EU plans military campaign to smash migrant smuggling network
Exclusive: Strategy paper for the mission focuses on air and naval campaign, but adds that ‘presence ashore’ might be needed to destroy smugglers’ assets European plans for a military campaign to smash the migrant smuggling networks operating out of Libya include options for ground forces on Libyan territory. The 19-page strategy paper for the mission, […]
South Africa court prevents migrants’ deportation
South Africa’s high court has temporarily prevented the deportation of more than 300 undocumented migrants. Rights activists have criticised the arrests of more than 700 suspected illegal migrants following recent deadly xenophobic violence. Police say they made the arrests during crime prevention operations. The authorities have been under pressure to both bring an end to […]
Libya criticises EU on Mediterranean migrants
Libya has criticised EU proposals to authorise the use of force against people smugglers taking migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe. The Libyan ambassador to the UN told the BBC that the EU’s intentions were unclear and “very worrying”. The EU is seeking a UN mandate to allow military action to destroy or halt smugglers’ […]
Royal Navy rescues 110 migrants off Libya
A Royal Navy ship has rescued 110 migrants from a dinghy which was about to sink off the coast of Libya. The rescue by HMS Bulwark on Thursday was the first by a British ship since improved conditions allowed smugglers to begin operating again in March. The migrants were transferred to an Italian coastguard vessel, […]
Mugabe urges migrants in South Africa to return home
HARARE — Speaking at a regional summit on industrialization, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has urged migrants in South Africa to return home. There has a been a month of attacks on foreign workers in South Africa. The leaders of the fifteen member states of the Southern African Development Community met in Zimbabwe on Wednesday. The […]
The horrors of the Mediterranean
Photographer Juan Medina has been following migrants trying to reach Europe for two decades. He won a World Press award for this image taken in the Canary Islands in 2004. As the number of deaths in the Mediterranean rises, he talks about his images – readers may find some of them disturbing. I started taking […]
700 people dead after a boat packed with migrants capsized off the Libyan coast
As many as 700 people were feared dead after a fishing boat packed with migrants capsized off the Libyan coast overnight in what officials said may be the Mediterranean’s worst disaster as thousands flee poverty and war to Europe. Top officials in Europe, whose recently-downsized border protection program has been criticized by international aid groups, […]
300 feared drowned in new Mediterranean boat tragedy
More than 300 migrants are feared drowned after their overcrowded dinghies sank in the Mediterranean, triggering calls for the world to act after the latest boat disaster in a perilous crossing from Africa to Europe.The victims were mainly from sub-Saharan Africa who had left the coast of conflict-wracked Libya at the weekend in four small […]
More than 29 African migrants die of cold in a fishing boat while trying to reach Europe
Twenty-nine African migrants intercepted by Italian authorities while trying to reach Europe by boat in rough and icy conditions have died of hypothermia, most after being rescued. Coastguard speedboats picked up 105 migrants in the Mediterranean overnight, seven of whom were already dead, from a converted fishing boat battered by high winds and waves that […]
