Migrants News

A migrant boat carrying around 35 people sailing from Libya capsized in the central Mediterranean leaving one confirmed dead and two dozen missing, UNICEF country coordinator for Italy said on Sunday.The rescue operation was carried out on Friday off the coast of Italy's Lampedusa Island by the Italian Coast Guard, which saved 11 migrants, including four children travelling alone, and recovered the body of a pregnant woman, UNICEF's Nicola Dell'Arciprete said.The survivors and the body were brought to Lampedusa, while the remaining passengers remain unaccounted for.The boat capsized after two

At least 26 people died in a migrant shipwreck off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Wednesday and 60 were brought ashore, the coastguard said, adding that the death toll was still provisional amid ongoing search operations.The disaster, in this case involving people travelling from Libya, is the latest to befall migrants making the perilous Mediterranean crossing from Africa to Europe.An Italian law enforcement aircraft spotted a capsized boat with bodies in the water about 14 miles (23 km) off Lampedusa on Wednesday morning…

At least 54 migrants died when a boat carrying around 150 people sank off Yemen's coast in bad weather on Sunday, with dozens still unaccounted for, health officials said.The boat capsized off the Ahwar district in Yemen's southern Abyan province on the Arabian Sea, security sources said.Abdul Qadir Bajameel, a provincial health official, said 10 of the around 150 people on board were rescued - nine Ethiopians and one Yemeni - but dozens remained missing. Two medics said rescuers…

Greece will deploy two frigates and one more vessel off Libya's territorial waters to deter migrants from arriving at its southern islands of Crete and Gavdos, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Monday.Mitsotakis did not elaborate on the role of the vessels or explain what they would do, but said the move would be in coordination with Libyan authorities and the rest of the European forces operating in the area.Sea arrivals from northeastern Libya of migrants trying to cross to Europe mainly from the Middle East and North Africa…

At least six people died when a migrant boat bound for Spain's Canary Islands capsized off the island of El Hierro as rescuers were escorting it to port, regional emergency services said on Wednesday.The open-topped boat, which according to state broadcaster TVE was laden with around 180 people, went down as it neared La Restinga harbour on El Hierro, the archipelago's smallest island.A spokesperson for the islands' maritime rescue service said a rescue vessel was escorting the boat to the harbour and as it approached, many of its passengers appeared to rush to one side of the precarious vesse

Tunisia's coast guard on Monday recovered the bodies of eight African migrants after their boat sank off the country's coast as it sailed towards Europe, a security official told Reuters, adding that 29 other people were rescued.The boat sank in waters off the city of Abwabed near Sfax, a departure point often used by African migrants.Search operations were underway for possible missing persons, said Houssem Eddine Jebabli, an official in the national guard.Tunisia is grappling with an unprecedented migration crisis and has replaced Libya as a major departure point for both Tunisians and other

Spain's coast guard rescued on Sunday (April 13) 50 migrants trying to reach the Canary Islands on an inflatable boat, the Spanish Red Cross said.The migrants, which included 45 men, four women and one minor, were taken to El Rosario port on Fuerteventura island.The boat was located 90 miles (144 kilometres) off the island of Lanzarote.

At least seven migrants died, including one boy, one girl and two women, when their boat sank on Thursday (April 3) off the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece's coastguard said.The boat was detected by a patrolling coastguard vessel at about 2 a.m. local time (2300 GMT on Wednesday) north of Lesbos.So far 23 migrants have been rescued and a search and rescue operation was still ongoing, a coastguard official said. It was not immediately clear how many people may have been on the boat.Greece…

A charity vessel has rescued more than 30 migrants including two children who had been stranded for four days on a gas platform in the Mediterranean off the coast of Tunisia, the Sea-Watch organization said on Tuesday."This morning, Sea-Watch's fast ship Aurora left (the Italian island of) Lampedusa to rescue them.

A Greek Ombudsman has recommended disciplinary action against eight coastguard officers for alleged dereliction of duty in one of the deadliest migrant shipwrecks off Greece in which hundreds died in 2023.The inquiry is the first to conclude on the circumstances surrounding the shipwreck off the southwestern coastal town of Pylos on June 14, 2023, which sank in plain sight of Greek coastguard authorities with about 750 people on board.The trawler, named Ariana, had left Libya…

An Italian navy ship carrying 49 migrants picked up in international waters arrived in Albania on Tuesday, amid a new attempt by Italy to push ahead with a legally contested plan to relocate migrants to the neighbouring country.The navy ship Cassiopea with the migrants reached the Albanian port of Shengjin early on Tuesday, according to a Reuters witness.

Tunisia's coast guard has recovered the bodies of 27 African migrants after two boats they were attempting to cross the Mediterranean in sank off the coast, the national guard said on Thursday.The boats sank in waters off the city of Sfax, a departure point often used by African migrants.Last month, Tunisia's coast guard recovered the bodies of about 30 other migrants in two separate incidents, after their boat sank while they were sailing towards Europe.The national guard said on Thursday that the coast guard rescued 87 people who were on the same two boats that sank off Sfax.Tunisia is grapp

At least three migrants died in the Channel off northern France on Sunday as a group of around 50 people tried to set off in a small boat heading for Britain, authorities said.The incident occurred at Sangatte at around 6 a.m. (0500 GMT) during a series of attempted crossings by migrants aiming for the southern coast of England, the French maritime prefecture for the Channel said in a statement.Three migrants were confirmed dead after being found unconscious, while another 45 people were rescued and treated mostly for hypothermia…

At least 22 Somali citizens died when two migrant boats capsized off the coast of Madagascar over the weekend, Somalia's Information Minister Daud Aweis said.Madagascar's Port, Maritime, and River Authority (APMF) said the boats had set sail from Somalia for the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on Nov. 2, a journey of several hundred kilometres.On Saturday, the port authority reported that local fishermen discovered the first boat drifting on Friday near Nosy Iranja. They rescued 25 people…

Eight people have died trying to cross the Channel from France to England, French authorities said on Sunday, confirming earlier media reports.This latest incident follows the deaths of 12 people earlier this month when their boat capsized in the Channel on its way to Britain and highlights the pressure on the British and French governments to find ways to tackle the boat crossings.Jacques Billant, the Prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region, said that rescue crews were alerted that a boat with 59 people onboard was in difficulty in waters off the coast of Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais area."A n

Volunteer lifeguards from Spanish charity Open Arms assisted 54 migrants stranded on a rubber dinghy in the Mediterranean Sea off the Italian island of Lampedusa on Tuesday, according to a Reuters witness.The group said it gave the passengers, who were mainly Syrian nationals, life jackets and water after alerting the Italian Coast Guard, which later took them to Lampedusa.The central Mediterranean is one of the most dangerous routes for refugees seeking asylum in Europe. Last year…

Four migrants died after being thrown from a speedboat yards from a beach in Cadiz in southern Spain, Guardia Civil police and rescue service said on Wednesday.The boat was carrying a total of 27 immigrants, 23 of whom arrived alive.Images published on social media and carried by local media, whose authenticity has not yet been confirmed by Reuters, show a black inflatable speedboat circling in heavy tides off the beach and people onboard pushing others off the side, who start to swim in the swell."We saw a drug trafficking boat arriving but they weren't trafficking drugs but with migrants.

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch has published its accident investigation report on the loss of at least 27 lives when an inflatable boat carrying around 33 people became flooded and partially sank during an attempt to cross from France to the UK on November 24, 2021.The events were complex with multiple inflatable boats that were unsuitable and ill-equipped for the journey attempting to cross the Dover Strait to England. The occupants were not trained mariners, and their only means of calling for help was by mobile phone.

Idris, 22, was convinced he was going to die when the small boat he and dozens of other migrants were on began to sink in the Channel as he tried to reach England from France.It was only thinking of his parents back home, and the fact that he had embarked on this perilous journey to help his family, that gave him the strength to stay afloat, he told Reuters.Six people died when the boat sank on Saturday. More than 60 people, mostly Afghans, were saved by French and British rescue teams, including Idris and 15-year-old Fawad.

Italian authorities on Wednesday said forty-one migrants are thought to have died in a shipwreck last week in the central Mediterranean, according to accounts by survivors who have been taken to the island of Lampedusa.Local public prosecutor Salvatore Vella confirmed media reports that four people who survived the shipwreck told rescuers they were on a boat carrying 45 people, including three children.Vella's office has opened an investigation into the incident.The 7-meter-long boat set off on Thursday morning from Tunisia's Sfax…

At least four migrants died and 51 were missing after a migrant ship sank off Tunisia's Kerkennah island, a judicial official told Reuters on Sunday, adding that all the migrants onboard were from sub-Saharan Africa.The Tunisian coast guard recovered 901 bodies of drowned migrants off its coast from Jan. 1 to July 20 this year, the country's interior minister said in July, marking an unprecedented number of victims off the country's coasts. The North Africa country is facing a…

A Spanish reconnaissance plane has found what could be a fishing vessel from Senegal with about 200 migrants on board that has been missing for nearly two weeks, the maritime rescue service said on Monday."The plane has found a large boat with some 200 people on board, 71 miles to the south of Gran Canaria," a spokesperson for the service told Reuters, adding it was "possible" that it was the missing vessel.A rescue ship was on its way and would take about two-and-a-half hours to reach the location, the spokesperson added.

Since Matloob Hussain from Pakistan went missing during a deadly shipwreck off Greece last month, his brother Adil has left the door of his Athens home open in the hope he appears. It will stay open until his body is found.Matloob, 43, is among hundreds of migrants from Pakistan, Syria and Egypt who are presumed dead after their overcrowded fishing trawler, that set sail from Libya for Italy, sank off the coast of Pylos in international waters on June 14.A total of 104 men were rescued and 82 bodies were found.