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Migrant sea-crossing deaths quadruple in a year
02/05/2018
AROUND 200 migrants have died attempting to make their way to Spain so far this year – over a third of the total for Europe and nearly four times the death toll of the same period in 2017, according to the International Missing Migrants Organisation (OIM).
The grim statistics show that 587 people, mostly sub-Saharan Africans, had lost their lives trying to sail across the Mediterranean to reach European soil between January 1 and the end of April 2018, travelling on jerry-built, unseaworthy and overcrowded crafts, often rowing boats or rubber dinghies.
Of these, 198 were battling to get to Spain to start a new life free from poverty, armed conflict or political repression.
In the first four months of 2017, a total of 57 migrants died trying to reach Spain by sea and, for the entire year, 224 lost their lives – a number that is also expected to quadruple in 2018 and which shows that the migrant crisis is not only far from over, but is deepening fast.
Some of the dead have never been found and are technically on the 'missing' list, but it is very unlikely they would have survived.
Overall, sea crossings to Europe led to 1,115 migrants perishing in the whole of 2017.
This is approximately the same number as those refugees Spain has officially resettled – effectively, for every four displaced war victims in refugees in Europe who are given a home in the country, another will have died trying to cross from northern Africa.
Whilst most of those who cross the Mediterranean to Spain are from the sub-Saharan region, some come from war-torn Arab nations including Libya on the north African coast, Syria, and Iraq, taking a longer route – although in practice, refugees from these areas are tending to head to Italy and Greece as their southernmost islands are the closest to the African continent.
The mortality rate recorded by the OIM does not include any migrants who may have died trying to get through the two land borders Spain shares with north Africa, in its enclaves of Ceuta, just across the Strait of Gibraltar and Melilla, on the Moroccan coast close to the Algerian border.
For Europeans, the migrant crisis appears, on paper, to have eased, because fewer than half the number of arrivals in the first four months of 2017 have been seen in 2018, but as this has been accompanied by a greater death rate, the humanitarian catastrophe is merely going underground – or under water.
In fact, so far this year, 20,927 migrants have reached Europe, not including Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus, where another 45,972 – more than double – made it to dry land.
Of these, nearly 4,000 reached Spain alive, or roughly 1,000 a month.
Interior ministry figures show 3,556 migrants arrived in Spain between January and April inclusive, travelling on 166 boats – an average of 21 or 22 to a vessel – representing an increase of 18% year on year, since the same period in 2017 saw 3,010 reach the country on 135 boats.
This, however, does not include the nearly 250 migrants rescued in the last two weeks in April.
Last year broke all records for migrants arriving by sea – in 2017 as a whole, 22,103 reached Spain in 1,280 boats.
The vast majority of this year's arrivals – 3,114 migrants in 136 vessels – travelled to the mainland and Balearic Islands, whilst 219 docked in Ceuta, 143 in Melilla, and 80 in the Canary Islands.
In the same four months of 2017, a total of 2,796 travelled to the mainland and Balearics, and the other three regions were targeted by 52, 77 and 85 respectively.
Fewer overland arrivals were recorded – up to and including mid-April, a total of 1,822 Africans successfully crossed the borders into Ceuta and Melilla, compared with 1,993 in the same period in 2017.
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AROUND 200 migrants have died attempting to make their way to Spain so far this year – over a third of the total for Europe and nearly four times the death toll of the same period in 2017, according to the International Missing Migrants Organisation (OIM).
The grim statistics show that 587 people, mostly sub-Saharan Africans, had lost their lives trying to sail across the Mediterranean to reach European soil between January 1 and the end of April 2018, travelling on jerry-built, unseaworthy and overcrowded crafts, often rowing boats or rubber dinghies.
Of these, 198 were battling to get to Spain to start a new life free from poverty, armed conflict or political repression.
In the first four months of 2017, a total of 57 migrants died trying to reach Spain by sea and, for the entire year, 224 lost their lives – a number that is also expected to quadruple in 2018 and which shows that the migrant crisis is not only far from over, but is deepening fast.
Some of the dead have never been found and are technically on the 'missing' list, but it is very unlikely they would have survived.
Overall, sea crossings to Europe led to 1,115 migrants perishing in the whole of 2017.
This is approximately the same number as those refugees Spain has officially resettled – effectively, for every four displaced war victims in refugees in Europe who are given a home in the country, another will have died trying to cross from northern Africa.
Whilst most of those who cross the Mediterranean to Spain are from the sub-Saharan region, some come from war-torn Arab nations including Libya on the north African coast, Syria, and Iraq, taking a longer route – although in practice, refugees from these areas are tending to head to Italy and Greece as their southernmost islands are the closest to the African continent.
The mortality rate recorded by the OIM does not include any migrants who may have died trying to get through the two land borders Spain shares with north Africa, in its enclaves of Ceuta, just across the Strait of Gibraltar and Melilla, on the Moroccan coast close to the Algerian border.
For Europeans, the migrant crisis appears, on paper, to have eased, because fewer than half the number of arrivals in the first four months of 2017 have been seen in 2018, but as this has been accompanied by a greater death rate, the humanitarian catastrophe is merely going underground – or under water.
In fact, so far this year, 20,927 migrants have reached Europe, not including Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus, where another 45,972 – more than double – made it to dry land.
Of these, nearly 4,000 reached Spain alive, or roughly 1,000 a month.
Interior ministry figures show 3,556 migrants arrived in Spain between January and April inclusive, travelling on 166 boats – an average of 21 or 22 to a vessel – representing an increase of 18% year on year, since the same period in 2017 saw 3,010 reach the country on 135 boats.
This, however, does not include the nearly 250 migrants rescued in the last two weeks in April.
Last year broke all records for migrants arriving by sea – in 2017 as a whole, 22,103 reached Spain in 1,280 boats.
The vast majority of this year's arrivals – 3,114 migrants in 136 vessels – travelled to the mainland and Balearic Islands, whilst 219 docked in Ceuta, 143 in Melilla, and 80 in the Canary Islands.
In the same four months of 2017, a total of 2,796 travelled to the mainland and Balearics, and the other three regions were targeted by 52, 77 and 85 respectively.
Fewer overland arrivals were recorded – up to and including mid-April, a total of 1,822 Africans successfully crossed the borders into Ceuta and Melilla, compared with 1,993 in the same period in 2017.
Related Topics
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