Latest Migration News
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Recent highlights
In 2024, 10,457 migrants, including 421 women and 1,538 children, died on the migration routes to Spain. This is the highest figure ever recorded by Caminando Fronteras. The organization also shows that the Atlantic route was the deadliest with more than 9,700 victims. The deceased people came from 28 African and Asian countries.
In the central Mediterranean, on January 2, northeast of Sfax, in the Kerkennah Islands, two boats sank. 27 migrants died and 83 survived, including 17 women and 17 minors. In the western Mediterranean, on the 18th of December, 2 individuals died, and 11 others disappeared on the road to the Balearic Islands.
In the eastern Mediterranean, on the 20th of December, at least 8 migrants and refugees drowned after their boat capsized near the island of Rhodes. In Greece, according to UNHCR estimates, 3,000 underage migrants are deprived of essential goods and services. On 17th of December 2024, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ratified Egypt’s first asylum law. A public body, under the authority of the Prime Minister, will replace the UNHCR in the functions that the UN agency has carried out since 1954.
The number of people who have managed to cross the English Channel in 2024 is 35,898. On the 25th and 26th of December, 858 migrants disembarked on a total of 21 small boats in the United Kingdom.
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Positive News
- On the 07th of January 2025, the European Court of Human Rights delivered its ruling in the case of A.R.E v. Greece. In 2019, the Greek authorities pushed back an asylum seeker in the Evros region. Greece was condemned for deporting this Turkish citizen to her country of origin, without first examining her application for international protection. The judgment also states that her arrest and detention were legally unjustified and notes the degrading treatment suffered by the applicant. The work of lawyers from the Greek Council of Refugees was indispensable in this victory, which recognizes the systematic nature of the refoulement of migrants and refugees.
- On the 30th of December 2024, Algeria released 60 young Moroccans imprisoned for “irregular” migration. In a context of diplomatic tensions and closed borders, these young people were repatriated. The Moroccan Association for the Assistance of Migrants in Vulnerable Situations is following the case of 480 migrants still in prison or missing.
EU updates
- On the 19th of December 2024, Ursula von der Leyen met in parallel of the Council of Europe held in Brussels, with Giorgia Meloni, Viktor Orban and Donald Tusk. Other prime ministers with the most restrictive anti-migration positions attended the meeting, such as Danish Social Democrat Mette Frederiksen. The President of the European Commission had sent a letter on 16 December 2024 to the 27 Member States in which she took stock of cooperation with the EU’s neighbours in North Africa and the Middle East, in the field of migration. The Commission is calling for the development of legal pathways to attract and retain “talent”. In addition, she asked States that have not done so to submit their implementation plan for the Migration and Asylum Pact. Moreover, the implementation of the Pact will be accelerated in certain areas. Besides, a new approach to returns will be communicated before March 2025. Finally, Ursula von der Leyen supports “innovative ways to counter irregular migration”. In the letter, she talks about “hubs” of returns to third countries in their logistical and financial dimension. It is a milestone that is taken when she mentions the “legal, operational and practical framework” of these innovative pseudo-solutions.
- On the 18th of December 2024, on the occasion of International Migrants Day, the European Commission and the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas issued a
joint statement. The text emphasizes migration management that “reconciles responsibility and solidarity, security and humanity”.
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
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