Hundreds of migrants rescued from the Central Mediterranean by the Geo Barents remained at sea over the weekend, waiting for permission to disembark. Two other private vessels have brought more than 500 rescued migrants to the Italian island of Sicily over the past two days.
Italy has begun vaccinating all migrants landing on the island of Lampedusa, where dozens of Tunisians and other migrants have been arriving daily. Visiting US diplomats praised the coordination and the management of the site.
Deportations from Germany have risen again after a downturn during the pandemic. The Left Party has demanded an end to 'cynical policies'.
The transfer of 110 migrants hosted at the Lampedusa hotspot, who were to have left the island Thursday via ferry to Porto Empedocle, has been suspended after a crew member tested positive for COVID-19.
Humanitarian organization Intersos has called for equal access to vaccines against COVID-19 for migrants in Italy, 'to guarantee everybody's health'. The organizations says that hundreds of thousands of people aren't eligible to get vaccinated; and that many migrants who are eligible face 'linguistic, cultural and administrative obstacles.'
Italy has called for the introduction of a redistribution mechanism of migrants among EU member states once more. For weeks, hundreds of migrants have been arriving in the country daily.
The Afghan government has asked European countries to suspend deportations for three months due to the unstable situation in the country. While Germany says it currently has no plans to stop deporting rejected asylum seekers to Afghanistan, Finland has announced a temporary suspension.
The vaccination campaign is underway in Turkey, but migrants face an especially large number of challenges on the road to immunization. The government has been keeping a low profile on the issue.
The Ocean Viking arrived in Sicily on Friday morning to disembark over 500 migrants it has on board. The crew and migrants had been waiting for a week to be assigned a safe port. Food and water were about to run out when they were assigned a port on Thursday evening.
Malaria remained the leading cause of disease among refugees in 2020, despite the coronavirus pandemic. Young children in sub-Saharan Africa are especially vulnerable to the mosquito-borne disease.
Tunisian authorities rescued 267 migrants in Mediterranean Sea on Thursday, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The migrants had tried to reach Europe from neighbouring Libya.
The Italian farm association Coldiretti has started vaccinating migrant farm workers against COVID-19 in Italy's southern city of Foggia.