The number of migrants arriving in Italy from Tunisia and Liby has doubled in the first eight months of this year compared to last year. In August alone, more than 10,000 people arrived. Over the last few days, dozens of people were rescued from overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean.
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.
Matteo Salvini, the head of Italy’s far-right League party, is to stand trial for kidnapping and abuse of office. The former interior minister is charged with refusing entry to a Spanish rescue ship and the 147 people it had saved in the Mediterranean Sea.
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.
In the central Mediterranean, the race against time to reach the EU is turning to a race against Libya's coast guard. With mounting reports on stand-offs between Libyan maritime authorities and NGOs in international waters, fewer migrants are succeeding in making their way to Europe. They are instead returned to Libya.
It was a busy weekend in the central Mediterranean. The Spanish rescue organization Open Arms said that it had picked up 146 migrants in two separate rescue operations. Meanwhile, the Tunisian navy said that it had picked up 25 from a shipwreck, with one person confirmed dead and about 22 missing.
The former Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini on Saturday appeared before a Palermo judge in connection with a 2019 incident during which he blocked migrants at sea. He faces charges of abduction and of failing to carry out an act as public official.
After the Open Arms ship brought 265 rescued migrants to Italy, the crew was isolated and placed in mandatory quarantine. The Spanish NGO vessel will remain in the harbor of Port Empedocle in the province of Agrigento, Sicily.
After rescuing 265 migrants in two operations in the Mediterranean Sea within three days, Italy has allowed the Spanish flagged rescue ship Open Arms to bring its passengers to the Italian island of Sicily. Many of the rescuees are to be taken to a quarantine ship.
The Spanish rescue group Open Arms has rescued around 170 people from the Mediterranean Sea. Several small children were in the boat drifting off the coast of Libya.
The Open Arms rescue ship, run by the Spanish organization of the same name, said on Sunday that it was leaving Trapani on the Italian island of Sicily to head back to Barcelona. There it will change its crew and head back out for its 79th rescue mission in the Mediterranean Sea.