---

Johan Leman, 1 June 2021

May 16-17. The German ship Sea-Eye 4 has rescued about 330 migrants within the past few days. The latest operation overnight brought 99 people on board: most were reportedly from Syria. On Sunday, May 16, the Sea-Eye 4 private rescue vessel picked up more than 170 people who were trying to cross the Mediterranean in unseaworthy wooden boats. Among those rescued were children, an eight-month-old baby and a pregnant woman. “We had to treat 12 people in hospital; one child and one adult man needed prolonged stabilization. Fortunately, however, there are no seriously injured people among those rescued,” the ship’s operations doctor said. The German ship now has around 330 rescued migrants on board, according to Sea-Eye. (InfoMigrants)

May 17.A boat with 56 migrants on board was spotted off the coast of Cyprus on Sunday. The Cypriot authorities checked the documents of people on board at sea and then asked the group to return to Lebanon from where they had set off. https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/32269/sent-back-56-migrants-were-refused-entry-to-cyprus-at-the-weekend

May 17. Authorities in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in northeast Italy along the border with Slovenia report that from January 1 to May 10, the territory had seen a 20% increase in migrants entering compared with the same period of 2020. https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/32262/migrant-arrivals-in-northeast-italy-up-by-20-this-year

May 18. Around 5,000 people crossed the border from Morocco into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta on Monday, a single-day record, Spanish officials said. The surge came as Morocco lodged a diplomatic protest against Spain for accepting a rebel leader for medical treatment. Thousands of young migrants, including about 1,000 minors, swam or waded across the heavily fortified border. Others floated across in inflatable dinghies or swimming rings. https://www.dw.com/en/at-spains-enclave-of-ceuta-african-refugees-dream-of-europe/a-45188401

May 18. Ireland has offered to take in 10 asylum seekers from Italy . It is the first country to respond to Italy’s demand that the EU share responsibility for migrants. (InfoMigrants)

May 18. Sicily’s regional government has announced that it will set up a migrant assistance center in every province of the island. The aim: integration between Sicilians and newcomers. (InfoMigrants)

May 18.  After the arrival of nearly 6,000 migrants in Ceuta on Monday, the Spanish authorities deployed soldiers at the border with Morocco. At the same time, they sent back 2,600 people who had arrived in the enclave the day before. (InfoMigrants_fr)

May 18.  A new shipwreck off the coast of Libya has left more than 50 people missing, the Tunisian Ministry of Defence announced on Tuesday. About thirty survivors have been rescued. https://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/32319/plus-de-50-migrants-disparus-dans-un-naufrage-au-large-de-la-libye?preview=1621345059823

May 18.  Throughout the night, the migratory strain on Ceuta continued. On 2 days 8,000 migrants arrived, including 1,500 minors. Almost 5,000 people have already been sent back.https://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2021/05/19/il_marocco_chiude_la_frontiera_di_ceuta_ma_continua_il_flusso_di_migranti-301718600/ref=RHTP-BH-I293269148-P2-S2-F

May 19.  Some four kilometres off the coast of Oostduinkerke (Belgium), as many as 49 refugees were rescued from a rickety boat this morning when it started to take on water. The boat, barely 9 metres long, had left France and was on its way to the United Kingdom. It was overcrowded, got into trouble and drifted adrift to our coast. The people on board called alarm. They are believed to be of Vietnamese origin. “This is another very poignant case of human trafficking, which fortunately ended well, this time.”hhttps://www.demorgen.be/nieuws/49-vluchtelingen-gered-van-gammel-bootje-op-de-noordzee-dat-water-begon-te-maken~b1695685/

May 19. A new report by Refugee_RE and Still I Rise underlines the immense risks unaccompanied minors on Samos are facing of multiple forms of abuse and violence, trafficking, mental ill-health and physical illness. (InfoMigrants)

May 19.  According to the Ceuta prefecture, 5,600 people have already been expelled to Morocco. (InfoMigrants_fr)

May 19. 86 migrants irregularly entered the Spanish enclave Melilla on Tuesday by sea, hours after thousands of people entered Ceuta from Morocco. They were transferred from the Temporary Stay Centre for Immigrants (CETI) to the Altos del Real Football City of Melilla. (InfoMigrants)

May 20. The Sea-Eye 4  was assigned the port of Pozzallo as a safe port late Wednesday. According to Sea-Eye this means another 2-day journey for the more than 400 rescued migrants and the crew. (InfoMigrants)

May 20. The Spanish government is hoping some of its mainland regions will agree to take on some of the more than 1,500 unaccompanied minors who arrived in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, on the African continent, over the last few days. Reception facilities in Ceuta are full to bursting after around 8,000 migrants crossed from Morocco to Ceuta, and to a lesser extent Melilla, in the last few days. About 1,500 of migrants who crossed are children and teenagers. Some, according to the news agency Reuters, as young as seven or nine, not all of them with family. (InfoMigrants)

May 21.  “When you live here and you are Moroccan, you are doomed. You don’t have the right to asylum, you don’t have the right to a residence permit to work, you have to hide all the time so that the police don’t beat you up” explains a young Moroccan. (InfoMigrants)

May 24. Italy and the European Union have offered economic support to Tunisia in return for tougher efforts to stop migrants coming into Europe. Among the measures is a “hotline” for better exchange of information about illegal departures from Tunisia. (InfoMigrants) 

May 25. One hundred people, including eight babies, were rescued by the Tunisian navy off Zarzis on Monday. The migrants had reportedly set off from Libya. An inflatable boat carrying 10 women, 82 men and eight babies had set off from the Libyan coast at dawn on Monday. The group was intercepted by a Tunisian navy patrol boat after their engine failed, a Tunisian defence ministry statement said. (InfoMigrants). The migrants left the Libyan coast at dawn and were all from sub-Saharan African countries. (InfoMigrants_fr)

May 25. May 25. Over 700,000 foreigners in Italy are currently “invisible” and do not have access to Covid vaccines because they don’t have a health insurance card or a fiscal code. That’s according to the health director of the national institute NIHMP. (InfoMigrants).  

May 26. German authorities were unable to establish the origins of more than 470 people seeking asylum last year. In most cases, this doesn’t mean the country was not known. Most had resided in a country but had not been nationals of that country. (InfoMigrants)

May 27.  Three rescues at sea took place on Thursday 27 May, off Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne-sur-Mer. (InfoMigrants_fr)

May 28. Almost 500 migrants were returned to Libya by the coast guard on Thursday. The International Organization for Migration said all were taken to detention centers. (InfoMigrants)

May 28. In the Spanish enclave of Melilla, dozens of undocumented Moroccans attempt to enter the port every evening. Their goal: To board ferries bound for mainland Spain. They risk being injured by barbed wire, being beaten by the police, or even drowning. (InfoMigrants)

May 30.  Several associations working with migrants in the north of France, and receiving funding from a British organisation, say they have been instructed to stop distributing flyers to inform people about the dangers of crossing -which include, in particular, emergency number in case of distress at sea. They claim that this is the result of “pressure” from London. (InfoMigrants_fr)

May 31. In northeast Serbia, hundreds of migrants are sheltering in the hope of being able to cross the border to Romania. The route is seen as an easier and cheaper way to reach Europe. (InfoMigrants)

31 May. A Ceuta prosecutor will investigate the deportation to Morocco of the young boy who arrived crying in the enclave with a buoy made of plastic bottles. The magistrate will also look into the alleged deportations of hundreds of other children. (InfoMigrants_fr)

Back