Thousands of Albanians who work in Greece have been unable to re-enter the country. New anti-coronavirus rules imposed by Athens require them to be COVID-tested three days before they are allowed across the border.
A total of 80,366 applications for migrant regularization in Italy have been submitted in the first month of the scheme, which began on June 1 as part of post-COVID-19 relaunch measures. The vast majority of the cases have already been processed. However, the Italian interior ministry said the number of applications is continually growing.
German police have raided 26 premises across the country on Wednesday during an operation to dismantle human trafficking rings. Three suspects have been detained, who are alleged to have links to a criminal group run by a 65-year-old Kosovan national, who was also arrested.
Western Balkan workers are critical to some German industries, but a migration scheme may be greatly reduced. The CDU party wants to starkly reduce the number of Western Balkan workers coming to Germany.
According to an investigation by the magazine Balkan Insight, increasing numbers of migrants in Albania are being left hungry and frightened in state-run facilities. They are reduced to begging on the streets to get by.
Over 200 suspected traffickers and migrant smugglers have been arrested in an Interpol-led operation. Victims of the rings came from 14 different countries.
A global study by the United Nations has called on countries to end the detention of child migrants. Hundreds of thousands of children are held in immigration detention in more than 80 countries worldwide. The study claims this violates children's rights and does serious harm to their physical and mental health.
Since the beginning of the year, Germany has deported nearly 17,000 people. The vast majority of them were moved to to EU countries, following the Dublin Regulation.
Albania's Defense Ministry said that one of its ships in the Aegean Sea has rescued 111 migrants. The migrants were trying to cross into Greece from Turkey and have since been handed over to Turkish authorities.
Two months ago, the EU border and coastguard police Frontex deployed 50 officers to the Greek-Albanian border to intercept migrants headed north. So far, migrants have been apprehended on a daily basis, Frontex says.
Germany’s government says the EU’s Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, has helped Albania prevent cross-border crime, among other things. The operation with 66 border guards from 12 member states was launched two months ago. It's the first time that Frontex exercises its powers in a non-EU member state.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), human trafficking and ‘modern slavery’ is on the rise across the globe and taking on ‘horrific dimensions.’ But what kinds of factors make people vulnerable to being trafficked? A new report investigates.