Greece is pressing ahead with plans to start deporting migrants and refugees back to Turkey next week, despite mounting concern from the UN and human rights organisations that Syrians could be denied proper protection.

Developed countries can well afford to aid refugees. In fact, we can’t afford not to. And the way we respond will tell us a lot about ourselves, writes Peter Sutherland

Although windy autumn weather affected sea crossings from Turkey over the past few days, refugee arrivals in Greece continue to climb and are expected to reach the 400,000 mark shortly. Greece remains by far the largest single entry point for new sea arrivals in the Mediterranean, followed by Italy with 131,000 arrivals so far in 2015.

Most children don’t want to talk about the war. They dream of going back to school, writes Aleksandar Lazovski

Austria said 71 refugees including a baby girl were found dead in an abandoned freezer truck, while Libya recovered the bodies of 82 migrants washed ashore after their overcrowded boat sank on its way to Europe and scores more were feared dead.

At least 3,500 refugees drowned close to European shores in 2014, but the EU shows no willingness to change the very policies that have led to this crisis, writes Aurélie Ponthieu.

Up to 300 people are now unaccounted for after boats carrying migrants sank in the Mediterranean, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

An indigenous woman has been burned alive in Paraguay after being accused of witchcraft.

Israeli troops have uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and battled Gaza militants on the second day of a ground operation, as the Palestinian death toll climbed past 330 and diplomats scrambled to revive ceasefire efforts.

An Italian government minister born in Africa watched wordlessly today as soldiers wearing face masks carried body bags containing migrants from her continent who perished when a fishing boat sank within sight of the tiny island of Lampedusa.

Some 54 people have died of thirst trying to reach Italy from Libya by sea.

A United Nations agency said it is deplorable that Brazil’s top appeals court has ruled that sex with a 12-year-old does not necessarily constitute statutory rape.

THOUSANDS of Somalis fleeing drought, famine and war have started moving into a new extension of the world’s largest refugee camp in Kenya, which is increasingly concerned about bearing the brunt of the Horn of Africa crisis.

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.

A WOODEN boat packed with asylum seekers smashed against jagged rocks in a storm off an Australian island yesterday, killing at least 27 people.

ANGELINA JOLIE has called on Thailand’s government to give more freedom to tens of thousands of Burmese refugees it has kept locked inside camps for up to 20 years.

Thirty-seven Somali migrants drowned off the coast of Yemen when smugglers forced them to jump from boats to elude authorities, it is reported.

The Iraqi refugee crisis in neighbouring countries could spread unless the United States and the EU take urgent measures, a human rights group said today.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS Minister Dermot Ahern last night insisted he would make no apologies for suggesting the undocumented Irish in America should be treated more leniently than illegal immigrants in Ireland.

The United Nations and Save the Children said today that staff of many relief agencies have been accused of sexually exploiting West African refugee children they are supposed to be helping.