The Belgian government announced a breakthrough on Wednesday, as hundreds of migrants stopped their hunger strike in Brussels after authorities signalled their willingness to renegotiate the situation. However, it is not clear if they will ultimately gain the right to remain in the country.
Fears continue to grow for the health of hundreds of undocumented migrants in Belgium who have stepped up a hunger strike aimed at getting the authorities to let them stay. The migrants have been refusing to eat for two months.
Morocco's navy says it has rescued 344 migrants, including women and children, after their boats ran into difficulty in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Migrant arrivals to Spain are on track to match last year's numbers.
A group of 119 migrants scaled a fence and crossed the border into the Spanish enclave of Melilla from neighboring Morocco on Monday. They were taken to the city's migrant reception center.
Almost 2,100 migrants are estimated to have died trying to reach Spain by sea during the first half of 2021. The death toll is close to figures for the entire previous year, according to the non-governmental organization Caminando Fronteras.
Human smugglers often subject migrants to extreme violence, torture, rape and kidnapping. Authorities take little action to persecute these crimes, according to a new report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
A prominent figure in the Algerian pro-democracy movement Hirak was found among a group of migrants on a boat heading to Spain. Chems Eddine Laalami and others on the boat were, however, intercepted by the Algerian coast guard, a rights group said Tuesday.
The European Parliament recently adopted a resolution in which it rejected "Morocco's use of border control and migration, and unaccompanied minors in particular, as political pressure against a member state of the EU [namely Spain]."
20-year-old Ayoub snuck into Melilla as a minor and has been living in the small Spanish enclave for three years. Originally from a small village near Fez, he says he never wants to go back there "because life in Morocco offers me nothing." He told InfoMigrants he is "stuck" living on the streets and wants "more than anything" to get to the mainland to start a new life.
Morocco is to facilitate the re-entry of stranded unaccompanied minors who recently entered the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, after thousands crossed the border in May.
The general prosecutor's office in Spain has opened an inquiry into whether any migrants under age 18 were pushed back among those that were forced to leave the Ceuta enclave after the arrival of thousands of people in only a few days from Morocco.
A new guide in several languages aims to help families and loved ones who are searching for missing migrants. The guide also highlights the rights of families and the responsibilities of countries for those who are missing.