A humanitarian ship funded by British street artist Banksy was seized in Lampedusa on Sunday after rescuing 178 refugees and migrants. Authorities said it had breached new rules for ships operated by non-governmental organizations carrying out search and rescue in the central Mediterranean Sea.
Italian bishops said at the spring session of the Permanent Episcopal Council in Rome last week that migrants should be welcomed into the country instead of being pushed back.
The number of migrants reaching the southern Italy is reaching new records. Over the weekend, a total of 5,573 people were reported to have made their way to the EU territory. Many fear the beginnings of another migration crisis.
Libya's coast guard fired warning shots over a humanitarian vessel as it attempted to rescue a rubber boat carrying migrants off Libya's coast over the weekend, sea rescue group SOS Mediterranee said. Another charity published footage of shots fired in the water in an apparent attempt to force migrants on board.
The organization Doctors without Borders (MSF) rescued 190 migrants in the early hours of Friday morning. Several unaccompanied minors are among those on board the Geo Barents rescue ship.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said that Italy was "left alone" to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean, rejecting accusations that children are being "left to die" at sea.
On Thursday, the Italian coast guard rescued around 750 migrants from two boats off the coast of Italy. Last month, a shipwreck off the Italian coast of Calabria killed at least 89 people, making it the worst maritime tragedy in recent history.
At least 86 migrants are known to have died in a deadly shipwreck in Italy last month. Observers say it highlights the need to reform the European Union's migration and asylum policy. DW's Rosie Birchard visited the scene of the disaster.
After a shipwreck off southern Italy in late February left 88 people dead, smugglers still asked survivors to pay for the trip, a witness told a preliminary investigations judge this week.
Maka is a Malian refugee who arrived in Italy six years ago. Emanuele is an Italian living in the province of Parma. This the story of their friendship.
New items of surveillance equipment known as 'camera traps' are to be installed along the border between Slovenia and Italy. The devices will be used to detect undocumented migrants and smugglers on this part of the so-called Balkans route.
Survivors of the February 26 shipwreck off Steccato di Cutro in the southern Calabria region and a 17-year-old Pakistani national accused of smuggling have appeared in court.