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Executive Summary for November 4th

We review the latest issues related to refugees, including a French operation to close a migrant camp in Paris, two deadly shipwrecks off the Libyan coast and a new report on Kenyan efforts to close the Dadaab refugee camp.

Published on Nov. 4, 2016 Read time Approx. 2 minutes

France Shuts Down Growing Migrant Camp in Paris

French police evacuated more than 3,800 people sheltering in a makeshift camp on the streets of the French capital Paris.

The encampment had swelled in size since a police operation last week to clear more than 6,000 migrants and refugees from the “Jungle” camp in Calais.

Hundreds of police moved into the makeshift camp near the Stalingrad metro station and put its residents on buses taking them to shelters around France. Paris officials said around 150 vulnerable people, including women and children, would be housed in the city.

French president Francois Hollande has pledged to put an end to informal migrant camps in the country.

Yet repeated French efforts to shut down camps has seen them quickly reconstituted either in the same location or elsewhere in the country. The Paris camp had already been cleared in July, and again in September.

Shipwrecks Leave 240 Missing Amid Rush to Depart Libya

Survivors of two shipwrecks off the coast of Libya said at least 240 people had drowned, as more boats risked stormy weather to reach Europe.

Rescuers found 27 people in a dire condition after spending hours in the water on November 2, and brought them to hospital on the Italian island of Lampedusa. They also found the bodies of 12 people, including three children. Survivors said the boat was carrying around 140 people.

They told Pietro Bartolo, a doctor on Lampedusa, that they tried to turn back when they realized the poor weather conditions, but smugglers forced them back onto the boat, shooting one of the passengers dead.

In a second shipwreck that same day, two women were rescued at sea and said their dinghy had been carrying 130 people.

At least 4,220 people have died in the Mediterranean Sea this year, the deadliest on record.

While the seas start getting more dangerous at this time of year, migrants in Libya are rushing to get out of the country before the Libyan coast guard starts conducting more operations on the coast as part of an E.U. training program, survivors told the International Organization for Migration.

New Report on Kenyan Efforts to Empty Refugee Camp

A new report by Refugees International said Kenya’s looming deadline to close Dadaab – the world’s largest refugee camp – is forcing refugees to return to Somalia.

The aid group urged Kenya to lift the November 30 deadline for the camp’s closure, which was announced earlier this year and reiterated by a Ministry of Interior official in September.

Kenyan government officials have exerted pressure on the refugees to return, warning of the imminent shutdown of the camp and claiming the security situation in Somalia has improved, according to the report.

Yet Somalia is still battling militant group Al-Shabaab, and the pace of refugees returning from Dadaab has already overwhelmed local authorities, it says.

More than 250,000 people live in Dadaab, most of them from neighboring Somalia. More than 26,000 Somali refugees have returned from Kenya through a U.N. program this year.

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