Mediterranean migrant route - Page 3

Populist Matteo Salvini has claimed that just 15 per cent of the illegal immigrants who came to Italy in 2021 were granted refugee status.

Italian populist League (Lega) leader Matteo Salvini has called for tougher border control to reduce illegal migrant landings following the collapse of the technocratic “national unity” government earlier this week.

The Italian government is set to end the use of quarantine ships for migrants arriving in Italy by sea as migrant arrivals rise. While just two of the original five quarantine ships are still in use by the government, Italy

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has revealed an estimated 600 people have been led by smugglers to their deaths in the first three months of this year, a surge in numbers compared to prior years. According to the IOM,

Since the start of the year, Italy has seen over 17,000 illegal immigrants arrive in its territory, up 28.5% from the same period last year.

Over 3,000 people are said to have gone missing or died at sea trying to reach Europe over the course of last year, according to the UNHCR.

Lebanese rescue teams searched the Mediterranean for survivors Monday after an overloaded people-smuggling boat capsized.

As many as ten per cent of the women who attempted to reach Spain illegally by boat in 2021 were killed, double the death rate of male migrants, according to statistics compiled by a Spanish NGO.

The number of migrants that arrived illegally in Italy in January has nearly tripled compared to the same period last year.

Libyan authorities intercepted 30,990 migrants heading for Europe in 2021 according to UN statistics, a trebling of the year prior.

A migrant taxi ship chartered by the British street artist Banksy has set sail for the Mediterranean Sea to pick up migrants again.

Nearly one-third of occupants in Italian prisons are migrants, with the latest official data showing over 17,000 prisoners came from abroad.

35,000 illegal migrants landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2021, an all-time record for arrivals.

The German migrant taxi NGO Sea-Watch has picked up 446 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea over the Christmas weekend.

Coast guard divers searched the hull of a submerged sailboat for passengers possibly trapped inside Friday.

Around 800 migrants are on three different NGO migrant “taxi” ships are awaiting port access after being picked up in the Mediterranean. 

The first witnesses in the trial of former Italian deputy prime minister and minister of the interior Matteo Salvini have been heard, with Admiral Sergio Liardo claiming that Salvini was not alone in responsibility for blocking an NGO migrant taxi in 2019.

Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi revealed that his country has seen a six-fold increase in migrant landings since 2019, and called for help from the European Union in dealing with the ongoing crisis.

Stolen yachts, including some with U.S. registrations, are being used by people smugglers to sneak migrants into Italy.

A teen Tunisian ‘influencer’ took criticism after she posted videos online of her aboard a boat of illegal immigrants heading to Italy. 

Ten people were found dead at the bottom of an overcrowded wooden boat packed with 99 surviving migrants and refugees.

ROME (AP) – The Italian Coast Guard rescued 125 migrants who were spotted huddling together on the rocky shore of a tiny uninhabited isle at dawn Thursday, after one of their two boats partially sunk near Lampedusa island.

More than 500 migrants arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Saturday, with several of them allegedly showing signs of abuse and torture.

After 18 new migrant boat landings in just two days, the reception centre on the island of Lampedusa now houses 900 people, despite only having space for 250. In 24 hours alone, some 600 migrants arrived on the island as

Italy’s Interior Ministry has revealed that from August 1st, 2020, to July 31st of this year, 49,280 arrived illegally in the country.

Illegal migrant landings have increased by nearly sevenfold since leftist Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese took over from Matteo Salvini in 2019.

In 2020, just 3,351 illegal migrants of the 34,133 who arrived in Italy that year were deported, but it still cost the Italian taxpayer millions of euros.

An Italian anti-terrorism prosecutor has expressed concerns that radical Islamic jihadists are among the wave of illegal migrants coming to Europe from North Africa.

At least 17 migrants drowned and more than 300 were rescued by Tunisian and Libyan naval units in the Mediterranean.

In the first six months of this year, at least 1,146 people have drowned in the Mediterranean as people smugglers resume operations to help migrants illegally cross the sea to Europe.

Lampedusa has seen nonstop landings of illegal migrant boats over the last several days, with hundreds arriving on the Italian island.

A vessel operated by the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) with 410 migrants on board arrived at an Italian port Thursday afternoon after over 1,200 migrants arrived in a single day last weekend at Lampedusa.

The Italian coastguard detained the German migrant taxi NGO Sea-Eye on Friday after the NGO had dropped off 415 migrants in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo. The coastguard announced the blocking of the NGO’s vessel, the Sea-Eye 4, on Saturday

Italian media have accused NGOs of exploiting photographs of dead children to increase public support for migrant taxi operations in the Mediterranean Sea.

Members of Matteo Salvini’s League have slammed an expected relocation of migrants to the party’s heartlands in Italy’s north, with some stating they will not accept any new arrivals.

(AFP) — Italy is pushing EU partners to revive migrant burden-sharing deals as it seeks to stave off a summertime surge in landings from North Africa, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Wednesday.