More than 2,500 migrants have lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe so far in 2016, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) announced Tuesday.
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UNHCR, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said shipwreck survivors who landed in Augusta, Italy, over the weekend indicated that another 47 migrants were missing at sea after a raft carrying 125 deflated.
Although many migrants originally seek jobs rather than refugee protection, Millman said many of them end up trafficked for sex work in Europe. The second boat sank Thursday the most deadly capsizing last week and carried mostly Eritreans, according to the IOM.
Meanwhile, the Italian authorities have said the rescue of more than 600 migrants off Libya on Saturday by a flotilla of European Union ships took the weekly total to at least 13,000. In this photo taken in the Mediterranean Sea, off the Libyan coast, Friday, May 27, 2016, rescuers help migrants to board rubber dinghies before towing them to the Italian Navy ship Vega, after the boat.
The surging death toll marks an ominous turn as warmer seas traditionally draw ever-larger numbers of people to attempt the passage on rickety fishing boats that are ill-equipped for the task. Italian police said they picked up 16 alleged people-smugglers when the intercepted a boat off the coast of Libya: 11 from Morocco, two Palestinians, and one each from Ethiopia, Gambia and Egypt.
The total up to Sunday was equivalent to that in the same period past year, with about 14,000 arriving last week, according to Ms Carlotta Sami, spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency. Despite the surge this week, as of Friday 40,660 arrivals had been counted, 2 percent fewer than the same period of past year, the Interior Ministry said. “Just six hours ago this child was alive”, he told Reuters about finding the child in the water with his or her arms outstretched.
Among other possible factors for the high number of fatalities, survivors have told UNHCR staffers that some smugglers in Libya appeared to be trying to earn extra cash before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins next week.
An estimated 204,311 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2016 through May 30, arriving in Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Spain.
According to Spindler, the journey from Libya to Italy is most often travelled by Nigerians and Gambians, and is significantly more risky than the much shorter Turkey-Greece crossing that Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans tend to use.
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Spindler said. “We need more to happen, because countries such as Greece and Italy can not manage this crisis on their own”. There has also been an increase in the arrival of unaccompanied children. That has left global refugee agencies watching for signs that traffickers may be shifting to the longer, more unsafe Libya-Italy route.
