1,500 died crossing the Mediterranean last year - UNHCR
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees said today that the Mediterranean is the most deadly stretch of water for refugees, with more than 1,500 people having drowned or gone missing while attempting to cross it last year.
"This makes 2011 the deadliest year for this region since UNHCR started to record these statistics in 2006. The previous high was in 2007 when 630 people were reported dead or missing."
It said that last year was also a record in terms of the massive number of arrivals in Europe via the Mediterranean, with more than 58,000 people arriving .The previous high was in 2008 when 54,000 people reached Greece, Italy and Malta.
During 2009 and 2010, border control measures sharply reduced arrivals in Europe. The frequency of boat arrivals increased in early 2011 as the regimes in Tunisia and Libya collapsed.
"Our teams in Greece, Italy, Libya and Malta, warn that the actual number of deaths at sea may be even higher. Our estimates are based on interviews with people who reached Europe on boats, telephone calls and e-mails from relatives, as well as reports from Libya and Tunisia from survivors whose boats either sank or were in distress in the early stages of the journey," UNHCR said.
It said survivors had recounted harrowing stories of being forced onboard by armed guards, particularly during April and May in Libya. The actual journey took place on unseaworthy vessels with refugee and migrant passengers often forced into having to skipper boats themselves.
In addition, some survivors told UNHCR that fellow passengers beat and tortured them. Judicial investigations are ongoing in Italy following these reports.
The majority of last year's arrivals by sea landed in Italy (56,000,of whom 28,000 were Tunisian) while Malta and Greece received 1,574 and1,030 respectively. The vast majority arrived in the first half of the year.
Most were migrants, not asylum-seekers. Only three boats landed from mid-August to the end of the year. In addition, according to Greek government figures, some 55,000 irregular migrants crossed the Greek-Turkish land border at Evros.
The UNHCR said said it was also concerned that since the beginning of 2012, despite poor weather conditions, three boats attempted this perilous journey from Libya, with one going missing at sea. This boat, carrying at least 55 people raised the alarm on 14 January, warning of engine failure. Libyan coast guards informed UNHCR that 15 dead bodies, all identified as Somali, were found washed up on the beaches last week, including 12 women, two men and a baby girl.
On Sunday, three more bodies were recovered. The other two boats that made it to Malta and Italy in January required rescue. The first rescue of 72 Somali nationals by the Italian coastguard took place on 13 January.
Those rescued included a pregnant womanand 29 children. The second boat was rescued by the Maltese Armed Forces on 15 January with the support of the US Navy and a commercial vessel. In total 68people were rescued from a dinghy found drifting some 56 nautical miles from Malta. A baby girl was born on one of the rescue vessels. Another woman reported a miscarriage during the voyage.
The UNHCR said it welcomed the ongoing efforts of the Italian, Maltese and Libyan authorities to rescue boats in distress in the Mediterranean.
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Joe Xuereb
Feb 1st 2012, 13:13
@Dawn Bruno. I take your point, if garbled.
Ms. Bruno, Africans have been killing Africans since forever. Remember the Tutsis and the Hutus genocide in Rwanda? I imagine there were refugee-seekers then but not in their hundreds of thousands, a modern day phenomenon. Ask yourself Ms. Bruno, do YOU believe the grass is greener this side of the fence? Do you realise that many are coming from rich, 'safe' countries and that their reason for wanting to come is because everybody else is doing it, 'so why not I'? Many may have issues with the way their country is run but is that enough reason to want to leave for a greener pasture? Many here in UK have gripes with the way the country is being run but do we all emigrate en masse to - where exactly? Most of us go with the flow as best we can. I myself would love to visit my country but come back and experience what exactly? A country beleaguered by so many problems and now 'this'? That said, I wonder how many Christian refugees Malta is welcoming because they are being butchered in the African country where they normally live?
So you see Ms. Bruno, the issue is much deeper than pulling people's heart-strings with images of mothers and their tiny tots. As I said, many come simply because everybody else seems to be going. So why not I?
dawn bruno
Feb 1st 2012, 05:22
I believe that these people especially women and children have guts to take that challenge and try to cross over to another country, especially knowing the dangers to ones self and their children. As a mother i could never imagine taking such a journey with young kids unless i was running from something so terrible and horific. We have to look at what they are running from, ask yourselves would you take that journey for no reason besides the grass is always greener on the other side. I certainly wouldnt.
Joe Xuereb
Jan 31st 2012, 23:16
Let me pick some numbers at random. 28,000 Tunisians in Italy last year (with one Tunisian at least. saying he wanted to move on, Italy, especially Lampedusa did not give the welcome he had expected). Gets better. 1574 to tiny Malta and 1030 to a Greece in rags and tatters. I could go on.
As Christians we are told to help the needy if we want to go to Heaven, and that is quite a bind. Of course we wouldn't allow anyone, man or beast, to suffer unnecessarily and alone. What are we, animals?! But, when the helping hand is sore and bandaged, it too needs all the help that it can get. We are talking of double-dip recession here. That means a recession - with consequences - that takes another, steeper nosedive before it gets better. If it ever will. And hundreds of thousands of people, among them beautiful doe-eyed children and very fertile women, with no language and no skills to talk about, they keep coming to better themselves financially and socially. Do you see what I'm getting at, Laurent Caruana. Sarcastically asking Ms. Vella to provide a solution is churlish and tastes of ignorance. Ms. Vella recognises the problem and a solution should not be expected from her any more than it should be expected from me. I just happen to see eye to eye with her. Some of us, Caruana, work at being insightful, thinking laterally, thinking ahead. You should try it* but be warned, a piece of cake it ain't. Before I forget, why don't YOU go to Africa and sort them out. Teach them that the grass is NOT greener on the other side. Failing that - I've locked eyes with one Alan Delia now - none of us will need to go to Africa, sarcastically speaking.. Africa, it seems, is coming to us. Prepare some extra sleeping facilities Caruana/Delia.. Everybody will be so grateful and you will be assured of a comfy seat at the back of beyond when your times comes to say goodbye. Promise!
The UNHCR, as Institutions go, I choose to think that it means well. Maybe it could try and dissuade people from making the crossing although my feeling is that it would be up against something stronger than itself. Maybe a new surge of Maltese missionaries going over might do the trick. Anything can happen if one prays for hard, and for long, enough.
@Andreas Moser. Are you still here? Why are you still here?
Jeffrey Hili
Jan 31st 2012, 19:54
Thanks for indicating me the article Mr Moser - I just saw it now. Now I can tell how irrational you are and to what extent you can appropriately differentiate between two situations. Congratulations mate - you're a king. Thanks god theres not much of this kind.
Louise Vella
Jan 31st 2012, 17:17
UNHCR says 1500 died at sea. It should be sending an urgent call to all those African illegal immigrants in Libya, who are waiting to cross over to Europe, to warn them against trying to cross over because of the danger to their lives. UNHCR is failing in its duty by not holding an information campaign in Libya among the sub-Saharan Africans to persuade them not to risk their lives.
laurent caruana
Jan 31st 2012, 19:45
most africans escape fighting, famine and poverty. Explain to us human beings how we can eradicate these problems Ms.Vella
Mr Alan Delia
Jan 31st 2012, 21:01
Ms Vella, get your mind off the issue.
You need a holiday. Ever fancied visiting Africa?
Louise Vella
John Azzopoardi
Feb 1st 2012, 00:51
Let us not make situations that are not our problem our problem. The UNCHR should be crying all the way to Brussels to remedy the situation, but instead they pick on little Malta.
B Attard
Jan 31st 2012, 16:26
But this year all will be solved since there is no Ghaddafi !!!!! Keep on dreaming
Jeffrey Hili
Jan 31st 2012, 16:03
Dear Mr Moser were we face to face I would have told you a few words which I can't type in this journal. I hope I got you wrong - whether a handful or not they are all lives - on concordia there was a 5 year old girl - and one should feel the same pain whether for these immigrants of for Dyana (5 year old) still missing on concordia.
Charles W. Sammut
Jan 31st 2012, 15:43
Africa is a huge continent with vast resources. These people should have stayed there and done something about it instead of risking their lives crossing over to racist Europe. These deaths are on the conscience of the UNHCR and the rest of the do-gooders who indirectly encourage this illegal and dangerous migration.
In any case, with unemployment in Europe at a record high, what are these migrants supposed to do? Most end up on welfare or criminality causing problems to the host nations. No one can deny this because otherwise European countries would be falling over themselves to take them in. As it is nobody wants them in his country.
Emma Xerri
Jan 31st 2012, 16:26
Do you not find it odd that despite the fact that none of the European countries official want these people into their countries, it is the leaders of these self same countries who enact laws and treaties in favour of illegal immigration and then they tell us that we cannot opt out because of the 'laws and treaties' that they themselves created?
Charles W. Sammut
Jan 31st 2012, 17:05
Dear Emma
If you are referring to the infamous Dublin II treaty, it was enacted to prevent African immigrants from moving north. It obliges the country where these immigrants land first to assume full responsibility for them, for ever.
What I find 'odd' is that the Maltese government signed this treaty when it was obvious what would happen. And for this reason, I (and many others like me) will not vote for GonziPN come election time.
Andreas Moser
Jan 31st 2012, 15:01
And yet we make a much bigger fuss about the handful of people who died on the "Costa Concordia": http://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/how-europe-welcomes-refugees/
C. Sammut
Jan 31st 2012, 15:47
Yes, to see such a photo one would ask.. what if my child was on that boat?
Joseph Sammut
Jan 31st 2012, 16:09
You can hardly call the two the same!
carlos ellul
Jan 31st 2012, 16:11
Do you like repeating yourself Mr Moser? That's called SPAM
Please choose the reason of your report below: