The United Nations migration agency has said it is "deeply concerned" about some 260 Somali and Ethiopian migrants allegedly held and mistreated by criminal gangs in Libya.

More than 3,400 migrants died or were recorded as missing as they tried to cross borders around the globe in the first five months of the year — more than 80% of them trying to reach Europe by sea, said the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The mayor of Paris has announced plans to create a centre to take in migrants with nowhere to go.

Efforts to limit the amount of refugees seeking the shores of Europe are working, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said.

More than 1m refugees and migrants came to the EU this year, while almost 3,700 died or went missing in perilous journeys which reaped huge profit for smugglers, the International Organisation for Migration has said.

Croatia’s prime minister has dismissed Hungary’s plan to build a fence between the two countries, arguing that nothing would be able to stop those seeking sanctuary in richer European countries.

Hundreds of migrants are feared drowned after a fishing boat said to be carrying as many as 700 people capsized in the Mediterranean yesterday.

The bodies of 18 migrants who likely died of dehydration have been found in the Sahara desert in northern Niger, the International Organisation for Migration said.

The bodies of 18 migrants who likely died of dehydration have been found in the Sahara desert in northern Niger, the International Organisation for Migration said.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has claimed the “horrific” deaths of more than 950 people off the coast of Italy on Sunday is the “direct result of Europe’s colonial record” for generations.

About 500 migrants are feared to have died after their boat was rammed and sank off the coast of Malta coast last week.

Al Qaida-inspired militants have seized control of Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit.

The International Organisation for Migration has said it cannot meet the deadline set by Sudan’s White Nile State to help relocate up to 15,000 South Sudanese.

The International Organisation for Migration says it has evacuated 850 more stranded foreign workers from the Libyan capital Tripoli aboard a chartered ferry.

Loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi killed at least 17 detainees and arbitrarily executed dozens of civilians as rebels moved into Tripoli, a human rights group said today.

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s forces launched a fierce counterattack in a strategic western city today, firing rockets, mortar shells and anti-aircraft guns in a bid to keep the rebels from gaining complete control and advancing towards Tripoli.

Nato warplanes have struck a missile-launching position used by Muammar Gaddafi’s forces to target civilians in western Libya, the alliance said.

A SHIP carrying up to 600 migrants trying to flee Libya has sunk just off the coast of the North African country, the UN Refugee Agency said, citing witness accounts.

IRISH authorities are to evacuate 1,000 civilians by chartered ship from the besieged Libyan city of Misrata.

Irish authorities are to evacuate 1,000 civilians by chartered ship from the besieged Libyan city of Misrata.

A Libyan rebel leader claims that opposition forces have taken control of a post on the Tunisian border near a former rebel-held town.

The British government will help 5,000 people escape the besieged rebel-held town of Misrata and provide vital medical supplies to those caught up in violence across western Libya, Britain's International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell announced today.

The Government has pledged €250,000 towards the evacuation of innocent civilians fleeing from the conflict in Libya.

Sweden has led the way in tackling prostitution with the introduction of tough legislation and enforcement. Stephen Rogers travelled to the country to learn about the much vaunted ‘Swedish Model’ on dealing with human trafficking. In the first of a two-part series, he compares the Irish and Swedish approaches to what is the world’s fastest growing crime and looks at what lessons can be learned.

TWO months after Pakistan’s killer earthquake, the focus of a huge aid effort is on keeping survivors alive in freezing mountains and preventing disease in crowded tent camps in the valleys.

About 93% of registered Iraqi expatriate voters cast absentee ballots in the country’s election, organisers said today.

Iraqis danced in the streets as they cast their votes around the world on the first day of the Iraqi elections, organizers said Saturday.

Iraqi voters, hoping to restore order and security to their troubled nation, filed into schools and other makeshift polling stations in neighbouring nations today to cast ballots in their nation’s first democratic election in half a century.

Only about 16% of eligible Iraqi voters living outside their country have registered for next weekend’s elections and the largest turnout so far has been in Iran, organisers said.

NON-IRISH parents of Irish-born children are to be offered help to re-integrate their families in their home country.

The Government is to provide financial assistance for asylum seekers and “irregular migrants” who wish to return home, Justice Minister Michael McDowell announced today.

TWO American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division were killed and one was injured in an ambush yesterday when their convoy came under rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire in northern Iraq, the US military said.

Around 100 Afghans being held on a desolate Pacific island after Australia refused to house them, were returning home today after authorities rejected their asylum applications.

Forty-four survivors were recovering in an Indonesian refugee camp today after their boat sank off Java island, drowning several hundred people.

More than 350 migrants - most of them Iraqis - drowned when the boat they were on sank off the coast of Indonesia, the International Organisation for Migration said in Switzerland tonight.

Migration officials boarded an Australian navy ship off Nauru today to prepare another group of refugees for transfer to a makeshift camp on the tiny Pacific island state.

Hundreds of refugees on an Australian navy ship off the coast of Nauru are refusing to disembark.