We are half-way through 2016 and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has bad news for us. Migration to mainland Europe – with its surrounding islands – became a global crisis in 2015.
This is mainly due to the civil wars and the violence in the Middle East, as well as the rising levels of poverty in many African countries. All these factors push people to make the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing in small boats, in hopes to start a new life in Europe.
The IOM has therefore launched Missing Migrants Project, to officially count the number of people who lose their lives trying to migrate worldwide. IMO said the Missing Migrants Project is a database that will share key data on deceased and missing migrants, along migratory routes worldwide. In this latest report on the Missing Migrants Project, IOM focused on migrant arrivals and fatalities on the Mediterranean Sea.
According to the IOM, the first half of 2016 is the deadliest on record for migrants trying to reach Europe. In the new report published by IOM on June 30 2016, almost 2,900 migrants have died while crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe between January and June 2016.
IOM said that by the end of the same months in 2015, 1,838 migrants had drowned, or went missing. This year, 2,899 migrants are known officially to have died during the dangerous crossing of the sea. This means there has been a 50% increase from last year’s figure. In 2014, IMO reported that 743 migrants died trying to reach Europe. This makes the 2016 figure the deadliest ever, according to IOM.
IOM identified the central Mediterranean route to Italy as the most dangerous routes on the sea. It said almost 2,500 lives were lost through this route between January and June 2016.
For those who were able to make the dangerous crossing in 2016, IOM put the figure at 225,665. Most of these migrants are said to have arrived in Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Spain. IOM revealed that this time last year, the number of arrivals was just a little over 146,000.
IOM’s spokesman, Joel Millman described the situation as appalling, calling for European officials to do more by increasing patrols on the sea, in order to save as many migrants as possible.
Mr Millman was stated “We’ve had almost 3,000 people dead which is really alarming. Europe’s done a remarkable job; they’ve saved thousands of lives this year alone. But almost 3,000 people dead means they’re not doing everything that needs to be done.”
RT English News reported that these disturbing reports came after the tragic death of 10 women, who drowned in a rubber boat off the coast of Libya. Italian media also reported recently that the country’s coastguards have rescued a small overcrowded boat full of hundreds of migrants verging of drowning in the country’s waters.
The Italian navy also announced the recovery of a boat that is believed to have sunk in April 2015. It is believed more than 800 migrants were on the boat when the disaster happened. Only a few survived in that disaster. The majority of them died.
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