Research into migrant deaths in Europe shows 22,000 missing, presumed dead, in past 14 years – more than half the global total. Migrants trying to reach more prosperous countries have died at a rate of eight every day for the past 14 years, the majority of them trying to get to Europe, according to the most comprehensive ever tally of migrant deaths.
Almost 40,000 people have died on migrant routes worldwide, according to estimates by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which added that 22,000 of them perished trying to get to Europe. According to the IOM, the true number of fatalities is likely to be even higher than the figures in its report. An estimated 4,077 died this year alone, suggesting a sharply escalating problem. IOM research records that since 2000, nearly 6,000 more migrant deaths occurred along the US-Mexico border and a further 3,000 deaths from Africa’s Sahara desert and the Indian Ocean. No Australian government agency, law enforcement or migration-focused agency, at the state or federal level, publishes data on border-related deaths.
“Our message is blunt: migrants are dying who need not,” said the IOM’s director general, William Lacy Swing. “It is time to do more than count the number of victims. It is time to engage the world to stop this violence against desperate migrants...At a time when one in seven people around the world are migrants, we are seeing an extraordinarily harsh response to migration in the developed world,” said Swing. “Limited opportunities for safe and regular migration drive would-be migrants into the hands of smugglers, feeding an unscrupulous trade that threatens the lives of desperate people. We need to put an end to this cycle. Undocumented migrants are not criminals. They are human beings in need of protection and assistance, and deserving respect,” he added.
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Almost 40,000 people have died on migrant routes worldwide, according to estimates by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which added that 22,000 of them perished trying to get to Europe. According to the IOM, the true number of fatalities is likely to be even higher than the figures in its report. An estimated 4,077 died this year alone, suggesting a sharply escalating problem. IOM research records that since 2000, nearly 6,000 more migrant deaths occurred along the US-Mexico border and a further 3,000 deaths from Africa’s Sahara desert and the Indian Ocean. No Australian government agency, law enforcement or migration-focused agency, at the state or federal level, publishes data on border-related deaths.
“Our message is blunt: migrants are dying who need not,” said the IOM’s director general, William Lacy Swing. “It is time to do more than count the number of victims. It is time to engage the world to stop this violence against desperate migrants...At a time when one in seven people around the world are migrants, we are seeing an extraordinarily harsh response to migration in the developed world,” said Swing. “Limited opportunities for safe and regular migration drive would-be migrants into the hands of smugglers, feeding an unscrupulous trade that threatens the lives of desperate people. We need to put an end to this cycle. Undocumented migrants are not criminals. They are human beings in need of protection and assistance, and deserving respect,” he added.
From here
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