Nigerians among 300,000 migrants now employed in Germany

Germany’s labour agency says efforts to integrate refugees in the country’s labour market are progressing well, with more than 300,000 people from eight main countries of origin in work by this spring.

Federal Labour Agency chief Detlef Scheele told news agency dpa Tuesday that the figures are slightly better than expected. In May, over 300,000 people from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and Somalia had a job — 103,000 more than a year earlier.

The Associated Press reports that more than 187,000 refugees were registered as unemployed in July, a figure that has been fairly constant for months. Ensuring that refugees learn German remains a main focus.

Germany saw more than 1 million refugees and other migrants arrive in 2015-2016, but new arrivals have declined steeply.

The Italian coast guard ship Diciotto has made port in the Sicilian city of Catania with 177 migrants awaiting word on which countries will take them following another standoff between Malta and Italy.

Though the ship made port late Monday, the Italian government is not allowing the migrants to disembark pending a decision by the European Union on where they will go.

The migrants, rescued last week, include 28 unaccompanied minors.

Malta has declined to take them, saying the smugglers’ boat they were in was not in distress as it passed Maltese waters and that, in any case, the migrants preferred to continue to Italy.

Italy has asked the EU to work out a solution and follows a threat by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini to send them back to Libya.