More than 1,500 die in the Mediterranean in 2018 alone

For the fifth year in a row, more than 1,500 migrants have perished while trying to cross the Mediterranean so far, the UN has said.

According to data collected for the Missing Migrants Project of the UN migration agency (IOM), 1,111 deaths were recorded as migrants tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, while 304 people died en route to Spain and 89 died while trying to reach Greece.

Despite a significant decrease in the volume of arrivals across the region, IOM found that on a per capita basis, 2018 remains one of the deadliest years on record. “IOM notes the passing of the 1500th Mediterranean fatality in 2018… [this] marks the fifth consecutive year that sad benchmark has been reached,” IOM said on its website.

The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) pointed out in an interview on Kurdsat TV that most Iraqi migrants still use the Mediterranean route when attempting to reach Europe. While deaths are still being recorded this year, the casualty figures for Iraqi migrants are lower so far this year than they were during the previous three years of 2015, 2016 and 2017.

On 24 July, the European Commission prepared a proposal for “regional disembarkation platforms” to process migrants rescued at sea. According to Reuters, IOM and the UN refugee agency UNHCR decided to host a meeting in Geneva to discuss a collective approach to migration, which included a discussion of potential disembarkation points, aimed at making rescues at sea more manageable.

According to IOM’s latest report, more than 55,000 migrants entered Europe by sea so far this year. The total number of arrivals has dropped massively when compared to the 111,753 arrivals that were recorded at the same time last year.

TMP – 22/08/2018