A total of 80,366 applications for migrant regularization in Italy have been submitted in the first month of the scheme, which began on June 1 as part of post-COVID-19 relaunch measures. The vast majority of the cases have already been processed. However, the Italian interior ministry said the number of applications is continually growing.
A UN special rapporteur has called out the "shocking abuse" of migrants picking strawberries in Spain. The migrants are mainly Moroccan women, who come in on seasonal visas to carry out the work. Their treatment has long been criticized by human rights groups working in the field of migrant rights.
A poll carried out by the IPSOS research agency found that 64% of young Moroccan citizens surveyed in six EU countries reported that they had a hard time finding a job. The study also found that 57% experienced problems finding adequate housing, and that 42% felt they had problems with practicing their religion.
Morocco's navy says it saved nearly 100 migrants on several boats in the Mediterranean, according to the country's official MAP news agency. The migrants were reportedly traveling in the direction of Spain on several boats on June 18.
Nearly 1,800 cases of missing children among unaccompanied migrants in Germany have been registered, according to a parliamentary enquiry. The number, however, has been falling steadily.
To fill the gap of trained seasonal foreign workers to harvest its crops, Italy has opened corridors for non-EU farmworkers who have had a work contract with Italian firms for years. Carrying over 100 farmworkers from Morocco, the first charter flight arrived in Italy on Thursday.
More than 22,000 Moroccan workers have been stuck abroad since Morocco suspended flights into the country in mid-March due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Over the last month they have been demonstrating, demanding to be allowed to return home.
In southern Spain, migrant workers have long been relied upon to pick crops. But under the current COVID-19 lockdown, many have found themselves jobless and reliant on food from charity groups.
A hunger strike at a migrant holding facility in the Tunisian capital Tunis has ended last Friday after authorities met at least some of the demands of the migrants living at the center under difficult conditions. But demands to have migrants released continue to amass.
The Italian authorities have discovered a cleaning cooperative in northern Italy that falsified documents in order to obtain working papers for 162 foreign nationals. The cooperative had been allegedly evading taxes entirely since it was set up.
Spain will make it easier for migrants and the unemployed to find work in agriculture. This marks the latest move in the country’s efforts to tackle a shortfall of farm workers due to the coronavirus.
53 migrants have climbed a barbed-wire fence into the Spanish enclave of Melilla in North Africa. Spanish guards stopped more than 200 others from entering.