Around 60 people, including women and children, drowned when a boat carrying numerous migrants headed for Europe collapsed off the coast of Libya, according to the UN migration agency.
This region of the Mediterranean Sea, where thousands of people have reportedly perished trying to reach Europe, is a major travel route for migrants seeking a better life. Saturday’s shipwreck was the most recent tragedy in this area.
Citing witnesses of the “dramatic shipwreck,” the UN’s International Organization for Migration said in a statement that the boat was carrying 86 migrants when heavy waves smashed it off the town of Zuwara on Libya’s western coast, and that 61 passengers drowned.
“One of the world’s most dangerous migration routes is still the central Mediterranean,” the agency posted on social networking platform X, formerly known as twitter.
Losing Life For A Better Life; Libya Migrants
According to a statement from the IOM’s Libya office, “a large number of migrants” are thought to have perished as a result of high waves swamping their vessel after it departed from Zuwara on Libya’s northwest coast.
The IOM office stated that the majority of the victims were from Nigeria, The Gambia, and other African nations, and that close to twenty-five individuals were saved and taken to a detention facility in Libya.
According to the organization, an IOM team “provided medical support” and all of the survivors are doing well.
In a post on X, the previous Twitter platform, IOM spokesperson Flavio Di Giacomo stated that over 2,250 individuals lost their lives this year while traveling along the central Mediterranean route, a “dramatic figure which demonstrates that unfortunately not enough is being done to save lives at sea.”
The main ports of entry for refugees and asylum seekers attempting perilous maritime crossings to reach Europe through Italy are Libya and Tunisia.
The Adriana, a fishing vessel carrying 750 passengers from Libya to Italy, capsized on June 14 of this year in international waters off the coast of southwest Greece.
Survivors said that the ship’s cargo consisted primarily of Egyptians, Pakistanis, and Syrians. Only 104 people made it out alive, and 82 bodies were found.
According to the UN refugee agency, more than 153,000 migrants and asylum seekers landed in Italy this year from Tunisia and Libya.
The Anti-Refugee Sentiments Rising?
Furthermore, under far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who won the election last year on the platform of toughening immigration laws, there has been an increase in anti-refugee sentiment in Italy as a result of the country’s high immigration and asylum seeker inflow.
Meloni met with Prime Ministers Edi Rama of Albania and Rishi Sunak of the United Kingdom on Saturday in Rome to discuss strategies for preventing unauthorized immigration to Europe.
Similar to Meloni, Sunak has taken a strict stance against immigration. When it comes to immigrants and asylum seekers trying to cross the English Channel in small boats, his government has been very strict. The top court in the UK ruled that a plan to transfer refugees and asylum seekers to Rwanda was “unlawful.”
The European Union and Tunisia finalized a deal in July under which the EU will pay the North African nation to stop illegal migration.
Many migrants and refugees are frequently placed in boats too small to transport them safely over the perilous voyage. While some of them are fleeing violence or persecution, others hope to travel to Europe in search of better possibilities. After arriving in Italy, they attempt to go to other nations, mostly in Western Europe.
Since 2011, when longstanding leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown by a revolt supported by NATO, Libya has been plunged into anarchy. Currently, there are an estimated 600,000 migrants and refugees living in the nation.
Migrants Crisis in the Mediterranean
For decades, people have been traveling across the Mediterranean as migrants and asylum seekers. Numerous factors, including as situations in the countries of origin and transit, changes in geopolitics, and EU policy, have caused the numbers to fluctuate over time.
At least 219,000 persons crossed over in 2014, an increase from 60,000 the year before. UNHCR, the UN organization that handles refugee matters, reports that in the first half of 2015, 89,500 people crossed.
Although traveling from North Africa across the central Mediterranean has long been the main route, more and more people are now traveling from Turkey to the Greek islands via the Aegean Sea (the eastern Mediterranean).
The world’s deadliest migratory route is across the Mediterranean. 22,400 migrants and asylum seekers are thought to have perished in attempts to enter the European Union since 2000, majority of them at sea, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration.
The deadliest year on record was 2014, with over 3,500 deaths at sea. A new high record may be set in the comings years, with at least 1,850 anticipated deaths recorded in the Mediterranean in the first five months of 2015.
Over 60% of those who braved the perilous sea voyage in the first five months of 2015, according to UNHCR, were either citizens of Eritrea, which is home to one of Africa’s most oppressive regimes, or of Syria, Somalia, and Afghanistan, nations torn apart by war and widespread violence.
Many of those arriving from other significant sending nations, such as Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, and The Gambia, want to live in safer and more open societies or to increase their economic prospects.
However, some citizens of these nations may be eligible for refugee status if they have been subjected to forced relocation brought on by violence or human rights violations. Some foreigners who have lived in Libya since May 2014, before the current hostilities began, are fleeing insecurity and violence in Libya.
All across the globe, the refugee crisis seem to be taking toll on nations. The Rwanda Bill in the west, the Rohingya’s left scattered, and the Gulf nations in chaos. But what ought to be considered is whether these refugees need to be blamed for fleeing a place of violence or was it the duty of nations to keep the humanity alive. Thus, not depriving these people of their homelands and making them homeless migrants.
“The refugee crisis is a humanitarian challenge that must be collectively owned and collectively solved, whether we are talking about legal frameworks, institutional responses or funding. By crafting new humanitarian solutions to this crisis, critical contributions can be made to international peace and stability.” – Kristin Sandvik
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