The UNHCR has reiterated its call for Europe to commit more resources for rescue at sea in the Mediterranean and to step up efforts to provide legal alternatives to dangerous voyages. 

In a statement this morning, issued on the eve of the Lampedusa disaster anniversary, the UNHCR said new data on irregular crossings of the Mediterranean, covering the third quarter this year, showed an alarming increase in the number of people perishing while attempting to make the journey to Europe.

On 3 October 2013, a boat carrying migrants from Libya sank off Lampedusa leaving more than 360 people dead. A second tragedy occurred on October 11.

“In all, 90,000 people crossed to Europe between July 1 and September 30 and at least 2,200 lost their lives, compared to 75,000 people and 800 deaths for January 1 to June 30.

This meant that a person making the journey in the first half of the year faced a 1.06 per cent chance of losing their life, while the odds for someone crossing in the third quarter was 2.4 per cent.

In all, 165,000 people made the crossing so far this year compared to 60,000 for all of 2013.

A collective European response needed to maintain a strong capacity to rescue people at sea and increase safer ways for refugees to find safety in Europe.

“If Europe fails in these efforts, many more lives will continue to be lost, and incidents such as the disasters off Lampedusa a year ago this week will become more common.

“We are failing to heed the lessons from the terrible events of last October, and more and more refugees are drowning trying to reach safety. EU countries must work together to continue and bolster the vital task  - which has been mostly carried out by Italy’s Mare Nostrum operation, but also by commercial vessels - of rescuing  people at sea,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said.

UNHCR called on European governments to do more to facilitate family reunification. In addition, states could establish private sponsorship schemes and use programmes such as student or employment visas to benefit refugees.

“We have to find better ways of allowing these desperate people to find a place of safety. They have gone through dangers and horrific experiences which many of us can only try to imagine,” Mr Guterres said.

These challenges cannot be addressed by a few states alone; a joint European response is needed, based on collaboration among states and EU support to ensure additional initial reception facilities, assistance in processing as well as identifying solutions for those in need of international protection.

In another statement, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles and Pro Asyl noted that more than 140,000 people were rescued at sea by the Italian navy in line with the Mare Nostrum operation since October 2013. However, the continuity of this life-saving operation is at stake.

They said that although the European Commission announced in summer that a new operation coordinated by the EU Border Agency Frontex should be in place by the end of November, Frontex did not own planes or ships so the assets to be deployed for its operations depended on the contribution of EU states.

Moreover, while the Mare Nostrum primary mission was search and rescue and it operated in international waters, the mandate and resources of the new Frontex operation Triton did not allow for it to replace Mare Nostrum.

A well-resourced operation whose priority was to save lives and guarantee access to protection to those who needed it as essential to prevent further loss of lives at sea. If the search and rescue efforts were downsized, the death toll in the Mediterranean would rise.

Pro Asyl has launched a campaign calling on the European Parliament to allocate the necessary resources to set up a European sea rescue service. Pro Asyl urged the European Union to fully finance Mare Nostrum until this plan is implemented.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.