Pope Francis to visit French island of Corsica on 15th December, local church says

Vatican City Reuters Pope Francis will visit Corsica on 15th December, the local diocese said on its website on Thursday, in the first recorded trip of a pope to the French island in the Mediterranean. The short visit to the island’s capital city Ajaccio, where Francis is expected to speak at a conference on popular […]
Italy’s government to extend migrant NGO crackdown to planes

Rome, Italy Reuters Italy will impose fines of up to €10,000 on pilots of aircraft that search for migrant boats in distress at sea, according to a draft government decree. The right-wing administration of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has vowed to block irregular arrivals, working with African governments to block departures and building migrant centres […]
Yemen’s Houthis target three vessels, including oil tanker, in Red, Mediterranean seas

Reuters Yemen’s Houthis targeted three vessels, including an oil tanker, in the Red and Mediterranean seas with ballistic missiles, drones and booby-trapped boats, they said on Monday. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the latest Houthi military operations were a response to the Israeli airstrike on the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis on […]
Migrant shipwrecks off Italy leave 11 dead, more than 60 missing
Rome, Italy Reuters Eleven people died and more than 60 were missing, including 26 children, following two migrant shipwrecks off Italy’s southern shores, aid groups, coastguard officials and UN agencies said on Monday. German aid group RESQSHIP, which operates the Nadir rescue boat, said it picked up 51 people from a sinking wooden boat, including […]
Rescue charity recovers 11 bodies from sea off Libya

Rome, Italy Reuters A charity rescue ship recovered the bodies of 11 migrants off the coast of Libya on Friday after saving more than 160 people from boats close to the North African country, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) group said. MSF said its Geo Barents search and rescue vessel picked up 146 migrants in […]
A year after Greece migrant boat tragedy, answers and justice still out of reach

Athens, Greece/Beirut, Lebanon Reuters Egyptian electrician Mahmoud Shalabi was the only person from his hometown to survive when a fishing trawler crammed with migrants capsized off Greece a year ago, killing hundreds in one of the deadliest recorded boat disasters in the Mediterranean. Sixteen friends from Shalabi’s neighbourhood outside Cairo were never found. Today, their […]
Nearly 100 dead or missing migrants in Mediterranean so far in 2024 – IOM

Geneva, Switzerland Reuters Nearly 100 migrants have died or disappeared in the central and eastern Mediterranean since the beginning of 2024, more than double the toll recorded last year during the same period, the UN migration agency said on Monday. Handout image obtained by Reuters, on 12th October, 2023 shows a Medecins Sans Frontieres rescue […]
Cyprus rescues 60 Syrian migrants from boat, children found unconscious
Nicosia, Cyprus Reuters Sixty Syrian migrants were rescued from a small boat off Cyprus on Wednesday after being stranded at sea for days, including three children and a man who were found unconscious on board, Cypriot authorities said. Authorities scrambled rescue helicopters and patrol vessels after a merchant vessel reported seeing a small wooden fishing […]
The Long Read: Migrant’s drowning in Mediterranean prompts criticism of Malta’s rescue policies

READE LEVISON, of Reuters, reports on concerns over Malta’s response to migrants needing rescue in the Mediterranean Sea…
No “sea of death”: Pope calls for pan-European action on migration

Marseille, France Reuters Pope Francis on Saturday condemned “belligerent nationalisms” and called for a pan-European response to migration to stop the Mediterranean, where thousands have drowned, from becoming “the graveyard of dignity”. Immigration issues dominated his 27-hour trip to Marseille, a French port that for centuries has been a crossroads of cultures and religions.On Friday, he […]