The UN migration agency (IOM) has announced that many migrants and refugees are struggling to survive in Egypt after losing their jobs during the coronavirus lockdown. Throughout the pandemic the IOM has been providing support to the most vulnerable but as the economy dives, many "struggle to make ends meet" reports Reuters.
The British Home Secretary Priti Patel met with her French counterpart on Sunday, July 12 to discuss how the two governments can step up their action against the smuggling of people across the Channel. The number of those attempting to cross has risen this year to "unacceptable" levels, said Patel.
The Greek authorities on Thursday announced that they have transferred 784 migrants from the overcrowded camps on the Greek islands to the mainland since July 1.
The German NGO Sea-Watch has recently acquired a new aircraft in cooperation with the Swiss Humanitarian Pilots Initiative (HPI). The aircraft, which has been named Seabird, will be used for civil air reconnaissance missions off the coast of Libya, from where hundreds of migrants depart on makeshift boats to Europe every week . The new aircraft is an addition to the Moonbird, which has been active since 2017.
The UN refugee agency is once again calling for the release of migrants from detention centers in Libya. According to UNHCR, there are eleven official centers holding over 2,300 people in Libya, and many unofficial facilities about which little is known.
Amadou* had been working for two years in the southern Algerian city of Tamanrasset when policemen arrived to detain him and then send him back to the desert, in the direction of Niger. The thirty-year-old West African recounted his journey across the desert and his difficult return home.
On Tuesday, July 7, a Hungarian court sentenced four migrants to one year in jail each. The court judged they entered the country illegally by tearing down a fence at the border.
The private rescue ship Sea-Watch 3, run by the German organization Sea Watch, has been seized by Italian authorities after an inspection uncovered "administrative" and "safety" irregularities, which could "compromise the vessel, its crew and anyone who might be rescued by it."
The German newspaper Die Welt reported that Germany accepted almost 10,000 migrants and asylum seekers between 2016 and March 2020 under the EU-Turkey deal. The numbers were released following a question to the interior ministry from a member of the liberal FDP party.
Sol Escobar is the chairperson of the Cambridge Assessment Refugee Support Committee in the UK. At the beginning of 2019 she went to Calais as a relief volunteer -- a trip that convinced her that she needed to do more to communicate refugee and migrant stories in order to change the narrative of them within the community.
Turkish authorities say they have intercepted a boat with 276 migrants and eight suspected smugglers on board. The ship was reportedly about to set sail.
The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated inequalities, highlighting the importance of often invisible frontline workers in Italy. Trade unionist Aboubakar Soumahoro, an Ivorian native who arrived in the country 20 years ago, is now calling for stronger measures in support of agricultural workers.