Sertan Sanderson

Spanish rescue services brought 165 migrants to shore off one of the smallest of the Canary Islands archipelago, El Hierro earlier this week. The rescue comes in the wake of hundreds of "tragic maritime incidents," in which at least 144 migrants are believed to have died or remain missing off the Mauritanian coast, at the start of the journey towards the Canary Islands.

For over a decade, schools across Germany have been facing the task of integrating immigrant children. With a significant number of children entering schools without any knowledge of the German language, different approaches across the country try to bring them into the fold of attending regular lessons as quickly as possible. However oftentimes, these schemes result only in limited success.

Eight suspected people smugglers have been arrested on the Italian island of Sardinia. They stand accused of having brought dozens of migrants to Italy illegally from the Algerian coast.

At least 133 people were saved during a maritime operation just off the Canary Island of El Hierro on August 4. Among those rescued were six minors and two women. The search-and-rescue effort for the migrants involved the deployment of multiple Spanish coast guard vessels for two days.

In recent months, French authorities have intervened in the English Channel, stopping small boat crossings already underway at sea on ten separate occasions. However, British opposition figures claim that the UK's partnership with France is not yielding sufficient results, despite a noteworthy drop in migrant arrivals

A French court sentenced an Egyptian national to one year in prison after they found him guilty of piloting an ill-fated migrant boat last week with more than 170 people on board. The man was tried for endangering the lives of everyone on board after the vessel got into difficulty and its engine caught fire. In recent weeks, the number of people on board each vessel has been increasing, with 230 reported to have arrived on one boat early on Monday (August 10).

An Afghan asylum seeker in the UK has been jailed for almost ten years after being found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl last year. The incident took place after he had pretended to be a teenager on social media. The man now faces automatic deportation to Afghanistan after serving out most of his prison term.

Latvian authorities say they have discovered an underground tunnel leading into the EU-member state from neighboring Belarus. The structure is believed to be the first of its kind found along this particular border designed to smuggle irregular migrants.

Germany is seeking to resume transfers of migrants to Italy and Greece. As part of the launch of the EU's Pact on Migration and Asylum earlier this summer, the enforcement of so-called Dublin returns is likely to be pursued more decisively by some EU members like Germany, reports indicate.

Bangladesh is among the top five countries of origin for asylum applicants in the UK, but only a small number of applications from Bangladesh ever get approved. In the fight against irregular migration, Britain is now entering talks with officials in Bangladesh to develop vocational training programs, to empower people to legally migrate instead.