she described as US "barbarism”."How is it that a foreign government comes into the country and removes the president? It's absurd!" she told AFP.Apart from the protesters, there were few Venezuelans out and about, and just an occasional car on the usually bustling streets.Those who did venture out did so under the watchful eye of black-clad agents patrolling the centre with long guns.Many stores were shuttered in the hours after the attack, while queues formed at others that were letting people in a few at a time.Damage from the explosions was mostly limited to military installations, where vehicles stood riddled with bullet impacts, others smouldering and charred. 

In makeshift homes lacking even the most basic necessities surrounded by piles of rubbish and flanked by dirt roads, thousands of Somalis in Yemen live in poverty in Aden's "Little Mogadishu".Yemen is not a destination in itself for migrants but a way station for those leaving East Africa in the hopes of reaching the Gulf states and working in construction or as domestic staff.But with security along its borders tight, many struggle to make it out of Yemen.During the day, the men fan out across the city and line the roads looking for work in the de facto capital of government-controlled Yemen, where more than a decade of war has led to mass unemployment and food insecurity.To make ends meet, many search for odd jobs or scavenge rubbish heaps, looking for any food that can be salvaged to feed themselves and their families."Some days we eat, some days it's up to God. That's life," said Abdullah Omar, a 29-year-old Somali father of four in Aden.Over a year ago, Omar decided to take his chances, shelling out $500 to traffickers to board a boat with his family in hopes of escaping Somalia's instability and finding a better life abroad.But in Yemen, it has only been misery.To survive, Omar washed cars, making the equivalent of just a few dollars a day.**media[397211]**After years working in construction in Mogadishu, Omar had hoped to find better conditions and pay in Yemen — where he had passed through as a teenager en route to Saudi Arabia.But that was before years of civil war killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, destroyed vast amounts of infrastructure and left the country effectively partitioned between the Houthi fighters and Yemen's internationally recognised government."Here I have nothing," he said, while explaining his decision to enrol in a UN programme that paved the way for his repatriation to Somalia."There's no work, no money and no schooling for the children."Despite the poor conditions roughly 17,000 Africans arrived in Yemen in October, mostly from nearby Djibouti and Somalia, an increase of 99% from the month prior, according to the UN.Somalis make up about 63% of the 61,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers in Yemen, UN data shows.Across Aden, where unemployment is already staggeringly high among Yemenis, African migrants are hard-pressed to gain a foothold.Nearly 19.5mn people in Yemen — more than half its population — are in need of humanitarian aid, including 4.8mn internally displaced people, according to early 2025 UN data.Somalia remains ravaged by its own civil war, with the insurgents of Al-Shabaab still in control of vast swathes of the country.But relative peace in the capital Mogadishu in recent years has brought a degree of stability and allowed a lucrative construction boom in parts of the city.According to a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) survey, 56% of Somalis who are repatriated cited a "lack of income opportunities" in Yemen as their main reason for returning home."Many refugees want to go back to Somalia, but they can't afford smugglers or plane tickets," said Oweis al-Azzan, who oversees the head of the UN's voluntary return programme, which helps migrants.The programme provides families with free transportation and cash to help ease their transition once they are back home.The UN has repatriated more than 500 Somalis so far this year and plans three more flights by the end of the year carrying around 450 more people.Among those set to return is Somali contractor Ahmed Abu Bakr Marzouk, who came to Yemen 25 years ago, where he married twice and started a family.For years he prospered, sending money home regularly and financing the building of two homes in Mogadishu.Then came the war."For the past three or four years, there's been no work," said the 58-year-old.With no relief in sight in Yemen, Marzouk said conditions in Somalia were now more favourable. "My brothers work in farming there. If peace returns, I'll come back," he told AFP."If not, I won't." 

Sixteen migrants and a people trafficker died when their inflatable dinghy capsized early Friday in the Aegean Sea off the Turkish resort of Bodrum, the coastguard said. It was the latest in a series of migrants deaths on the short but perilous route between the Turkish coast and the nearby Greek islands of Samos, Rhodes and Lesbos that serve as entry points to the European Union. "The dead bodies of 16 illegal migrants and that of a trafficker have been recovered," the coastguard stated, adding two migrants had been rescued. The local governor's office had earlier given a death toll of 14 migrants, stating on X that a migrant had managed to alert the coastguard to the emergency. One of the two survivors, an Afghan, told rescuers that the vessel had sunk barely 10 minutes after starting to take on water. He had been forced to swim for six hours to Celebi Island, he added. Authorities did not give the nationalities of the other migrants. Bodrum lies less than five kilometres from the Greek island of Kos. According to the Missing Migrants Project run by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), nearly 1,400 migrants have died trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea this year. Turkey, which signed an agreement with Brussels in 2016 to stem illegal immigration into the European Union, hosts more than 2.5 million refugees on its soil, the vast majority Syrians, say officials.

Four people, including a child, were killed after a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of an island in the eastern Aegean Sea. The Hellenic Coast Guard reported that a patrol boat recovered the bodies of two women, a man, and a girl from the sea off the southern coast of Lesbos. The Coast Guard added that a partially submerged boat was found near a rocky part of the nearby beach. 34 survivors managed to reach shore on their own and were found by police.

Libyan authorities announced the arrest of hundreds of irregular migrants during a security operation in the city of Sabratha. The Sabratha Security Directorate's media office reported that the migrants were arrested during a large-scale campaign conducted by security forces, targeting their presence at workers' stations and public places. On August 5, Libya's Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency announced the arrest of 350 irregular migrants of various nationalities during a large-scale security operation in the Tobruk municipality. Libya announced the deportation of 10,069 irregular migrants in 2023. Libya is a major transit point for irregular migrants seeking to reach Europe.