Far right politicians have jumped on the recent arrival of Moroccans on the island of Ceuta to stoke anti-immigrant sentiment.

Spain’s leading far-right politician Santiago Abascal arrived in Ceuta on Sunday “hours before anti-immigrant campaigners were set to hold a rally in the city, compounding political tensions after tens of thousands of migrants entered into Spanish territory from Morocco last week,” the New York Times reported on August 2.

Abascal, the leader of the far-right Vox party, called the influx an “invasion” and an “act of war” by Morocco, but also blamed Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his pro-migrant policies for enabling the crisis, the Times reported.

As with the 2015 refugee crisis in Europe, far-right leaders are now trying to “exploit scenes of border chaos on the doorstep of Europe. In Britain, France and Italy, anti-immigrant politicians warned that the latest crisis was stark proof of the dangers of Spain’s immigration policies, which are more liberal than those of many of its European neighbors,” writes Mark Landler in a separate New York Times story.

It remains unclear as to what prompted Moroccans to flock to Ceuta. Some of those who arrived on Ceuta said that Moroccan police encouraged them to attempt to reach Ceuta.

During Mass on the Italian island of Lampedusa on July 4, Pope Leo XIV condemned the brutal treatment of migrants and refugees and the loss of life at sea, urging the world to concretely and compassionately respond to the “enormity of suffering.”

The Pope first visited the local cemetery, which includes a section for “Muslims and Catholics, for young and old, black and white, all of them lost at sea as they searched for freedom.”

In his homily, Pope Leo reflected that today Lampedusa and its neighboring island of Linosa lie along a path as dangerous as the one that led from Jerusalem to Jericho in the Gospel parable of the Good Samaritan.

“Here,” he said, “you have seen not just one, but thousands of human beings fallen into the hands of robbers who have taken everything from them, beat them brutally and walked away, leaving them half-dead.”

While welcoming the Trump administration’s decision
 to increase the FY 2026 refugee admissions ceiling by 10,000, the International Refugee Committee on May 26 said it “is deeply troubled that the entire increase is allocated to Afrikaners from South Africa while broader refugee admissions remain severely restricted.”

“At a time of record global displacement, allocating limited refugee admissions overwhelmingly to one nationality excludes many of the world’s most vulnerable from access to protection,” it said.

“A decade or so after the peak of Europe’s migrant crisis, one of the busiest and deadliest entry points to the continent has devolved from crisis to something more chronic,” writes Giuliano Beniamino Fleri, a historian of migration, in a recent New York Times Opinion piece about Lampedusa.

“Lampedusa is the critical but deadly entry point to a continent that fears immigration but cannot live without it. It should be where the paradox of European migrant policy is most visible, but it’s disappearing from view,” Fleri writes.

Lampedusa, which is located between mainland Italy and the North African coasts of Libya and Tunisia, “has been a node along irregular migration routes to the European Union since the 1990s,” he notes.

The first paragraph of the piece is truly heartbreaking, with Fleri detailing how residents of Lampedusa have told him that they’re “used to getting phone calls from people across the sea. Mothers, fathers, siblings and friends call searching for someone who left to try to reach Europe but has not been heard from since. Was a son among the rescued? Did a daughter’s name appear on a list? Does any trace remain? The answer is often no.”

In a recent New York Times opinion piece, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez details why his government is bucking the global backlash against immigrants and instead embracing “a fast and simple path to regularize their immigration status.”

In January, his government “issued a decree that makes up to half a million undocumented migrants living in Spain eligible for temporary residence permits, with certain conditions, which they will be able to renew after a year,” notes Sanchez.

Sanchez notes there are two reasons for this strategy. The first “and most important is a moral one,” he said. “It is our duty to become the welcoming and tolerant society that our own relatives would have hoped to find on the other side of our borders.”

The second reason is purely pragmatic, Sanchez said. “The West needs people. Currently, few of its countries have a rising population growth rate. Unless they embrace migration, they will experience a sharp demographic decline that will prevent them from keeping their economies and public services afloat. Their gross domestic products will stagnate. Their public health care and pension systems will suffer. Neither A.I. nor robots will be able to prevent this outcome, at least not in the short or medium term. The only option to avoid decline is to integrate migrants in the most orderly and effective way possible.”

I can’t wait to read the new book by Julian Hattem, “Shelter from the Storm: How Climate Change Is Creating a New Era of Migration,” which releases on Jan. 6.

Hattem is currently the editor of Migration Information Source, the online magazine of the Migration Policy Institute, and founder and host of the podcast Changing Climate, Changing Migration. 

In Shelter from the Storm, Hattem tells the story of the massive human displacement that is already being caused by climate change.

Canada’s Liberal government “is pushing through sweeping new legislation targeting refugees that observers fear will usher in a new era of US-style border policies, fueling xenophobia and the scapegoating of immigrants,” the Guardian reports.

Bill C-12, or Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act, “includes many changes around border security along with new ineligibility rules for refugee claimants,” the Guardian reported.

 If it receives Senate approval in February, the bill will become law.

“It’s very regressive in terms of refugee protection,” said Idil Atak, a professor of refugee and human rights law at Toronto Metropolitan University.

As he prepares to step down after a decade as the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi sees “not only conflicts and emergencies affecting every region of the world, but also a crisis of global leadership, a failure of imagination and ambition, and a proliferation of populist speech that is numbing us to the plight of others,’ he writes in recent New York Times opinion piece.

He argues that greater support for countries that host refugees, particularly those with few resources, is needed.

“Ensuring that these countries can offer jobs, education, housing and other rights to refugees is not free, but it is a good investment. It gives refugees hope and a measure of stability. It enables them to become social and economic contributors. It equips them with the means to help rebuild their countries when they return home,” he wrote.

Refugee Council USA, Welcome With Dignity campaign, and the Evacuate Our Allies Steering Committee jointly led a broad coalition of 130 national, state, and local organizations in a letter to President Trump, urging the administration to immediately reverse the recent actions that have halted or severely restricted refugee, asylum, and visa processing, particularly for Afghans, Somalis, and nationals from the nineteen travel ban countries.

The letter expresses deep concern that these abrupt policy shifts – without transparency, evidence, or congressional oversight – are causing widespread fear, destabilizing families, skirting legal obligations, and undermining long-standing humanitarian commitments.

The organizations emphasize that collective punishment and vilification of Afghans, Somalis, refugees, asylum seekers, or immigrants writ large is not sound national security policy, and it does nothing to make our communities safer.

They call on the administration to restore normal processing, provide clear public guidance, and uphold the United States’ legal and moral obligations to people seeking protection. 

Read the full letter here.

President Trump is considering admitting far fewer refugees into the U.S. this year — as few as 7,500 — “a dramatic new low as the administration is conducting sweeping immigration raids as part of its mass deportation agenda,” the Associated Press reported.

The 7,500 figure is “a drastic decrease from the cap of 125,000 set by the Biden administration last year, according to a presidential determination dated Sept. 30 and signed by Mr. Trump,” the New York Times noted.

“The new limit would effectively shut the door to thousands of families waiting in camps around the world and refocus a program meant to provide sanctuary for those fleeing war and famine to support mostly white South Africans,” the Times reported.