Overqualified Refugees Forced to Take Low Paid Jobs
Asylum seekers in Europe are forced to accept low-paying jobs they are overqualified for or face unemployment due to racism and discrimination, according to a new report from the European Network Against Racism (ENAR).
“There can be a mismatch between migrants’ education levels and the skills level required for the jobs they are employed in,” an ENAR spokesperson told BuzzFeed News, adding that it had the effect of “keeping them in specific low paid sectors and precarious forms of employment – including domestic work, caregiving, agriculture, construction and prostitution.”
Existent initiatives focus on refugee integration through learning the local language, but this fails to improve job opportunities.
“Migrants have the impression that their language proficiency will never be accepted as ‘good enough’ or it is just used as an excuse by employers to refuse migrants access to white collar jobs,” an ENAR spokesperson explained.
Sudanese Police Rescue Migrants and Refugees From Human Traffickers
Sudanese police rescued 56 migrants, including women and children, who were held for ransom for over a month by human traffickers, according to local media reports.
Kidnappers demanded $3,000 per person to release the migrants.
The migrants had attempted to reach Libya through Sudan via the Western Sahara where they were intercepted by the trafficking gang.
Sudan security forces also arrested over 200 migrants and refugees over the weekend who were trying to cross into Libya on their way to Europe, reported the Sudan Tribune.
Dozens of Refugees Feared Dead off Libyan Coast
Rescuers from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) recovered the bodies of four migrants off the coast of Libya after discovering an empty rubber dinghy on Sunday.
Members of the German NGO Jugend Rettet searched all day Saturday after the Italian coastguard said it had received a distress call from an unidentified boat.
Rescuers found the abandoned ship Sunday morning off the northwestern coast of Libya. The boat lacked the standard markings left by rescue workers to signal the migrants had already been rescued.
“We can’t be sure that it’s the boat we were looking for but … we have to suppose that there was an accident,” said Pauline Schmidt, a spokeswoman for the NGO.
Rescuers fear there are no survivors from this latest shipwreck in the central Mediterranean.
Recommended Reads
- The Daily Beast: Nothing Will Stop These Immigrants From Coming to the U.S.
- Al Jazeera: Life in Greece’s Elliniko Refugee Camp
- Mother Jones: 200 Refugees Are Crossing Mexico to Escape Violence – and to Confront Trump
- AFP: Milan Exhibition Highlights Migrant Odyssey
- Al Jazeera: Latin American Refugees Turn to Mexico for Asylum