Latest news with #Migration
Arab News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Arab News
Saudi film ‘Hijra' to compete at Venice festival
RIYADH: Saudi filmmaker Shahad Ameen's feature film 'Hijra' (Migration) will compete in the Venice Spotlight Competition at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Backed by the Film Commission's Daw program, the selection is Saudi Arabia's latest bid for global recognition after Ameen's award-winning debut 'Scales' premiered at the same festival in 2019. The film follows a grandmother, Khairiya Nazmi, and her granddaughter, Lamar Feddan, as they journey across northern Saudi Arabia to find a missing teenage girl. Shot over more than 55 days in eight Saudi cities – Taif, Jeddah, Madinah, Wadi Al-Faraa, AlUla, Tabuk, NEOM, and Duba – the story unfolds against the backdrop of Hajj. Ameen's narrative explores Saudi Arabia's historical role as a crossroads for Muslim communities, weaving themes of migration and intergenerational resilience. Saudi filmmaker Shahad Ameen's feature film 'Hijra' (Migration) will compete in the Venice Spotlight Competition Film Commission CEO Abdullah Al-Qahtani said: 'Our participation in the Venice International Film Festival reflects the remarkable progress of Saudi cinema and the dedication of our filmmakers. 'Through initiatives like the Daw program, we empower a new generation of Saudi storytellers to share authentic narratives with global audiences. We are honored to represent the Kingdom at this prestigious event and look forward to building new partnerships and opportunities for Saudi talent.' He noted that the Daw initiative has supported more than 250 regional films since its launch, aligning with Vision 2030's goal of positioning Saudi cinema on the global stage. During the festival, the commission will host a roundtable, 'Young Audiences and Cinemas,' to explore strategies for engaging younger generations through local and global case studies. It will also present a panel, 'Making Cinematic Success,' featuring Saudi filmmakers crafting original narratives inspired by local culture and connecting with global audiences. At the same venue, nine Saudi short films will be screened, showing the diversity of national creative talent and storytelling.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Germany deports 81 Afghan men to their homeland in 2nd flight since the Taliban's return
EU--Migration-Europe BERLIN (AP) — Germany deported dozens of Afghan men to their homeland on Friday, the second time it has done so since the Taliban returned to power and the first since a new government pledging a tougher line on migration took office in Berlin. German authorities said a flight took off Friday morning carrying 81 Afghans, all of them men who had previously come to judicial authorities' attention and had asylum applications rejected. Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the deportation was carried out with the help of Qatar and was preceded by weeks of negotiations. He also said there were contacts with Afghanistan, but didn't elaborate. More than 10 months ago, Germany's previous government deported Afghan nationals to their homeland for the first time since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to step up deportations of failed asylum-seekers. Merz noted that, while diplomatic relations between Germany and Afghanistan have not formally been broken off, Berlin does not recognize the Taliban government in Kabul. 'The decisive question is how one deals with this regime, and it will remain at technical coordination until further notice,' he said at a news conference in Berlin. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, visiting Paris, said that 'there is no expansion of relations and no recognition of the regime there.' The Interior Ministry said the government aims to carry out more deportations to Afghanistan, but didn't specify when that might happen. Merz made tougher migration policy a central plank of his campaign for Germany's election in February. Just after he took office in early May, the government stationed more police at the border — stepping up border checks introduced by the Scholz government — and said some asylum-seekers trying to enter Europe's biggest economy would be turned away. It has also suspended family reunions for many migrants. Asylum applications declined from 329,120 in 2023 to 229,751 last year and have continued to fall this year. 'You can see from the figures that we are obviously on the right path, but we are not yet at the end of that path,' Merz said. The Afghan deportation flight took off hours before German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt discussed migration with counterparts from five neighboring countries — France, Poland, Austria, Denmark and the Czech Republic — as well as the European Union's commissioner responsible for migration, Magnus Brunner. Dobrindt hosted the meeting on the Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak, on the Austrian border. Dobrindt said the countries agree that the European migration system 'must be hardened and sharpened,' with faster asylum proceedings and 'return hubs' outside the EU. 'We wanted to send a signal that Germany is no longer sitting in the brakeman's cab on migration issues in Europe, but is in the locomotive,' Dobrindt said. Solve the daily Crossword
Times
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Times
Macron: UK and France are dangerously dependent on US and China
Britain and France are dangerously dependent on the US, President Macron has warned, as he called on the UK not to 'stay on the sidelines' of Europe. In an address to parliament, the French president said that both countries were too reliant on America for the technologies of the future and attacked President Trump's tariff war. He also said that both countries were depending too much on China. He signalled that France was prepared to move closer to the UK, pledging the 'best ever co-operation' on immigration and a new joint defence deal. • Macron state visit live: France and UK to stop small boats 'together', says president Last night diplomats were trying to finalise the details of a landmark one-in, one-out deal that would allow Britain to return small boat migrants to France for the first time since the crisis began in 2018. Macron said that the UK-France summit on Thursday would deliver 'tangible results' on migration. Speaking to MPs and peers, the French president provocatively equated the threat posed by the US to that of China, warning that if Britain and France wanted to 'build a sustainable future for all children' they had to 'de-risk our economies and our societies from these dual dependencies'. 'What is at stake today in Europe is our ability to invest in key technologies of the future to avoid strategic dependencies and disengagement that would put us at risk of a slow death,' he said. 'If we still depend on both China and the US, I think we have a clear view of our future and the future of our children.' He said that this extended to areas like social media where children in Britain and France were vulnerable to 'algorithms' and 'misinformation' created abroad. Macron urged Britain to become more European in the face of these threats, building on the government's recent reset with the EU. 'Even though it is not part of the European Union, the United Kingdom cannot stay on the sidelines because defence and security, competitiveness, democracy — the very core of our identity — are connected across Europe as a continent,' he said. The French president said the two countries 'may end up strangers' if they did not 'move forward side-by-side' on key strategic decisions. • Keir Starmer to push Macron for last-minute migrant return deal On migration, Macron signalled that he was ready to sign the one-in, one-out migrants deal. He referenced how Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, and Bruno Retailleau, the French interior minister, had worked 'very closely together' on reaching a deal on migration. Sir Keir Starmer has been pressing Macron to agree to a returns agreement which would allow Britain to return migrants arriving on small boats back to France. In exchange, Britain would accept migrants with a legitimate case for joining family already in the Macron also sought to put the small boats crisis in perspective by pointing out that only a third of illegal migrants entering the EU end up crossing the Channel to Britain. • We may be old allies with France, but new threats abound He said that a 'lasting and effective solution' to the migrant crisis would only be reached if there is a Europe-wide solution and said more must be done to stop migrants leaving their country to start with by working closer with departure countries. Macron warned that the two countries' youngsters were 'growing apart' as he implored the UK to sign up to an EU youth mobility scheme. He urged the UK government to 'work together in order to facilitate the exchange of students, researchers, intellectuals, artists' as he said it was 'so important' that children have the 'same opportunities as the one we had'. Macron called on Starmer to immediately recognise a Palestinian state, something the Labour government has said that it will do when it thinks it is the right time. He also urged both countries to stand up to Trump's tariffs, saying that they undermined free trade.
The Independent
27-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
German lawmakers vote to suspend family reunions for many migrants
German lawmakers voted Friday to suspend family reunions for many migrants, part of a drive by the new conservative-led government for a tougher approach to migration. Parliament 's lower house voted 444-135 to suspend the possibility of family reunions for two years for migrants who have 'subsidiary protection,' a status that falls short of asylum. At the end of March, more than 388,000 people living in Germany had the status, which was granted to many people fleeing Syria 's civil war. New Chancellor Friedrich Merz made tougher migration policy a central plank of his campaign for Germany's election in February. Just after he took office in early May, the government stationed more police at the border and said some asylum-seekers trying to enter Europe's biggest economy would be turned away. The bill approved Friday is the first legislation on migration since Merz took office. It will suspend rules dating to 2018 that allowed up to 1,000 close relatives per month to join the migrants granted limited protection, with authorities making case-by-case decisions on humanitarian grounds rather than granting an automatic right for reunions. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told lawmakers that the change would result in 12,000 fewer people being able to come to Germany each year and 'break a business model' for smugglers. People often know they won't get full recognition as refugees, 'but they set off for Germany because it is known that, even without asylum recognition ... you can have your family follow," Dobrindt said. "That is a significant pull effect and we are removing this pull effect today.' Dobrindt said 'our country's capacity for integration simply has a limit.' Liberal opposition lawmakers decried the government's approach. Marcel Emmerich, of the Greens, described the legislation as 'an attack on the core of every society, on a truly central value — the family.' 'Anyone who wants integration must bring families together,' he said. The far-right, anti-migration Alternative for Germany described the move as a very small step in the right direction. German governments have for years faced pressure to curb migration as shelters across the country filled up. The administration of Merz's predecessor, Olaf Scholz, already had taken some measures including the introduction of checks on all Germany's borders. Asylum applications declined from 329,120 in 2023 to 229,751 last year and have continued to fall this year.
Khaleej Times
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Khaleej Times
Germany's Merz joins EU migration hawks meet in Brussels
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz took part in a meeting of EU immigration hawks in Brussels on Thursday, participants confirmed, in a sign of Berlin's hardening stance on migration. It marked the first time a German leader has attended the gathering, which has become a stable fixture on the sidelines of EU summits of the bloc's leaders over the past year. "We're delighted that Germany is on board for the first time," Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said ahead of the meeting he described as a "pressure group" pushing to make the European Union's migration policy "much stricter". Co-organised by Italy, Denmark and The Netherlands, the migration talks were attended by more than a dozen of the bloc's 27 leaders as well as European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. Crystallising the growing influence of the hard right within the bloc, it has served as a platform for hardliners to push the commission to pass new rules to reduce arrivals and boost deportations. Germany's conservative-led government, which took power in May, has pursued a crackdown on irregular immigration, seeking to combat the growing appeal of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
