Latest Migration News
On the move
Recent highlights
On the Central Mediterranean Route, between 2 and 3 April 2025, the NGO SOS Humanity carried out two rescue operations off the coast of Tunisia. A first wooden boat was carrying about fifty people, including unaccompanied minors, women and children. The second had been adrift for three days with 40 people on board. Unfortunately, one of them had already died when the emergency services arrived. On Saturday 5 April, the Life Support vessel of the Italian NGO Emergency rescued 215 people during three separate operations in the Libyan SAR zone. Among them were 53 women and 83 unaccompanied minors, including from Eritrea, Somalia, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Benin. According to survivors, 14 people fell into the water before the arrival of the emergency services. On the same day, the Spanish collective Maydayterraneo rescued 108 people, including 13 women and 13 children. Many of them suffered from dehydration, exhaustion and respiratory problems. On Sunday, April 6, after 52 hours of drifting, 28 people, including 12 minors, were rescued by the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans. All of them had left from the Libyan coast. In total, between 2 and 6 April, 439 people were rescued in the central Mediterranean by four humanitarian ships while attempting to cross in makeshift boats.
In addition, on April 15, UNICEF published a report indicating that between 2014 and 2024, 3500 children died or disappeared while crossing the central Mediterranean, an average of one death per day for 10 years. The report also specifies that 7 out of 10 children travel without their parents.
On the Eastern Mediterranean route on 3 April, seven bodies, including those of two children, were found in the Aegean Sea, while 23 migrants were rescued and taken to hospital after being found on the same boat. They had left Turkey and were trying to reach the Greek island of Lesbos.
Just like the tragedies, the crossings of the Channel have multiplied during this month of April. From 12 to 13 April, fifty people were rescued while trying to cross the Channel to the UK. And a day earlier, on April 11, the lifeless body of a woman was found in a makeshift camp near Dunkirk.
Positive News
- On 25 March, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned Greece following the murder of an Iraqi minor on 29th August 2015, killed by a bullet by a coast guard during a boat check at sea. The Court found that the coast guard had not shown the “required vigilance”.
- On 21 March, the Greek Council of State issued a decision prohibiting the country from considering Turkey a so-called “safe country” for refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria. Until now, Greece has systematically rejected all asylum applications from these nationals, denying human rights violations in Turkey.
EU updates
- On 16th April the European Commission presented its first list of so-called “safe” countries of origin. Asylum applications filed by nationals of these countries would thus be processed more quickly, with an increased risk of rejection. This list includes all the candidate countries for accession to the European Union — with the exception of Ukraine — considered by the Commission to meet the criteria for being classified as “safe” countries of origin. Seven other countries are also on the list: Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco and Tunisia. By designating Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia as “safe” countries, the Commission is notably ignoring the threats, arbitrary arrests and persecution of activists, journalists and human rights defenders in these countries.You can read EuroMed Rights Press Release here.
- On April 16, Polish authorities found two bodies in a river on the Polish-Russian border. According to the initial results of the investigation, the Polish authorities believe that they may be migrants who have tried to cross the border illegally. Border Patrol also reported rescuing 13 people from Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan in the past 24 hours in the Bug River.
- At the Med5 summit held in Naples on April 11 and 12, 2025, the interior ministers of the five Mediterranean EU countries (Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta) called for strengthening Frontex and reaching more agreements with third countries to facilitate the return of migrants.
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