Private rescue missions are increasingly facing rejection by ports in Italy and now Malta. One particular vessel, the Ocean Viking, is now prepared for all emergencies on board because of this — including pregnancies and births.
Tunisia has prevented 53 Ivorian and Sudanese citizens from illegally entering the country, according to the country's defence ministry. Meanwhile, an unverified video on Facebook claims that the migrants were left in the desert without any food or water.
French President Emmanuel Macron gave a positive spin to the partial approval of a plan to allocate migrants across the EU. Italy did not take part in the meeting held in Paris.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has dismissed the notion that all migrants currently in Libya aim to come to Europe. The organization estimates that out of 650,000, "a few ten thousand migrants in Libya have the right to international protection."
After German migrant rescue ship captain Carola Rackete called on Europe to take in hundreds of thousands of migrants stranded in Libya, her most recent public appeal to no longer distinguish between different migrant groups has stirred a debate on so-called climate migrants. We take a look at the complex issue of 'persons displaced in the context of disasters and climate change.'
It is estimated that about 6,000 people are currently locked up in 24 detention centers across Libya. Now the Libyan authorities are pondering their release following the airstrike on the Tajoura detention center.
Migrants are being allowed to leave the Tajoura detention center in the Libyan capital Tripoli, about two weeks after it was hit by an air strike which killed at least 53 people and injured 130 others. The UNHCR Libya is trying to register and provide assistance to many who have left but what will happen to them next?
NGOs rescue ships rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean continue to make the headlines: After the Sea-Watch drama and Mediterranea’s ongoing stand-off with Italy, Sea-Eye’s “Alan Kurdi” vessel is looking for a safe port after saving 65 migrants from a rubber dinghy off Libya.
The UN Migration Agency (IOM), following the migrant killing at the Tajoura detention center in Libya, said 3,000 migrants and refugees are still arbitrarily detained in and around Tripoli.
Vincent Cochetel, the UN Special Envoy on Migration accused the EU of “blindness” when it comes to the plight of refugees and migrants in Libya. Following Tuesday’s airstrike which hit a migrant detention center in Libya, he once again asked the international community to rethink its policy of returning migrants rescued at sea to Libya.
InfoMigrants recently received an open letter penned by a Sudanese refugee, Ahmad Gamal, that addresses the European Parliament. After being forced to flee his native Darfur, the 27-year-old arrived in France in 2017 and now studies sociology at a university in Lyon. In his letter, Ahmad urges the EU to make its fatal migration policies more welcoming and humane.
The Libyan coast guard recovered the bodies of a woman and a child and rescued 73 people after a migrant boat sunk off the coast of Libya on Sunday. Up to 25 migrants remain missing.