Mediterranean sees highest number of migrants killed since 2017

The authorities receive a call about the disappearance of a vessel. Within hours, a team is dispatched to the sites. In the hours and days that pass, reinforcements arrive from the local Air Force planes, ships and high-tech equipment for locating the missing, such as sonar and maritime drones. Activities last for several days until the wreckage is found. This is a summary of the search for the five occupants of the submersible Titan, which disappeared during a visit to the wreckage of the Titanic. A mobilization of this magnitude rarely occurs in the Mediterranean Sea, which last year recorded the highest number of migrants killed in the last five years.

Data released this month by the Missing Migrants Project (MMP) of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) showed that 3,789 people died trying to immigrate to European countries, an index 11% higher than that recorded in the previous year.

This is the highest number of deaths since 2017, when 4,255 deaths were recorded.

The Mediterranean is now the scene of the biggest migration crisis on the planet, with tens of thousands of people trying to cross the waters, from North Africa and the Middle East towards Europe in search of work, a more dignified life or to escape wars and conflicts. armed. The region is responsible for more than half of the total of 6,877 deaths recorded worldwide by the MMP.

This has always been a complex region for European immigration authorities, as it is a vast area bathing several countries and where ships can dock in different positions. The situation has worsened since 2011, when the violent civil war in Syria caused millions of people to leave the country. Most ended up being sheltered in refugee camps in Turkey, but a large continent went through the Mediterranean towards some of the European countries, either to settle there or as a stopover on the way to other continents.

Another country that has been a worrying starting point is Lebanon, which is facing one of the biggest economic crises in its history. According to the survey, at least 174 people died trying to reach Greece or Italy, which is equivalent to almost half of the total on the Eastern Mediterranean route. Still according to the MMP, 84% of the people who died along the maritime routes remain unidentified.

The numbers are even more frightening when viewed from a longer time perspective. Since 2014, 56,771 people have died worldwide trying to immigrate to another country. Of this total, no less than 27,565 lost their lives in the Mediterranean, almost the same number as all other regions of the globe combined (29,206).

“Our data shows that 92% of people who die on this route remain unidentified,” said Koko Warner, director of the Global Data Institute that hosts the MMP. “The tragic loss of life on dangerous migration routes highlights the importance of data and analytics in driving action.”

What makes these numbers even bigger is the criminal action of irregular immigration agents. They are responsible for many of the escape operations, taking dozens (sometimes hundreds) of desperate migrants on overcrowded ships in unsanitary conditions. Often, the vessels do not have any type of maintenance and are subject to breakdowns or other problems during the crossing.

Another very serious problem resulting from this migratory crisis is human trafficking. Countries like Libya receive hundreds of thousands of people, who pass through their borders as part of the route to Europe. If they cannot reach the European continent, they are taken back and sold as slaves, as revealed by CNN in a report released by the Freedom Project. According to the report, 690,000 people in the country are waiting for the chance to leave for the other side.

“It is clear that the current Mediterranean approach is impractical. States need to come together and address the gaps in proactive search and rescue, rapid disembarkation and safe regular routes,” criticized Federico Soda, Director of the IOM Emergencies Department.

Tragedies on a Large Scale

If the 2022 numbers were impressive, the most recent events show that 2023 will be just as or more deadly. In the first semester alone, 1,807 deaths and disappearances were registered. Although there is no precise number on the dead, the number of unrescued people is very high.

Some recent cases, with a high number of deaths, raises the fear that this year’s numbers will exceed those of 2022. On the last 14th, an overloaded ship capsized and sank off the coast of Greece. In all, 104 people were rescued and 81 were officially presumed dead. But the government of Pakistan – the country of origin of most immigrants – has already pronounced itself admitting that at least 300 people lost their lives in the tragedy.

“This devastating incident underscores the urgent need to address and condemn the heinous act of illegal human trafficking,” said President of the Pakistan Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjran.

Also in June, 500 people disappeared, including 56 children and many pregnant women, who were on a boat near Malta. Several days of searches passed and so far there has been no record of the ship or its occupants.

Immigration within the laws

In theory, immigrants have legal support so that they are entitled to a ransom and dignified care in the countries where they manage to arrive. Currently, the main regulatory charter on the subject is the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, signed in 1951. In it, the signatory countries undertake to offer refugees in their territory rights such as work, education, documentation, religious freedom and free association, in addition to access to the legal system.

In Europe, however, there are some differences. The countries of the European Community have the so-called “Common European Asylum System”, which standardizes the management practices of the migration issue. It determines that the person responsible for receiving and assisting an immigrant is the country where the asylum seeker entered.

“However, other criteria, such as the presence of a family member in another Member State for unaccompanied minors, may influence the determination of the country responsible for analyzing the application”, he explains to CNN Beatriz Vendramini Rausse, specialist in European Law.

According to her, requests for administrative asylum must be examined within 6 months.

Despite the determinations of the law, several countries of the European Union sought to make these terms more flexible. On the 8th, the 27 member countries finally entered into an agreement that determines that a country in the bloc can give up receiving a refugee, as long as it pays the receiving nation an annual amount of 20,000 euros per person.

This tendency to make laws more flexible makes it clear that European countries do not dedicate enough effort to assist refugees and, above all, to prevent them from drowning in the Mediterranean.

“This alarming number of deaths on migration routes in and out of the region calls for immediate attention and concerted efforts to increase the safety and security of migrants,” said Othman Belbeisi, IOM Regional Director for North Africa and the Middle East. “IOM calls for increased international and regional cooperation and resources to address this humanitarian crisis and prevent further loss of life.”

Once again, it is worth comparing the efforts to rescue the submersible Titan. In less than two days, US Air Force planes scanned the surface of the sea over an area of ​​30,000 square kilometers. This area is equivalent to 10% of the entire territory of Italy and is larger than the maritime mass that separates Sardinia from Sicily, the two largest Italian islands. Which means that an ostensive action by the aeronautics for a few days would be able to identify dozens of boats in a few days, before they sank.

“Unfortunately, we normalize seeing the lives of poor people, especially in non-white majority countries, being lost or treated badly. We know that the relevance given is less than when we deal with the lives of people from rich countries, with a European phenotype”, he comments to CNN Victor Del Vecchio, migration and human rights lawyer and master in international law from USP.

He cites a recent example to illustrate his argument: the reception of Ukrainian refugees, who left their country fleeing the Russian invasion. “They undeniably suffered a lot and still suffer from the war, but they received a welcome and international commotion much greater than that seen in other conflicts that devastate poorer countries.”

“The EU must put security and solidarity at the heart of its action in the Mediterranean, in view of the increase in refugee and migrant movements,” stresses Gillian Triggs, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection at UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. . “This includes establishing an agreed regional disembarkation and redeployment mechanism for people arriving by sea, something we continue to advocate.”

NGOs x States

To minimize the impacts caused, many non-governmental entities work in the region to rescue immigrants. Most have one or a maximum of two vessels, which sail across the Mediterranean rescuing immigrants.

To locate the vessels – most of the time adrift after engine breakdowns – these rescue teams rely on the support of the Alarm Phone system, which, after identifying the vessels, notifies the rescue NGOs of their location.

Alarm Phone has been running since October 2014 and is operated by volunteers from Europe, Tunisia and Morocco.

The work of these NGOs is Herculean. In addition to not having the support of European countries, they are often targeted by them, who seek legal means to curb their activities.

An emblematic case is that of Italy, which in February of that year passed a law – called the Piandosi Decree – that makes it more difficult to rescue refugees. According to the new legislation in force, NGO vessels can only carry out one rescue at a time.

In May, the ship Sea Eye 4 was brought under the law after carrying out two simultaneous rescues. On the 29th, the teams had saved 17 people who were on a fishing vessel and headed for the port of Ortona, when they located another vessel in distress and rescued another 32 immigrants. The prize for heroic actions was a fine of 3 thousand euros and the suspension of activities for 20 days.

“We consider this punishment a scandal. It only serves to deter and criminalize rescue ships – which try to intervene as effectively as possible where EU state coastguards have deliberately produced an often deadly void for years,” criticized Sea Watch and Alarm Phone, in a joint note.