Italian authorities have arrested two men who are accused of holding migrants captive in a detention camp in Libya. Four Bangladeshi migrants recognized the two suspects and said they worked at a camp in central Libya where they were imprisoned and tortured, investigators said.
The UN migration agency (IOM) has said Libya's coast guard over the weekend returned 83 Europe-bound migrants to Libya and brought them to detention centers. Around 6,000 migrants have reportedly been intercepted and brought back to Libya this year.
The UN refugee agency is once again calling for the release of migrants from detention centers in Libya. According to UNHCR, there are eleven official centers holding over 2,300 people in Libya, and many unofficial facilities about which little is known.
Pope Francis has likened the living conditions in migrant detention centers in Libya to concentration camps. The comments came during a mass commemorating the pontiff's journey to the Italian island of Lampedusa seven years ago.
A group of 50 people who were rescued at sea and stranded on a livestock transport ship has been allowed to disembark in Malta. The MV Talia picked up the migrants off Libya on Saturday but Malta and Italy refused them permission to land.
52 people rescued from the Mediterranean on Saturday remain stranded on a livestock transport ship, MV Talia. Both Italy and Malta have denied them permission to disembark.
After multiple suicide attempts over the past few days, migrants aboard the private rescue ship Ocean Viking will be moved to a quarantine vessel in Sicily.
A group of human rights activists and lawyers took their case to prosecutors to a court in Rome on Thursday, asking them to determine whether the Italian authorities were complicit in an incident involving a migrant boat at Easter, in which 12 people drowned and the 51 survivors were taken back to Libya.
Dozens of migrants continue to wait on board the Ocean Viking ship, after Italy and Malta both refused to grant safe harbor to the private rescue vessel. SOS Mediterranee , which runs the Ocean Viking, said it had sent five requests to both countries over the past week, asking for the boat to dock.
A year after she was arrested for bringing 53 rescued migrants ashore in Italy without permission, sea captain Carola Rackete says nothing has fundamentally changed for migrants crossing the Mediterranean. The German activist also endorsed a campaign against the EU border agency Frontex.
Migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean are regularly being picked up by the Libyan authorities and returned to Libya. Charities report their rescue ships are often out-run by Libyan coast guards who beat them to take the migrants back. Nearly 500 migrants have been returned to Libya in recent days, according to the UN migration agency IOM.
There are currently 118 rescued migrants on board the Ocean Viking ship in the Mediterranean, the majority of them hail from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Eritrea. Some of those on board spoke to AFP, telling them about their experiences of slavery in Libya.