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.
At the beginning of 2019, two migrant rescue ships carrying 49 people, including children, waited up to 19 days before being granted a port in which to dock. This has prompted Amnesty International to call for 'urgent action' to change the way rescues at sea are being handled.
Aid organizations SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) are being forced to end their life-saving Mediterranean rescue mission. MSF managing director Florian Westphal told DW the situation is "catastrophic."
The UNHCR announced the evacuation of the first group of refugees, hosted in new departure facilities, from Libya to Niger last week.
The situation in Libya remains dangerous, with human traffickers selling migrants as slaves and exploiting them for personal gain. In response to many queries online, we have compiled some facts on migrant abuse in the transit country.
Abdou Faye is 34 and from Senegal. In 2015 he arrived in Sicily by boat and was accused of people smuggling by his fellow passengers. Tried in an Italian court, he was found guilty and served his sentence, first in prison and then under house arrest. This summer as he completed the sentence, it was overturned and his innocence restored.
News reports in the recent months have confirmed that people smugglers are increasingly abusing migrants for personal gains, and human rights organizations constantly warn of human rights abuses and dire conditions in Libyan detention centers.
A group of Nigerian migrants held captive inside a detention center in Libya have been rescued after releasing a video taken on their phones. The footage went viral on social media and caught the attention of the authorities.
Germany and the EU have pressured Libyan authorities to do more to prevent migrants from crossing the Mediterranean. The Left party in the Bundestag has warned that refugees returned to Libya face "inhumane conditions."
Smugglers and human traffickers are reportedly impersonating UN staff in Libya, targeting desperate migrants and refugees hoping to reach Europe. Meanwhile, intensified fighting in the capital Tripoli continues to put the lives of migrants at great risk.
A group of migrants recently held a ground-breaking protest in Libya. The protesters, most of whom were Ethiopian or Eritrean, forced open the doors of a detention centre, where they were being held, and marched towards the capital, Tripoli, which was about 20 kilometres away.
Rome had threatened to return the 177 migrants to Libya amid a standoff with Malta over who should take them. Local media reports suggested it would take some negotiations before the migrants are allowed to disembark.