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Johan Leman, 3 May 2021

April 16. At least 41 people have died after their boat sank off Tunisia’s coast as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa. (InfoMigrants)

April 18. From 2018 to 2020, at least 18,292 disappearances of unaccompanied foreign minors from the reception facilities, where they had end up on their journey through Europe, were reported. This is according to figures that the research collective Lost in Europe requested from 30 European countries, both EU and non-EU countries. Chaotic registration obstructs view of the true extent of the problem. https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20210416_97840158

April 19. Three days after the release of alleged migrant trafficker Abd al-Rahman Milad, better known by his alias Bija, “for lack of evidence”, those who had dealings with him draw a chilling picture. Following the April 11 release of Bija, an alleged Libyan trafficker who has been accused of crimes against humanity by the UN, several migrants told InfoMigrants about their experiences at the hands of this feared boss of the Libyan coast guard in Zaouia. “A monster.” “Capable of shooting a human being as he would shoot an animal.” (InfoMigrants)

April 19. Police raided four houses in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki on Saturday and arrested 13 people aged 19 to 26, the Athens News Agency reported. They are accused of migrant smuggling and of detaining two migrants, aged 16 and 21, in a shed and demanding money from their families.. The smugglers had transported 22 migrants between mid-March and mid-April. One of the hostages alleged that a smuggler tried to rape him. (InfoMigrants)

April 19. On Wednesday (April 14), Greece’s migration minister, Notis Mitarakis, has announced, addressing a multi-party conference on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, in Athens on the progress of negotiations with the EU, that more migrants are now leaving the country than arriving. “In 2021 the flows of refugees and migrants to our islands have decreased by 89% compared to 2020,” said Mitarakis. According to the latest UNHCR data, 925 people arrived on Lesbos and the other Greek Aegean Islands between January 1 and April 11 this year. In 2020, 7,591 people arrived in the same period, the majority of all arrivals last year. (InfoMigrants)

April 19. Frontex reports that the number of irregular overseas migrants to Europe, on Europe’s eastern borders, decreased by 7 % in the first three months of 2021, compared to the same period in 2020. It is now about 24,000 people. https://frontex.europe.eu/media-centre/news/news-release/situation-at- eu-external-borders-detections-down-because-of-drop-in-eastern-mediterranean-DPLwqm

April 22. Possibly 120 people died in a refugee shipwreck off the Libyan coast. htpps://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2021/04/22/news/migranti naufragio a largo libia forse 10 morti-297612257/?ref=RHTP-BH-1293269148-P1-S5-T1 ; From an airplane, Europe saw 130 people drown. A Frontex plane saw 130 migrants in distress, but the European coastguards did not respond. All persons on board drowned. We heard them imploring, but they were ignored. https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20210425_97936423 . ‘Most of the victims were 18 years old. They all came from the same city in Sudan. They had sold everything they had to be able to immigrate’ says Bilal, a migrant who knew some of the 130 victims of the April 22 sinking. (InfoMigrants_fr, April 28)

April 22. Ten transmigrants taken out of a refrigerated container in Zeebrugge. “Life-threatening” https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20210423_96939522

April 23. Since the beginning of the year, more than 4,000 people have been taken by the Algerian police to the border with Niger, to a place in the middle of the desert nicknamed “point zero”. Abandoned there, some get lost and are never found. (InfoMigrants), see also: April 26. Since the beginning of the year, 4,000+ migrants have reportedly been taken to the border with Niger by Algerian police. (InfoMigrants). April 26. Traditionally opposed to the construction of reception centres for migrants, the country (Algeria) has nevertheless launched a project in Djanet, on the border with Niger and Libya. (InfoMigrants_fr)

April 27. Spain: 17 migrants found dead off Canary Islands. The migrants on the boat were all sub-Saharan Africans, rescue officials say. Three survivors have been transferred to a hospital on Tenerife. (InfoMigrants)

April 26. In England, authorities have decided it is time to restart expulsions of failed asylum seekers, frozen for nearly a year due to the pandemic. A measure that could create thousands of homeless according to the organisations. (InfoMigrants_fr)

April 28. On Tuesday morning 236 people were rescued off the coast of Libya by Ocean Viking, a rescue ship run by the SOS Mediterranee aid group.(InfoMigrants)

April 29. On the night of April 28 to 29, 209 migrants crossed the Channel in makeshift boats and have arrived in England. A record number. (InfoMigrants_fr)

April 29. Boat with 24 dead migrants arrives at Canary Islands. https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2021/4/29/boat-with-24-dead-migrants-arrives-in-spains-canaries

April 30. The Canary Islands become the new Lesbos. https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20210430_94225935

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