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.
A new report thinks yes. An Italian rights group recently published a report in which it details several infringements of migrant rights during the lockdown and restrictions designed to fight the coronavirus pandemic. It says that deprivations of personal liberty became more numerous during the lockdown and allowed the authorities to "extend the maximum duration of […] restrictive measure[s]."
The Italian authorities are trying to clear an overcrowded hotspot on Lampedusa after hundreds of migrants, mostly Tunisians, arrived in the past few days. A few hundred boarded the new quarantine ferry, the Azzurra, on Tuesday. Later though, boarding was halted due to bad weather.
Search-and-rescue teams have retrieved two more bodies from a boat that sank last month on Lake Van in eastern Turkey, according to Turkish media reports. The boat is believed to have been carrying up to 60 migrants when it sank.
It was an emotional day in the European Parliament on Monday, when a surprise meeting took place between the famous migrant doctor and MP Pietro Bartolo and an Eritrean woman who survived the tragic October 2013 shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa. The woman had been left for dead by first responders but was then miraculously saved by Bartolo.
A coastal town in Gambia is in mourning after at least 63 people died in a shipwreck off the coast of Mauritania on December 4.
An Italian court has ruled that simply piloting a boat is not sufficient cause to be convicted as a human trafficker. The ruling came in the case of seven defendants who were acquitted in a trial in which they were accused of favoring illegal immigration.
As a result of new amendments to Italy’s security decree, fines up to one million euros could be imposed on private rescue organizations who attempt to disembark rescued migrants in Italy or defy refusals to enter Italian waters. The latest amendments were passed into law by Italy’s upper house, the Senate, on Monday, August 5.