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Stephanie Nebehay News

27 Jul 2021

At Least 57 People Drown as Migrant Boat Capsizes Off Libya

Credit:Andrea Izzotti/AdobeStock

At least 57 people drowned on Monday after a boat capsized off the Libyan coast near Khums, the latest tragedy in the central Mediterranean, the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. "According to survivors brought to shore by fishermen and the coast guard, at least 20 women and two children were among those who drowned," IOM spokeswoman Safa Msehli said in a tweet.Migrant boat departures to Italy and other parts of Europe from Libya and Tunisia have increased in recent months with better weather.

01 Oct 2019

As Ocean Fears Gather Pace, WTO Fishing Talks Stall

© photojapan / Adobe Stock

The oceans are under siege, campaigners warn, and fish stocks could collapse unless a global deal is struck swiftly to ban harmful fisheries subsidies. The World Trade Organization, meanwhile, can't agree on who will head the committee to discuss the issue, according to sources close to the negotiations.More than 90 percent of fish stocks are at maximum sustainable levels or overfished, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and environmentalists say a subsidies…

29 Jan 2019

More Than 130 Migrants Feared Drowned in Wrecks off Djibouti

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

22 Jan 2019

144 Migrants Taken to Libya Despite Dangers - U.N.

More than 140 refugees and migrants rescued at sea by the 'Lady Sham' ship have landed in Misrata, Libya, and been taken to a detention centre, United Nations aid agencies said on Tuesday."In Libya's current context, where outbreaks of violence and widespread human rights violations prevail, no rescued refugees and migrants should be returned there," Charlie Yaxley, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, told a briefing.UNHCR denounced "politicking around sea rescues" by European states that have restricted aid groups from conducting missions. More than 200 have already drowned in January and 4,507 have reached Europe by sea despite "bitter cold and great danger", Yaxley said.(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay

13 Nov 2018

Japan Takes South Korea to WTO Over Financial Support for Shipbuilders

Japan has launched a complaint at the World Trade Organization to contest allegedly illegal financial support given by South Korea to commercial shipbuilders, according to a WTO filing published on Tuesday."The measures in question relate to the development, production, marketing, and/or sale or purchase of commercial vessels, including vessels designed to carry crude oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and shipping containers," Japan's complaint said.(Reuters, Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by Stephanie Nebehay)

02 Oct 2018

Dozens Drown in Mediterranean Shipwreck

At least 34 migrants have died in a shipwreck in the western Mediterranean, which 26 people survived, the U.N. migration agency said on Tuesday, citing the Moroccan navy and a Spanish aid agency.Joel Millman, spokesman of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told Reuters, "The boat was adrift since Sunday with 60 people aboard. At least 34 have drowned, it looks like there were 26 survivors."The information came from the Moroccan navy and a Spanish non-governmental organisation Caminando Fronteras, he said.A Moroccan official, asking not to be named, said 11 bodies had been recovered, adding that the dead were all migrants, not Moroccan nationals. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Zakia Abdennebi; editing by William Maclean)

06 Jun 2018

Tunisia Sees Sharp Rise in Boat Migrants

© botevvs / Adobe Stock

Tunisia stopped about 6,000 migrants leaving its coast for Europe in the first five months of the year - a sharp increase from the few hundred prevented in the same period last year, an interior ministry official said on Wednesday.Human traffickers have increasingly moved operations to Tunisia since a crackdown by the coastguard in neighboring Libya.Scores of migrants died when the boat carrying them sank on Sunday in the worst such incident off Tunisia's coast. The official said the death toll has now risen to 68."Since January 1 to the end of May 2018 we arrested about 6…

04 Jun 2018

UN Aid Boat Attacked off Yemen

Unidentified forces attacked a U.N. aid vessel off the main Yemeni port of Hodeidah at the weekend and started a fire in the engine room, port authorities said on Monday.The United Nations aid chief, Mark Lowcock, confirmed there had been an incident but said it was now over and everyone was safe, without elaborating.The vessel used by the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) was attacked after delivering a shipment at Hodeidah, Yemen's Red Sea Ports Corporation said. The port is held by the Iranian-aligned armed Houthi movement which has taken large parts of the country in a three-year-old war.A WFP spokeswoman said an unidentified armed…

04 Jun 2018

U.N. Aid Chief Confirms "Incident" with Boat Off Yemeni Port

The United Nations aid chief told Reuters on Monday that there had been an "incident" with a U.N. ship being boarded by unknown forces off the Yemeni port of Hodeidah at the weekend, but it was over and the vessel had departed.Mark Lowcock, U.N. emergency relief coordinator, was asked about reports of the boarding off Hodeihah, held by the Iran-allied Houthi movement. He said: "... there was an incident. We don't know who's responsible, we're investigating and the incident is over."Asked about a possible Saudi-led coalition ground assault on the port, a lifeline for some 8 million Yemenis being fed by the world body, Lowcock said: "There's no port more important than Hodeidah.

02 Feb 2018

Migrant Boat Capsizes off Libya, Dozens Feared Dead

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.

10 Aug 2017

More Migrants Feared Drowned off Yemen

Some 180 young Ethiopian and Somali migrants, many weakened by hunger and drought in their home countries, were forced from a boat into rough seas off Yemen by smugglers on Thursday and 55 were presumed to have drowned, the U.N. migration agency said. It was the second such incident in as many days off Shabwa province in southern Yemen, where 50 teenage African migrants were "deliberately drowned" on Wednesday by a smuggler who forced 120 passengers off his boat, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. Smugglers were pushing migrants into the sea away from the mainland so as to avoid encountering possibly armed groups on shore in the war-torn country. They were then going back to pick up more migrants. "We have seen five bodies and can confirm five dead ...

25 Apr 2017

UN, Russia Warn Against Assault on Main Yemeni Port

United Nations and Russian officials warned on Tuesday against any attack by Saudi-led coalition forces on the Houthi-held Yemeni port of Hodeidah, the aid lifeline for a country where millions of people are in desperate need of food. The warring factions must ensure deliveries of food and medical aid to starving people, senior U.N. officials said at a donor conference in Geneva. Nearly $1.1 billion has now been pledged towards a United Nations appeal of $2.1 billion for Yemen this year, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced, calling it a "remarkable success". "Across Yemen, hunger and malnutrition have reached unprecedented levels and the threat of famine looms large.

18 Apr 2017

Nearly 9,000 Med Migrants Rescued over Weekend

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.

17 Jan 2017

2017 Med Migrant Deaths Up Sharply

At least 219 migrants and refugees are believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean already this year, more than double than during the same period a year ago, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday. Following interviews with four survivors of a weekend shipwreck, the agency said nearly 180 people were feared to have been aboard a boat that capsized off the coast of Libya, not 110 as earlier thought. "So it's almost twice the number of casualties which brings the year total already two weeks into the year to 219 deaths on the Mediterranean," IOM spokesman Joel Millman told a news briefing in Geneva. The Italian coastguard said the boat had not been found so there was no way to determine the number of passengers. Survivors were taken to Sicily on Monday.

25 Oct 2016

Mediterranean Three Times More Deadly Than 2015

File photo: IMO

The death toll on the Mediterranean has nearly matched that of all last year, with more than 3,740 migrants and refugees having drowned on their way to Europe, and perilous winter months still to come, aid agencies said on Tuesday. Smugglers are now sending thousands of people on flimsy inflatable rafts from Libya to Italy in mass embarkations, perhaps to lower their own risks of being caught, but also complicating the work of rescue teams, they said. At least 3,740 people have perished so far…

02 Aug 2016

120 Bodies Found off Libya as Migrant Toll Climbs

The bodies of 120 migrants believed to have been trying to reach Italy by boat from Libya have been found off the Libyan coast over the past 10 days, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday. "We are getting this information from Libyan authorities that we are collaborating with," said IOM spokesman Joel Millman. The bodies had been discovered near Sabratha and had not come from previously known shipwrecks in the Mediterranean. Mainly African migrants are taking often unseaworthy boats from Libya to Italy, gateway to Europe. Nearly 8,000 were rescued at sea between Friday to Monday on that central Mediterranean route, Millman told a briefing.

23 Jun 2016

Boat Migrant Rescues Surge as Calm Seas Return to Mediterranean

Ships manned by humanitarian organisations, the Italian navy and the coast guard helped rescue more than 2,000 boat migrants on Thursday as calm seas returned to the Mediterranean prompting a surge in departures. The Topaz Responder, a ship run by the Malta-based humanitarian group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), said 23 different migrant boats had been spotted in the sea about 20 nautical miles from the Libyan port city of Sabratha. Rescue operations were ongoing, the Italian coast guard said. "The mass movement is probably the result of week-long, unfavourable weather conditions" that have come to an end, MOAS said on Twitter. The Topaz Responder picked up 382 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa from three different large rubber boats.

07 Jun 2016

Toll from Crete Shipwreck Rises to 320

Some 320 migrants and refugees are now feared to have drowned in a shipwreck off the Greek island of Crete last week, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday, citing survivors' testimony. The Greek coastguard said on Saturday that the migrants who survived had told authorities their boat set sail from Egypt with about 350 people. On Friday, Greek authorities said 340 people were rescued and nine bodies had been recovered about 75 nautical miles off southern Crete. But survivors taken to the port of Augusta, Italy, who were interviewed by IOM staff reported that the vessel was carrying nearly twice the presumed number of passengers. "We learned from survivors in Italy, in Augusta, that 648 or 650 men, women and children were on that ship.

03 May 2016

113 Migrants Drown in Libya-Italy Weekend Transits

An estimated 113 people died in four shipwrecks between Libya and Italy at the weekend as the crossing becomes the preferred sea route for migrants to Europe, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday. With the closing of land routes in the Balkans and a recent deal under which Greece sends migrants back to Turkey, Italian officials have said they expect more people to try to make this longer and much more dangerous crossing from Libya. In one of four incidents, an Italian merchant ship rescued 26 people off the coast of Libya in rough seas and others were feared missing, Italy's Coast Guard said on Saturday.

18 Mar 2016

Italy Rescues Hundreds of Migrants at Sea, Recovers Body

Italian ships picked up some 600 migrants and recovered one body on Friday, as European leaders met in Brussels to try to stem the flow of migrants to the continent. Italy's coastguard and navy tweeted that they had picked up the migrants from several different vessels. Rescue operations were continuing and the number was likely to rise, a coastguard spokesman said. "Despite some bad weather and choppy sea conditions, the boats are coming," the coastguard spokesman said. More than 1.2 million migrants, mainly from Africa and the Middle East, have arrived in Europe since the beginning of 2015. Arrivals from Libya have risen this week, when three bodies were recovered before the latest death.

02 Mar 2016

UN Resolution will Give N.Korea a Sharp Choice

A U.N. resolution due for debate later on Wednesday will give North Korea a sharp choice between pursuing its own nuclear programs or re-engaging with the world and looking out for its own people, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.   Blinken compared efforts to roll back Syria's nuclear program to talks on Iran's nuclear ambitions, and said the U.N. resolution would one of the toughest ever, enforcing shipping inspections and prohibiting certain shipments, such as coal and gold exports and aviation fuel imports.   (Reporting by Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay)

18 Aug 2015

U.N. Urges Greece to Take Charge of Refugee Crisis

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.

21 Nov 2015

U.S. loses WTO Appeal in Mexican Tuna Dispute

The World Trade Organization's Appellate Body ruled against the United States on Friday in a dispute with Mexico over tuna labelling, upholding an earlier ruling issued in April that found U.S. rules discriminated against Mexico. "The Appellate Body concludes that the United States has not brought its dolphin-safe labelling regime for tuna products into conformity with the recommendations and rulings of the (WTO's dispute settlement body)," the WTO's appeals judges said at the end of their 144-page ruling on the case. The appeal ruling is final, and could lead to Mexico making a claim for retaliation against U.S. exports if it believes the United States has not brought its rules into line with the WTO ruling.