Latest Migration News
On the move
Recent highlights
According to the IOM, 316 people have already lost their lives in 2025 trying to reach Europe via the Central Mediterranean route, the most used by migrants. Rescue operations are multiplying. On 17 May, the NGO SOS Méditerranée intervened to assist three boats in distress in the Tunisian and Maltese rescue zones. A total of 276 people were rescued, including 90 minors.
The Atlantic route also continues to claim victims. On 28 May, off the Canary Islands, a boat carrying about 160 people capsized at the entrance to a port. Seven migrants, including three minors aged between 7 and 16, lost their lives. Eight others were hospitalized, including an infant and a pregnant woman.
In the Eastern Mediterranean, between 23 and 25 May, more than 500 migrants were rescued by the Greek authorities off the island of Crete. Originally from Sudan, Egypt and Bangladesh, they had left Libya.
In the English Channel, a new tragedy occurred on the night of May 20 to 21. A boat carrying 85 migrants attempted the crossing. When the French navy intervened to rescue ten people, a woman and a child were found dead. Channel crossings to the UK from northern France reached a record high on 21 May, with at least 825 migrants crossing in 13 “small boats”. A total of 13,563 people have crossed the Channel since the beginning of 2025.
Positive News
- On 2nd June the Berlin Court of Justice ruled that the refoulement of asylum seekers at the German borders did not comply with the rules of the Dublin Regulation. It ruled on the case of three Somali nationals deported at the border with Poland, finding that Merz’s government had violated asylum laws. According to the judgment, it is illegal to send migrants back without first examining their asylum application.
- On 27 May, the media outlet Middle East Eye published an article stating that the Greek Court of Justice has indicted 17 members of the Greek Coast Guard following the Pylos shipwreck in 2023, which claimed the lives of more than 650 migrants. The 17 defendants are due to be questioned in the coming weeks, after which the court will decide whether a full trial will be initiated or whether the charges will be dropped.
- On May 23, the Constitutional Council censured one of the provisions of the “immigration” law passed in 2023. This provision, now prohibited, allowed asylum seekers to be detained even if they were not subject to an obligation to leave the territory.
EU updates
- The Justice and Home Affairs Council met on 13 June. According to the provisional agenda, ministers were expected to address the issue of returns, particularly cooperation on readmission with third countries. They were also due to take stock of the progress in implementing the Common European Asylum System (CEAS).
- In May, the Forced Migration Review published a report entitled “Dangerous journeys: Saving lives and responding to missing migrants and refugees”. This report explores ways to save more lives, prevent migrant disappearances, and identify missing persons. It also highlights the criminalization of rescue operations, as well as the critical role of international diplomacy and regional cooperation in overcoming these many obstacles.
- On 28 May, Merz’s government announced that Germany was suspending the right to family reunification for people who have not been granted asylum.
- The media outlet EUobserver conducted an investigation into the security and criminalising policy adopted by the European Union towards asylum seekers and published the main results in an article on 23 May. The EU is continuing and strengthening its policies of externalisation and border management, terms that often mask the harshness of these measures, with the aim of deterring migrants from coming to Europe, reducing arrivals, and supposedly sharing the “burden” of immigration. According to the evidence analysed in this study, this trend towards outsourcing is unfortunately not only continuing, but seems to be intensifying.
Countries
Return Mania
Mapping policies and practices in the EuroMed region
The research provides an overview of the current return policies and practices in the Euro-Mediterranean region and sheds a light on the violations of human rights entailed by this “return obsession”, which is shared across Member States, EU institutions and third countries alike. The report covers national return policies and practices in the Mashreq and Maghreb regions, focusing on returns from Turkey and Lebanon to Syria, and on readmission agreements between Italy and Tunisia, Spain and Morocco as well as France and Morocco. It also looks at returns from Germany and Italy to Egypt. Read More