search and rescue operations sar

• Libya

On Thursday night, the Ocean Viking rescued 92 migrants, including pregnant women and children off the Libyan coast. Those rescued were "extremely weak and soaked in petrol" said the rescue team.

• Italy

The Italian Court of Cassation has rejected an appeal filed by the prosecutor's office against an order to release Carola Rackete, the captain of the Sea-Watch 3 migrant rescue vessel. In June 2019, Rackete was temporarily arrested after she illegally entered the Italian port of Lampedusa with 40 migrants on board.

• Italy

Italian authorities have assigned NGO rescue vessels Sea-Watch 3 and the Open Arms with almost 240 rescued migrants on board the ports of Taranto and Messina, respectively. Four EU countries agreed to receive the migrants, yet a binding quota system for the distribution of migrants rescued at sea is still not in place.

• Malta
• Germany

The German sea rescue NGO Sea-Watch has accused the Maltese government of deliberate inaction when it comes to saving the lives of migrants and refugees in Mediterranean waters. In a series of tweets, the private sea rescue organization said that Maltese armed forces only appeared to intervene in such cases when they received according orders.

• Germany

More than 150 organizations have pledged support to the "United4Rescue" initiative, launched by Germany's Protestant Church, which hopes to finance sea rescue efforts and send its own vessel into the Mediterranean Sea. The group is hoping to acquire a rescue ship in the near future.

• Libya
• Greece
• Croatia

More than 120,000 irregular migrants and refugees arrived in the EU this year, mostly by sea. Greece saw a dramatic increase in arrivals, while arrivals in Italy and Spain declined. We take a look at clandestine and irregular migration movements to Europe in 2019.

• Libya
• Italy

The charity ship Alan Kurdi reached a rubber boat carrying 32 migrants, ahead of an impending storm on the Mediterranean. According to the Sea-Eye rescue group, they all said they were Libyan citizens.

• Libya
• Senegal
• Gambia

A boat carrying around 190 migrants was intercepted by the Mauritanian coast guard on Friday, the UN migration agency said. This comes less than two days after 63 migrants drowned when their vessel sank in the same waters en route from The Gambia. The country's president has vowed to crack down on people traffickers.

• Libya
• Germany

Under international law, ships have a clear duty to help those in distress at sea. But when the ships are run by non-governmental organizations, and the people in distress are migrants, there are very often questions about what is 'the right thing to do'. The German news agency epd asked a maritime law expert for some answers.

• Italy

The Alan Kurdi and Ocean Viking rescue ships were given permission to dock in Italian ports on Wednesday morning and safely offload their 121 passengers. Both ships rescued migrants from the Mediterranean on November 28 and had been waiting for approval to enter a safe port.

• Italy

Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese has called for a "code of conduct" for private vessels carrying out rescue operations in the Mediterranean. She wants the EU to introduce "rules for the security of migrants and crew members."

• Malta
• Libya
• Italy

The Libyan coast guard has reportedly taken 30 migrants off the supply ship "OOC Panther" that rescued them on Saturday in the Central Mediterranean. According to charity search and rescue groups, armed Libyan guards had previously boarded the ship in an attempt to force the migrants to return to Libya.