Several humanitarian organizations have sent an appeal to Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese. They want her to immediately allow church charities to carry out five flights to evacuate vulnerable migrants from Libya to Italy.
The UN migration agency IOM has helped to relocate 270 migrants from Malta to other European countries this year. More than eight times as many arrived on the island in the past 12 months.
A total of 99 refugees and asylum seekers arrived in the German city of Hanover on Thursday. Among them: sick children and their families, as well as unaccompanied minors. They are part of two contingents that Germany has agreed to take in from overcrowded camps in Greece.
EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, speaking at Med Dialogues 2020 in Rome, highlighted that the new EU Pact on Migration "represents a new beginning" in which "the central element is to strengthen cooperation with our neighbors and with our partners."
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on November 12 assisted the first group of asylum seekers to relocate from Italy to Spain since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The UN agency said 15 asylum seekers were transferred from Rome to Madrid.
Another flight from Greece has brought more than 100 refugees to Germany, around half of them sick children and their close relatives as well as unaccompanied minors. This brings to over 1,000 the number of people Germany has taken in since April.
26 more refugee families have arrived in Germany from Greece. A plane carrying 101 refugees touched down Friday in the city of Hanover.
A group of refugee activists is planning to fly an empty plane to the Greek island of Lesbos to try to pick up nearly 200 migrants. The group wants to bring the migrants to the Netherlands.
The UN agencies IOM, UNHCR, and UNICEF said that over 1,000 asylum seekers have been transferred from Greece to other European countries through this year, with the EU initiative for relocations.
France will welcome 500 unaccompanied minors from Greece. The French European Affairs Minister has confirmed that 150 children are to be evacuated after the fire at Moria camp on Lesbos.
Only a handful of EU member states are ready to accept asylum seekers. Now, the European Commission is trying to reform the bloc's asylum rules, but few of its proposals seem to break new ground.
Afghan interpreters who worked with the British armed forces in Afghanistan will be granted asylum in the UK, announced the British Home Secretary and the UK’s Defense Secretary on Saturday, September 19.