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The UN agency communicated the figures referring to the people who fled their countries and tried to reach European soil through the Mediterranean or the Atlantic. Post-pandemic socioeconomic conditions, armed confrontations and the effects of climate change are the main reasons that urge civilians to risk their lives to cross kilometers of water in makeshift boats. These numbers do not count the land exodus, which has an even more pessimistic outlook.
This Friday, April 29, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) disclosed the number of migrants who died or ended up missing in their attempts to reach Europe through sea routes, such as crossing the Mediterranean Sea or the Atlantic Ocean. . The numbers double those that occurred in 2020.
Breaking down the numbers, lThe UN entity detailed that 1,924 migrants died or ended up with an unknown whereabouts for trying to reach the ‘Old Continent’ along the central and western Mediterranean routes. Spain and Italy were the most desired destinations.
For their part, another 1,153 people died or were missing en route to the Canary Islands across the Atlantic, with Africa as the main place of origin of the exodus, but showing a low success rate due to the immense difficulties of the mission.
“The journey from Senegal or Mauritania to the Canary Islands is long and dangerous,” said UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo at a press conference, adding that the journey can take more than ten days and that “many boats lose their way and disappear without leave traces in those waters.”
The conditions in which the travelers are entrusted are extremely precarious. With inflatable boats that are not prepared for such long stretches, with overcrowding of migrants on the rafts that cause them to capsize or deflate on the high seas, causing the death of the crew.
The death toll from land migration is higher
However, the UNHCR report does not include the victims of land displacement, another migratory problem that causes thousands of deaths, since some routes include crossing the Sahara desert on foot.
The organization highlighted that while the number of ‘sea’ deaths is high, the number of deaths from land migration is probably even higher.
In addition to suffering the effects of the inhuman conditions in which they travel, on foot they also suffer types of abuse, murder, arbitrary detention, rape, forced labor and slavery.
Acnur called on States to forge policies that protect migrants and asylum seekers, asking them to guarantee safe alternatives to these trips and to work to stop this tragic phenomenon. While he required his donors to raise 163.5 million dollars to combat the migratory flow.
The reasons behind the avalanche of migrants lie in the deterioration of post-pandemic socioeconomic conditions from regions of Africa and Asia, especially the sub-Saharan region, the Middle East and Central Asia; armed confrontations and the consequences of climate change.
The UN agency stated that the march of migrants will continue and even increase in the near future.
Migration problems concerning Europe continue to escalate after the Ukrainian exodus rose this Friday to 5.6 million people, the largest on the continent since World War II.
However, the predisposition of reception by European countries towards Ukrainians is much higher than that they have with Asians, Orientals and Africans, which led different entities to denounce discrimination.
with EFE
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