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Executive Summary for November 29th

We review the latest issues related to refugees, including Bangladesh approving a plan to use a flood-prone island to house refugees, a deadly smuggler crash in Greece and a Swedish deal to ease rules for unaccompanied minors.

Published on Nov. 29, 2017 Read time Approx. 2 minutes

Bangladesh Approves Plan to House Rohingya on Remote Island

The Bangladeshi government has approved a controversial plan to house Rohingya refugees on a remote, flood-prone island.

The plan has been circulating for years but it received pushback from the humanitarian community, who warned that the island is uninhabitable. Thenger Char is a two-hour boat journey from Bangladesh and floods during the monsoon season.

Bangladesh’s refugee population has now swelled from around 300,000 to more than 900,000 as Rohingya have fled en masse from Myanmar’s recent military crackdown.

Bangladesh insists Thenger Char island can temporarily house 100,000 refugees. A government committee approved a $280 million project to develop the island for habitation by 2019.

Smuggler Drives off Cliff in Greece

A Pakistani smuggler transporting migrants from Turkey drove his car off a 90ft (30m) cliff to escape police in northern Greece.

At least four people were killed and the driver and four others were wounded after the incident. Some of the migrants, whose nationalities are unknown, were hidden in the trunk of the car.

Refugees and migrants continue to head to Greece seeking safety and dignity in Europe. Some 27,000 people took boats to Greece this year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. Around 116,000 others headed to Italy.

The sea routes remain as deadly as ever. A 10-year-old Afghan boy drowned off the Greek island of Lesbos last week, IOM said, among the 3,000 people to have died en route to Europe this year.

Deal May Grant Reprieve to Young Asylum Seekers in Sweden

Sweden will allow some unaccompanied children who turned 18 years old while their asylum applications were in process to stay in the country.

More than 30,000 unaccompanied minors arrived in Sweden in 2015, causing delays in the asylum process. Sweden tightened its asylum rules in November 2015.

The new policy would prevent the deportation of children registered before November 2015 whose applications took longer than 15 months. Even if they don’t receive asylum, they will get temporary residency permits to finish school that could be turned into employment permits.

The reprieve was advocated by the Green Party and agreed by their coalition partner the Social Democrats, but it still needs backing from other parties before implementation.

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