Merkel to meet UN refugee Chief in Berlin

With the global migration crisis showing no sign of abating, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is scheduled to meet UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in Berlin on Friday.

The director-general of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), William Swing, is also expected to attend the talks which would be followed by lunch and a press conference at 2 p.m. (1200 GMT).

In 2016, 65.5 million people fled war, violence and persecution, an increase of 300,000 compared to 2015, according to UN figures.

Syrians made up one in five of the displaced.

New fronts appeared to be opening up in the crisis as people smuggling rings respond to tougher border security measures.

Many countries, including Europe, tighten their domestic migration policies.

At least six migrants died when smugglers pushed a total of 180 from a boat off the southern coast of Yemen, the second of such drowning in the same area in two days.

In Europe, there has been a spike in arrivals to the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast.

Greece and Italy have so far taken the brunt of the humanitarian crisis in Europe.