Barcelona, Spain: The number of migrants and refugees who died while trying to reach Europe on dangerous sea crossings more than doubled so far this year compared to the first six months of 2020, the UN migration agency said.
At least 1,146 people were killed between January and June, according to international organizations for migration.
The number of people traveling on a sea route to Europe also increased, but only 56%, said IOM report.
The Mediterranean center route between Libya and Italy is the most deadly, claiming 741 lives.
Next is the stretch of Atlantic Ocean between West Africa and the Spanish Canary Islands, where at least 250 people died, said the agency.
At least 149 people also died on the western Mediterranean route to Spain, and at least six on the East Mediterranean route to Greece.
IOM said the actual number of deaths on sea routes to Europe may be much higher because many shipwrecks were not reported and others were difficult to verify.
Human Rights Organizations have warned that the absence of search and rescue vessels of the Government, especially at the Mediterranean Center, will make a migrant intersection more dangerous, because the European government increasingly rely on and supporting North African countries with fewer resources to handle search and rescue operations , Tunisia increases the operation of 90% in the first six months of 2021, while the Libyan authorities intercepted and returned more than 15,000 men, women and children into a war-hit by a war, three more people than in the same period last year, The IOM report said.
Meanwhile, the Italian authority further targets charity rescue vessels that have worked for years to fill the emptiness left by the European government, routinely holding vessels operated by non-governmental organizations for months, sometimes years.
While many factors contributing to the death toll this year are higher, including an increase in the number of thin boats that try the sea crossing, “The lack of proactive, European search and rescue operations, led countries in international waters combined with limits on NGOs” are the main factors , said Spokesman IOM Safa Msehli.
“These people cannot be abandoned on a dangerous journey,” Msehli told the Associated Press.
Italy held up nine ships operated by NGOs so far this year, according to Matteo Villa, a research for Independent Ispi thinking, which tracks the migration data and statistics.
Mediterranean countries such as Italy, Malta, Spain and Greece have repeatedly asked other European countries to help care for those who are saved and taken to their beaches.
Last year, when pandemic restrictions made it difficult to move between countries, the number of refugees and migrants who arrived in Europe by sea down to the lowest level since 2015.
The year, 1 million reached Europe, many of them refugees escaped from the war in Syria.
The deadly karam ship so far lasted April 22 from Libya, when 130 people drowned despite sending several calls of distress.
Libyan coasters who are trained and equipped in the EU are criticized after the video appears showing one of his ship chasing and firing a warning shot on a migrant ship on June 30.
The Libyan authorities acknowledged the action of the coast guard endangering the lives of migrants and vowed to hug him.
responsible for the account.
In recent years, human rights groups have reported the persecution, torture and abuse of migrants and refugees after they were intercepted by Libyan coast guards and were placed in terrible detention centers.
UN: Migrant death on sea routes to Europe more than doubled
