Fatalities Rise on Mediterranean Migrant Routes: IOM

A handout picture released by the Italian Navy shows people jumping out of a boat right before it overturns in Canal of Sicily off the Libyan coast, 25 May 2016. Photo: EPA/Italian Navy

Fatalities at sea on migrant routes in the Mediterranean have increased in 2016 through June 3, reaching 2,809, compared with 1,838 through the first six months of 2015, the International Organisation for Migration has said.

“In other words, fatalities in the Mediterranean in 2016 are nearly 1,000 more than last year’s mid-year total, even though we now are some three weeks shy of 2016’s mid-year point,” the IOM said in a statement on Tuesday.

No fatalities have been recorded in the Mediterranean since June 4.

An estimated 206,400 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2016 through June 5, arriving in Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Spain. This compared with 146,083 estimated arrivals in the first half of 2015.

“Libya is still the main departure point of the majority of migrants, but we are also seeing an increase of numbers of migrants sailing from Egypt,” according to Federico Soda, Director of the IOM Coordinating Office for the Mediterranean in Rome.

 

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