More than 2,500 migrants have been reported “dead or missing” while crossing the Mediterranean since the start of the year, Ruven Menikdiwela, head of the UN refugee agency’s (UNHCR) mission in New York, said on Thursday. This is an increase of almost 50 percent compared to the same period last year.
It is likely that people who have gone missing since attempting to cross the Mediterranean have also lost their lives. The representative of the UN refugee agency pointed out during a UN Security Council meeting on the migration crisis in the Mediterranean that migrants are also dying on land.
“The journey from West or East Africa and the Horn of Africa to Libya to coastal starting points is one of the most dangerous journeys in the world,” Menikdiwela said. Refugees traveling from sub-Saharan Africa risked death at every stage of their journey.
186,000 migrants came to Europe
According to UN figures, a total of 186,000 migrants arrived in Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta between January 1 and September 24, 2023, including 130,000 in Italy. Italian authorities cannot deal with the migration crisis alone, Menikdiwela said, repeating the UN’s call for a redistribution mechanism for arriving refugees, which is controversial within the EU.
Between January and August 2023, 102,000 refugees began their journey across the Mediterranean in Tunisia, and 45,000 left for Libya. 31,000 people were intercepted or rescued and landed in Tunisia, and 10,600 in Libya, Menikdiwela added.
The number of unaccompanied minors is increasing
The UN children’s organization UNICEF published a report on Friday about unaccompanied children on the Mediterranean migration route. Accordingly, between January and mid-September 2023, more than 11,600 children arrived in Italy via the Mediterranean Sea without their parents or legal guardians. According to UNICEF, this represents an increase of 60 percent compared to the same period last year.
In light of these figures, the Green Party’s spokeswoman for foreign policy, human rights and migration, Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic, referred in a broadcast to “international law and human rights obligations towards those seeking protection.” The deaths in the Mediterranean must stop immediately. “We finally need legal escape routes to Europe, especially for the most vulnerable refugees such as children,” Ernst-Dziedzic said.
Source: Krone
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