European Union countries plus Norway and Switzerland saw a 10 percent drop in international protection requests in 2018 compared with 2017. The EU border agency, Frontex, also says arrivals via the Central Mediterranean route in January were 73 percent down on the previous month.
The mayors of some Italian and Spanish cities are challenging the politics of national sovereignty and blocked ports, by signing an alliance in support of NGOs working in migrant rescue in the Mediterranean. Just three months ahead of European elections, the signatories said the pact aims to "save Europe from itself.”
Doctors Without Borders has denounced that migrants between France and Spain are trapped in a ''relentless cycle of rejection'' by French authorities.
Migrant arrivals to Spain continue to increase, with 103 migrants - including seven women and 55 children - rescued in just 24 hours from four different vessels. The Spanish government aims to cut migrant arrivals in half this year compared to the 64,000 arrivals in 2018.
For most young Africans, Europe and Western countries hold the promise of a happy life. Among them was Kelechi Goodluck, a Nigerian now living in Spain. He ignorantly embarked on a dangerous journey from Nigeria to Europe through the Sahara and across the Mediterranean. Things didn’t end up as he thought. He has now written a book about his experiences called 'A Gamble With Death'.
The civilian rescue vessel Sea Watch 3, which was detained in Italy on Friday, is the latest of such boats to stop operations in the central Mediterranean. Now, only the Libyan Coast Guard is able to save migrants risking their lives at sea in an attempt to reach Europe from North Africa.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has reported that 5,757 migrants and refugees have entered Europe by sea during the first 27 days of 2019. This marks a slight increase compared to the 5,502 registered arrivals during the same period last year.
The migrant death toll in the Mediterranean on the Libya-Europe route rose sharply in 2018, from one death per 38 arrivals in 2017 to one death per 14 arrivals last year, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in its report titled "Desperate Journeys."
A ruling by the Spanish Superior Court of Justice ordered asylum seekers who had returned to Spain under the Dublin Regulation to be newly admitted to the country's migrant reception system.
Pakistani migrant Rashid Ali moved to Spain in 2014 after spending almost eight years in Italy. In a conversation with InfoMigrants, he talks about how things are beginning to change for migrants and refugees in Spain as well.
A total of 4,883 migrants and refugees reached Europe by sea in the first 20 days of 2019, a slight increase over the same period last year, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). It said there have been 203 deaths on the Mediterranean migrant routes in the nearly three weeks of the new year.
More than 18,000 migrants have died or gone missing between October 2013 and December 2018 in the Mediterranean Sea in an attempt to reach Europe, according to a report based on annual figures by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and its Missing Migrants project.