On Saturday, August 5, two migrant boats sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea. The deaths of a woman and a 2-year-old child were confirmed, and around thirty victims are missing. 57 people survived. The tragic crossing adds to the fatal attempts relayed by the press almost daily.
The Lampedusa reception center is already saturated, with around 2,500 migrants filling its 600 places, according to the Italian Red Cross. This is due to the increase in asylum-seeker arrivals. In Italy, the main gateway to Europe, the United Nations High Council for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 90,763 migrants arrived between January and August 2023, almost as many as the 105,131 recorded for the whole of 2022. In March 2023 alone, the UNHCR counted 13,267 entries into Italy, compared with 1,358 over the same period the previous year.
Since the European migration crisis of 2014-2015, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been keeping a census of migrants who have died, gone missing or survived in the course of their migration. The census counted migrants who died at the external borders of countries, or during the migration process to an international destination – whatever their legal status. Excluded from the figures are deaths in refugee camps, during expulsions, those resulting from labor exploitation or forced return to the country of origin, as well as the deaths of internally displaced persons. By definition, therefore, the IOM count is probably an underestimate. Nevertheless, the toll remains staggering: in nine years, more than 27,000 people have lost their lives in their attempt to reach Europe.
27,364 dead and missing people in the Mediterranean Sea since 2014
After peaking in 2016, with over 5,000 deaths, the number of migrants dead or missing in the Mediterranean Sea stabilized at around 2,000 in 2018, before seeing a drop in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But, after just seven months, the 2023 toll is already heavier than those of the past four years.
To reach Europe, the majority of migrants travel by sea, taking three maritime "routes."
The western Mediterranean is the preferred, and deadliest, route for migrants to reach Europe.
In almost two-thirds of cases, the IOM is unable to trace the region of origin of people who have died or gone missing at sea. Of the victims whose geographical origin is known, the majority are from sub-Saharan Africa. It is migrants from these countries who have for several weeks been the victims of violence (relocation, physical violence, expulsions and abandonment in the desert) committed by the Tunisian authorities.
The UNHCR now has a clearer picture of the nationalities of asylum seekers arriving on European soil after crossing the Mediterranean. Since 2021, the majority have been Tunisians, Egyptians and Bangladeshis.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.