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.
At least 15 migrants have died in a shipwreck off the Libyan coast and five survivors were brought to shore by fishermen, according to the UN migration agency IOM.
An Italian association, ARCI, has expressed its "profound worries" after several asylum seekers housed in various structures across Italy revealed they are being tested and sent to quarantine ships off the coast when they test positive for COVID-19. Some of these asylum seekers have been in Italy several years.
At least 11 migrants are thought to have died when their boat sank off the coast of Tunisia on Sunday. The migrants, believed to be from Africa, were among about 30 people on board. So far, the bodies of eight women and three children have been recovered.
More than a thousand migrants in 485 small boats have landed in the Canary Islands in the past two days. Tightened security along Morocco's coast has pushed migrants and traffickers to risk the Atlantic crossing.
The UN migration agency IOM reported on Friday, September 25, that a shipwreck off the Libyan coast had left at least 13 dead and 22 survivors which were brought ashore by fishing vessels.
The Italian national ombudsman for detainee rights last week visited a quarantine ship for migrants anchored off Palermo. Mauro Palma said that he had found conditions on the Rhapsody much better than those in previous temporary facilities provided in overcrowded hotspots in the country.
The bodies of four Algerian migrants were retrieved after a makeshift raft capsized off the northeastern coast of Algeria. Five others were rescued by coast guards, according to the Algerian state news agency.
The boat capsized due to heavy winds, leaving at least one woman and two children dead. Search efforts carried on into the night, the Greek coast guard said.
Denmark has appointed a new special migration envoy to "help open doors" towards a new EU migration policy which would push reception centers outside EU borders. The government on Thursday also said that Tunisia should take in the 27 migrants aboard the Danish-flagged tanker Maersk Etienne which has been stranded off Malta for weeks.
Amid growing tensions in Italy due to an increase in migrant arrivals, the Italian government has launched a new call for tenders to find a second ship to use for quarantining migrants arriving in the country. Meanwhile Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini has travelled to Libya to re-launch cooperation between the two countries.
A boat carrying around 40 migrants and refugees sunk off the coast, killing almost everyone on board. A UNHCR spokesman said the shipwreck was the fault of 'immoral and unscrupulous smugglers' arranging such journeys.