More than 2,500 migrants crossing the Mediterranean died or went missing this year

Over 2,500 migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe died or went missing this year, marking a two-thirds increase from last year, according to the United Nations.

The situation in depth: Between January and September 24, about 186,000 people arrived by sea in southern Europe.
* Majority of these arrivals, over 130,000 migrants, landed in Italy—an 83% increase compared to the same period last year.
* This influx has overwhelmed Lampedusa, a small Italian island and a main point of entry from North Africa into Europe, with 12,000 people landing there within a single week.

Root cause analysis: The drastic increase in migrant deaths and disappearances can be tied to perilous land routes from sub-Saharan Africa to North African embarkation points.
* According to Ruven Menikdiwela, director of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Office in New York, refugees and migrants who travel these routes “risk death and gross human rights violations at every step.”
* Over 102,000 of the migrants who attempted to cross into Europe this year came from Tunisia and 45,000 traveled from Libya.

What to watch: Menikdiwela calls for a “panoramic approach” to address the root causes of the migration movements and specific measures such as increasing search-and-rescue efforts, more effective prosecution of smugglers and traffickers.
* On the same day this information was presented, European Union leaders met in Brussels to discuss migration reforms, including forming a “solidarity” plan to share the burden of processing migrants among its member states.

View original article on NPR

This summary was created by an AI system. The use of this summary is subject to our Terms of Service.

Contact us about this post

Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *