News reports in the recent months have confirmed that people smugglers are increasingly abusing migrants for personal gains, and human rights organizations constantly warn of human rights abuses and dire conditions in Libyan detention centers.
A new migrant rescue ship has set sail for the waters off Libya. The Italian-flagged private vessel "Mare Jonio" says it is motivated by "moral disobedience and civil obedience" in the face of growing opposition to such rescue missions by the Italian government.
The Organization for Migration (IOM) has released new statistics on migrant crossings to Europe via the Atlantic Ocean. So far, 1,741 people have died trying to make it to Europe through the Mediterranean.
The Spanish non-governmental organization Proactiva Open Arms set out to a new search-and-rescue operation in the Mediterranean this weekend. The crew is headed toward the sea stretch between Libya and Italy.
A group of Nigerian migrants held captive inside a detention center in Libya have been rescued after releasing a video taken on their phones. The footage went viral on social media and caught the attention of the authorities.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has launched a website to improve the participation and inclusion of displaced women in the management of camps.
A total of 76 Ethiopians stranded in Libya returned to their country through a voluntary repatriation program of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). It was the highest number of people repatriated from Libya so far.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reports that not all people aboard the ship Aquarius are impoverished and traveling aboard rickety boats. Some are well-off and from the middle class, journeying on less dangerous boats to escape the chaos in Tripoli, MSF said.
UNICEF has reported that half a million children continue to be at risk in Tripoli due to violence that started on August 27. "The increasing violence in Tripoli, Libya is endangering thousands of children. Eight kids were killed over the past weeks and thousands of families have been displaced," said the executive director of UNICEF, Henrietta Ford, on Twitter.
Vincent Cochetel, the UN Refugee Agency's special envoy for the Central Mediterranean route, told ANSA in an interview that the situation in Libya has become 'extremely critical,' and that the agency no longer has access to official detention centers.
Panama authorities have begun procedures to revoke the registration of the Aquarius 2, the last migrant rescue ship operating in the central Mediterranean. Charities say the Italian government is to blame for the move.
The International Organization for Migration released figures showing that over 77,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean so far in 2018. In the same period, there have been 1,723 migrants who died trying to cross the Mediterranean.