More than 5,000 people have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean sea in 2016, says a United Nations report. The latest estimates include 100 people believed to have drowned following a shipwreck Thursday, the UN Refugee Agency said in a statement.
The causes for the alarming increase in deaths this year are multiple but appear to be related to the declining quality of the vessels used by people smugglers, the vagaries of the weather and the tactics used by smugglers to avoid detection by the authorities. These include sending large numbers of embarkations simultaneously, which makes the work of rescuers more difficult," the UN statement reads
More than 5,000 people have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean sea in 2016, says a United Nations report. The latest estimates include 100 people believed to have drowned following a shipwreck Thursday, the UN Refugee Agency said in a statement.
"The causes for the alarming increase in deaths this year are multiple but appear to be related to the declining quality of the vessels used by people smugglers, the vagaries of the weather and the tactics used by smugglers to avoid detection by the authorities. These include sending large numbers of embarkations simultaneously, which makes the work of rescuers more difficult," the UN statement reads.
In October, UN officials warned that 2016 would be extremely unfortunate for people who are living their country because of the ongoing wars. The whole middle east region, starting from Afghanistan, Yemen, till up to Syria, Iraq and Libya have got engulfed in war which has forced its residents to flee their countries and go to European countries.
And Mediterranean is the easiest and shortest way for these refugees to reach Europe, both legally and illegally. According to the International Organization for Migration, so far, nearly 360,000 migrants have reached Europe by sea, often coming ashore in Italy or Greece.
'This tragedy reminds us that the humanitarian emergency involving thousands of people dying while trying to flee Libya is not over,' said Di Giacomo. 'In 2016 the number of arrivals by sea in Italy has kept growing, but the number of migrants dying is up dramatically: over 5,000 people have died in 2016, compared to 3,777 deaths registered in the same period last year. That is nearly more than 2,000 more than in 2014, another year when over 3,000 men, women and children were lost on this dangerous passage.”
Di Giacomo explained that the number of shipwrecks reflects the poor state of the boats used by the migrants, compounded by harsh weather conditions at sea in this season
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