Nearly 200 migrants die crossing the Mediterranean in first 10 days of 2018

According to figures released by IOM, the UN migration agency, up to 100 migrants are still considered missing in the third deadly shipwreck to happen in the Mediterranean since 6 January. This means that halfway through January there are already reports of nearly 200 migrants either dead or feared missing on the Central Mediterranean route.

IOM reported that a total of 81 official deaths in the Mediterranean were recorded in the first eight days of the year, most recorded in the waters between Italy and Libya.

On 9 January, in the latest incident on the Central Mediterranean route, three rubber boats with 279 migrants (19 women, 243 men and 17 children) were rescued by the Libyan coastguard.

IOM was present at their disembarkation point in Tripoli and provided food and water to all survivors. According to survivors’ testimonies, around 100 migrants still remain missing.

“It’s very distressing that during the first 10 days of 2018 we have seen more than 700 migrants rescued or intercepted off the Libyan coast with more lives lost at sea,” said Othman Belbeisi, IOM Libya Chief of Mission.

IOM’s Missing Migrants Project reported that in the Western Mediterranean 43 migrants were rescued from a sinking boat on 9 January. The remains of three people were recovered from that vessel. According to testimonies of survivors, an estimated eight people remain missing and are presumed dead. Total fatalities specifically in the

Western Mediterranean route now stands at 16 through the first 11 days of 2018.

The number of deaths recorded overall in the Mediterranean so far in 2018 total 192 – compared with just 12 through the first ten days of 2017.

TMP – 22/01/2018

Photo credit: CBC. A boat capsizing in the Mediterranean.