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Johan Leman, 16 April 2021

April 1. Five people have died and more than 500 have been returned to Libya in separate incidents in the central Mediterranean in the space of two days. (InfoMigrants)

April 1.  On Thursday 1 April alone, sea rescue services carried out a series of rescue operations in the English Channel. A total of 159 migrants were rescued from the water that day. In recent weeks, good weather has encouraged many migrants to cross in an attempt to reach the British coast. (InfoMigrants_fr)

April 6.  Spanish maritime rescue workers picked up 17 people (5 women, 11 men, 1 child) on a small boat off Gran Canaria on Tuesday, local media reported. The migrants were taken to the port of Arguineguin on Gran Canaria. (InfoMigrants)

April 7. Hundreds of migrants trying to flee Libya by sea are intercepted by the Libyan coast guard each week. What happens to these people – numbering in the thousands – once they are returned to Libya? (InfoMigrants)

April 7. The EU operation monitoring the arms embargo against Libya, named IRINI, is entering its second year. Despite being active in the Mediterranean, it has not rescued any migrants. (InfoMigrants)

April 9. Moroccan and sub-Saharan African migrants regularly attempt to swim to the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla from neighboring Moroccan ports. But a crossing even a hundred meters from the shore is risky. Four people drowned in March 2021. (InfoMigrants)

April 12. Four migrants were found dead Sunday in a makeshift boat carrying some 23 migrants near El Hierro, Canary Islands. The Red Cross said that 16 migrants were in a “serious condition” and three in a better state had been airlifted to Tenerife. (InfoMigrants)

April 12. One migrant died and two others aged 17 and 18 received gunshot wounds during a violent incident at the overcrowded Al-Mabani Collection and Return Center in Tripoli, Libya, on Thursday, April 8, according to Doctors Without Borders. (InfoMigrants)

April 12.  The maritime authorities of the Channel and the North Sea indicated in a press release that four boats, with 84 migrants on board wishing to reach the United Kingdom, were rescued off the coast, on Saturday 10 April. Some of them were in difficulty. (InfoMigrants_fr)

April 12. Spain and Senegal have signed two protocols of agreement on the management of migration flows and regular migration, for example of students and seasonal workers. (InfoMigrants_fr)

April 13.  It was a busy weekend off the Moroccan coast. The Moroccan navy rescued about 100 people in the space of three days, between Saturday 10 and Monday 12 April, according to the Moroccan news agency MAP, which quoted a military source. These migrants, all of sub-Saharan origin, were in great difficulty on board several boats. Among them were women and children. After receiving first aid in different ports in northern Morocco, the shipwrecked were transferred to the offices of the national gendarmerie. ( InfoMigrants_fr)

April 13. A new migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos has been given the go ahead on after a vote by the local municipal council. The exact location of the camp is not yet clear. (InfoMigrants)

April 13. Last week, six makeshift camps housing some 300 migrants were dismantled in Calais in a single day. No alternative shelter was provided while temperatures fell just below 3 degrees Celcius. The move was condemned by aid groups.(InfoMigrants)

April 13. Zero asylum seekers — that is essentially the Danish government’s ultimate goal. Now, Denmark is ordering Syrian refugees to return to Damascus, which Copenhagen says is safe. (InfoMigrants)

April 14. Guards said that about 150 sub-Saharan African migrants/refugees had gathered overnight near the perimeter on the Moroccan side of the Spanish territory of Ceuta on Tuesday morning. A group of about 60 among them tried to cross the fortified border. At about 6 a.m. some managed to get over the first fence at a section at Finca Berrocal where concertina razor wire had been removed. https://elpueblodeceuta.es/art/57861/guardia-civil-y-fuerzas-de-seguridad-marroquies-repelen-un-intento-de-entrada-en-ceuta-de-60-subsaharianos

April 14. Civil society groups and the Catholic Sant’Egidio community have finalized an agreement with the French government to renew the “Humanitarian Corridors” protocol. The deal benefits vulnerable Iraqi and Syrian refugees currently living in Lebanon. (InfoMigrants)

April 15. French civil society groups have formalized an agreement with the French government to renew the “Humanitarian Corridors” protocol. The deal benefits vulnerable Iraqi and Syrian refugees in Lebanon. A renewal of an agreement signed in Paris on April 13 seeks to resettle to France 300 refugees currently living in Lebanon. Signatories include the French interior and foreign ministers as well as the heads of the Catholic association of Sant’Egidio and the Semaines Sociales de France.The agreement follows a 2017 memorandum of understanding that allowed 504 refugees to enter France and lays down the conditions for the identification, reception, and integration of the targeted refugees. (InfoMigrants)

April 15. At least 20 migrants died when their boat sank off the coast of Tunisia, authorities said Friday. They were trying to reach the island of Lampedusa. Seventeen people are missing. (InfoMigrants_fr)

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