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.
The UN agencies for refugees, migration, and human rights, and the World Health organization have released a statement, calling on countries worldwide to protect the rights and health of refugees, migrants and stateless people amid the coronavirus pandemic.
A migrant camp north of the Greek capital Athens has been placed under quarantine after 20 asylum seekers there tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Dunja Mijatovic, the human rights commissioner of the Council of Europe, has asked member states to release as many people as possible from detention centers for migrants amid the coronavirus emergency. She says that these facilities "provide poor opportunities for social distancing and other measures to protect against Covid-19 infection."
The EU agency Frontex has reported that the number of irregular border crossings on Europe's main migratory routes in January and February 2020 rose by 27% compared to the same period last year.
Migrants and ethnic minority groups in Europe are at greater than average risk of needing an organ transplant. But they represent a very small proportion of organ donors. In Germany, which requires donors to opt in, encouraging people from diverse backgrounds to take this step is especially important.
On Monday, a Frontex operated repatriation flight took off from Spain’s Canary Islands for Mauritania. 51 African migrants were on board. This is the third such flight this year, says the Spanish Ombudsman. The repatriations are a result of a 2003 agreement signed between Spain and Mauritania.
Spanish authorities are searching for migrants on three boats missing in the Atlantic Ocean. Another boat capsized on Tuesday en route to the Canary Islands. 14 people, including two children, reportedly died.
Spanish rescuers picked up a total of 87 migrants in three different boats last week, including a baby who had been born in one of the boats just before the rescue.
Rescued migrants onboard Spanish NGO rescue vessel Aita Mari could finally go ashore at the southern Italian port city of Messina on Friday. The vessel had picked up 158 migrants several days earlier. In a separate development, the Maltese coast guard on Thursday and Friday picked up some 160 people from three boats; there were allegations that officials had waited for 18 hours before taking any action.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that Spain was not in violation of European law when it returned two migrants to Morocco who, along with several dozen others, had scaled the border fence at the Spanish enclave of Melilla in northwest Africa in 2014.