More recent media reports are now reporting that the 120+ migrants who reached Sicily during the night of 20-21 March are Egyptian nationals who may have said they were from Libya in order to make asylum claims.
Click here, here, and here for articles. (IT) .
Filed under Egypt, Italy, Libya, Mediterranean, News
According to several media reports, Libyan soldiers have prevented up to 30,000 migrant workers from fleeing Libya to Tunisia. “The migrant workers were rounded up and apparently held in Libyan immigration buildings near the Tunisian border last week, Ibrahim Osman of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies told The Associated Press.” If this information is correct, it would explain the sudden drop in the numbers of persons trying to cross in to Tunisia in recent days. According to IOM, as of 8 March, 224,661 migrants have reached Libya’s borders with Tunisia, Egypt, Niger and Algeria.
Click here and here for articles. (EN)
Discussion topics will include:
Click here for President Van Rompuy’s invitation letter.
Filed under Egypt, European Union, Libya, Mediterranean, News, Tunisia
OCHA Situation Report 4 on Libya. “HIGHLIGHTS/KEY PRIORITIES:
Click here for OCHA Situation Report.
Click here for OCHA Map and Data update.
UNHCR – “GENEVA, March 3 (UNHCR) – An operation to evacuate tens of thousands of people from the Tunisian border and fly them home was under way on Wednesday. Under a programme led by UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 50 flights were planned on Thursday to take migrant workers, mostly Egyptians, back home. UNHCR flew home 177 people to Egypt on a first flight Wednesday evening…..”
Click here for UNHCR update.
Filed under Data / Stats, Egypt, Libya, Mediterranean, News, OCHA, Tunisia, UNHCR, United Nations
OCHA Situation Report 3 on Libya. HIGHLIGHTS/KEY PRIORITIES:
Click here for Report.
This report is produced by OCHA in collaboration with humanitarian partners. It was issued by Cairo and New York. It covers the period from 28 February to 1 March 2011.
IRIN - Numbers of People Crossing into Neighbouring Countries
Filed under Data / Stats, Egypt, Libya, Mediterranean, Niger, Tunisia
Excerpts from the Backgrounder:
Currently, Tunisia and Egypt are experiencing an influx of people fleeing Libya. These persons include nationals of those two countries seeking to return home, as well as Libyans and smaller numbers of nationals of other countries in search of safety. Both Tunisia and Egypt, themselves emerging from turmoil, have kept their borders open and are receiving those fleeing Libya. …
All states affected by the ongoing crisis are bound to respect the following [core] principles governing the treatment of refugees….
Protection of refugees is a collective international responsibility. In practice, however, it is those countries that are closest to or most accessible from Libya and its neighbors that will be called upon to protect the majority of refugees who may seek international protection in the immediate term….
At a time when all countries in the region and their neighbors in the EU may see an increase in migration by people fleeing persecution and violence as well as worsening economic conditions, it is critically important that those who have a claim to international protection be given access to procedures to obtain it. The international community more broadly and the EU should assist those States that bear the brunt of this challenge in dealing with it in a way that is consistent with their international obligations. At the same time, Italy and other EU member states and institutions must refrain from pushing migrants back to Libya or any other country without identifying those in need of international protection and allowing those who need such protection to apply for it.
Click here for full document.
Filed under Analysis, Egypt, European Union, Frontex, Italy, Libya, Malta, Mediterranean, Tunisia
From the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Situation Report No. 2, 1 March 2011:
Libya – thousands of migrants stranded at Benghazi port;
Tunisia – 10,000 to 15,000 people arrived in Tunisia on 1 March, creating a huge bottleneck on the border due to a lack of onward transportation to their home countries. Thousands of people (including over 15,000 Bangladeshis) are stuck on the Libyan side of the border and are not allowed to cross. They are stranded and without access to food, health, water and sanitation;
Egypt – 5,000 to 7,000 migrants stranded in the border area at Saloum, in “no man’s land”. The Egyptian authorities are not allowing those without valid tickets and documentation to leave. According to IOM, these stranded migrants need food, water, blankets, shelter and proper sanitation facilities. IOM has established a registration process for migrants from African and Asian countries who cannot continue their journey into Egypt because of lack of travel documents or entry visas;
Niger – IOM is preparing for the arrival later this week of an estimated 2,000 Nigerians and other African nationals who have recently managed to cross Libya’s southern border at Gatrone.
Click here for full document.
1 March 2011 update from UNHCR:
“UNHCR staff at the Libya-Tunisia border have this morning told us that the situation is reaching crisis point. According to the Tunisian authorities, 70-75,000 people have fled Libya to Tunisia since 20 February. Fourteen thousand people crossed yesterday, the highest number to date, with tens of thousands of people now in urgent need of onwards transportation to their home countries. With 10,000-15,000 people expected to arrive today…
[T]housands of people have been waiting on the Libyan side to enter for as long as three days, obliged to spend the night outside in the bitter cold without shelter. We are very concerned that a large number of sub-Saharan Africans are not being allowed entry into Tunisia…
Meanwhile at the Egyptian border, the Government reported that some 69,000 people had crossed from Libya since 19 February. The majority of those who have crossed are Egyptians…”
Click here for UNHCR update.
The UNHCR “welcomed the positive indications it has received over the past two days from Tunisia and Egypt that they will maintain open borders for people fleeing the continuing violence in Libya.”
Click here for full statement.
Filed under Egypt, Libya, Mediterranean, Statements, Tunisia, UNHCR
Frontex posted data on its web site summarizing migrant detections in southern Italy as of 13 February. According to media reports, with the exception of a small number of Egyptians who landed in Sicily on Tuesday (it is unclear whether they sailed directly from Egypt), no North African migrants have landed in Italy since 14 February.
From Frontex: “Warsaw, February 15—According to official data provided by Italian authorities, between January 1 and February 13, 2011, a total of 5526 migrants were recorded landing in the Pelagic Island, in a total of 116 incidents. This compares to 7,200 for the whole of 2008, the peak year for arrivals of irregular migrants in these islands to date, when Tunisians were the most commonly represented nationality, accounting for 23% of arrivals. Of the official 2011 figures, by far the biggest influx was noted in Lampedusa, where 5031 migrants were recorded between January 1 and February 13, in 80 arrivals…. The table below gives a summary of detections in 2011 until February 13. ”
| Incidents | Migrants
Landed |
Male | Female | Minors | Accom-panied minors | Unacc-ompanied minors | |
| Lampedusa and Linosa | 80 | 5031 | 4944 | 18 | 69 | 0 | 69 |
| Agrigento coast | 3 | 20 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other places in Sicily | 21 | 211 | 210 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Apulia | 3 | 57 | 43 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 6 |
| Calabria | 8 | 192 | 152 | 14 | 26 | 12 | 14 |
| Sardinia | 1 | 15 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 116 | 5526 | 5384 | 34 | 108 | 18 | 90 |
Filed under Data / Stats, Egypt, Frontex, Italy, Mediterranean, News, Tunisia
The European Voice reports that Frontex began consultations yesterday with member states to identify what equipment and personnel they will commit to a planned joint operation with Italy to deter migrants seeking to leave North Africa. “Naval vessels, surveillance aircraft and enhanced radar tracking are likely to be deployed….”
Assuming an emergency joint operation is deployed in the coming days, it may to some extent simply be a revival of Frontex’s Joint Operation Nautilus (slated to be renamed Operation Chronos). Less than two weeks ago, on 4 February Malta for the second year running announced that it would not host or participate in Operation Nautilus this year due to the success of Italy’s push-back agreement with Libya which eliminated the movement of migrants in the Central Mediterranean.
Malta, however, also likely refused to host the Frontex mission due to the 2010 guidelines governing Frontex enforcement operations at sea which require that intercepted migrants be taken to the country hosting the Frontex mission under certain circumstances. The validity of the Frontex sea border rule is currently under review by the European Court of Justice. The legal challenge to the rule was brought by the European Parliament. Maltese MEP Simon Busuttil initiated the challenge within the LIBE Committee. It will be interesting to see what role Malta will be willing to play in any new emergency joint operation. Even though the Frontex sea border rule is under review by the ECJ, the referral clearly requested the ECJ “to preserve the effects of the measure until a new legislative act has been adopted.” The rule therefore remains in effect.
Click here for EV article.
Click here for the Council decision on the surveillance of sea external borders (the Sea Border Rule).
Click here, here, here, here, and here for previous posts on the sea border rule and the ECJ challenge.
Filed under Egypt, European Union, Frontex, Italy, Libya, Malta, Mediterranean, News, Tunisia
Wednesday marked the third day without any migrants reaching Lampedusa. The Italian Coast Guard was searching for a 45 meter boat that may have left Tunisia with migrants and which was reported missing. Sea conditions continue to be rough and Italian authorities predict the migrant flow will resume once sea conditions improve. Plans to move migrants from Lampedusa to other locations within Italy to reduce overcrowding on the island have been delayed because the new reception centres are not yet prepared to receive the migrants.
40 Egyptian migrants reached Marina di Ragusa on the southern coast of Sicily on Tuesday. Interior Minister Maroni announced that the migrants were returned to Egypt on Wednesday by a charter flight after the new Egyptian government agreed to their return. He praised the new military government for honouring the agreements that Italy had with the Mubarak government. (“Significa che il nuovo Governo egiziano dei militari rispetta gli accordi che noi avevamo sottoscritto con il Governo Mubarak e che consentono un rapido rimpatrio degli egiziani arrivati sulle nostre coste”.)
Click here, here, and here for articles. (IT)
Kathimerini reported on 1 February that Greece requested an additional extension of the Frontex RABIT deployment in Greece due to the situation in Egypt and a fear that there may be a surge in migration towards Greece. The current RABIT deployment is scheduled to end on 3 March. The deployment was originally scheduled to end in November 2010 and was extended until March 2011. The Kathimerini article said that Frontex’s initial informal response to the requested extension was positive.
Click here (EL) and here (EN) for articles.
Filed under Aegean Sea, Egypt, European Union, Frontex, Greece, Mediterranean, News, Turkey
Several organizations, including Gruppo EveryOne, are making an appeal on behalf of a group of 80 Eritreans who are reportedly being held by traffickers at the Egypt-Israel border. The Eritreans apparently departed Tripoli en route to Israel. This incident provides anecdotal evidence that African asylum seekers are attempting to enter Israel because the Central Mediterranean sea route to Europe has for all practical purposes been closed by the Italian-Libyan push-back practice in effect since May 2009.
Click here (EN) or here (IT) for the Gruppo EveryOne appeal.
MIGRANTS AT SEA 