At least 246 migrants have gone missing while trying to cross the western Mediterranean into Europe in 2022, the International Organization for Migration says. A Kurdish Syrian smuggler in Algeria said dozens of Kurds from Syria arrive in the Algerian coastal city of Oran each week for the sea journey. The region has been targeted by Islamic State group militants, Turkish forces and Syrian opposition groups from the country’s northwestern rebel-held enclave. He now wants to join the flow of Kurds headed from Syria to Europe. He hopes to be granted asylum status soon, so his wife and daughters can reunite with him in Europe.

Source: Libya Today December 22, 2022 17:56 UTC