During the past week Libyan coast guards intercepted more than 1,500 Europe-bound migrants, according to a non-governmental organization. UN officials and human rights advocates have denounced the return of migrants to Libya because they face violence and arbitrary detention.
The humanitarian organization SOS Mediterranee said on Thursday that its crew had rescued 121 people, among them 19 women and two small children, from an overcrowded rubber boat off Libya. Another 140 migrants were returned to Libya by coast guards on Wednesday.
It follows a European Court of Justice ruling on the illegality of Budapest's treatment of asylum seekers. The EU border agency made the announcement on Wednesday.
In the past year, the number of migrants arriving in Malta has dropped. While that may have eased pressure on the EU 'frontier' state, few are feeling relief. Migrants are being detained for more than a year in "miserable conditions", as a Moroccan held at Safi barracks told InfoMigrants.
At least 120 people, including 28 children, were returned to Libya by the coast guard on Wednesday night. The UN migration agency IOM repeated that Libya is not a safe country for return.
A deportation flight from the UK to Jamaica took off in the early hours of Wednesday morning. On board were 13 men of the original 50 destined for the flight. Campaigners continue to protest, saying that the UK's deportation laws "condone child cruelty" by separating parents from children.
On December 2, the UK Home Office is planning a charter flight to deport up to 50 people back to Jamaica. A group of 91 Black public figures and campaigners have written an open letter to airlines urging them to refuse to accept the contract. Opposition MPs have also joined in.
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]."