At least eight people have died and searches are continuing for at least one person believed to be missing after a boat capsized and sank off the Spanish Canary Islands on Tuesday evening.
The Spanish Constitutional Court, the country's highest court, has announced that it would back fast deportations of migrants who attempt to enter Spain’s north African enclaves Ceuta and Melilla.
Sarah Bettache is 27 years old and lives in France. When she heard that her younger brother Ahmed had made it over the Atlantic from Morocco and arrived safely on the Canary Islands, she set off to find him on Gran Canaria.
Protestors on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria have rallied in support of better living conditions for the thousands of migrants who have reached the Canary Islands from Africa in recent weeks and months. The Spanish archipelago saw almost 1,300 migrants arrive from Africa on 42 wooden boats during the weekend alone.
Four migrants have perished in the attempt to reach Melilla, one of two tiny Spanish autonomous cities on Morocco's Mediterranean coast, via a sewer tunnel.
More African migrants have been making the dangerous journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the Canary Islands. The coronavirus pandemic has been just one factor driving the rise in arrivals.
Morroco's coastguard said that it intercepted 231 migrants at sea earlier in the week. They were reportedly all coming from sub-Saharan Africa.
The Aachen Peace Prize 2020 is being awarded to Père Antoine Exelmans, a priest who has dedicated his life to helping migrants and refugees in Morocco. The German award is given each year to women, men or groups who fight against injustice and for peace.
168 migrants tried to cross the western Mediterranean from Morocco to Spain last week with makeshift crafts. Morocco's coast guard said it stopped the attempted crossings and returned the migrants to Morocco.
A video published on the website of the Maltese newspaper Times of Malta shows footage purporting to be from inside the Safi military barracks on the island nation where migrants claim they are being held for months at a time. Conditions are so bad, some are begging to be allowed to return home.
Migrants arriving in Spain’s Canary Islands are at their highest level in over a decade. On Gran Canaria, reception centers are full and over 200 people have been forced to camp on the dockside.
A man died on Thursday when a group of about 300 tried to storm the border fence separating the Spanish enclave Melilla from Morocco. Spanish authorities also discovered a boat near the Canary Islands with ten corpses on board.