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LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – For about two weeks now, the international NGO Alarm Phone has received distress calls from groups of migrants in dire situations, facing extreme heat and surrounded by armed forces on either sides of the borders, blocking paths of escape between Tunisia and Libya as well as Algeria.
Several deaths have already been reported as well as many medical emergencies are still insufficient with different authorities are failing to provide any medical assistance.
Alarm Phone said that it has tried to mobilise support but despite all the evidence provided and demands for intervention, the United Nations organizations; the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has failed to act while in some regions, humanitarian assistance by the Tunisian Red Crescent has reportedly been made conditional on people accepting so-called “voluntary returns”.
Alarm Phone added that this failure of international organizations supposedly meant to protect the rights of refugees and migrants is “shameful”.
Last Sunday, the EU agreed to a new migration deal with the Tunisian government. In order to cooperate “more effectively on migration”, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte travelled to Tunisia and agreed on considerable financial assistance, dedicated to Tunisiàs border management and “anti-smuggling” measures.
Rights groups have called for emergency aid and shelter for migrants forced out of Tunisia's port city of Sfax, as dozens of people protested in Tunis in support of their plight. Hundreds of migrants fled or were forced out of the country’s second-largest city after racial tension flared following the July 3 killing of a Tunisian man in an altercation between locals and migrants.
Hundreds of people are stuck in the borderlands following the mass deportations from Tunisia. Sfax is a departure point for many migrants from impoverished and war-torn countries seeking a better life in Europe by making a perilous Mediterranean crossing, often in makeshift boats.
Romdane Ben Amor, spokesman for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, said that between 100 and 150 migrants including women and children were still stuck at the border with Libya. He said about 165 more migrants had been picked up near the border with Algeria.
“Migrants are transferred from one place to another while other groups hide out in the wild in catastrophic conditions for fear of being detected and suffering the same fate as those stranded on the borders,” Ben Amor said.
He called for emergency accommodation to be given to the migrants and said the authorities must send “a clear message” to Tunisian citizens to help them, regardless
of their status. Ben Amor expressed fears that migrants could die if they are not immediately given aid and shelter, noting that the bodies of two had already been found.
Meanwhile the head of a Cameroonian association claimed police had carried out “arbitrary arrests” of sub-Saharan Africans near the train station in Zarzis, south of Sfax.
“Around 300 have been arrested … just because of their skin colour,” said Eric Tchata, who posted online a video taken by a fellow Cameroonian purporting to show a group of people, including women and children, packed into a warehouse in Medenine, also south of Sfax.
Human Rights Watch has said the migrants have been left to fend for themselves without water or shelter in the border regions, where temperatures can rise over 40°C.
Meanwhile another group of at least 80 migrants were found in an uninhabited area close to Al-Assah, a town near the Tunisia-Libya border, about 150km west of Tripoli. The Libyan border agents gave them water and took them to a shelter.
The Tunisian Red Crescent said it had provided shelter to more than 600 people who had been taken after 3 July to the militarised zone of Ras Jedir, north of Al- Assah on the Mediterranean coast.

– Foto: Agenzia Fotogramma –

(ITALPRESS).

CAIRO (EGYPT) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – The Libyan Parliament on Monday will discuss the formation of the new government and the new electoral law. In exclusive comments to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk, the Italian expert Daniele Ruvinetti (Senior Advisor of Med-or Foundation), believes it will strengthen the agreement between the Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh, and the President of the Supreme Council of the Libyan State, Khaled Al-Mishri, following the ‘6+6’ agreement on the electoral law and the new unified government signed in Morocco between the Libyan Parliament and the Supreme State Council.
Ruvinetti added that according to the formation mechanism of the new government, it is expected that every candidate who leads the new government should be presented by no less than 12 members of the Superior State Council and 15 parliamentarians, then both chambers will vote for the names and who gets the majority of the votes, becomes President of the Council and following a confidence vote in Parliament, the candidate will be able to form a government.
Political analyst Ruvinetti said that the joint initiative of Al-Mishri e Saleh for a new executive authority raises the concern of the head of the national unity government, Abdul Hamid al-Dabaiba, as he is no longer a trusted parliamentarian, but claims the possibility of governing according to the previous mandate of the United Nations. Ruvinetti believes that the present alliance can have potential regional repercussions, noting that Dbeiba appears partially isolated, both externally and internally. The Italian expert said the current alliances are interesting because they show how external and internal powers while moving towards finding solutions.
-foto Agenzia Fotogramma –
(ITALPRESS).

LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – Malta has registered an increase in population due to the presence of third-country nationals, however, it has recorded the lowest rate of natural increase for the last 15 years.
The estimated total population of Malta and Gozo at the end of 2022 stood at 542,051, up by 4.2% when compared to the previous year, the National Statistics Office said.
Migration was the main cause of population increase in 2022; 21,798 persons, of whom 83.1% were third-country nationals. With males accounting for 65.8% of the people who moved to Malta, nearly 53% of the total resident population at the end of 2022 is now male.
Persons under the age of 18 made up 15.1% of the total population, while 18.6% were aged 65 and over. Of these, 3,395 persons – 2,415 females and 980 males – were aged 90 and over.
On the other hand, the natural increase reached the lowest rate over the past fifteen years, at 79, the result of 4,309 resident live births and 4,230 resident deaths in the reference year.
Resident live births in 2022 decreased by 2% when compared to the previous year. Of the parents who gave birth in 2022, 39.7% were aged 30 to 34 at the time of birth.
Resident deaths in 2022 increased by 1.6% over the previous year, with a total of 4,230 deaths. 67.4% of these were persons aged 75 and over.
credit photo Agenzia Fotogramma
(ITALPRESS).

LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – Filming for “Gladiator 2” in Malta has been delayed following a decision taken by Hollywood’s actors’ union on Thursday evening. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) announced a strike against movie and television studios after talks over pay and other working conditions collapsed.
Filming for the Ridley Scott epic began in Malta in June and was originally set to last four months. It is being shot at Fort Ricasoli, the large fortification in Kalkara which also served as the main setting for the original film. The production includes major industry movie artists namely Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal and Paul Mescal.
Maltese extras who were chosen to participate in the production of ‘Gladiator 2’ have been told not to report for duties because of the strike. The production employs hundreds of crew and extras, who are at risk of losing their jobs if filming is paused for too long.
In June, the union representing 160,000 actors and performers agreed to extend contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) until July 12, with talks have been stopped since then.
– photo Agenzia Fotogramma-
(ITALPRESS).

ROMA (ITALPRESS/MNA) – Today the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi met the Vice-President of the European Commission Margaritis Schinas. “The Migration and Asylum Pact approved last June 8 in Luxembourg,” said the Minister, “represents an important starting point and the ongoing trilogue between the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission that will complete the implementation of the important legal framework”. The meeting was also “an opportunity to take stock of the new initiatives on the management of the migratory flows funded by the European Commission in collaboration with IOM.” At the center of the cordial meeting, it was also announced the partnership policies of the European Commission with the Northern African countries. “Too many men, women and children have lost their lives at sea, the latest tragedy yesterday, therefore with the support of European funds we must secure regular flows of migration and prevent the migrants ending up in the hands of traffickers”, concluded the minister. (ITALPRESS).

– photo Viminale –
(ITALPRESS).

LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – A Libyan and a Hungarian have been charged with attempted murder in connection with a knife attack on two Sicilian men over a drug deal that went wrong. The attack happened last Tuesday evening inside an apartment in Triq is-Sikka, Marsaskala, leaving two Sicilian men, aged 52 and 37, grievously wounded, requiring surgery.
According to the prosecuting officials, the Sicilian victims were residing in the apartment where the attack took place. According to local reports, the argument started between the four men while they were negotiating the sale of half a kilogramme of cocaine.
Foto DOI.
(ITALPRESS).

LA VALLETTA (ITALPRESS/MNA) – European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson confirmed that Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Alexandria in Egypt served as transit points between Dhaka in Bangladesh and Benghazi in Libya for Bangladeshi nationals.
Replying to a parliamentary question by Maltese Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer, she said Brussels was “closely monitoring” the central Mediterranean migration route, including the transfer of Bangladeshi nationals from Libya to Italy.
The issue of chartered flights ferrying immigrants to Benghazi was recently raised by a high-ranking Maltese government delegation in a first meeting with eastern Libyàs supreme commander General Khalifa Haftar.
In its reply the Commission said that talks on migration and mobility between the EU and Bangladesh in March this year established a permanent forum to stop people smuggling. The Commission also noted that on 6 June it proposed new legislative, operational, and diplomatic measures to deal with the increasing illicit use of commercial transport by criminal networks to facilitate irregular migration into the EU. The proposed toolbox includes measures to “suspend or revoke the operating licence of an EU air carrier” if they no longer meet the good repute requirements of transport legislation. Another proposal is to strengthen cooperation and information exchange between the Commission, Frontex, and Eurocontrol to better monitor flights and gather data on emerging routes and patterns of irregular migration.
However, the European Commission is unaware of investigations into criminal groups using Syrian airline Cham Wings for people trafficking into Europe. “There are indications that the routes used to reach Libya from Dhaka (Bangladesh) are direct connections between Dubai and Benghazi or Alexandria and Benghazi… the Commission has no information on investigations concerning illegal activity by criminal groups using specific airlines like Cham Wings and others,” Johansson replied.
A confidential Frontex report singled out Cham Wings as one of the airlines used by the criminal groups to smuggle people between Damascus in Syria and Benghazi in Libya.
Cham Wings is owned by Syrian businessman Issam Shammout. The airline is part of his family business, the Shammout Group, which is active in the automotive, steel, aviation, freight forwarding, construction, and real estate sectors. On 20 July last year, the EU lifted sanctions against Cham Wings, after the company was blacklisted in December 2021 for its alleged role in ferrying migrants seeking to cross illegally into Poland from Belarus that summer. However, a day later the EU placed Shammout on its sanctions list, calling him a “leading business person operating in Syria”. Shammout is contesting the sanctions against him at the European Court of Justice.
Cham Wings, which does not operate to EU countries, remains subject to sanctions imposed by the United States and pressure is building within the EU to follow the US.
-photo Agenzia Fotogramma –
(ITALPRESS).