Human rights organizations are calling on EU countries to take responsibility for migrants heading for Europe.
Double cloth is another sad year in the Mediterranean: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that by December 19, 1,645 people had drowned or disappeared in its waters.
This week, the number rose to more than 30 people drowning in boat accidents in Greek waters for three consecutive days.
The problem is not being solved: According to the authorities, human trafficking has increased again in the region.
Read more: There have been three boat accidents in Greek waters in the same number of days – at least 30 people have died in the accident
Mediterranean Sea is one of the main routes taken by migrants to Europe for smugglers.
More people have died in the Mediterranean this year than last year, but the figure is no higher than usual. More than 100,000 people reached European countries.
Statistics show a creepy norm: more than a thousand people disappear into the sea between Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that since 2014, 23,000 people have died crossing the Mediterranean, often on swinging and in poor condition. By comparison, 166 people died in the English Channel during the same period.
In 2006 alone, more than 5,000 people died in the Mediterranean.
16-year-old Achraf cried while floating in the water on bottles on the Spanish-Moroccan border19. May. Thousands of migrants swim from Morocco to Ceuta, Spain in the summer.
Serious accidents in the Mediterranean are so common that they no longer attract much attention.
In the week before the disaster off the coast of Greece, for example, 160 people were killed in shipwrecks off Libya’s coastline, according to the United Nations. Tunisia, meanwhile, was rescued at the end of November by 487 migrants off the coast from a crowded ship.
These cases did not stand out in the European media, says the Italian representative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Flavio di Giacomo news agency APto. At least not compared to those drowned in November in the English Channel, the waters between France and Britain.
Read more: 27 people died after a migratory boat crashed in the English Channel on a voyage to Britain
“I think it’s partly about proximity,” di Giacomo commented to AP.
“I think the events between Britain and France got media attention also because it is a new issue. Europe is not used to this within the continent. It usually happens at the external borders. ”
Migrants in a wooden boat on their way to the Italian island of Lampedusa on 28 August.
Routes There are many across the Mediterranean, as well as countries of origin and reasons to leave. This year, the busiest route was in the central Mediterranean from Libya and Tunisia to Italy, where more than 63,000 migrants arrived. Italy has tightened its grip and even illegally turned ships off its coast.
The Italian route also claimed the highest number of deaths – according to the UN, some 1,200 people died or disappeared on their way to Italy this year.
The migrants warmed up in a port on the island of Lampedusa in Italy on 21 June.
The figures are not accurate, as many deaths in the Mediterranean remain unproven. Estimates of the number of drownings are often based on how many people have been in the boat when the survivors left.
Transport according to the UNHCR, increased over the past year on an even more dangerous sea route from Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco to the Spanish Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa.
On the Atlantic mains, many ships in poor condition are already breaking up near the African coast. Others survive further, but currents carry them past the Canary Islands far into the ocean.
“The route from West Africa is very long and dangerous,” di Giacomo commented to the AP.
Two immigrants ate in a dark tent in the mountains of Las Palmas on March 7, 2021. Dozens of migrants moved to live in tents after losing their place at the Red Cross Reception Center.
The IOM has registered less than a thousand deaths on the route, but according to di Giacomo, the actual figure may well be double.
“No one pays much attention to this,” he tells AP.
Human rights organizations the message is clear: people are jumping into boats to get to the EU, and it is the EU’s responsibility to provide them with a safer route.
The international organization Doctors Without Borders, which is involved in rescuing the Mediterranean, called on the EU to change its policy in its bulletin last Friday.
“These deaths are not accidents but a direct consequence of the policies of the EU and its Member States to protect borders instead of people,” the organization wrote.
In particular, human rights organizations criticize the outsourcing of responsibility to Libya, which has reported human rights abuses in migrant detention centers.
The Pope also visited the Migrant Reception Center in Greece in December Franciscus on Wednesday called on European countries to take joint responsibility for Mediterranean migrants.
Pope Francis visited the Migrant Reception Center on the Greek island of Lesbos on 5 December.
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