Attachments
Key Updates
• New Action Plan for the Western Mediterranean and Atlantic Route: On 6 June, the European Commission shared its new Action Plan to strengthen its partnership with key countries of origin and transit along the Western Mediterranean and Atlantic Routes. Among other things, the plan foresees enhanced cooperation between Frontex and Morocco, Mauritania, and Senegal. It also aims to increase border management capacity of these three countries as well as the Gambia, and calls for assessment of surveillance needs and the possibility of joint operations along the route.
• Relative increase in arrivals on the Atlantic Route: The overall number of arrivals to the Canary Islands more than doubled from the first quarter to the second quarter, with UNHCR reporting 5,000 between April and June. While arrivals are still down 19% in the first half of the year as compared to 2022, this is a much smaller year-to-date decline than was seen at the end of the first quarter (64%).
• Spanish Ombudsman launches inquiry into failed search and rescue: On 23 June the Spanish Ombudsman announced the launch of an investigation into the rescue coordination of a boat carrying West Africans that sank on 21 June. Following distress calls that were picked up by the Spanish Salvamento Maritimo in Las Palmas, the boat waited nearly 12 hours for assistance from Morocco, at which time 34 people were missing and two bodies were recovered, including that of a five-year-old girl.
• Humanitarian emergency continues for stranded migrants in Niger: A variety of local and international aid organizations have been expressing deep concern over the humanitarian situation of expelled migrants in northern Niger. A spike in expulsions from Algeria early in the year overwhelmed humanitarian infrastructure to receive these migrants in the northern Nigerien desert town of Assamaka. While local and international actors have worked to ramp up assistance, according to an IOM/OCHA report, it is still necessary to “improve and broaden the response.” • Proportion of West Africans on Central Mediterranean Route rises: Of the 64,846 irregular arrivals by sea to Italy in the first half of 2023, at least 38% came from West and Central African nations, a substantial increase over the approximately 10% seen in 2022.Quarterly Mixed Migration Update Q2 2023: West Africa