Sudanese teenager Mazen Adam has been freed from a Libyan detention center after being kidnapped and tortured by gunmen. Libyan authorities have still not dropped charges against the boy, insisting the kidnapping was fabricated.
In a secret underground prison in the south of Libya, Muhamad experienced love. There, he met Amina, who gave him new hope in life. They fell in love and got married -- in the same miserable location. However, just shortly after, Amina was kidnapped by a group of smugglers. In grief, Muhamad decided to rebel against his jailers and search for his beloved Amina. He fled. This is the story of "Love in Hell," a short documentary produced by InfoMigrants and France 24.
According to IOM Libya, 1,067 migrants were intercepted by the Libyan authorities and brought back to Libya between January 1 and January 7. Conditions for migrants in Libya are consistently being described as "undignified" and "inhumane."
On December 31st, in the presence of dozens of police, coast guard officials and medics, the Ocean Viking rescue ship disembarked the last of 113 migrants at the port of Ravenna in northern Italy. Frey Lindsay reports for InfoMigrants.
On Wednesday, a baby boy was born on board the migrant rescue ship Geo Barents in the central Mediterranean. The baby’s mother fled Libya with her three other sons. A second woman on board was also nine months pregnant. Both have now been evacuated.
Maïmouna, a 33-year-old Ivorian, always dreamed of starting her own business in the Ivory Coast. Lacking funds, she decided to migrate to Europe to work. She hoped the money she'd earn could enable her to return home to realize her dream and help her family. But the journey through Libya, marred by kidnapping and imprisonment, killed all her hopes.
Last week 500 migrants landed in Greece on a rusty fishing vessel, revealing a new and until now rather discreet route: From eastern Libya to southern Italy.
Politically divided Libya has reportedly sent more than 200 irregular migrants back across its land borders with Egypt, Sudan and Chad. A recent UN report suggests that migrants in Libya are often "compelled to accept 'assisted return' to their home countries," possibly in inhumane conditions.
A Bangladeshi man, suspected of migrant smuggling and human trafficking, has been arrested in Bangladesh. The man is accused of smuggling Bangladeshis to Europe through Libya.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) claims that Malta has sent migrants back to Egypt — in violation of various international maritime conventions. The charity believes that this wasn't the first time that Malta was allegedly in violation of the principle of non-refoulement.
Activists gathered in Italian cities, including Rome and Naples, to protest against the Italy-Libya agreement, citing concerns over human rights abuses.
The medical humanitarian charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) runs a special clinic in Palermo, Sicily, for migrant survivors of torture and violence on their way to Italy. InfoMigrants went to meet those who run it.