Libyan authorities have arrested the main suspect in the murder of 30 migrants last year. The migrants, mostly Bangladeshis, were killed last May in the city of Mezdah, south of Libya's capital Tripoli.
Between Friday and Sunday, some 550 migrants were rescued in the Central Mediterranean. While the private rescue organization Sea-Watch said it saved some 450 people, a Libyan patrol boat picked up nearly 100 from a shipwreck, in which 20 passengers are reported missing.
As thousands of migrants continue to be intercepted at sea, the Libyan government that took office earlier this month has said that migration is beyond its control and not among its priorities, as it must focus on reconciliation and prepare the ground for elections later this year.
Pietro Bartolo, a member of the European Parliament and for years the "doctor of migrants" who landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa, said Europe has the greatest responsibility for what is still happening in the Mediterranean and in Libya, and that it "doesn't do what it should do".
In recent years terrifying accounts and images of migrants’ suffering in Libya, especially in the country’s detention centres, have spread across the world. The migrants’ journey through Libya is divided up into several stages, with each leg characterized by its own cruel reality. InfoMigrants has spoken with a source in Libya, who is familiar with the mechanisms of the smuggling networks and how migrants are moved inside the country before they are finally put on boats to Europe. In this part of our series we take you through the last leg of their journey to Tripoli, with details we have never shared before.
In the central Mediterranean, the race against time to reach the EU is turning to a race against Libya's coast guard. With mounting reports on stand-offs between Libyan maritime authorities and NGOs in international waters, fewer migrants are succeeding in making their way to Europe. They are instead returned to Libya.
In recent years terrifying accounts and images of migrants’ suffering in Libya, especially in the country’s detention centres, have spread across the world. The migrants’ journey through Libya is divided up into several stages, with each leg characterized by its own cruel reality. InfoMigrants has spoken with a source in Libya, who is familiar with the mechanisms of the smuggling networks and how migrants are moved inside the country before they are finally put on boats to Europe. In this two-part series, we take you through the migrants’ journey, with details we have never shared before.
Members of Libyan government ministries and other officials are this week taking part in an online course in migrant and refugee protection. It is hoped that the course will enable the sharing of best practices and experience, the organizers say.
Some 350 African migrants, including over 100 children, have reportedly been freed from a secret prison in southeast Libya. The UN migration agency, IOM, said many of them were malnourished and had been abused.
The incoming Libyan prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, has said that he wants to strengthen Libya's "privileged relationship" with Italy, focusing in particular on immigration.
102 migrants, including two pregnant women and a seven-month-old baby, were disembarked from the Aita Mari rescue ship at the Sicilian port of Augusta on Monday. They had all been rescued on Friday in the Mediterranean Sea.
Five Eritrean citizens have filed a lawsuit in the civil court in Rome against Italian authorities for what they claim was an illegitimate pushback to Libya on July 2, 2018.