For several weeks, the repatriation of migrants expelled from Algeria to Niger has been very slow, and the transit camps in the region are overwhelmed. As they face geopolitical upheavals, consular complications, and logistical difficulties, the patience of some migrants is put to the test. Mehdi Chebil reports for InfoMigrants.
A pickup-truck carrying migrants in northeastern Greece crashed on Saturday killing one of the passengers and injuring at least 16 others, police say. The driver had been attempting to evade a police checkpoint.
More than three months ago, a young Afghan man named Banochai Elham went missing in the mountains in the far northwest of Iran. He had left Afghanistan with the help of a smuggler, in the hope of reaching Turkey. In an open letter his brother expressed his desperation. While there are organizations committed to tracing those who go missing on migration journeys, many families are forced to search alone.
At least 50 people disappeared, feared drowned, off the coast of Tunisia. Authorities said that 33 others were rescued by workers from an oil platform in the Mediterranean Sea.
A child was among at least five people who drowned at the weekend when a boat carrying about 45 migrants capsized off Libya. More than 700 migrants were intercepted and returned by Libyan coast guards.
The Libyan coast guard has intercepted nearly 1,000 migrants and brought them back to shore in the past 48 hours, according to the IOM. The UN agency says they face the risk of "arbitrary detention."
The UN migration agency, regional governments and 38 partner countries have launched an appeal for 99 million dollars in aid for over half a million migrants in the Horn of Africa and Yemen.
The number of migrants and asylum seekers who reached Europe in 2020 is the lowest it has been for a decade. But deaths and disappearances on sea routes – especially to the Canary Islands – remain alarmingly high, says a UN Migration report.
The IOM said on Sunday that there are at least "8 migrants dead and 12 are missing at sea" after being forced off a boat by smugglers off the coast of Djibouti. The migrants were traveling from Yemen, the UN organization added.
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 Arab region comprising 18 countries hosts 15% of all migrants and refugees worldwide; it is currently seeing "unprecedented levels of migration." Despite these high levels, the majority of migrants and refugees stay within the region. To date, Europe has received only 14% of all refugees originating from Arab countries.
The UN Security Council did not issue a statement condemning the bombing in Libya after the US reportedly did not endorse it. Washington earlier criticized the attack as 'abhorrent', but did not call for a ceasefire.