The United Nations refugee agency urged European nations to form a unified response to the persistent migrant crisis after rescue groups assisted more than 2,000 migrants at sea over the weekend.

The Italian coast guard said it rescued more than 2,500 migrants on Saturday and Sunday. Eight migrants died, and another 52 others remain missing. On Friday, Doctors without Borders said it rescued 716 migrants and confirmed one death. The migrants were traveling from war-torn Libya to Europe.

Some 1,700 migrants have died at sea while attempting the dangerous journey from Libya to Europe. Italy and Greece have recorded the highest number of arrivals, with more than 58,000 migrants crossing into Italy and another 7,000 entering Greece, according to the International Organization for Migration. Both countries are battling mounting pressure to process the arrivals while also protecting their borders.

“Solutions cannot just be in Italy,” the UN said in a statement. “It is also important that broad regional responsibility sharing responses for disembarkation are developed urgently.”

But many European nations hesitate to welcome migrants. Following recent terror attacks in Manchester and London, Czech Republic announced last week it would no longer take in asylum-seekers under the continent’s relocation program. European countries are expected to admit a portion of the 160,000 asylum-seekers stuck in Greece and Italy as part of a 2015 agreement that expires in September. Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said the country reached its decision “due to the aggravated security situation and the dysfunctionality of the whole system.”

Czech Republic has resettled only 12 of its 2,691 refugee quota. Countries like Poland and Hungary have not accepted a single person under their quota. Overall, fewer than 18,500 of the 160,000 refugees covered under the plan have been relocated.

Ebrahim Deen, an analyst with the South Africa-based Afro Middle East Center, said many European countries do not trust the migrant vetting process and the upsurge in attacks across the continent has only made them more wary. Europe’s long-term response to the crisis needs to tackle the migration triggers, Deen said, but a cooperative response would help countries better handle the increasing number of migrants already on the continent.

“Europe is pulling in all different directions right now, so the center is no longer holding,” Deen said. “The European institutions need to become a lot stronger in enforcing their policies.”

A woman protests the arrest of dozens of Iraqi Christian immigrants in Sterling Heights, Mich. Associated Press/Photo by Todd McInturf/Detroit News

U.S. launches mass deportation of Iraqi Christians

U.S. immigration officials left Michigan’s Iraqi Christian community visibly shaken over the weekend after they arrested more than 40 people in the latest immigration roundup.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials picked up the migrants at their homes and workplaces, mostly on Sunday. The migrants are in custody in Ohio. Michigan is home to one of the largest Chaldean communities, a denomination of Iraqi Christians.

Iraq agreed in April to start repatriating its citizens deported from the United States. In return, the Trump administration removed the country from its temporary travel ban list, which remains blocked by federal courts. More than 1,400 Iraqis in the United States are at risk of deportation.

ICE said in a statement that all the arrested immigrants had criminal convictions and an immigration judge ordered their deportation after full and fair proceedings. The court issued most of the orders before the United States reached its agreement with Iraq.

But Martin Manna, president of the Iraqi Chaldean Community Foundation, told Detroit Free Press that sending the Christians back to Iraq “is like a death sentence.”

Iraq currently ranks seventh on the World Watch List of worst countries for Christians. In 2003, Iraq had 1.4 million Christians, but the community has dwindled to fewer than 200,000 now, Manna said.

The United States has intensified its enforcement of immigration policies in recent months. Immigration officials deported four Indonesian Christians from New Jersey earlier this month. —O.O.

A woman protests the arrest of dozens of Iraqi Christian immigrants in Sterling Heights, Mich. Associated Press/Photo by Todd McInturf/Detroit News

Religious, ethnic minorities face persecution in Kurdistan

About 2 million people have fled to Kurdistan, in Northern Iraq, in recent years, escaping conflict, terrorism, and persecution in Syria and Iraq.

Along with the Kurdish majority, minorities of Assyrian Christians, Yazidi, Sunni Arabs, Sunni and Shi’a Turks, and other ethnic and religious groups all now occupy the region. Those minorities found a haven with “comparatively robust” religious freedom, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

But only comparatively. Last week, USCIRF issued a report warning religious and ethnic minorities in Kurdistan need greater protection, especially if the recently announced independence referendum, scheduled for Sept. 25, succeeds.

In spite of the region’s diversity, discrimination and violence against ethnic and religious minorities persists. They report systemic bias and often live as second-class citizens who endure arbitrary legal decisions. USCIRF also found Yazidis pressured to identify as Kurds, persecution of people who criticize Kurdish authorities, and Kurds seizing land from Christians.

Kurdish police blocked a peaceful Christian demonstration against land encroachment in April 2016, Human Rights Watch reported. UN agencies also face accusations of ignoring the needs of displaced Christians living in the region, according to World Watch Monitor.

USCIRF urged the United States and others to encourage regional authorities to institute reforms to protect religious freedom and minority rights now so that they exist if the region becomes its own nation. —Julia A. Seymour

A woman protests the arrest of dozens of Iraqi Christian immigrants in Sterling Heights, Mich. Associated Press/Photo by Todd McInturf/Detroit News

Indonesian military sparks protest after burning Bibles

A church in Indonesia’s predominantly Christian Papua province said a protest against military officials last month started because soldiers burned some Bibles at their base. Military officials at first claimed they only burned garbage and a book on theology.

The Evangelical Christian Church said a priest and another man from a local congregation took pictures of burnt Bibles at the facility and removed several as evidence. Reports of the incident spread on social media and angry locals gathered outside the military base on May 25 in a protest that quickly grew violent. The church said the protesters threw rocks and blocked streets with burning tires. Early reports of the unrest said some protesters injured the town’s chief of police. Security officials in response fired on the crowd from two armored vehicles, contradicting earlier claims they only used water cannons to quell the crowd.

Following the church’s report, military spokesman Teguh Pudji Rahardjo confirmed the Bible burning, but claimed it was an accident. He said an investigation into the incident is ongoing, according to the Daily Caller. “Like all Indonesians, we as members of the Indonesian military are religious people and we respect all religions,” Rahardjo said. — O.O.

Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram step up attacks

Al-Shabaab militants said they killed nearly 70 people when they stormed a military base in Somalia’s Puntland region. The attack is one of the country’s deadliest in recent years.

The extremists launched the attack with an explosion at Af-Urur camp before they overran the base. They killed military officials and civilians at close range, beheading many of them. Reinforcement troops eventually reached the base and drove out the extremists. Al-Shabaab claimed it killed some 61 soldiers through its Shahada News Agency, but security officials said only about 38 people died. Hospitals treated 40 others.

Somali President Mohamed Farmaajo, who has declared war on the terror group, promised to avenge the attack. The U.S. military on Sunday said it killed eight al-Shabaab extremists in an airstrike on the group’s logistics camp. The Pentagon said the military conducted the strike with regional cooperation under increased authority granted by President Donald Trump in March.

The Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies has classified al-Shabaab as the continent’s deadliest terror group after killings increased in the past year. The group has risen above Boko Haram, whose casualties continue to dwindle despite continued, sporadic attacks.

Boko Haram insurgents last week launched the group’s biggest attack in recent months, killing at least 13 people in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri. The extremists targeted four locations in the city, just as Muslims wrapped up evening prayers during the month of Ramadan. They targeted a mosque and burned down some houses in the region. Commissioner of police Damian Chukwu said security forces killed three of the attackers and arrested a fourth. —O.O.

Qadaffi’s son released in Libya

An armed group in Libya said it has released Seif al-Islam, the son of late Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, after detaining him more than five years ago.

The Abu Bakr al-Siddiq militia confirmed Seif’s release but did not disclose his whereabouts for safety reasons. His release comes under an amnesty law recently passed by Libya’s eastern parliament. Spokesman Abdallah Bilhaq said the law is part of a process to move forward from the chaos that has plagued the country in recent years.

Fighters captured Seif in 2011, during the uprising that toppled and killed his father. The country remains divided, with several armed groups and governments ruling different parts of the country. It’s still unclear what role Seif might play in the country. Prior to his arrest, Seif was considered his father’s likely successor. His lawyer, Khaled al-Zaidi, told CNN Seif could help with national reconciliation, since many Libyans support him.

“Unlike the different governments, the will of the people is where he gets his power from,” al-Zaidi said. “In every part of Libya he is protected by the Libyan tribes.”

But Human Rights Watch said the amnesty law does not alter the charges of crimes against humanity that Seif faces. The group called on Libyan authorities to confirm Seif’s whereabouts and surrender him to the International Criminal Court. —O.O.