Lampedusa Mayor Salvatore ‘Totò’ Martello met with European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos in Brussels and told the commissioner that migrant landings on the Sicilian island "haven't ever stopped.”
Bosnian Security Minister Dragan Mektic said about 70,000 migrants are ready to depart Greece for countries in western Europe. The situation concerns Bosnia because many of the migrants may attempt to reach Europe through the Balkan route.
The UN Refugee Agency says there has been an increase in the number of people fleeing South Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo in recent days, due to violence against civilians.
European Union countries plus Norway and Switzerland saw a 10 percent drop in international protection requests in 2018 compared with 2017. The EU border agency, Frontex, also says arrivals via the Central Mediterranean route in January were 73 percent down on the previous month.
Migrant arrivals to Spain continue to increase, with 103 migrants - including seven women and 55 children - rescued in just 24 hours from four different vessels. The Spanish government aims to cut migrant arrivals in half this year compared to the 64,000 arrivals in 2018.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said that 6,413 migrants and refugees have reached Europe by sea in 2019 as of February 3. A total of 208 were reported to have died during the crossing over the same period.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has reported that 5,757 migrants and refugees have entered Europe by sea during the first 27 days of 2019. This marks a slight increase compared to the 5,502 registered arrivals during the same period last year.
The latest standoff between Italy and the EU over sea rescues has ended with 47 migrants landing in Sicily. The German charity Sea Watch now fears it could be prosecuted and its boat impounded.
Citing a confidential EU report, German newspaper "Welt am Sonntag" has reported that the total number of migrants arriving in the bloc via Turkey rose to 51,000 in 2018, despite a deal to stem such migration flows.
The number of people seeking asylum in Germany has plummeted since the height of the refugee crisis. Claims peaked at 722,000 in 2016 after a wave of arrivals from the Middle East.
A total of 4,883 migrants and refugees reached Europe by sea in the first 20 days of 2019, a slight increase over the same period last year, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). It said there have been 203 deaths on the Mediterranean migrant routes in the nearly three weeks of the new year.
Just over 23,000 migrants arrived in Italy in 2018. Between 2014 and 2017, yearly arrivals were between 120,000 and 180,000.