A continuous phenomenon. While the capsizing of an immigrant ship killed at least 78 people off the coast of Greece on Wednesday, this tragic accident reminds us how deadly it is for many to cross the Mediterranean between overloaded boats and makeshift boats.
Since 2014, the number of shipwrecks of boats occupied by migrants has remained very high. The central Mediterranean has become the deadliest route for asylum seekers in recent years.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has recorded more than 56,000 migrant deaths, including 33,700 by drowning in almost ten years. These figures do not take into account the legal status of the migrant. Difficult to collect, they are probably underrated.
Many European asylum seekers
Most of the deceased migrants lost their lives trying to reach Europe, as detailed in the graph below. The latter allows, through a drop-down menu, to consult the number of deaths by continent according to the place where the body was found.
Among asylum seekers, many were seeking to reach Europe, with a notable peak in 2016. That year, at least 5,201 people lost their lives trying to cross to the Old Continent. This is the highest number recorded in this region of the world, despite the fact that crossing attempts had been much higher in 2015.
This sudden increase is explained both by “the use of lower quality boats by smugglers, (the) vagaries of the weather and (the) tactics used by smugglers to avoid detection by the authorities,” a spokesman said in 2016. of the United Nations. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), William Spindler, during a press conference.
The Covid pandemic largely explains the drop in the number of deaths recorded in 2020 worldwide, with travel being exceptionally limited during this period.
The busy route between North Africa and Italy
Unsurprisingly, the deadliest crossing is the one in the Mediterranean Sea. 2,406 people drowned in its waters in 2022 alone, a number not seen since 2017.
In all, since 2014, 26,912 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, according to the IOM, more than half of all recorded deaths.
The death toll is significantly higher in the central Mediterranean, with 21,277 dead in this area, including at least 1,400 on the road linking North Africa with Italy, with more than 800 on the Libyan coast.
The first quarter of 2023, the deadliest since 2017
The deadliest first quarter of 2023 since 2017 shows that the central route is the one preferred by migrants, with notable jumps in 2015 (3,149 deaths) and especially in 2016 (4,574 deaths), compared to a few hundred at the same time in the other regions .
The IOM also deplores in a report published on Tuesday an “increase in the number of fatal incidents after the departure of ships from Lebanon to Greece and Italy” with at least 174 deaths by 2022.
For the year 2023, the provisional figures do not give hope of a downward trend. The first quarter of 2023 was already the deadliest since 2017 with 441 recorded deaths, according to the IOM. Since then, the shipwreck off Greece has pushed the numbers up.
The number of migrants crossing the center of the Mediterranean towards the European Union has “more than doubled” in 2023 compared to last year for the same period, the European agency Frontex stressed this Friday.
Source: BFM TV
