European migrant crisis

The Ocean Viking has been impounded, as Italy targets charity groups that operate vessels in the Mediterranean Sea looking for migrants and refugees in distress.

NPR's Scott Simon ruminates about news of 39 people found dead in a trailer in Essex, U.K., and why people would risk their lives for that journey.

Doctors Without Borders, which operates the Aquarius, "strongly condemns" the request and says allegations of improperly disposed medical and other waste are "unfounded and sinister."

Would-be refugees who have appealed their asylum claims in Hungary have been systematically deprived of food, observers say. The European Court of Human Rights has intervened on a case by case basis.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has demanded a tougher line on migrants arriving mainly from North Africa. If his party quits Germany's fragile coalition, it would spell the end of the government.

In the past 14 months, more than 13,000 migrants and refugees have been dumped in the Sahara by Algerian authorities, with unknown numbers dying in the desert, The Associated Press says.

Italy and Malta turned away the migrant rescue ship Aquarius, leaving it stranded in the Mediterranean for days. Now that Spain is accepting the ship, Italian and Maltese navies are assisting.

A rescue ship picked up more than 600 migrants off the coast of Libya, and was left stranded after Malta and Italy turned it away. Italy's new government has vowed a tougher stance on immigration.

The full list of migrants and refugees dates back to 1993. "We want to show that every line tells a story," wrote the editors of Der Tagesspiegel, "and that the list keeps getting longer, day by day."