Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

Europe

The Latest: Migrant exodus from Libya amid warm weather

Associated Press
Published | Updated
5a2f7185-

FILE - In this April 8, 2017 file photo, migrants aboard the Golfo Azurro rescue vessel wait to be transferred to Italian authorities in Trapani harbor, in the Italian island of Sicily. Most, though, don't understand that this could be just one more step in an impossible dream. Many are sent to government-run migrant camps. Others, depending on international agreements, are sent back home. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File) (The Associated Press)

BERLIN – The Latest on migration issues in Europe (all times local):

2:05 p.m.

Aid groups say the recent spike in Mediterranean migrant rescues corresponds with improved weather conditions and the looming start of beefed-up Libyan coast guard patrols that could block migrants from reaching Europe.

Over Easter weekend, rescue ships plucked some 8,360 people from 55 different rubber dinghies and wooden boats off Libya's coast. Thirteen bodies were also recovered. While such numbers are not unusual, they come as Italy is due to deliver patrol boats to Libya in coming weeks as part of a new EU-blessed migration deal.

An International Organization of Migration spokesman says smugglers are telling customers: "You have to hurry up and leave the country right now because otherwise in a couple of months you will be rescued by the Libyan coast guard and you will be sent back."

___

12:30 p.m.

German authorities say there were 169 violent offenses against homes for asylum-seekers last year, almost as many as in 2015, though the figures sank as the year progressed.

The Federal Criminal Police Office said Tuesday that the number of violent offenses compared with 177 the previous years.

In all, authorities counted 994 offenses against asylum shelters in 2016, a little below the previous year's 1,031. The police office said that most of them had a far-right motive.

Justice Minister Heiko Maas wrote on Twitter that the figures were "deeply shameful."

Germany saw a huge influx of asylum-seekers and other migrants in late 2015 and early 2016. That tailed off about a year ago, and the number of crimes targeting asylum homes declined over the course of the year.