Some commercial ships that have rescued people in danger have lied about their destination, according to a telephone hotline that helps migrants lost at sea. Alarm Phone says the crews of several ships led migrants to believe they would be dropped off in Europe, but instead returned them to Libya.
For two years, Sissoko, a 31-year-old Malian, has been trying to recover from his crossing of the Mediterranean. Of around 130 people who boarded the ship, 62 died, including all the children on board.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has expressed concern over the Italian law on immigration and security because contained within the decree is a concept which labels even children as a potential ‘social danger.’
From teachers to bookkeepers to police officers, migrants seeking jobs are in demand in Germany, particularly in the public sector. Nevertheless, they continue to face significant discrimination in the labor market.
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.
Migrants staying at the CARA reception center in Mineo, Sicily, Europe's largest hosting facility for asylum seekers, are being transferred to other locations because of plans to close the center ''by the end of the year'', Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has said.
Over the last 10 days, in four separate operations, French police have demolished make-shift migrant camps in northern Paris; the operations, say the city authorities, are part of their efforts to bring everyone indoors during the coldest months of the year. But some 800 migrants are thought to still be sleeping rough on the streets and many people are being missed, or ejected by the system.
Faced with a declining demographics and wanting to portray itself as a "humanist" country, Portugal is open to attracting newcomers to its territory. To that end, the country actively participates in European resettlement programs and is favorably inclined toward requests to accept migrants rescued in the Mediterranean by humanitarian vessels. But it is also getting an increasing number of requests for "spontaneous" asylum, filed by people who arrived in Portugal by their own means. For these people, the course is often more complicated. InfoMigrants went to meet them in the reception center in Bobadela, a suburb of Lisbon.
For most young Africans, Europe and Western countries hold the promise of a happy life. Among them was Kelechi Goodluck, a Nigerian now living in Spain. He ignorantly embarked on a dangerous journey from Nigeria to Europe through the Sahara and across the Mediterranean. Things didn’t end up as he thought. He has now written a book about his experiences called 'A Gamble With Death'.
The private rescue boat "Sea Watch 3" picked up 47 people on January 19 in Libyan waters. Since then, it has been trying to obtain entry to a safe port in Europe. Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini repeats that Italian ports remain closed. Meanwhile, the boat remains waiting at sea.
Prosecutors in Sicily say Interior Minister Matteo Salvini held 177 migrants hostage by stranding them on a ship. The European Council has expressed concern about xenophobia in Italy.
Last year, 86 migrants rescued from the Mediterranean by the charity ship Aquarius were taken in by Portugal. The southern European nation, which wants to fight its demographic decline as much as it wants to place itself on the map as a "humanist" country, is one of the EU's few member states that willingly opens its doors to new migrant arrivals. InfoMigrants went to meet 19 "Aquarius migrants" who were taken in by Portugal in July and who have been housed in a former religious seminary in the town of Fundão, northeast of Lisbon, since September.