UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has once more called for the closure of migrant detention centers in Libya. He highlighted that human rights abuses cost scores of migrant lives in the country.
Alex Assali came to Germany in October 2014 from Syria, fleeing war, political persecution and IS. He obtained refugee status and wanted to give something back to Germany, so he started a soup kitchen for homeless people in Berlin. His actions went viral and now he has found love and marriage in Germany too.
About a week after being launched, the Sea-Watch 4, the latest humanitarian rescue ship to have set sail in the Mediterranean, has completed three rescues in the last 48 hours. On Monday, August 24, the boat's crew tweeted that they now have "more than 200 people on board."
The UN migration agency carried out the first voluntary return flight in five months last week. More than 100 migrants from Ghana were flown to Accra.
The German frigate "Hamburg" set sail from Wilhelmshaven in the north of Germany on August 4. It is expected to reach its Mediterranean patrol zone off the Libyan coast by mid-August. The boat will be part of the EU operation Irini, designed to help enforce a UN weapons embargo on Libya in the hope of stabilizing the country.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has urged Libya to release more than 200 migrant children who have recently been intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea and returned to Libya.
Pope Francis has likened the living conditions in migrant detention centers in Libya to concentration camps. The comments came during a mass commemorating the pontiff's journey to the Italian island of Lampedusa seven years ago.
Migration in the Mediterranean became a focus as Germany took up the rotating presidency of the EU Council in July and the EU’s foreign minister, Josep Borrell, visited Malta this week.
A group of human rights activists and lawyers took their case to prosecutors to a court in Rome on Thursday, asking them to determine whether the Italian authorities were complicit in an incident involving a migrant boat at Easter, in which 12 people drowned and the 51 survivors were taken back to Libya.
Dozens of migrants continue to wait on board the Ocean Viking ship, after Italy and Malta both refused to grant safe harbor to the private rescue vessel. SOS Mediterranee , which runs the Ocean Viking, said it had sent five requests to both countries over the past week, asking for the boat to dock.
Migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean are regularly being picked up by the Libyan authorities and returned to Libya. Charities report their rescue ships are often out-run by Libyan coast guards who beat them to take the migrants back. Nearly 500 migrants have been returned to Libya in recent days, according to the UN migration agency IOM.
Several people have died following another shipwreck along the Libyan coast over the weekend. The incident took place near the capital, Tripoli. The exact number of victims is so far unknown; however, according to initial reports, there were three bodies washed up on the beach near the town of Al-Zawiya, about 50 kilometers west of Tripoli.