A migrant boat off the Libyan coast was in distress with 150 people on board, activists said on Monday. They were eventually intercepted by a merchant ship and returned to Libya. The aid organization Alarm Phone has deemed the return as "commercial refoulement."
More than 16,000 migrants were returned home from Libya in 2018 under a voluntary return program run by the UN's migration agency, the IOM. Many of them had tried - and failed - to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said that 6,413 migrants and refugees have reached Europe by sea in 2019 as of February 3. A total of 208 were reported to have died during the crossing over the same period.
The UN Migration Agency IOM and Qatar Charity have signed an agreement in which Qatar Charity will provide funds to improve the response to the situation of refugees and migrants in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
More than 1,000 Ghanaians have been assisted to return home under a program run by the UN migration agency IOM since 2017. The IOM says it offers people the chance to go home 'with dignity', as well as helping them to reintegrate.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has reported that 5,757 migrants and refugees have entered Europe by sea during the first 27 days of 2019. This marks a slight increase compared to the 5,502 registered arrivals during the same period last year.
Despite fewer migrants and refugees entering Europe, anti-migrant rhetoric is on the rise, the UNHCR warns. Commissioner Filippo Grandi warns of an exacerbation of that rhetoric ahead of the European Parliament elections in May.
The UN migration agency says that over 55,000 people have been displaced in around two months in the Nigerian state of Borno due to ongoing violence. Refugee camps in the area have become congested, and the IOM says it doesn't have the resources to meet the needs of those who have been displaced.
A total of 780 human trafficking victims were reported in Tunisia in 2018, up from the 742 registered the previous year, the National commission for the fight against human trafficking (INLCTP) has said. The majority of cases were 'domestic slavery' and 'forced labor.'
A total of 4,883 migrants and refugees reached Europe by sea in the first 20 days of 2019, a slight increase over the same period last year, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). It said there have been 203 deaths on the Mediterranean migrant routes in the nearly three weeks of the new year.
More than 18,000 migrants have died or gone missing between October 2013 and December 2018 in the Mediterranean Sea in an attempt to reach Europe, according to a report based on annual figures by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and its Missing Migrants project.
Aid groups fear that some 170 migrants could be dead after two dinghies sank in separate incidents after leaving Libya and Morocco. Italian President Sergio Mattarella has expressed his "deep sorrow."