UNITED NATIONS, USA
More than 1,160 migrants died at sea attempting to reach Europe from North Africa in the first half of 2021, up 155 percent year-on-year, the UN's migration agency said Thursday.
The deadliest passage was
across the central Mediterranean, where 769 deaths were recorded, the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a report drawing on data
from its "Missing Migrants Project".
The central Mediterranean
route, running from Tunisia and Libya to Italy and Malta, has claimed more than
18,000 migrant lives since 2014, according to IOM.
The Western Africa-Atlantic
crossing to Spain's Canary Islands was the second most deadly during the first
half of last year, with 250 fatalities, it said.
The recorded migrant death
toll across these two routes in the first half of 2020 was 450.
"Mobility
restrictions" driven by policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic
"exacerbated the challenges facing migrant populations, forcing them to
undertake perilous crossings", IOM noted in its report.
The surge in deaths came
alongside evidence of both increased arrivals in at least one key destination
and rising interceptions.
More than 30,000 migrants were
intercepted off North Africa in the first half of last year, up from 23,000 in
the same period of 2020, amid increased maritime operations by both Libya and
Tunisia, IOM said.
Arrivals in Italy rose 67
percent between the first and second quarters of 2021, culminating in monthly
arrivals reaching almost 6,000 in both May and June, it said.
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