International Organisation For Migration News

A Spanish reconnaissance plane has found what could be a fishing vessel from Senegal with about 200 migrants on board that has been missing for nearly two weeks, the maritime rescue service said on Monday."The plane has found a large boat with some 200 people on board, 71 miles to the south of Gran Canaria," a spokesperson for the service told Reuters, adding it was "possible" that it was the missing vessel.A rescue ship was on its way and would take about two-and-a-half hours to reach the location, the spokesperson added.

A number of bodies washed up at Ras al-Arah on Yemen's Red Sea coast on Monday from a suspected migrant boat that sank offshore, a local official said.The stretch of coast is notorious for the smuggling of migrants from the Horn of Africa into Yemen.Residents in Ras al-Arah said bodies had washed up at dawn on Monday. A boat sank around 18 nautical miles off the coast of al-Mokha, the local official said.The perilous sea journey from Horn of Africa countries including Ethiopia…

The Italian coastguard sent help on Saturday to a rescue boat funded by British street artist Banksy after the vessel issued urgent calls for assistance, saying it was stranded in the Mediterranean and overloaded with migrants.The coastguard said a patrol boat dispatched from the southern Italian island of Lampedusa had taken on board 49 of "those considered most vulnerable" among the 219 migrants picked up by the ship since Thursday off the coast of Libya.Named after a French feminist anarchist, the Louise Michel started operating last week. Despite the help from Italy, it has still not found a safe port for the rest of the mainly African migrants on board.The 49 people who were transferred off the ship include 32 women and 13 children…

The leader of a Spanish rescue mission said on Sunday that Italian authorities had refused to grant port access to its Open Arms ship, leaving the vessel stranded in rough conditions in the Mediterranean with more than 70 African migrants on board.The 73 migrants were picked up from a packed rubber dinghy drifting about 50 miles off Libya on Wednesday night.Italy has allowed the ship to enter its national waters to shelter from a storm but has refused to let the vessel dock, the charity said.Open Arms Mission Chief Ricardo Gatti, who is onboad the ship, said the organization has requested to land in Italy and Malta but has been denied permission.

An NGO which runs the Mediterranean rescue ship Ocean Viking, with 104 migrants onboard, called on European authorities on Monday to designate a safe disembarkation spot.French association SOS Mediterranean, along with Doctors without Borders (MSF), said among those aboard the ship are two pregnant women and 41 children younger than 18."Their anxiety is growing", said Jay Berger, MSF’s project coordinator aboard the Ocean Viking. "They're unsure of what's going to happen to them next."On Oct. 18, the Ocean Viking picked up 104 people aboard an inflatable boat in distress 50 nautical miles off the Libyan coast. Libyan authorities say they assigned the port of Tripoli as a safe disembarkation site for the refugees…

More than 130 migrants are missing off the coast of Djibouti after two overloaded boats capsized in rough seas, the United Nations migration agency said on Tuesday.A team of gendarmerie found two survivors and the bodies of five migrants, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said in a statement. IOM staff identified an 18-year-old male survivor believed to have been aboard the first boat of 130 passengers, but he had no information on the second, it said.There was no immediate information on the nationalities or itinerary of those missing.Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay

Most on board boat believed to be Pakistanis;ten bodies so far recovered, three survivors found. An estimated 90 migrants are feared to have drowned off the coast of Libya after a smuggler's boat capsized early on Friday, leaving three known survivors and 10 bodies washed up on shore, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said. Survivors told aid workers that most of the migrants on board were Pakistanis, who form a growing group heading to Italy from North Africa, IOM spokeswoman Olivia Headon said. "They have given an estimate of 90 people who drowned during the capsize, but we still need to verify the exact number of people who lost their lives during the tragedy," Headon, speaking from Tunis, told a Geneva news briefing.

Nearly 9,000 mainly African migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean this past long weekend after being put by smugglers in Libya onto unseaworthy boats heading toward Italy, U.N. aid agencies said on Tuesday. The migrants, many from Nigeria and Senegal with some from Bangladesh, are among an estimated 20,000 held by criminal gangs in irregular detention centres in Libya, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said. On release, they pay to board the overcrowded boats, often just inflated rubber vessels that could not cross the Mediterranean, in the hope of starting a new life in Europe. "It is obvious that better spring weather has encouraged smugglers to take people from their detention centres," IOM spokesman Leonard Doyle told a news briefing in Geneva.

Damen has signed a contract with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Ankara, Turkey for the supply of six, state-of- the-art Search and Rescue (SAR) vessels for delivery in 2017. The boats are being financed by the European Union and will be operated by the Turkish Coastguard (TURCG), to support the refugees and migrants rescue operations. The award-winning Damen SAR 1906 is a state-of- the-art SAR craft and is the result of a five-year R&D programme initiated by Damen in partnership with the Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution (KNRM), Delft University of Technology and De Vries Lentsch Naval Architects. The SAR 1906 is an all-weather, self-righting vessel with an aluminium hull and a composite wheelhouse.

About 6,055 migrants were rescued on Monday as they tried to reach Europe on about 40 boats, one of the highest numbers in a single day, Italy's coast guard said. A statement said at least nine migrants had died and a pregnant woman and a child had been taken by helicopter to a hospital on the Italian island of Lampedusa, halfway between Sicily and the Libyan coast. One coast guard ship rescued about 725 migrants on a single rubber boat, one of some 20 rescue operations during the day. About 10 ships from the coast guard, the navy and humanitarian organisations were involved in the rescues, most of which took place some 30 miles off the coast of Libya. Monday was the third anniversary of the sinking of a migrant boat off Lampedusa in which 386 people died.

ROME, July 5 (Reuters) - Some 4,500 migrants were rescued from rubber dinghies and a wooden boat in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, Italy's coast guard said, as the sea calmed after a rough weekend. More than 67,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said before the coast guard reported the latest rescues. Arrivals are down from the same period of 2015, but the number of deaths on the perilous route has jumped. Ten women were found dead in the bottom of a rubber boat last week .

The medical relief charity Medecins sans Frontieres has relaunched rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea, accusing European governments of failing to act to save migrants in peril at sea, it said on Monday. MSF halted its maritime rescue programme in January, saying it hoped European Union member states would take up the task of search and rescue of migrants and refugees attempting the crossing from north Africa to Europe. But with rising numbers of people trying to navigate the "deadly stretch of water" between Libya and Italy as the weather warms…

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has ended its sea rescue operation aimed at reducing the number of migrants and asylum seekers killed while trying to cross the Mediterranean from north Africa to Europe, it said on Tuesday. MSF said its three ships had rescued more than 20,000 people in over 120 search and rescue operations during eight months at sea. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has said 3,771 people died in 2015 while trying to reach Europe by sea, making the year the deadliest on record for those seeking sanctuary from conflict and poverty. "Whilst we remain absolutely convinced of the importance of dedicated search and rescue in saving lives…

It is nighttime on a beach near the resort town of Bodrum and a group of migrants look out nervously at two ships on the horizon, wondering if they can slip past the Turkish coastguard and cross the Aegean Sea into a new life in Europe. But their dinghies are poorly made and slow, and the coastguard has stepped up patrols in the area, where the body of toddler Aylan Kurdi washed up, sparking international outrage. While Europe has only woken up to the size of the refugee crisis this summer, Turkey has been the front lines for more than four years. It shares a 900-km (550 mile) border with Syria and has welcomed those fleeing the civil war, now in its fifth year.

A boat packed with mainly African migrants bound for Italy sank off the Libyan coast on Thursday and officials said up to 200 might have died. A security official in the western town of Zuwara, from where the overcrowded boat had set off, said there had been around 400 people on board. Many appeared to have been trapped in the hold when it capsized. By late in the evening, the Libyan coast guard rescued around 201, of which 147 were brought to a detention facility for illegal migrants in Sabratha, west of Tripoli, the official said, asking not to be named. Another local official and a journalist based in Zuwara confirmed the sinking but also had no information on casualties.

Hard for us to help if no one in charge, UNHCR says; 160,000 refugees, migrants have reached Greece this year. Greece must show "much more leadership" to tackle an escalating crisis in which 160,000 refugees and migrants have reached its shores so far this year, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Clashes erupted last week on the overwhelmed Greek island of Kos between desperate people, mainly fleeing conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, who come on small boats from nearby Turkey only to find dire conditions. "The pace of arrivals have been steadily increasing in recent weeks. More refugees and migrants arrived in Greece during the month of July - 50,242 - than during the whole of last year," William Spindler of the U.N.

Migrants desperate to get off the Greek island of Kos fought each other on Saturday while nearby a passenger ship chartered to house and process refugees lay empty 24 hours after it had arrived. Outside the island's main police station, about 50 migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran threw stones and exchanged blows as tempers boiled over in the intense mid-summer heat. Riot police stood by without intervening. The migrants have little chance of getting aboard the ship, the Eleftherios Venizelos, as priority is being given to Syrians, who are treated as refugees as they are fleeing their country's civil war and have greater rights under international law than economic migrants.

EU foreign ministers meet in Luxembourg; 24 corpses carried off Italian patrol ship in Malta. Death toll from Sunday's shipwreck off Libya still unclear. European Union foreign ministers gathered in Luxembourg on Monday under pressure to produce more than words as bodies were brought ashore in Malta among hundreds feared drowned in the latest Mediterranean migrant tragedy. The death toll from Sunday's shipwreck off the coast of Libya was uncertain after officials said there had been at least 700 people on board, some reportedly locked in the hold. Hundreds of kilometres (miles) to the east, another vessel carrying dozens of migrants ran aground off the Greek island of Rhodes on Monday. Greek coast guards said at least three people were killed.

Inadequate naval patrols means ever more migrants from Africa and the Middle East will die trying to cross the Mediterranean, aid agencies warned on Tuesday, as Italy appealed for a "more vigorous" European response to tackle the crisis. The death toll in the Mediterranean since the start of the year stands at 50 against just 12 in the same period in 2014. In the latest tragedy involving migrants, 29 people died of hypothermia on Monday on the exposed deck of a small Italian naval vessel after it rescued them in rough seas from a dinghy adrift near Libya.

Boat arrivals up more than 40 pct this year; this year 600 dead vs 100 in same period last year. With migration across the Mediterranean surging, the European Union's largest border operation is bracing for a record year of arrivals by sea, especially as summer brings calm waters between Italy and Libya. Off the eastern coast of Sicily earlier this week, the 18-member crew of the Icelandic coast guard vessel Tyr -- named after a Nordic god of war -- conducted rescue drills in seas more familiar in Greek mythology, preparing for the worst. Though the United Nations refugee agency has criticised the mission, known as Triton, because its mandate is not search and rescue but border control with patrols near the Italian coast, the EU border agency Frontex says it is saving lives.

Italian and merchant ships rescued around 1,000 migrants from three overcrowded skiffs near the coast of Libya and found one dead body, Italy's coast guard said. The migrants sent out a distress call by satellite phone on Friday and were being taken to ports in Sicily, the coast guard added in a statement, without giving details of their nationalities. Two other inflatable boats carrying 73 people -- identified as Syrians, Kurds and Somalis -- were intercepted by police off the Italian coast near Puglia, according to a separate statement from the police. Two Albanian smugglers were arrested in the operation. Refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa regularly risk the hazardous journey across the Mediterranean, often between Libya and Sicily, to reach the European Union.

Forty-one boat migrants reported drowned in Mediterranean - IOM   Forty-one people have drowned in the Mediterranean trying to reach Italy by boat from Libya, four survivors said when they arrived at the Sicilian port of Trapani, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).   The four survivors said they were originally from Sub-Saharan Africa and had left the city of Tripoli in Libya on Saturday. They then stayed adrift for four days before their boat was wrecked, the IOM spokesman said in a statement.   "It appears that the four were found floating in the sea by a helicopter and were then rescued by the military ship Foscari," the IOM said.     (reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, writing by Isla Binnie)

Italian police arrested 15 African men suspected of throwing about a dozen Christians from a migrant boat in the Mediterranean on Thursday, as the crisis off southern Italy intensified. Forty-one more deaths were reported in a separate incident. Police in the Sicilian capital Palermo said they had arrested the men, from Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal, after survivors reported they had thrown 12 people from Nigeria and Ghana to their deaths and threatened other Christians. The 15 were arrested on charges of multiple homicide motivated by religious hatred. "The motive for the resentment was traced to their faiths," police said. The survivors' account underscores the rising chaos in the Mediterranean…