The EU has agreed to launch a new mission in the Mediterranean to monitor the UN-mandated arms embargo on Libya. NGOs are critical of the bloc's policy on fighting human smuggling and arms trafficking.
A number of EU member states want to take in refugee children stuck in Greece. However, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn now says the coronavirus pandemic has made that impossible.
On Friday a group of seven EU states announced they would take in some of the most vulnerable migrants, mostly children, from Greece. The lists are still being finalized, as are the number of countries willing to participate. InfoMigrants asked some international organizations: How it is decided who goes on the list?
Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has said his country is hoping for €130 million from the EU in order to help strengthen its borders with Turkey. So far, Bulgaria has experienced no pressure at its borders; since 2015 they have been protected by barbed wire fences and frequent patrols.
Hundreds of migrants staged a demonstration on Saturday in which scuffles broke out with the Bosnian police. The migrants were protesting conditions at camps and their treatment by border authorities.
In the last few months, Morocco has ramped up arrests and clamped down on migration across its borders to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. Now migrants still hoping to cross the border in order to reach the EU prefer to keep themselves hidden.
Croatia has assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council -- for the first time. The youngest EU member state is having a chance to prove itself on the world stage amid serious allegations of migrant abuse at its borders.
A Eurobarometer survey has found that over a third of all Italians felt that immigration is the most important issue for the EU to deal with. In contrast to other EU citizens, Italians seemed less convinced of the need to introduce a common EU-wide asylum system.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has renewed calls on Germany and other countries to take in migrants and refugees currently stuck in Greece. At the same time, his government plans to expedite deportations in the new year.
A 27-year-old Afghan mother died after a small fire broke out in a migrant camp on the island of Lesbos. Firefighters are investigating the cause of the fire.
The French Ministry of Defense announced in February 2019 that it would deliver six semi-rigid speed boats with gun ports to the Libyan coast guard by Spring 2020. On December 2, the government announced they would be halting this delivery after several NGOs filed a lawsuit against the action.
A new document by the German government highlights strengths and weaknesses in ongoing EU efforts to evacuate migrants and refugees stranded in Libya. It focused in particular on recent initiatives to move migrants to Rwanda and Niger.