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Migrant deaths on sea routes to Europe more than double: UN
[AlAhram] European governments increasingly rely on and support North African countries with fewer resources to handle search and rescue operationsThe number of  ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...on dangerous sea crossings more than doubled so far this year compared to the first six months of 2020, the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... ' migration agency said in a new report. At least 1,146 people perished between January and June, according to the International Organization for Migration. The number of people traveling on sea routes to Europe also increased, but only by 56%, the IOM's report said. The Central Mediterranean route between Libya and Italia was the deadliest, claiming 741 lives. Next was the stretch of the Atlantic Ocean between West Africa and Spain's Canary Islands, where at least 250 people died, the agency said. At least 149 people also died on the Western Mediterranean route to Spain, as well as at least six on the Eastern Mediterranean route to Greece. The IOM says the actual number of deaths on sea routes to Europe may be far higher as many shipwrecks go unreported and others are hard to verify. European governments increasingly rely on and support North African countries with fewer resources to handle search and rescue operations. Tunisia increased such operations by 90% in the first six months of 2021, while Libyan authorities intercepted and returned more than 15,000 men, women and kiddies to the war-torn country, three times more people than in the same period last year, the IOM report said. Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had been cornered by the banditti... Italian authorities increasingly targeted charity rescue ships that have worked over the years to fill the void left by European governments, routinely detaining the vessels operated by nongovernmental organizations for months, sometimes years. While many factors contributed to this year's higher corpse count, including an increase in the number of flimsy boats attempting sea crossings, ``the absence of proactive, European, state-led search and rescue operations in international waters combined with restrictions on NGOs'' was among the main factors, IOM spokesperson Safa Msehli said. ``These people cannot be abandoned in such a dangerous journey,'' Msehli told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. Italia detained nine NGO-operated ships so far this year, according to Matteo Villa, a research fellow for the independent think thank ISPI, who tracks data and statistics on migration. Mediterranean countries such as Italia, Malta, Spain and Greece have repeatedly asked other European countries for help caring for the people who are rescued and brought to their shores. Last year, when pandemic restrictions made it hard to move between countries, the number of refugees and Posted by: trailing wife 2021-07-15 |
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