That encompasses both good and bad.

So while many rue the loss of a holiday lazing on a Mediterranean beach, others regret not being able to take their lives in their hands crossing that sea to find a better, safer life in Europe.

Coronavirus has reduced but not stopped the flow of migrants which normally peaks during the northern summer months.

Indeed, it has made the crossing even more dangerous.

Coinciding with Thursday’s international day against people trafficking, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and Denmark’s Mixed Migration Centre have released a report confirming that reaching the  Mediterranean from Africa and traversing it to Europe remains the most dangerous migration route on the planet.

The latest available figures show that 72 people a month died trying to make the trip.

More than a quarter of those perished trying to cross the Sahara desert before even making the Mediterranean shore.

Thousands suffered rape, torture and other abuse at the hands people traffickers and lamentably the police.

Thousands have been detained under appalling conditions mainly in Libya where no fewer than 43 000 refugees are held.

Thousands are missing and unaccounted for under the waves.

To illustrate the hazards currently experienced, the International Organisation for Migration reports that

three Syrian refugees were shot dead by Libyan officials last Monday when they tried to escape from Al Khums after being dropped there by the Libyan coastguard.

At least 65 refugees from Eritrea, Morocco and Sudan have tested positive for COVID 19 in Malta where they were taken by sailors who plucked them from a 30-hour maritime nightmare. 

Those now in quarantine represent two thirds of the people rescued.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Fillipo Grandi says the situation calls for concerted action by the states in the region with the support of the international community.

That might provide a band aid for the visible wounds.

The real solution lies in making life more tolerable in the home countries of the migrants, so that they don’t feel it is worth risking death to escape.

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The European border guard Frontex is flying over the Mediterranean this morning in search of the dinghy carrying the migrants..

At the weekend, two German boats monitoring those in peril on the sea spotted four craft off the southern coast of Malta.

They had set out from Libya, bound for Italy.

One of them has since arrived at its destination another two are still at sea.

The court dinghy is unaccounted for. 

UNHCR spokesperson Carlotta Sami says they fear the missing boat has capsized.

In addition to Frontex, the European Coast Guard and a German Sea Watch vessel are engaged in the search. 

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They burned their camp to which the authorities were trying to force them to return.

It is reminiscent of what happened in Pretoria and Cape Town last year.

Thousands of refugees from the conflict in Sudan  and Libya have been accommodated in Niger. 

The camp is in Agadez which is a major hub for Africans headed for Europe..

They say conditions are poor and the UNHCR must relocate them. They staged a sit-in outside the offices of the world organisation.

When authorities beat some of them and forced them into a vehicles to return them to their camp, it was burned down. More than 300 arrests have been made

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Three billion dollars was pledged at the three-day ministerial gathering in Geneva to help people fleeing their countries to escape war and conflict.

The three billion dollars pledged in Geneva  is in addition to the more than two billion dollars  pledged by the World Bank to help re-house refugees and finance 50 000 resettlement centres.

Germany, which has taken in hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees is giving 1,7 billion euros.

The United States under President Donald Trump is a dark cloud over this issue. The limit of 18 000 refugees imposed for 2020 is the lowest  figure in modern American history.

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The gathering comes weeks after refugees besieged the United Nations High Commission For Refugees offices in Cape Town and Pretoria demanding to be moved away from xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

The Global Refugee Forum in Geneva brings together governments, business and relief agencies.

UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi says the burden of housing refugees must be shared more fairly.

The number of refugees  driven out by war in Africa and the Middle East, violent drug lords in Colombia and repressive regimes in Asia are now four times more than the people displaced by the Second World War.

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The matter has been postponed until next Wednesday to allow the SA police service and Home Affairs Department time to file papers explaining why they can’t implement the  residents’ demands.

When the Pretoria High Court agreed to hear the case on an urgent basis last Tuesday, the police and Home Affairs agreed to abide by the outcome.

They found, however, that the residents’ bid to get tough with the refugees who’ve been camping  on the pavement outside the UNHCR for month  is not practicable.

Judge Natvarlal Ranchod as stood the matter down for a third time urging the parties to find agreement on effective action. 

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Ten portals have been provided and they have pitched later tents on the pavements.

The residents associations of Brooklyn and Waterkloof are seeking a court order forcing the Tshwane Metropolitan authority, South African Police Service and Department of Home Affairs to move the refugees.

More than 600 mainly Congolese citizens are involved in the protest that has lasted more than three weeks.

Residents say the the refugees pose health and security risks.

The UNHCR says moving them is a complex matter that has to take its place with hundreds of thousands of other refugees in need of help around the world.

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The matter has been laid down for Guy Fawkes Day in the Pretoria High Court.

Alex Ngoy, representing the 500 refugees protesting against xenophobic attacks in South Africa and demanding that the UN High Commissioner For Refugees move them safety, says they have not been served with papers to appear in court.

The lawyers who attended a meeting earlier this month of concerned residents of Brooklyn and Waterkloof say they recognize the right to the refugees to protest.

However the health and security concerns of residents are paramount.

They are seeking an order compelling the local authority to move the protestors who are contravening  the Gatherings Act.  

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More than 1000 mainly Congolese refugees have been staging the  protest for a fortnight demanding the world organization move them away from the xenophobic attacks they have suffered in South Africa.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has closed its doors to the refugees and failed to return calls from the media.

Democratic Alliance MP Adrian Roos says the UNHCR has confirmed that the matter should be dealt with by local law enforcement.

Police are reluctant to move in because of the large number of mothers and  babies among the protestors

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They will go to any country the United Nations decides is safe for them.

Compatriots in Cape Town of the demonstrating Congolese refugees has asked to be sent to a Australia, New Zealand or Canada.

In Pretoria, spokesman for the organization Women and Children in Crisis Alex Nkoy says they’re in no position to make any requests.

Asked if they would go to Rwanda, which is currently taking in African would-be migrants held in Libyan detention centers, Nkoy says they will go where the UNHCR decides to send them. 

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