A boat with 56 migrants on board was spotted off the coast of Cyprus on Sunday. The Cypriot authorities checked the documents of people on board at sea and then asked the group to return to Lebanon from where they had set off.
The search and rescue ship Geo Barents will launch a new operation in the Mediterranean, Doctors Without Borders has announced. The ship will reportedly have several rooms onboard to provide medical assistance to rescued migrants, including pregnant women.
More and more migrants are crossing the Mediterranean to Italy from Tunisia. The majority of them used to be Tunisian nationals, but this year there are increasing numbers of sub-Saharan Africans on board. Their determination is almost indestructible.
The migrant rescue ship Alan Kurdi left the Italian island of Sardinia for Spain on Wednesday, after being seized by Italian authorities last year.
The mayor of the southern Italian city of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, has called for the creation of a European civil service to rescue migrants at sea, following several deadly shipwrecks in the Mediterranean.
Migrant aid groups, the Pope and the UN have denounced the latest tragedy in the Mediterranean which likely claimed the lives of 130 migrants. Libya's coast guard rejected allegations of not doing enough to help.
There are two investigations in Italy, looking in to the delayed disembarking of migrants involving former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini as defendant. The cases are now being heard by preliminary investigative judges in Sicily.
Migrants who arrive in Italy irreguarly have to spend a mandatory quarantine on board ships in the open sea. The Italian organization ASGI calls these methods "discriminatory" and highly questionable from a health point of view. An interview.
More than 200 migrants picked up by the Open Arms rescue ship have landed safety in Sicily. The NGO said the Central Mediterranean has become a "no man's land" and a "tomb" for European values.
The Spanish migrant rescue vessel Open Arms is still looking for a port to disembark the 217 boat migrants it has rescued since Sunday. On Tuesday, a pregnant woman and her brother were handed over to the Italian coast guard.
After several days at sea, the 116 migrants rescued by the Ocean Viking at the end of last week and over the weekend have disembarked in the Sicilian port of Augusta. Six persons tested positive for COVID-19.
Between Friday and Sunday, some 550 migrants were rescued in the Central Mediterranean. While the private rescue organization Sea-Watch said it saved some 450 people, a Libyan patrol boat picked up nearly 100 from a shipwreck, in which 20 passengers are reported missing.