Staff Reporter :
At least 1,504 men, women and children died this year in perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea, said the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Friday.
The deaths occurred for the fifth year in a row, as people continue to take horrible journey through the Mediterranean seeking refuge in Europe.
The UN agency said, about 55,001 people made the journey this year and 1,504 died. That’s about half and two-thirds of last year’s totals during the corresponding period — 111,753 arrivals and 2,401 deaths. There were more than 250,000 arrivals in 2016.
“Deaths in the Western Mediterranean in recent months have reached devastating levels, with 304 fatalities recorded by the Missing Migrants Project between January and 25 July 2018, far outpacing the 124 recorded in the corresponding period of 2017-and the 224 recorded as drowned or missing last year,” IOM said in a statement posted online.
On the deadliest route, between Libya and Italy, as many as one in 19 people who tried to cross did not survive, according to IOM.
The U.N. migration agency said, the majority of migrants appear to be traveling to Spain, with the country receiving as many as 20,992 men and women from January 1 to July 25 of this year.
Of the 1,500 people who died while trying to make the harrowing trip across the Mediterranean, 1,111 targeted Italy. More than half of those deaths occurred since June 1.
Italy trails Spain as the second most popular destination, with as many as 18,130 people risking their lives to make the journey so far this year.
The number of migrants Italy accepted from 2017 to 2018 dropped by more than 80 percent. Last year, the country received 94,448 people.
In addition to Spain and Italy, many migrants who risked crossing the Mediterranean are heading toward Greece, with 15,528 people arriving in the country in 2018.
“As remarkable as Spain’s rise in irregular migration activity has been through 2018, even more important is its recent surge,” the IOM said.
At this present rate, IOM believes irregular migrant arrivals by sea to Spain could well pass the total for all of last year — 22,108 — before end of this month.
“What we can say is that the first indications that we are getting from the Spanish authorities is that it is the West African migrants that were most prominent crossing into Libya in the past couple of years who seem to be choosing Spain as their route now,” IOM spokesperson Joel Millman told in a news briefing in Geneva yesterday.
Millman, however, noted that it was important to recognize that “despite incredibly low numbers arriving to Italy, the per capita death or the rate of death per 1,000 people may be at its highest point since the emergency began.
