Mediterranean Sea - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Italian migrant rescuers to face trial over cash from shipping giant Maersk

BSS/AFP — Thu, 29 May 2025 21:47:08 +0000

ROME, May 29, 2025 (BSS/AFP) – Top officials from a group that rescues undocumented migrants from boats in the Mediterranean will go on trial in Italy in October on charges of aiding illegal immigration, the group announced Wednesday.

The Mediterranea Saving Humans (MSH) group said in a Facebook post that the case had been sent to trial and hearings would start on October 21 against three top representatives and the captain and three crew from one of the vessels its uses.

According to prosecutors, the AP Moeller-Maersk shipping giant paid 125,000 euros ($140,000) to the Idra company that oversees MSH, just after the group took 27 migrants off one of the Danish carrier’s ships in September 2020.

The migrants had been stuck on the vessel for more than one month.

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Source: https://www.bssnews.net/news/277860

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Migrant, Refugee Deaths Increasing on Dangerous Mediterranean Sea Crossing

Voice of America (VoA). — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 01:49:45 +0000

The U.N. refugee agency says fatalities are rising along the Mediterranean Sea crossing to Europe, even as fewer migrants and refugees are making the dangerous journey.

Migration reached a peak in 2015, when more than a million refugees and migrants crossed the Mediterranean to Europe. That number declined to 123,300 in 2021. However, the U.N. refugee agency says more than 3,200 died or went missing at sea last year, an increase of nearly 1,000 over recorded fatalities in 2018.

In addition to the rising death toll at sea, UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo says even greater numbers may have died or gone missing along land routes through the Sahara Desert and remote border areas.

She says deaths and abuses most commonly occur in and through the countries of origin and transit, including Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Libya.

“UNHCR has continuously been warning of the horrific experiences and dangers faced by refugees and migrants who resort to these journeys,” said Mantoo. “Many among them are individuals who are fleeing conflict, violence, and persecution. The data visualization focuses specifically on the route from the East and Horn of Africa to the Central Mediterranean Sea.”

Mantoo says refugees and migrants have few options but to rely on smugglers. She says they are exposed to a high risk of abuse from smugglers, whether they take the land route across the Sahara Desert or cross the sea from Libya and Tunisia toward Italy or Malta.

“In many cases, those who survive the journey through the Sahara and attempt the sea crossings are often abandoned by their smugglers, while some of those leaving Libya are intercepted and returned to the country, where they are subsequently detained,” said Mantoo. “Each year, thousands perish or go missing at sea without a trace.”

The UNHCR is urging greater action to prevent deaths, provide alternatives to the dangerous journ

Source: https://www.voanews.com/a/6613275.html

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Numbers of migrants intercepted by Libyan coast guard ‘almost tripled’ in 2021

Emma Wallis - Info Migrants — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 09:29:30 +0000

The numbers of migrants who were intercepted by Libya’s coast guard while attempting to cross the Mediterranean almost tripled in 2021 compared to the year before, according to the UN.

“As of December 14, 2021, the Libyan coast guard had intercepted 30,990 migrants and refugees and returned them to Libya, almost three times the total number of people returned in 2020,” wrote UN Secretary General António Guterres in an internal report to the UN Security Council.

According to UN figures, in 2020, 12,000 migrants were officially intercepted by the Libyan coast guard and returned to Libya. The actual numbers of those detained in Libya is estimated to be much higher.

The numbers of those reported dead and missing on the Mediterranean route between North Africa and the EU also increased. According to figures from the UN Migration Agency IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, more than 1,300 people were reported dead or missing on that route in 2021. That makes the Mediterranean route one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world.

Also read: Libyan coast: More than 160 migrants died in crossing attempt

Mediterranean arrivals
The numbers of those who reached countries like Italy, Malta and Spain from North Africa also rose in 2021. Across the whole of the Mediterranean, which also includes those arriving from Lebanon and Turkey via Greece and Cyprus, as well as those arriving in Italy, Spain and Malta, 2021 saw 122,485 arrivals. The UN also registered 1,971 people dead or missing.

According to the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR’s figures, the numbers of those arriving in 2021 had returned almost to pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, 123,663 migrants arrived in the Mediterranean and 1,335 were reported dead and missing.

The numbers of those dead and missing are thought to be much higher than the official figures suggest, since many migrants do not tell their families when they are about to make a crossing, or even where they are. Migrants who have made it have told InfoMigrants that often they don’t want to admit to their families and friends how bad their situations really are, so sometimes their families might not hear from them for months on end.

Migrant nationalities
The IOM’s migrant flow monitoring website shows that the majority of migrants arriving in Europe in 2021 came from Tunisia (15,675). Moroccans accounted for the next largest group (14,015). Migrants from various countries in Sub Saharan Africa were next (13,491) and Algeria and Egypt, followed by Bangladeshis. Those from Iran, Ivory Coast, Afghanistan and Iraq accounted for the rest of the top ten arrivals in descending order.

Also according to the IOM, 2017 was the last time that Europe saw so many people migrating through its borders. In 2017, arrivals stood at 187,499 and in 2016, 389,976. The great majority of people arriving that year came from Syria.

In 2021, the Italian authorities registered more than 67,000 arrivals. Spain registered over 43,000 new arrivals, the vast majority, as in the case of Italy, arrived by sea. Spain’s figures also include migrants arriving over the Atlantic route from West Africa towards the Canary Islands.

With dpa and AFP

Source: https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/37976/numbers-of-migrants-intercepted-by-libyan-coast-guard-almost-tripled-in-2021

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Migrant deaths in European waters not new, over 1,600 have died this year – IOM

AP with Euronews — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 17:12:46 +0000

While the deaths of at least 27 migrants in the English Channel have shocked both Britain and France, shipwrecks of that scale are not uncommon in European waters.

UN officials estimate that as many as 1,600 people have died or are missing in the Mediterranean Sea this year alone.

In contrast, just 35 migrants have died or remain missing in the Channel since the start of 2021.

This year, the busiest and deadliest migrant route to Europe is the central Mediterranean, where people travel in crowded boats from northern Africa.

The route has become the main gateway to Europe for migrants trying to enter the continent with the help of human smugglers.

On Thursday, Italy’s coastguard reported that they had rescued nearly 300 migrants off the coast of Lampedusa.

The authorities said the overcrowded boat had run into problems in difficult sea conditions, and some people had already fallen in the water. Eight children were among the 296 people rescued, the coastguard said.

The death toll in the Mediterranean this year is higher than 2020 but by no means unique.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that 23,000 people have perished since 2014 while trying to reach Europe from northern Africa, including more than 5,000 people in 2016 alone.

In the same seven-year period, about 166 people have died in the English Channel.

Just last week, 85 people died in two separate incidents while trying to reach Italy from Libya, said the IOM spokesman in Italy, Flavio di Giacomo.

“I think the media attention of what happened between UK and France is also because this is new,” di Giacomo said.

“Europe is not used to [this] inside the continent, usually, it’s on the external borders,” he added.

According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, around 60,000 people have arrived in Italy by sea this year.

Meanwhile, an estimated 1,200 have died or disappeared on the journey, partly based on information from survivors of shipwrecks.

Migrant traffic has also increased on the even more dangerous Atlantic Ocean route to Spain’s Canary Islands.

IOM has registered 900 deaths on the Canaries route this year, di Giacomo said, but the true number could be double “and no one is paying a lot of attention.”

More than 400 people were rescued just this week while trying to reach the island group.

Human rights groups often criticize European governments for not doing more to rescue migrants trying to reach the continent on unseaworthy vessels.

In recent years, Europe has placed more emphasis on training and equipping the Libyan coast guard to intercept migrant boats before they can reach European waters.

But critics say Europe is turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in Libyan detention centres for migrants.

Source: https://www.euronews.com/2021/11/25/migrant-deaths-in-european-waters-not-new-over-1-600-have-died-this-year-iom

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Migrants’ journey to Europe turns deadly as boat capsizes in Mediterranean

TRT World — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 10:41:36 +0000

At least 41 refugees and migrants have drowned with more than 70 others rescued by a commercial vessel that took them to Sicilian port town Porto Empedocle.

Migrants wearing lifejackets on a rubber dinghy are pictured during a rescue operation by the MSF-SOS Mediterranee run Ocean Viking rescue ship, off the coast of Libya in the Mediterranean Sea, February 18, 2020. Picture taken February 18, 2020. (Reuters)

At least 41 people have drowned over the weekend when their boat capsized in the Central Mediterranean, the UN said, the latest shipwreck involving migrants fleeing conflict-stricken Libya and seeking better life in Europe.

The UN migration and refugee agencies said in a joint statement that the dead were among at least 120 migrants on a dinghy that left Libya on February 18.

The shipwreck took place two days later, it said.

A commercial vessel rescued the survivors and took them to the Sicilian port town of Porto Empedocle in Italy, they added.

Only one body was recovered, and the missing included three children and four women, one of whom left behind a newborn baby currently in Lampedusa, it said.

The shipwreck was the latest along the Central Mediterranean migration route, where about 160 Europe-bound migrants have died since the beginning of 2021, the UN agencies said.

In the years since the 2011 uprising that ousted and killed longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi, war-torn Libya has emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.

Smugglers often pack desperate families into ill-equipped rubber boats that stall and founder along the perilous Central Mediterranean route.

Over the last several years, hundreds of thousands of migrants have reached Italy either on their own or after being rescued at sea.

Source: AP

Source: https://www.trtworld.com/africa/migrants-journey-to-europe-turns-deadly-as-boat-capsizes-in-mediterranean-44486

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Migrants Continue To Die In Attempts To Cross Mediterranean Sea To Europe

Ruth Sherlock - NPR — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 20:31:13 +0000

The pandemic and its many travel restrictions haven’t stopped thousands of migrants from attempting the dangerous trip across the Mediterranean Sea this year. More than 1,000 have died at sea.

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

One group of people continues to take on dangerous travel despite all the restrictions of the global pandemic. I’m talking about migrants from Africa and the Middle East. They still made thousands of journeys into the Mediterranean Sea in 2020, attempting to get to Europe. At least a thousand of them died this year as their routes to welcoming ports diminished. NPR’s Ruth Sherlock has looked into the numbers and talked to some of them who have attempted this journey. She joins us now from Beirut.

Hi, Ruth.

RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: Hi.

CHANG: So we’re talking about trips in, like, really small ships or leaky boats arranged by smugglers, right?

SHERLOCK: Yes, that’s right. And migration experts tell me that despite the pandemic, thousands of migrants have kept trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, a route they say is now the most dangerous in the world. And just last month, to give you an example, 72 migrants drowned off the coast of Libya. And these kinds of deaths are tragically common.

What has changed, though, is that there aren’t as many European rescue ships. And some countries, like Malta and Italy, have closed their ports to migrants. They say it’s because of safety concerns in the pandemic. But migrant advocates have criticized them for saying they’re using the pandemic as a cover to stop this kind of unpopular arrival of migrants on their shores.

I spoke with Safa Msehli, a spokesperson for the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration. Here she is.

SAFA MSEHLI: The very unfortunate, dangerous crossings continued this year and also continued amid hardening policy and closed ports, decrees that limited the work of lifesaving NGOs, who are the only actors operating in the central Mediterranean attempting to save lives. This is absolutely tragic that people continue to die on Europe’s doorstep, in European waters, and their calls for distress and their calls for assistance unheeded.

SHERLOCK: So she gives me several examples of rescue ships that were left stranded in European waters for weeks, unable to find a port where migrants could land.

CHANG: Well, can you just put all of this in perspective for us? Like, why are people still willing to make such a harrowing journey like this?

SHERLOCK: Well, you know, they do this for many different reasons. In places like Libya and some other African countries, they’re dealing with wars or famine or poverty. But the common factor here is desperation. Many just don’t see another way. This year, I interviewed migrants and their families of a migrant boat that was stranded off the coast of Lebanon. That boat was rescued, but only after eight days, by which time several people, including two children under the age of 3, had died.

One of the survivors, 22-year-old Ibrahim Lisheen (ph), told me that he decided to get on the boat after he hadn’t been able to find work in Lebanon, which is going through its own economic crisis, for over three years. He says his family was surviving on charity handouts.

IBRAHIM LISHEEN: (Non-English language spoken).

SHERLOCK: He tells me that despite everything he suffered at sea, he would actually try again if he got the opportunity. He says, “living here with my family – we’re already dead, so we may as well die at sea.”

CHANG: Well, what are advocates calling for countries to do now about this really dangerous situation?

SHERLOCK: You know, they keep reminding states that there’s an obligation under international law, first of all, to rescue people and to respond to distress calls at sea, but also to provide a port of safety. So they’re calling for the redeployment of search and rescue ships. And they also want an end of the EU’s support to the Libyan Coast Guard, who tend to intercept migrants but then return them to migrant centers where they’re being held in the most awful of conditions.

But the problem with all of these policies is that migration is an intensely political topic in Europe. And these kind of policies that advocates are calling for can be unpopular with governments. So it’s hard to see for the moment how things will improve.

CHANG: That is NPR’s Ruth Sherlock in Beirut.

Thank you, Ruth.

SHERLOCK: Thank you.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2020/12/29/951208118/migrants-continue-to-die-in-attempts-to-cross-mediterranean-sea-to-europe

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