Greece aims to send back asylum seekers from Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria and Bangladesh who arrive from Turkey. The government says they are not in danger in Turkey and have no need of protection in Europe.
Mohamed* was just 14 years old when he left Somalia, entrusting his life to traffickers in hopes of reaching Europe. In Libya, he was tortured and almost died from tuberculosis. Thanks to a humanitarian corridor, the 17-year-old was able to transfer to Italy and receive medical care.
Restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 impacted more than 300,000 people in East Africa and the Horn of Africa last year, a new report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) found. Meanwhile, the number of migrant crossing to Yemen dramatically decreased in 2020.
A Somali asylum seeker has been sentenced to 146 years in prison for human smuggling by a Greek court, according to the European Council on Refugees and Exiles. Other migrants defended the man in court, saying that he started steering their boat to save lives after a capsizing.
At least 39 people have died after their boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti in East Africa. The UN migration agency IOM said 16 of the victims were children.
The UN migration agency, regional governments and 38 partner countries have launched an appeal for 99 million dollars in aid for over half a million migrants in the Horn of Africa and Yemen.
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.
116 refugees who had been living in Greek camps flew into the German city of Hanover on Wednesday, February 17. The group was composed of 53 adults and 63 children.
Nearly 1,600 unaccompanied minors are currently reported as missing in Germany. Nearly 1,000 of them were reportedly aged between 14 and 17 years and just over 600 children were aged 13 and younger.
Near the Louvre Museum in Paris, an unusual housing project is underway. Eleven refugees and thirteen French people are spending a year living together as a unique 'family'.
The Greek government says recent arrivals of Somali migrants may have been coordinated by Turkish authorities. The Greek migration minister said the Somalis were being helped to obtain visas to enter Turkey legally and then continue on to Greece.
The body of a second migrant has been located in waters off the Greek island of Lesbos after a boat carrying more than 30 people sank. On Wednesday a young woman's body was recovered by the Greek coast guard.