UN refugee company states ‘no end in sight’ to the lives lost in Mediterranean and on land paths to sea departure points.
More than 2,500 individuals have actually passed away or gone missing out on while attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe up until now this year, the UN refugee company stated, while around 186,000 individuals have actually gotten here in European nations throughout the exact same duration.
Ruven Menikdiwela, director of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) workplace in New York, informed the UN Security Council on Thursday that of the 186,000 who had actually crossed the Mediterranean, 83 percent– some 130,000 individuals– landed in Italy. Other nations where individuals who had actually crossed the Mediterranean had actually landed consisted of Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Malta.
The variety of those who passed away or went missing out on throughout the harmful sea crossing has actually risen this year compared to in 2015, the Security Council was informed.
“By September 24, over 2,500 individuals were accounted as dead or missing out on in 2023 alone,” Menikdiwela stated. That number marked a big boost over the 1,680 who passed away or went missing out on in the exact same duration in 2022.
Menikdiwela stated the UN refugee firm saw “no end in sight” to the lives lost at sea and on land paths to Europe, which are likewise hazardous.
The UNHCR authorities informed the council how the land journey from sub-Saharan African nations to sea crossing departure points on the Tunisian and Libyan coasts “stays among the world’s most harmful”.
“Lives are likewise lost on land, far from spotlight,” Menikdiwela stated.
The migrants and refugees “danger death and gross human rights offenses at every action”, she stated.
More than 102,000 individuals tried to cross the Mediterranean from Tunisia, a 260 percent boost from in 2015, and more than 45,000 had actually attempted to cross from Libya, Menikdiwela stated.
The UNHCR figures resembled those provided by Par Liljert, director of the International Office for Migration (IOM).
“Recent IOM information shows that from January to September 2023, more than 187,000 people crossed the Mediterranean in pursuit of a much better future and the pledge of security,” Liljert informed the Security Council.
“Tragically, throughout this very same duration, IOM taped 2,778 deaths, with 2,093 of them happening along the treacherous main Mediterranean path,” he stated, describing the most unsafe sea crossing.
“Yet, in spite of its clear threats, in 2023, there has actually been a boost in arrivals to Greece along this path of over 300 percent, while the variety of arrivals in Spain has actually stayed stable, mostly through the Atlantic path to the Canary Islands as compared to the numbers taped at the exact same time in 2015,” he stated.
IOM likewise saw a substantial boost in arrivals to Italy, with 130,000 up until now this year compared to some 70,000 in 2022.
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Al Jazeera and news firms