Greece says it is abolishing the practice of holding unaccompanied migrant children in police custody. The announcement comes as Europe's top human rights watchdog said Greece was detaining migrants in unacceptable conditions and called for an end to illegal pushbacks.
The UN Human Rights Office OHCHR has called for urgent action to deal with the horrors faced by migrants trying to cross the central Mediterranean sea and the situations they confront in Libya as well as once they reach Europe.
A day after a fire broke out near a migrant camp on Samos that houses some 4,600 people, 13 migrants were detained on the island. Also on Wednesday, police arrested six people in connection with the Moria fires from last week. Lockdowns remain in place on at least two of the five Greek Aegean islands.
The Dublin Regulation is the European law that determines where an asylum seeker's claim is processed. But does it cover everyone, even those with a tourist visa? We asked Petra Baeyens from the European Legal Network on Asylum for answers.
A new report thinks yes. An Italian rights group recently published a report in which it details several infringements of migrant rights during the lockdown and restrictions designed to fight the coronavirus pandemic. It says that deprivations of personal liberty became more numerous during the lockdown and allowed the authorities to "extend the maximum duration of […] restrictive measure[s]."
Dozens of migrants recently escaped from reception centers and hotspots in central and southern Italy. In Umbria, 23 Tunisians escaped facilities to which they had been assigned to spend a quarantine period. They had all tested negative for COVID-19. Another 20 migrants fled a hotspot in Taranto.
The UN refugee agency is once again calling for the release of migrants from detention centers in Libya. According to UNHCR, there are eleven official centers holding over 2,300 people in Libya, and many unofficial facilities about which little is known.
Tunisian authorities in the course of two days blocked nine departures of at least 200 migrants who wanted to irregularly reach Italian coasts.
A human rights activist and former immigration detainee has warned that Europe is trying to copy Australia’s harsh asylum system. He says asylum seekers held in Australia's offshore processing centers suffer psychological abuse, trauma and racism.
Libyan coast guards have intercepted 71 migrants including women and children and returned them to the Libyan capital Tripoli, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.
A group of migrants has filed a legal complaint against their arbitrary detention in the el Ouardia Center in Tunis. Four human rights groups have issued a statement saying that the facility is operating as an illegal detention center.
NGOs working in Tunisia have spoken out about the conditions of dozens of migrant held in a center in El Ouardia ''without knowing why they are detained'' and have urged the authorities to provide clarification on the matter.