Four Italians have been sentenced to six months without Facebook for posting racial insults and calling for violence against asylum seekers on social media.

The EU is planning to take measures to ensure the deportation of those whose asylum claims have been rejected. It chiefly wants to expand the use of detention to ensure that those earmarked for deportation cannot escape.

As a consequence of government policies in Italy and Malta, NGO rescue vessels are no longer operating in the Mediterranean, according to reports by The Guardian.

The International Organisation for Migration has announced that it has resumed voluntary return flights from Libya for migrants to their countries of origin.