On Monday, the crew of the Ocean Viking received permission to disembark almost 160 migrants in Sicily. The humanitarian rescue vessel operated by SOS Mediterranee had been waiting all weekend to be assigned a safe port.
On Monday morning, Spanish rescue workers brought to shore 52 migrants on the island of Lanzarote. That’s in addition to the 237 migrants reported to have arrived on small boats on various Canary Islands over the weekend.
Two migrants died over the weekend when their boat capsized off the coast of Morocco. Separately, more than 200 others were detained as they prepared to leave Morocco by sea, according to Moroccan state media.
Poland is hosting more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees and the Polish chapter of Catholic charity Caritas is on the frontline to provide assistance with dozens of housing facilities and hundreds of volunteers, thanks to donations1
The island republic of Cyprus has asked EU member states for help in dealing with the high volumes of migrants who have been making their way there. Cyprus has the highest asylum application numbers per capita in the European Union.