A little over a year ago, Skander, 21, boarded an inflatable boat on a beach in western Algeria, headed for Spain. Since then, there has been no sign of life from the young man and 11 other passengers. Skander's older brother Ryad, who stayed in Algeria, spends his days and nights looking for him.
More than 21,000 Tunisians – mostly men and boys – have tried to cross the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year. At least 8,000 of them were turned back or died at sea.
The death toll from a shipwreck off Chebba last week has risen to 11, mostly Tunisians. 12 others are still missing.
The fate of around 60 Lebanese and Syrian migrants on a sinking fishing boat in the Mediterranean is unknown after contact was lost on Monday. They had reported running out of food and water, and that two young children on board had died.
Nearly 460 migrants rescued from the Mediterranean by the Ocean Viking ship have disembarked in southern Italy.
Coast guards have reported rescuing 30 people from a boat in the Mediterranean near a small islet north of Crete. More and more migrants and refugees are reportly trying to reach Italy from Turkey in order to circumvent pushbacks in the Eastern Aegean.
Libyan authorities combatting illegal migration said the boat embarked from Egypt and overturned off Libya. Officials did not say what caused the shipwreck.
The Spanish Open Arms NGO rescued 101 migrants in the central Mediterranean. This was the first humanitarian mission of its new flagship, Uno. In the meantime, the influx of migrant arrivals in the regions of Calabria and Sicily continues.
Algerian television news reported that the bodies of six migrants were retrieved off the country’s coast after their boat sunk on Monday. Six survivors meanwhile were rescued. Search operations reportedly still continue for an unspecified number of missing people.
Five people have been arrested and charged with trying to smuggle nearly 100 migrants into Europe on an unsafe vessel last week.
After waiting for around one week, 380 people rescued from the Mediterranean by the humanitarian organization SOS Mediterranee have been allowed to land in Italy. The rescue ship Ocean Viking was granted permission to make port at Salerno, south of Naples.
Ships in the Mediterranean Sea rescued stranded migrants trying to reach Europe, with the Italian island of Lampedusa facing a surge in new arrivals. Five migrants have been found dead, however.