Nearly 2,000 migrants and refugees reached Italian coasts from Tunisia last month, according to the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES). The number of arrivals from Tunisia in Italy so far this year has already surpassed arrivals for all of 2021.
A Syrian man living in Malta has been charged with human trafficking for allegedly coordinating a migrant boat's arrival into the country, according to Maltese media reports. Police said investigations are still ongoing and that further arrests in connection with the case should not be excluded.
Coast guards have reported rescuing 30 people from a boat in the Mediterranean near a small islet north of Crete. More and more migrants and refugees are reportly trying to reach Italy from Turkey in order to circumvent pushbacks in the Eastern Aegean.
Twenty people were rescued from the Mediterranean by Italian officials some 12 miles off Lampedusa on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Tunisian authorities intercepted more than 120 people enroute to Italy between Tuesday and Thursday.
The body of a man has been retrieved off western Cyprus after Syrians who arrived from Turkey by boat said that one among them had fallen overboard. So far this year, close to 6,000 migrants have arrived irregularly in the Republic of Cyprus from the Turkish-administered northern part.