Please help, today one person self dead by petrol because hopeless.” Sally Hayden received the text in October 2018. The Irish Times journalist was one of the few outsiders trusted by refugees locked up in Libya. The text was about Abdulaziz, who had been forced to flee his native Somalia to escape al-Shabaab, the al-Qaida-linked Islamist group waging terror in east Africa.
Browsing: Migrants
The shipwreck took place on Thursday and at least one newborn baby is among those missing, said UNHCR representative to Italy Chiara Cardoletti.
The EU delivered two patrol boats to Libya in a ceremony on Thursday (22 June) in the Sicilian city of Messina in the presence of European Commission officials, the Italian authorities, and the Tripoli-based coastguard, according to a press statement on Friday (23 June), Euractiv reported.
The Anti-Illegal Migration Agency – Benghazi confirmed the deportation of 114 irregular migrants of different nationalities to their countries.
The Libyan Red Crescent has announced the recovery of three unidentified bodies on the beaches of the Tokra area, east of the city of Benghazi, Libyan online media Fawasel Media reports, adding that the recovery took place “in collaboration with the local authorities”.
Libya has prevented 250 irregular migrants from leaving the country, the Libyan Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said on Sunday.
Spanish charity Open Arms said it rescued 117 migrants on Saturday crowded onto a precarious wooden boat from Libya in the latest such perilous crossing over the Mediterranean sea.
Nine Egyptians have been arrested on suspicion of being people smugglers after the migrant boat disaster off Greece that claimed at least 78 lives, a port source told AFP Thursday.
The U.N. Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) is “concerned about the mass arbitrary arrest of migrants and asylum-seekers across the country”.
The NGO Doctors without Borders (MSF) says the crew of its Geo Barents rescue ship witnessed the Tripoli-based coast guard intercepting 50 migrants on a boat in distress and returning them to Libya.