Mohamed* was just 14 years old when he left Somalia, entrusting his life to traffickers in hopes of reaching Europe. In Libya, he was tortured and almost died from tuberculosis. Thanks to a humanitarian corridor, the 17-year-old was able to transfer to Italy and receive medical care.
Thanks to collaboration between Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the Italian healthcare authorities, a clinic has opened in the Sicilian regional capital of Palermo specializing in the rehabilitation of migrants and refugees that have suffered torture and/or acts of violence.
Police in northern Greece have arrested 13 people accused of migrant smuggling. The men reportedly abducted and tortured migrants as young as 16 years old.
Amnesty International says Lebanese security forces have committed "shocking violations," including torture, against some Syrian refugees in Lebanon over the past ten years. The country is home to some 1.5 million Syrian refugees.
The Libyan army says it has freed 120 migrants from traffickers in northern Libya. In a Facebook post, the army says the mostly Egyptian migrants were held captive and tortured in hideouts in the city of Bani Walid.
He presented himself as a refugee fleeing the violence of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's violent regime. While he may have been a defector, Eyad A.'s trangressions are beyond redemption, a court in Koblenz found.
Some 350 African migrants, including over 100 children, have reportedly been freed from a secret prison in southeast Libya. The UN migration agency, IOM, said many of them were malnourished and had been abused.
A spokesperson for the interior ministry in Malta denies that it has received reports of physical abuse of migrants in detention centers, according to a local activist. Meanwhile a row has erupted over claims that migrants have been attempting suicide in order to draw attention to themselves.
2020 has been a difficult year for many people the world over. A global health pandemic, economic problems and even more people displaced than before were just some of the challenges we all faced. But to try and spread a bit of cheer as the year comes to a close, InfoMigrants decided to look back at some of the positives that people who work with migrants found in this most challenging of years.
Greece says it is abolishing the practice of holding unaccompanied migrant children in police custody. The announcement comes as Europe's top human rights watchdog said Greece was detaining migrants in unacceptable conditions and called for an end to illegal pushbacks.
As part of a larger case involving Syrians, a German citizen is also suing Bashar Assad's security apparatus. Martin Lautwein says he witnessed abuse and killings of other inmates during his 48 days detained in Damascus.
Italian authorities have arrested two men who are accused of holding migrants captive in a detention camp in Libya. Four Bangladeshi migrants recognized the two suspects and said they worked at a camp in central Libya where they were imprisoned and tortured, investigators said.