When boats with refugees are at risk of capsizing in the Mediterranean Sea, the speed of rescue operations is essential. Any delay in the emergency response can lead to serious bodily harm or the loss of life.
The number of people who have landed in Malta irregularly by boat has declined considerably after Malta and Libya signed a memorandum of understanding on irregular migration, Malta Today reported.
Human Rights Watch has criticized the U.N. Human Rights Council for not insisting on accountability for abuses committed against migrants by EU-backed Libyan Coast Guards.
United Nations investigators say there is evidence that crimes against humanity have been committed against Libyans and migrants stuck in Libya, including women being forced into sexual slavery.
SOS Mediterranee, a European humanitarian group that rescues asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean, has accused the Libyan coastguard of threatening their rescue ship and endangering their crew during a rescue operation.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday that 400 migrants were intercepted and returned to Libya in the past week.
This week, the European Union handed over in Italy a search and rescue vessel to Libyan authorities intended for abusive Libyan Coast Guard forces and promised four more, without any apparent attempt to vet the human rights practices of the coast guard, thus making the EU more complicit in human …
The minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation of the government of national unity, Najla el Mangoush, is in Venice, Italy ahead of the delivery of a newly manufactured class 300 patrol boat scheduled for Monday, Italian New Agency Nova reported.
In its obsession to keep migrants and asylum seekers away from its shores, Italy is paying for tens of thousands of people to be intercepted and returned to Libya, where they face abuses that the UN describes as possible crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Wednesday.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Monday that 331 migrants were rescued and returned to Libya in the past week.
