Greece's program for the voluntary return of migrants to their country of origin has been reactivated by the government's migration ministry. The scheme had been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Greek migration minister, the first flights are expected "in the coming weeks."
About 250 migrants from Tunisia have reached the Italian island of Lampedusa in several small boats in recent days. With no space left to quarantine the new arrivals due the COVID-19 pandemic, politicians across the political spectrum are weighing in on the issue and further polarizing public opinion.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it has been forced to shut down a coronavirus isolation center for migrants on the Greek Aegean island of Lesbos. MSF said it closed the center after local authorities allegedly imposed fines and threatened with criminal charges.
After major coronavirus outbreaks at several businesses, German lawmakers are finally considering cracking down on the exploitation of foreign workers.
In the past two years, more migrants have traveled by boat to Yemen from the Horn of Africa than crossed the Mediterranean. Thousands of them are now trapped and facing multiple risks from the ongoing civil war, the threat of COVID-19, and abuse by human traffickers.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have asked member states to take action in order to guarantee the safety and health of migrant and displaced populations in the eastern Mediterranean area.
Malta's armed forces have rescued a group of 95 migrants from a sinking dinghy between Libya and Malta and brought them ashore, authorities said Monday. The volunteer organization Alarm Phone accused Maltese authorities of "systematic delays" in their rescue efforts.
Dozens of migrants escaped a quarantine facility in Porto Empedocle in Sicily Monday, a day after nearly 200 others fled a separate holding center. Meanwhile, local mayors in southern Italy say they cannot keep up with a sharp rise in migrant arrivals.
A young Afghan man has been stabbed to death near the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. This year, fatal knife attacks have been happening at an average rate of one a month.
Following fires in cramped migrant worker settlements in southwest Spain and subsequent criticism by a UN official about "deplorable conditions" there, Spanish soldiers were deployed over the weekend to build a camp for migrant strawberry pickers.
Hundreds of people continue to arrive in boats on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa. In recent days about a thousand migrants, most from Tunisia, have landed on the island.
83 migrants, including more than a dozen sick children, have been flown to Germany from Greece. The migrants are the latest group to be relocated from overcrowded Greek camps under a government commitment to shelter hundreds of vulnerable people.