The Spanish coastguard reported four migrants dead and 16 more missing on Wednesday, November 27, after an attempt to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe failed. The migrants were traveling on a small raft that sank near the Spanish enclave Melilla.
The organizations Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and SOS Mediterranee are appealing once again to European governments to stop obstructing migrant search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean.
Even as a migrant rescue ship disembarks 88 asylum-seekers in an Italian port, a UN official says the Mediterranean isn't the most dangerous place for migrants. Many more die trying to reach the coast than in the sea.
An Italian parliamentary committee that monitors the Schengen system visited the island of Lampedusa. It found that the migrant hotspot on the island is on the verge of collapse.
The Mediterranean crossing continues to be the deadliest migrant route worldwide: 19,000 migrants have been reported dead or missing since October 3, 2013. So far this year, the crossing has claimed over 1,000 victims.
Thirty European cities will hold events to promote a petition to declare October 3 "European Day of Memory and Welcoming," in commemoration of a shipwreck off Lampedusa on October 3, 2013, in which more than 360 migrants died.
The Protestant Church is calling for a political solution to the migration crisis in Europe. The Catholic Church's bishop council declined to say whether it would implement a similar measure.
Boats carrying migrants wishing to make it to the EU continue to land on Italian shores, despite interior minister Matteo Salvini's 'closed ports' policy. On Saturday, 46 Algerians landed on Sardinia.
Following another shipwreck in the Mediterreanean Sea, UN refugee agency UNHCR said it is "unacceptable" that these tragedies happen. It is calling for restoring an official search and rescue (SAR) system as soon as possible.
![A migrant rescue ship carrying 41 migrants enters the port of Lampedusa, Sicily [from our archives] | Photo: ANSA/ ELIO DESIDERIO](https://scd.infomigrants.net//media/resize/my_image_big/9b272bd3c6c37fa30ebb24c76da5df42a0069c89.jpeg)
A boat with 48 migrants onboard has reached Lampedusa without aid. According to witness reports, the migrants traveled for two days after leaving Libya and several people, including a five-month old baby boy, died at sea.
Tunisian authorities stopped about 100 people who were trying to reach Italy without a visa over the weekend, according to the Tunisian interior ministry.
Italy has announced that it will allow 116 rescued migrants currently on the Italian Coast Guard's Gregoretti vessel to disembark "within hours," bringing the latest standoff with the European Union regarding the redistribution of migrants rescued at sea to an end.