The vast majority of asylum seekers are now arriving on the Central Mediterranean route between Libya and Italy, since efforts to stop crossings over the Aegean Sea with the EU-Turkey deal.
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In images and video, migrants from Eritrea and Somalia are seen cheering as the rescue boats arrive, with some jumping into the water and swimming toward them while others carefully carry babies onto the rescue ships.
A pair of newborn twin boys & their mother were among the thousands of migrants miraculously rescued from the Mediterranean during a rocky journey to Europe. More than 100,000 people have left north Africa for Italy so far this year, equal to last year’s numbers and only marginally down on the record figures in 2014.
(Vatican Radio) The International Organization for Migration (IOM) comments on the latest surge of some 6,500 migrants who were rescued from unseaworthy boats off the Libyan coast on Monday and looks at the factors driving migration from many African countries.
Operation Sophia was launched to disrupt human smuggling operations in the Central Mediterranean. The agreement was signed Italy’s head of operation Sophia, and the head of Libya’s coastguard on behalf of the Government of National Accord (GNA), its United Nations backed authority.
Rights groups and experts estimate that there are about 3,500 migrants held in roughly 20 official detention facilities across Libya. There are also concerns Daesh fighters are spreading from Sirte into the rest of the country.
As many as 3,000 of the migrants were rescued off the coast of Libya by MSF, Proactiva Open Arms, and Italian coast guard crews, and one of the rescue missions took place in Maltese waters.
“The command center coordinated 40 rescue operations” that included vessels from Italy, humanitarian organizations as well as the European Union’s border agency Frontex, saving 6,500 migrants, the coastguard wrote on Twitter.
They set out from Libya. Migrants rescued in June 2016 by aid workers from Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) revealed bodily wounds surmounting to slave labor, with stories of kidnap, torture and ransom becoming an increasingly familiar tale.
This is one of the biggest operations of its kind to date.
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Greek authorities on Monday said the islands now host some 12,000 people, reports Kathimerini.
