Mediterranean migration route

In Malawi, some students have been going to school amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
© UNICEF/Malumbo Simwaka

News in Brief 27 July 2021

27 July 2021
News in Brief
  • Rising concern over plight of Eritrean refugees in Tigray camps: UNHCR
  • IOM: Dozens missing in #Libya shipwreck
  • 600 million children not in school because of COVID-19, reports UNICEF
Audio -
3'42"
African migrants are rescued in March 2021in the Mediterranean Sea which remains one of the world's most dangerous maritime migration routes.
SOS Méditerranée/Anthony Jean

Deaths soar on perilous maritime migration routes to Europe

14 July 2021
Migrants and Refugees

Deaths of migrants travelling by dangerous sea routes to Europe have soared in the first six months of the year. At least 1,146 people died attempting to reach Europe by boat from January to June, the UN migration agency, IOM said on Wednesday.

African migrants are rescued in March 2021in the Mediterranean Sea which remains one of the world's most dangerous maritime migration routes.
SOS Méditerranée/Anthony Jean

News in Brief 14 July 2021

14 July 2021
General News
  • Coup and COVID-19 fuelling ‘perfect storm’ in Myanmar: UN expert
  • Deadly sea routes cause migrant deaths to double
  • UNCTAD: EU carbon reduction deal won’t hurt developing exporters as badly as feared
Audio -
3'15"
Dateline Geneva Podcast
UN News

UN Catch-Up Dateline Geneva - Cyprus talks, shipwrecks, Central African Republic alert, UNFPA funding cuts

29 April 2021
UN Catch-Up Dateline Geneva

UN Catch-Up takes us from talks over the divided eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, to the deadly stretch of water that separates North Africa from Europe, scene of a particularly disturbing migrant shipwreck this week.

We’ll also hear an alert from UNICEF in the Central African Republic over ongoing violence that’s leaving youngsters vulnerable to exploitation – and a warning from the UN agency for sexual and reproductive health, over the devastating consequences for women, girls and their families from the UK’s $180 million funding cut.

Audio -
15'26"
IOM staff in Libya (file)
IOM/Hussein Ben Mosa

New Mediterranean shipwreck reopens debate over tragic migrant journeys

26 April 2021
Interviews

A shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea that claimed the lives of 130 migrants last week, has reignited the debate about why more can’t be done to protect these vulnerable people who’ve risked everything.

With the details about this latest tragedy which happened just off the Libyan coast, here’s Safa Msehli, from the UN migration agency, IOM, speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

Audio -
9'14"
Abdulmajeed and wife Halima, Sudanese refugees from Darfur, sit with their two daughters at home in Tripoli, Libya.
© UNHCR/Mohamed Alalem

Asylum seekers subject to systematic pushbacks at Europe’s borders, says UNHCR

28 January 2021
Migrants and Refugees

UN refugee agency, UNHCR, called on Thursday for an end to “systematic” expulsions and pushbacks of refugees and asylum-seekers at Europe’s land and sea borders.

There were just 47 survivors when a boat carrying over 120 people, capsized off the Libyan coast on Thursday.
IOM/Hussein Ben Mosa

More tragedy on the Mediterranean as 74 migrants reportedly drown off Libya coast

12 November 2020
Migrants and Refugees

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Thursday reported yet another devastating shipwreck in the Central Mediterranean, which has claimed the lives of at least 74 migrants off the coast of Khums, Libya. It is the eighth such incident since the beginning of October.

Migrants who have been returned to shore in Libya after attempting to cross the sea to Europe are supported by aid workers from the IOM.
IOM Libya

Mediterranean Sea: ‘Cycle of violence’ for fleeing migrants must be addressed

2 October 2020
Migrants and Refugees

The UN human rights office OHCHR, called on Friday for urgent action to address the “unimaginable horrors” faced by migrants attempting to cross the central Mediterranean Sea in search of safety in Europe.

Migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea are rescued by a Belgian ship (file photo).
Frontex/Francesco Malavolta

Thousands suffer extreme rights abuses journeying to Africa’s Mediterranean coast, say humanitarians

29 July 2020
Migrants and Refugees

Thousands of refugees and migrants in eastern and western Africa, are dying while others face harrowing abuse in their attempts to reach the continent’s Mediterranean coast in search of a better life, a joint UN/Danish Refugee Council report said on Wednesday.

A Somali woman arrives in Yemen.
IOM

Amidst protection challenges, Eastern Route outpaces Mediterranean for people leaving Africa

14 February 2020
Migrants and Refugees

A monthly average of 11,500 people traveling from the Horn of Africa to Yemen last year made the so-called Eastern Route the busiest maritime migration path on earth, the UN migration agency said on Friday.