Seven feared dead on migrant boat off Spain’s Canary Islands
Arguineguin, Spain Reuters Two people died and five are feared dead after they attempted to reach Spain’s Canary Islands on a boat with migrants on board, authorities said on Tuesday. The pirogue – a type of dugout canoe – was sighted on Monday evening at around 8pm by a merchant vessel which alerted authorities on […]
Migrant arrivals to Spain’s Canaries surge seven-fold so far this year
Madrid, Spain Reuters The number of migrants boarding rickety boats from West Africa and reaching Spain’s Canary Islands has risen seven-fold so far this year from the same period of 2023, Interior Ministry data showed on Friday. A total of 11,704 irregular migrants reached the Atlantic Ocean archipelago between 1st January and 15th February, compared […]
EU border agency says stopping migration is impossible
Warsaw, Poland Reuters Irregular immigration to the EU from Western Africa rose more than 10 times on the year in January, according to the bloc’s Frontex border agency, which expects overall arrivals to grow in 2024 and says halting the movement of people completely is impossible. Frontex head Hans Leijtens spoke in his Warsaw office […]
Over 8,500 migrants reach Spain’s Canary Islands in two weeks – ministry data
Madrid, SpainReuters At least 8,561 migrants have reached the Canary Islands over the past two weeks, representing more than a third of this year’s total arrivals, data from Spain’s interior ministry showed on Monday. Between 1st January and 15th October of this year, the islands in the Atlantic received 23,537 migrants, an 80 per cent […]
EU probes border agency’s rescue role after migrant shipwreck killed hundreds
Brussels, BelgiumReuters The EU rights watchdog on Wednesday announced a probe into Europe’s deadliest shipwreck in years and whether the bloc’s Frontex border agency fulfilled its rescue duties when the boat sank off Greece last month killing hundreds of migrants. An undated handout photo provided by the Hellenic Coast Guard shows migrants onboard a boat […]
Updated: At least 79 drown, hundreds missing in migrant shipwreck off Greece
Updated: 9:25am, 15th June, 2023 (AEST)Athens, GreeceReuters At least 79 migrants drowned early on Wednesday and hundreds more were missing and feared dead after their overloaded boat capsized and sank in open seas off Greece, in one of Europe’s deadliest shipping disasters in recent years. As a painstaking search for survivors continued, a European rescue-support charity […]
Europe could see record numbers trying to reach its borders this year, agency says
Warsaw, PolandReuters The European Union could see another record number of people seeking to reach its borders this year via irregular crossings, with more migrants driven by poverty and climate change rather than conflict, the EU’s Frontex border agency said on Friday. Frontex reported some 330,000 unauthorised arrivals via all routes last year, the highest […]
UN migration agency sounds alarm over sea deaths as EU arrivals rise
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Three times as many people sought to reach the European Union across the Mediterranean in the first three months of 2023 compared to a year before, the bloc’s border agency said, as the UN migration arm decried the deadliest first quarter since 2017. Overall, the EU agency Frontex reported 54,000 irregular crossings into […]
Thirty migrants missing, 17 rescued after boat capsizes in central Mediterranean
Rome, ItalyReuters Thirty people are missing and 17 were rescued in the central Mediterranean on Sunday after the boat in which they were travelling from Libya capsized in bad weather, Italy’s coast guard said. Rescue operations were ongoing, supported by merchant ships and aerial support by the EU’s border agency Frontex, while two further merchant […]
Over 1,150 migrants rescued off Italy as new government mulls ban on two NGO ships
Rome, ItalyReuters Two migrants were found dead and more than 1,150 were rescued off Sicily, the coast guard said on Wednesday, as the new nationalist government in Rome threatened to prevent two refugee boats run by charities from entering Italian waters. The coast guard said 663 people and two bodies were picked up from a […]