The Spanish coastguard reported four migrants dead and 16 more missing on Wednesday, November 27, after an attempt to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe failed. The migrants were traveling on a small raft that sank near the Spanish enclave Melilla.
Even as a migrant rescue ship disembarks 88 asylum-seekers in an Italian port, a UN official says the Mediterranean isn't the most dangerous place for migrants. Many more die trying to reach the coast than in the sea.
Some of the women who died in a shipwreck in the Mediterranean on Sunday night were pregnant, according to Italian authorities. More than 50 migrants were on board the boat that capsized off the coast of Lampedusa. At least 17 people remain missing.
The Mediterranean crossing continues to be the deadliest migrant route worldwide: 19,000 migrants have been reported dead or missing since October 3, 2013. So far this year, the crossing has claimed over 1,000 victims.
For the sixth year in a row, the number of migrants who have died in the Mediterranean Sea has eclipsed the 1,000 mark, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The Mediterranean route remains the most fatal migration route in the world.
A boat packed with over 100 migrants is feared to have sunk off the Libyan coast. A local fisherman contacted the distress hotline Alarmphone and said he rescued 3 people and saw many dead bodies in the water.
British and French campaigners are warning about the dangers of migrant Channel crossings after an Iranian woman who reportedly fell into the water while trying to reach England went missing last Saturday. It could be the first case of a migrant death in the Channel, a relatively narrow strait with strong currents. But according to testimonies of survivors and community activists, several people have already disappeared.
A boat carrying 86 migrants from Libya sank off the Tunisian coast in the Mediterranean Sea and only three passengers are known to have survived the shipwreck, the UN migration agency said Thursday.
A report by the UN's migration office said children are dying during migration at alarming rates, most of them perishing on the Mediterranean. The deadliest routes for children are those that involve water crossings.
In its fourth “Fatal Journeys” report, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) says nearly 1,600 children have been reported dead or missing since 2014. While the number of deaths and disappearances of migrants around the world has dropped overall, according to IOM data, the risk of death along the Central Mediterranean route has increased.
Thousands of people lost in crossing the Central Mediterranean have not been identified. New figures from the UN migration agency, IOM, show that remains of more than two thirds of those whose deaths have been recorded have never been recovered.
Two boats carrying over 100 migrants were reported missing in the Alboran Sea Tuesday. The Spanish charity Caminando Fronteras has since reported that one boat has returned to Morocco while the other was accompanied by the Spanish maritime rescue service to Motril in Spain.