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Johan Leman, 16 July 2021

July 1.  Despite a large police presence at the French-Spanish border, migrants are still trying to enter France from the city of Irun. To avoid police vigilance, they are taking more and more risks. (InfoMigrants_fr)

July 2.  For the past three years, Bayonne has become an essential stopover for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who have arrived in Europe via Spain. During this period, the city has seen more than 25,000 migrants pass through, according to local associations. (InfoMigrants_fr)

July 2.  Taken in charge by the police in Edirne, the group of 12 people claimed to have been “beaten” in Greece, and “deprived of food and water”. Although these practices are shocking, they are relatively common in the country. (InfoMigrants_fr)

July 2.  Among the survivors are 15 minors and 5 women, one of whom is pregnant. In addition, two handicapped people were taken in care by the medical team SOS Méditerranée. (InfoMigrants_fr)

July 2. Malaria was responsible for 1/5 of registered cases of illness among refugees in 2020. It was the leading cause of disease among refugees, followed by upper respiratory diseases (like COVID-19, the common cold and influenza). (InfoMigrants)

July 2. A group of migrants arrived in Dover yesterday, after British border officers found them on a small boat on the English Channel. The UK has seen a strong increase in Channel arrivals recently. In June, 2,000+ migrants arrived – a new record, the BBC reported. (InfoMigrants)

July 3. At least 43 migrants are missing after a boat heading towards Europe capsized near the Tunisian coast, a Tunisian Red Crescent official said. (InfoMigrants) 

July 4. More than 200 migrants were intercepted by UK border police in their attempt to cross the Channel on Sunday. French authorities said they prevented 238 people from reaching the UK. Britain has announced it will seek harsher sentences for migrants who enter the UK irregularly. (InfoMigrants) 

July 5. Overnight, the SOS Mediterrannée team performed a rescue operation of a large wooden boat in the Libyan SRR. 369 people have been safely evacuated after over 5 hours of operation, with a boat at high risk of capsizing at all times. 572 survivors are now onboard OceanViking. (SOSMedIntl)

July 5. Amid a surge in migrant arrivals to Britain, the UK prepares to debate a new nationality and border bill in parliament. If the bill passes parliament, it will become a criminal offense “to knowingly come to the UK without permission.” (InfoMigrants) 

July 5. Serbian police announced on Sunday that they had discovered an “illegal migrant camp” on the border with Hungary and Romania. “Suspected people smugglers” have been detained. (InfoMigrants) 

July 6. OceanViking carried out one of its largest rescues in years Sunday night, involving a boat that set off from Libya with 369 migrants at risk of capsizing. “Such large unseaworthy wooden boats … had not been encountered by our teams in several years, (SOSMedIntl)” (InfoMigrants)

July 6. 18 migrants were found inside a lorry on a ferry at the Port of Dover on Tuesday, July 6. The group was found when the DFDS Seaways vessel arrived from Calais.  Tuesday at noon, 9 were taken to hospital as a precaution; the other 9 were handed over to the Border Force. (InfoMigants_fr)

July 7.  Italy has opened an investigation for “attempted shipwreck” after the publication of a video by the NGO See-Watch showing Libyan coastguards opening fire on a migrants’ boat heading for Lampedusa. (InfoMigrants)

July 8. In Italy, thousands of Nigerian migrant women are being forced into prostitution. The Nigerian mafia is suspected of being behind it. Insiders warn of the dangers of this ‘new mafia’ – with connections to Italian organized crime gangs. (InfoMigrants)

July 8. 2,087 migrants have died or gone missing while trying to reach Spain by sea in the first six months of 2021, incl. 341 women & 96 children. The death toll for the entire previous year was 2,170. (InfoMigrants)

July 8.  SOS Méditerranée insists: with 572 people rescued between Thursday 1^st and Sunday 4^th of July, the Ocean Viking “needs a safe place to disembark as soon as possible”.  (InfoMigrants_fr)

July 8.  In 2021, more than 90% of deaths (1 922) occurred in 57 shipwrecks on the sea route to the Spanish Canary Islands. (InfoMigrants_fr)

July 8.  The Atlantic Maritime Office reported that 27 migrants were rescued off the coast of Brittany on Thursday. Ten children were on board. The boat is said to have left the Saint-Brieuc area at around 1 am. Departures from Brittany remain unusual. (InfoMigrants_fr)

July 9.  On Friday morning, the police dismantled a migrant camp set up at the end of the impasse Magnésia, in the hangars of a wasteland under construction, in Calais. About 130 people were living there, the Pass-de-Calais prefecture said. (InfoMigrants_fr)

July 11.  In Libya migrants are facing an increase in violence and kidnappings. Traffickers, losing their income from the war, have turned to migrants to extort them and thus find a new financial source. (InfoMigrants_fr)

July 12. At least 12 people died and many others were injured on Sunday when their minibus overturned and caught fire in Van province in eastern Turkey. The region near the border with Iran is a common route for migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. A minibus carrying migrants toppled into a ditch while traveling overnight near Yumakli in Turkey’s eastern Van province, the Turkish Anadolu news agency reported.(InfoMigrants)

July 12. EU border agency Frontex said it would ramp up its support for Lithuania, as the country deals with an increase in irregular border crossings. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is suspected of causing the surge. (InfoMigrants)

July 12. The Libyan port city of Zouara has issued a deadline for migrants, demanding they regularize their situation in 10 days. Otherwise they will be at risk of expulsion from the city. The municipality said the decision was due to a “rising crime rate”. (InfoMigrants)

July 13.  A group of 119 migrants managed to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla from neighbouring Morocco in the early hours of Monday. The migrants, who are from Sub-Saharan Africa, were transferred to the city’s reception centre. (InfoMigrants_fr)

July 13.  “The first step is a razor wire fence. In the second stage we will build a physical fence, about 550 km long” said the Lithuanian Minister of the Interior. (InfoMigrants_fr)

July 13.  Using the humanitarian corridor model, 34 refugees arrived at Fiumicino from Lesbos. They belong to 13 nationalities (including Afghanistan, Mali, Congo, Somalia and Syria). Italy will receive them. (Sant’egidio).

July 15. The German government has not taken in any migrants rescued in the central Mediterranean since September. Between June 2018 and September 2020, 913 people were transferred from Italy and Malta. (InfoMigrants)

July 15. Migrant rights activists staged a protest in Rome ahead of a vote to renew Italy’s funding and training for Libya’s coast guard. Human rights and UN organizations have repeatedly decried human rights violations against migrants returned to Libya.(InfoMigrants)

14 July. According to statistics published by the UN agency, at least 1,146 people died at sea in the first half of 2021, mainly in the Mediterranean but also in the Atlantic. Among them were 50 children. (InfoMigrants_fr)

15 July. On Wednesday, some 100 migrants tried to climb the fence separating Melilla from Morocco and about 20 of them managed to reach Spanish soil. Already on Monday, 119 migrants had managed to reach the enclave. (InfoMigrants_fr)

15 July. The Danish parliament passed a law in June that would send asylum seekers to reception centres outside the European Union. The country also considers Syria to be a safe country. (InfoMigrants_fr)

July 15. A month ago, Greece declared that all asylum seekers from Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan and Bangladesh could be sent back to Turkey because it was “safe”. Now, roughly two-thirds of asylum seekers are rejected within days of their arrival. (InfoMigrants)

July 15. Little Amal, a 3.5-meter-tall puppet representing a Syrian girl, will travel 8.000 kilometers across eight European countries to raise awareness for the plight of refugee children. Worldwide, there are 35 million displaced people below the age of 18. (InfoMigrants)

July 15. EU states “shamefully continue to assist the Libyan coastguard (…) despite being fully aware of the horrors” that migrants intercepted at sea face when returned to Libya, Amnesty International said. (InfoMigrants_fr)

This concludes our series of overviews of refugee migrations into Europe. We will resume the overviews on 15 September, with a series starting on 1 September.

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