After an Italy-bound boat filled with migrants sank off Tunisia last week, 38 more bodies were recovered from the sea. The migrant boat disaster, one of the worst in recent months with at least 58 confirmed deaths, highlights the increasing risk migrants face trying to cross the Central Mediterranean from Africa to Europe.
A sailboat belonging to Italian charity Mediterranea Saving Humans has rescued 54 people including pregnant women and children in distress off the Italian island of Lampedusa. Barred from docking in Italy, it refuses to accept an offer by Malta to take in the migrants. It is the 21st stand-off since Italy's populist government has begun refusing any port access to humanitarian groups rescuing migrants at sea.
A boat carrying 86 migrants from Libya sank off the Tunisian coast in the Mediterranean Sea and only three passengers are known to have survived the shipwreck, the UN migration agency said Thursday.
Europol set up a new task force in charge of combating human trafficking networks. Its head Robert Crepinko said that in addition to addressing new ways of smuggling, the task force would also deal with the use of fraudulent documents, money laundering and the role of social media in illegal migration. He also stressed that there is a rise in violence among smuggling gangs as a means to maximize profits.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR has issued a warning that Mediterranean sea crossings have become increasingly dangerous for migrants. Analyzing statistical data, a representative of the UN refugee agency says that drownings have become much more likely to occur in recent years, partly due to changing refugee policies in the EU.
The family of Aylan Kurdi have denounced a Turkish movie based on his life and death at sea. Images of the drowned toddler's body sent shockwaves around the world when he died.
In its fourth “Fatal Journeys” report, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) says nearly 1,600 children have been reported dead or missing since 2014. While the number of deaths and disappearances of migrants around the world has dropped overall, according to IOM data, the risk of death along the Central Mediterranean route has increased.
Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, the head of the Council of Protestant Churches in Germany, has made a video appeal for the migrants currently aboard the German rescue organization’s boat Sea-Watch 3. He said that Europe should not stand by and watch and that help was needed immediately to solve the situation.
The situation remains stalled for 75 migrants aboard a tugboat off the Tunisian coast of Zarzis, while the vessel waits for authorization to enter the port. The Bangladeshi ambassador to Libya is reportedly working to convince 64 Bangladeshis to accept voluntary repatriation.
Leaders of southern EU states tried to develop a common political and economic stance ahead of an EU summit. Migration was one issue on the agenda, with a call for rescue ships to give way to the Libyan coast guard.
665 Moroccans were deported from Germany in November 2018. Naseem was one of them. Now, he's willing to do whatever possible to return to Germany.
It's been one year since Italy announced it was closing its ports to humanitarian vessels. Since then, at least 1,151 men, women and children have been reported dead while over 10,000 have been forcibly taken back to Libya and exposed to further suffering, SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) say. They want EU states to change their policies.