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Content warning: This briefing may contain references and links to descriptions of abuse, torture, and racial and gendered violence at borders. 

AT A GLANCE

• US: For now, at least, the Battle of Chicago is deferred. On October 22, a federal judge indefinitely extended an order preventing federal forces from entering Chicago, following a war of words in which local officials alleged an invasion and the US President (disputedly) called Chicago “the world’s most dangerous city.” ICE raids continue unabated, though, and civil society groups coordinated a huge rapid response across Illinois to ICE detentions, providing legal resources to detainees and families. Rolling Stone has more on the depth of activist organisation. Meanwhile ICE has scaled up weapons procurement, including - according to one report least - shopping for guided missile warheads. Quite how these might be used in an immigration raid remains unclear.  
  

• Mediterranean: The row continues over EU financing of the Libyan Coast Guard that escalated with the militia’s August attack on the Ocean Viking rescue ship. Dozens of MEPs demanded an end to what Green legislator Mounir Satouri called a “moral stain.”. Rescue organisation Sea Watch unveiled data on some 60 violent maritime incidents as another maritime shooting took place, leaving one teenager in a coma. Lawyers also asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate more than 100 officials over complicity in crimes against humanity. This comes as another mass grave of people migrating was uncovered in Libya, and survivors of Libyan detention protested the renewal of Italy’s Libya deal. In return, the EU and border agency Frontex rolled out the red carpet for delegations from both the Tripoli government and its Russia-backed eastern rival. 
  

• Oxfam’s Manifesto for the Mediterranean, drafted with partners across the Middle East and North Africa, demands Europe commit to human rights, migration justice, climate action, economic justice and addressing the colonial legacy and  is open for sign-on from civil society organisations now.

BORDER EXTERNALISATION

• US/Africa: The US has secretly pressured at least 30 African governments to accept its deportees, according to reports. It appears to have reached an agreement with Liberia to deport Kilmar Abrego, a previously illegally-deported Salvadoran who has become a highly public test case for US policy. Elsewhere Belize has agreed to host people seeking asylum in the US, and the government of eSwatini will accept US deportees, overriding a domestic court challenge to do so. 
  

• US/Caribbean: The Trump Administration is escalating military operations in the Caribbean. Recent attacks on fishing vessels have been justified as a form of border externalisation - preventing immigration as well as the drugs trade - but speculation is swirling about the possibility of regime change. This would, naturally, be likely to increase displacement and migration, but the US anti-migrant camp has a record of not actually caring much about such things. 
  

• EU/Egypt: The European Commission will increase financial support to Egypt through a 75 million euro development package following leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s landmark visit to Brussels last month - which will include migration control cooperation, among other things. New Internationalist has a report on the relationship between EU funding and Cairo’s grim crackdown on Sudanese and other refugees. 
  

• EU/Austria: The EU has initiated contact with Afghanistan’s Taliban government to increase deportations of rejected asylum seekers. The news comes as Austria completes its first deportation to Afghanistan since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover. Multiple European countries are exploring such pathways - including many who backed the disastrous two-decade Afghanistan War due to (checks notes) the Taliban’s human rights record.
  

• EU/Tunisia: As EU and Tunisian leaders meet for another summit, a further forty people have drowned off Tunisia’s coast in a shipwreck. A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report again accuses Tunis of arbitrary arrests, beatings, and collective expulsions, as its government suspends the work of human rights groups. 
  

• Italy/Albania: Nearly a year into Italy’s controversial migration deal with Albania, Medihospes - the company managing Italy’s Albania camps - still has no official agreement with Rome. An investigation published in EUObserver has more detail, including the gap between public money spent and results achieved (spoiler: it’s big.)
  

• UK/Kosovo: After being shown the door by Albania early this year, the UK’s Keir Starmer has finally caught a break, with Kosovo agreeing to accept rejected asylum seekers ahead of multilateral meetings aimed at increasing UK involvement in migration in the Balkans. Details are unsurprisingly sparse. 
  

• UK/Libya: Perhaps not satisfied with growing EU ties, the eastern Libyan government has very kindly offered to “help” Britain stop the boats downstream. This is presumably in return for unspecified amounts of cash. There is no suggestion that the UK currently plans to agree, though it does fund several migration schemes in Libya.
  

• Belgium/Morocco: Belgium has formally endorsed Morocco's proposed settlement to the long-running Western Sahara conflict (which has previously seeped into Europe’s migration debate.) The endorsement comes alongside a new migration-return agreement and expanding EU-Morocco trade ties, despite (because of?) Morocco’s dire record on the treatment of people migrating.

DETENTION, DEPORTATION AND BORDER VIOLENCE

• US: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has recorded its deadliest year since the early 2000s, with over 20 deaths in custody. There are nearly 60,000 people in detention, the highest number in years. Immigrants with no criminal convictions now make up the largest group of people arrested and detained. The Independent also reports that the Trump Administration is funnelling US$10 billion from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through the Navy to ramp up detention centre building. It also plans a shake up at ICE due to frustration about the speed of deportations.
  

• EU: It’s time for a comprehensive European agreement on migration (again)! Ursula von der Leyen penned a letter to leaders as governments met to discuss ideas including more plans for deportation hubs in non-EU countries, and further degrading remaining safeguards for people facing deportation. The European Commission also missed the deadline to release a key report on its migration aims, as debate continued over how countries should share responsibility for admitting asylum seekers.
  

• UK/France: The UK’s landmark “one in one out” deal with France faces fresh pressure after it emerged that one of those deported under the scheme…immediately returned to England by boat. Who could have predicted it? (Possibly anyone who has observed Europe for the last decade, where even lethal pushbacks do not deter people from making multiple attempts to seek safety.) The scheme, which lets the UK return people arriving by boat in exchange for taking an equal number of approved migrants from France, has been challenged in a French court by seventeen civil society groups. 
  

• In Britain’s latest bout of America cosplay, the Conservative opposition has unveiled plans for a British ICE, although the country already leads Europe on deportations. Meanwhile the Home Office’s border security commander has expressed frustration at what he sees as France’s failure to cut boat crossings. 
  

• A researcher at Medical Justice, which sends independent doctors into UK immigration detention, has documented the failings of healthcare for detainees.
  

• France: The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has found that France is responsible for systematic violations of unaccompanied migrant children’s rights, claiming that many are being deprived of basic care and living in “degrading” conditions. 
  

• Greece: As the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) repeatedly fails to hit targets for voluntary returns, an investigation in the New Humanitarian looks closely at the ailing scheme and its consequences. 
  

• Italy: The trial of a rescue crew accused of “aiding illegal migration” began in Sicily this month. The case involves rescue ship Mare Jonio embarking 27 people trapped on a commercial ship for weeks, with Italy and Malta refusing to take them. The commercial ship’s owner, Maersk, compensated rescuers for costs - resulting in Italy’s tendentious claim that the rescue was financially motivated. A comparable seven-year case against the Iuventa rescue crew collapsed last year: if at first you don’t succeed, try again?
  

• Australia: Refugees and asylum seekers held on Nauru (yes, the one that was supposed to be closed) claim they can’t afford to eat and are forced to skip meals. Depressing human stories aside, one might wonder what exactly is happening to the AUS$1.5m per person that Australia is paying to a US prisons operator.

CLIMATE, NATURE, AND THE FUTURE OF MIGRATION

• Sahel: Nearly four million people across Africa’s vast semi-arid northwest have been uprooted by a mix of conflict, hunger and climate change. The UN warns of a protection and survival crisis that is pushing families to flee multiple times. The region is also a key site for externalised European border control, which probably isn’t helping.
  

• Mediterranean: The EU has launched the first communication on its delayed Mediterranean Pact, which promises investments in clean energy and a reset of relations between Europe and its southern neighbours. Some of its innovations - such as extending student mobility - have been welcomed, while its relationship to migration control has been criticised. But perhaps the biggest issue is insufficiency; with migration and defence consuming attention, investment is way below what the climate-stricken region needs. A climate and a human rights thinktank joined forces to present a plan for how the Pact could make a real difference.  

• Greece: When record-breaking floods hit central Greece in 2023, Greek villagers made homeless were temporarily rehoused in camps alongside incoming asylum seekers. We Are Solomon has an investigation covering this striking crossover of displacement experiences. 
  

• Peru: Between 2008 and 2019, around 656,000 Peruvians were forced to move because of natural disasters, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). Recurrent flash floods caused by torrential rains are a key driver of movement.
  

• US: More border security means less food security, journalist Pablo de la Rosa argues provocatively as the US Department of Agriculture announced it would cease publishing its annual Household Food Security Report. There is also a new book out on the US’ intersecting food, labour and migration systems; which are all now under climate strain. 
  

• US/Mexico: A new story from Documented shows the climate stresses that caused people to flee across the US-Mexico border and seek a new life in the US’ largest city.  
  

• World: On Amol Rajan’s Radicals podcast, journalist and author Gaia Vince makes the positive case for immigration in a climate-afflicted world.

SURVEILLANCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INDUSTRY

• US: Surveillance! Surveillance everywhere! Coming to a town near you! First up, a sweeping new “Smart Wall” for Texas. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken a break from posting bad AI memes to announce a network of “steel barriers, waterborne barriers, patrol roads, lights, cameras, and advanced detection technology” to be thrown up across the Big Bend region. Next, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) is asking for plans to turn trucks into mobile AI-powered watchtowers. CBP has expanded biometric surveillance capabilities, mandating photographs of non-US citizens (for now) upon entry and exit. And ICE wants to build a 24/7 social media surveillance team. A new academic article compares this architecture to Chinese digital authoritarianism.
  

• This means more upward redistribution of Americans’ money to corporations, mostly in surveillance and arms, but new analysis points to banking, telecoms, and postal firms also winning big. The Usual Suspects are also angling to cash in on Gaza reconstruction plans.
  

• UK: Speaking of hefty expenditure, Westminster’s Home Affairs Committee has accused the Home Office of “squandering” some £15billion on asylum accommodation. Exorbitant hotel costs have been seized on by migration critics to claim (falsely) that the taxpayer is subsidising luxury for asylum seekers. The government has declined to demur, replying that it was  "furious about the number of illegal migrants.” Hundreds of people seeking asylum in the UK will now be moved to military sites.
  

• The government’s plan for national digital ID - ostensibly to deter irregular migration - has gone down like a lead balloon. Labour MPs are downbeat, but seem to believe that simply explaining the plans better will address controversy.
  

• EU: Border agency Frontex is keen to get its hands on drone defence capabilities, which is on the agenda ahead of a review of the agency’s mandate next year. 

MIGRATION POLICY AND POLITICS

• UK: The rhetoric arms race between Reform and the Conservatives continues, with rising star Katie Lam saying that legally settled people should be deported to make the UK “culturally coherent.” 
  

• On the other side, hundreds of thousands have joined the Greens or a putative new leftist party, both of which have decried the state of Britain’s migration debate - including in a recent op-ed from new Green leader Zack Polanski.
  

• Under new legislation, migrants will be required to pass significantly higher-level English language requirements.
  

• The EU’s push for youth mobility schemes as part of future cooperation risks reopening contentious Brexit-era UK debates about EU migration. 
  

• Germany: Parliament has ended a fast-track citizenship programme for some “exceptionally well integrated” new citizens - a policy at odds with the supposed focus on tackling “illegal” migration. Protests subsequently erupted against German Chancellor Friedrich Merz after he commented that Europeans feared public spaces due to migration. If they do, it is worth questioning why - a study recently found that German media bias falsely inflates the prevalence of crime committed by foreigners. 
  

• Netherlands: The centrist D66 has edged ahead of Geert Wilders’ hard-right PVV, in tense elections where migration often took centre-stage. 
  

• Australia: Civil society groups are pushing for greater efforts to evacuate Australian visa holders in Gaza, who remain trapped due to closed borders. 
  

• Spain: A conservative mayor features in a Guardian report on a small Spanish town which recently called on the government to speed up the regularisation of undocumented migrants - a decision which was unanimous across party lines. The Spanish government has also published a dossier attacking anti-immigration and anti-Muslim narratives as part of a plan to promote a "positive discourse".
  

• Belgium: Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and other humanitarian groups have hit out again at Belgium’s policy of non-reception and new restrictions on access to essential services, which they say have left many people seeking asylum destitute and homeless.
  

• Switzerland: Under new laws, people seeking asylum and those granted protection will only be allowed to travel to their home country or to other countries in highly exceptional cases. Ukrainians are largely exempt. 
  

• Ireland: Several nights of violent unrest took place outside a Dublin hotel housing asylum seekers; the latest of several similar incidents. The country also, however, elected a new president who is outspokenly pro-migration. 
  

• South Africa: Anti-immigration group Operation Dudula has made headlines by calling for the exclusion of migrant children from public schools. 
  

• Italy: Around 1,000 refugees are to be transferred from Lebanon to Italy over the next three years via humanitarian corridors. 
  

• World: Behind the sound and fury, anti-migration governments continue to operate economic models that depend on movement. The number of short-term visas offered to working migrants rose by nearly a million between 2014 and 2023, reports the Economist, with increases in countries including Hungary, Italy, and Japan.