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UK Home Secretary Priti Patel and French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin announce an agreement to curb illegal migrant crossings in the English Channel. As part of the measures, costing the UK an additional 31.4 million euro, French border patrol officers will double their patrols on French beaches beginning next week, while enhancing surveillance, including increasing the use of drones to detect migrant boats.
2020-11-28

France and Italy call for a new system to redistribute immigrants to the European Union amid an ongoing increase in the numbers arriving, complaining of unfair demands being placed upon nations where immigrants make landfall.
2019-09-19

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) rescue vessel "Aquarius" 2 ends migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea, citing sustained attacks on search and rescue by European governments, particularly Italy.
2018-12-7

Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Luxembourg agree to take in 141 migrants, 67 of them unaccompanied children, who were rescued on Friday by the MV "Aquarius"; Malta allows the ship to dock.
2018-08-14

A Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) ship rescues 209 people, including 50 children, from two dinghies in distress in the Mediterranean Sea but finds 22 dead bodies, 21 women and a child, lying in a pool of fuel in the bottom of one of the boats. The dinghies were 17 miles east of Tripoli, Libya. Cause of death is unknown, though an MSF official says it could be that fumes from mixed fuel and water rendered the people unconscious. The MSF ship is expected to arrive in the Sicilian port of Trapani on Friday.
2016-07-20

Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, announce they are withdrawing from the so-called hotspots on the Greek islands because of the new EU-Turkey deal. UNHCR's Melissa Fleming says, "Under the new provisions, these sites (hotspots) have now become detention facilities." MSF's Marie Elisabeth Ingres says, “We will not allow our assistance to be instrumentalized (sic) for a mass expulsion operation, and we refuse to be part of a system that has no regard for the humanitarian or protection needs of asylum seekers and migrants.”
2016-03-23

European Union and Turkish officials agree on how to handle the flood of refugees. The deal, to return irregular migrants to Turkey, includes acceleration of the country's long-stalled bid for membership in the union; billions of euros in extra aid, 3 billion euros now, another 3 billion by 2018; and, visa-free travel for Turks once the country satisfies the EU criteria. Europe will be taking in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey. Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) strongly condemns the deal as "ugly and illegal." The agreement is set to go into effect Sunday, March 20, 2016.
2016-03-18

Around 200 migrants storm the French port of Calais, near the Channel Tunnel to Britain, after a demonstration in support of migrants living in the nearby Calais jungle camp, with approximately 50 of them boarding the P&O Ferries operated MS "Spirit of Britain" cross-border ferry. The port was closed following the incident.
2016-01-23

Germany's refugee crisis coordinator Peter Altmaier says, in an interview with German magazine "Focus", that he and Austrian special minister Josef Ostermayer are working on a proposal for a common European asylum law. He added other countries such as France and The Netherlands would be approached soon.
2015-12-19

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said some of the Paris attackers exploited Europe's refugee crisis to "slip in" to France unnoticed. Valls warns the passport-free Schengen zone is at risk if Europe fails to "take responsibility" over border controls.
2015-11-20