The Lithuanian interior minister says migrant arrivals from Belarus have stopped, while the foreign minister visited Iraqi officials to discuss the repatriation of Iraqi nationals stranded at the Belarus-Lithuania border.
European Union and UNHCR officials have announced that Latvia, Lithuania and Poland still use "pushbacks and other violations of human rights" at the borders to keep migrants out. They added that they are also denying access to aid groups trying to help people in the border region with Belarus.
Germany remains the number one destination country for migrants in Europe, according to the Migration Report 2020, published by the German government on Wednesday. Overall immigration to Germany, however, fell by 23.9% compared to numbers in 2019.
Last year, more than 28,000 migrants crossed the Channel from France to the UK in small boats. At least 44 people died or went missing during the attempt.
In 2021, more than 11,000 migrants have entered Germany using irregular means from Belarus, traveling through Poland. The number of arrivals reached a peak of almost 5,300 people in October.
Germany's Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration Reem Alabali-Radovan said that she does not want to treated as a token example of successful integration efforts in Germany. Instead, she wants to keep a dialogue open between the government and migrant communities.
The bodies of at least 16 Kurdish migrants were returned to Iraq after their attempt to cross the English Channel ended in tragedy. The incident claimed a total of 27 lives.
At least four migrants have died after their boat hit an islet in the Aegean Sea in the second deadly incident involving migrants in southern Greek waters in the past two days.
The Paris prosecutor's office has received a lawsuit accusing several regional government bodies of failure to provide help in last month's boat wreck in the English Channel that cost the lives of at least 27 people trying to reach Britain.
Northeastern Syria is experiencing its worst drought in nearly 70 years, with rising temperatures and erratic weather exacerbated by tensions with Turkey.
A 25-year-old man who managed to cross Belarus and Poland died late last month just after reaching Germany. Baxtyar Anwar’s body was returned home to Iraqi Kurdistan for burial on Sunday.
On Wednesday, a four-year-old Iraqi girl was reported missing at the Polish-Belarus border. The child was separated from her parents after they crossed into Poland on Monday night.