mediterranean

Syed Ali Raza and Rukhsana Jafri hold up a photograph of their son, Zain, who is missing after the migrant shipwreck. The family lives in Budho Kalas village, Punjab province, where Zain was a police officer. He had quit his job to start a business that wasn't profitable enough, then set off on an illegal migration to Europe for more lucrative employment.

Health & Safety

They set sail with dreams and met disaster: Stories from the ill-fated migrant ship

3:33pm June 27, 2023

by Betsy Joles

Hundreds of illegal migrants from Pakistan and other nations were aboard, hoping to land lucrative jobs in Europe. We talk to family members, some still awaiting news of the fate of their loved ones.

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This undated handout image provided by Greece's coast guard on Wednesday, June14, 2023, shows scores of people covering practically every free stretch of deck on a battered fishing boat that later capsized and sank off southern Greece.

World News

Dozens are dead and hundreds feared missing from migrant ship sinking off Greece

5:13am June 15, 2023

by The Associated Press

Rescue workers transferred the bodies of dead migrants to refrigerated trucks as a major search continued Thursday for possible survivors of a sea disaster in southern Greece.

A man with an arm injury and in need of urgent medical care, right, waves to fellow migrants before he is flown by helicopter by the French Army from the Ocean Viking rescue ship on Thursday. French authorities evacuated several migrants from the ship ahead of the ship docking in Toulon on Friday.

World News

France accepts a migrant rescue ship as relations sour with Italy

4:23pm November 11, 2022

by Eleanor Beardsley

France allowed the Ocean Viking humanitarian ship to dock in the port of Toulon on Friday, after Italy's new far-right government refused to accept it. More than 200 migrants were aboard the ship.

Marine biology student Ranim Tahhan, 21, pictured left, and another volunteer work to clean Tyre beach from the pollution caused by an oil spill in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Amid Myriad Crises, Lebanon Now Confronts An Ecological Disaster On Its Shores

2:43pm March 28, 2021

by Ruth Sherlock

Some of the country's last beaches spared from development are now carpeted in globs of tar from an oil spill in the Mediterranean, damaging beaches that are nesting grounds for endangered turtles.

A woman holds a dead sea turtle covered in tar from an oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea that affected wildlife and closed beaches in Israel.

Mediterranean Oil Spill Injures Wildlife, Closes Israel's Beaches

3:19pm February 21, 2021

by Rebecca Hersher

Israeli authorities are still trying to pinpoint the source of a major oil spill that has polluted much of the country's coastline with chunks of tar.

A man and his daughter walk across a desert.

World News

The Harrowing Journeys To Safety Of Asylum-Seekers During A Pandemic

7:28am February 13, 2021

Rights groups accuse nations of using COVID-19 as an excuse to shut out refugees. Here's one story of migrants attempting a deadly voyage to Europe, only to be pushed back to where they fled.

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Fly paper covered with the bodies of Cephalcia Tannourinensis, an endemic species of Sawfly that has been damaging trees at the Tannourine Cedars Forest Nature Reserve.

Climate Change Closes In On Lebanon's Iconic Cedar Trees

1:57pm November 22, 2020

A symbol of Lebanon's resilience through its long, turbulent history, the country's towering cedars now face increasing threats from wildfire and parasites, both fueled by global warming.

The Greek island of Kastellorizo, shown here at sunset from the top of an ancient castle, is a little over a mile away from the Turkish shore. Known for its architecture, turquoise sea and friendship with the neighbor Turks, it's recently become a pawn in

World News

'Not Our World': This Greek Island Wants An End To Greece And Turkey's Feud

11:45am September 23, 2020

by Joanna Kakissis

Kastellorizo has become a pawn in a dispute between Greece and Turkey over maritime borders and offshore resources. But as the governments' standoff continues, islanders speak of peace and harmony.

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Rescued migrants sit on the coast of Khoms, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Libyan capital Tripoli, on July 26, 2019. About 145 migrants were rescued by the Libyan coastguard, and survivors had reported that about 150 people remained missing.

World News

150 Migrants Feared Dead In Mediterranean's Worst Loss Of Life This Year

12:58pm July 26, 2019

by Josh Axelrod

"Our death rate is rising alarmingly," a U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokesperson says. Aid agencies continue rescue efforts off the shore of Libya, hoping to save anyone else who survived.

The rescue ship Aquarius, chartered by aid groups SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders, leaves the harbor of Marseille, France, on Aug. 1. The ship has been docked at Marseille since September, when it lost its registration, and Italian authoritie

World News

Italy Wants Rescue Ship Seized, Accuses Doctors Without Borders Of Illegal Dumping

5:53pm November 20, 2018

by Camila Domonoske

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."