The number of bodies recovered from a shipwreck off Tunisia has risen to 53. The African country is both a transit country for migrants from other African countries and a source of Europe-bound migrants.
Two migrant boats were set on fire on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa on Friday night, reported the Italian press. Police have opened an inquest and are searching for the, as yet, unknown suspects.
Police and the authorities are scouring the coasts in Sicily on Wednesday after reports of another "ghost landing" of migrants came ashore on the south-western coast at Torre Salsa nature reserve. 29 people have so far been found but police suspect the boat contained "around 50".
The guarantor for the rights of detained persons in Italy is focusing again on the topic of migrants at the hotspot on Lampedusa. He said it is unacceptable that their quarantine is prolonged with the arrival of each new guest in the facility.
34 migrants disembarked at the port of Lampedusa on Monday afternoon. Among them were 11 women, two of them pregnant. Before that, the island hadn't seen any migrant arrivals in three weeks. The migrants were transferred to the island's hotspot and will be placed under quarantine.
It was an emotional day in the European Parliament on Monday, when a surprise meeting took place between the famous migrant doctor and MP Pietro Bartolo and an Eritrean woman who survived the tragic October 2013 shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa. The woman had been left for dead by first responders but was then miraculously saved by Bartolo.
The charity ship Alan Kurdi reached a rubber boat carrying 32 migrants, ahead of an impending storm on the Mediterranean. According to the Sea-Eye rescue group, they all said they were Libyan citizens.
Four Tunisian mothers have been brought to the city of Agrigento in Sicily to identify the bodies of their children. They died when their boat sank off Lampedusa on October 7. The women were called up as part of a probe into the incident. Only two of the four mothers were able to identify the bodies of their children.
Former Lampedusa doctor and current member of the European Parliament, Pietro Bartolo, says for years he has been seeing women migrants with what he calls the 'dinghy disease' - chemical burns only females tend to sustain while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea towards Italy.
The bodies of five migrants who died when a boat capsized in rough waters off the southern Lampedusa coast a week ago have been found, Italy's coast guard said on Sunday. This brings the overall death toll to 18.
The ship Ocean Viking has docked in the Italian port of Messina, carrying 213 migrants saved at sea. But at least seven other people were killed after a boat capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The mayor of the southern Italian island of Lampedusa says that boats used by migrants can become a danger to the community and the environment, after they have been abandoned on the island.