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.
The UNHCR announced a joint initiative with the World Food Programme (WFP) to save up to 10,000 refugees and migrants stuck in Libya from malnourishment and starvation. The program comes amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
Pope Francis appealed to the international community in his latest Sunday address, to help migrants stuck in Libya and bring an end to the fighting in that country.
About 12 migrants are believed to be missing, feared drowned after a boat carrying more than 30 mostly sub-Saharan African migrants capsized off the Libyan coast on Saturday. 20 of those on the boat were rescued.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned in a statement that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has laid "bare failed politics of aid to help migrants stranded in Libya" and worsened conditions for them.
The government of Malta has signed an agreement with Libya to combat irregular immigration across the Mediterranean. The Maltese-funded plans involve the setting up of coordination centers in the Libyan capital Tripoli and the Maltese capital Valletta.
At least 30 migrants were brutally murdered in Libya by the family of a slain human trafficker. Libya’s interior ministry said it has issued an arrest warrant for the suspected attackers.