Geneva, April 13, (dpa/GNA) – More than 400 migrants died while attempting to cross the Central Mediterranean in the first three months of 2023, the deadliest first quarter on record since 2017, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.
According to the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, 441 migrant deaths were documented from January to March this year, the highest death toll over a quarter since 2017 when 742 casualties were recorded.
The organization said Wednesday that the increase comes amid reports of delays in rescue responses led by governments and hindrance to the operations of search and rescue by vessels run by NGOs.
The IOM attributed the death of at least 127 people to delays in state-led rescues over six incidents, while a “complete absence of response” in another incident resulted in the death of at least 73 people.
“The persisting humanitarian crisis in the central Mediterranean is intolerable,” IOM Director General António Vitorino said.
“With more than 20,000 deaths recorded on this route since 2014, I fear that these deaths have been normalized. States must respond. Delays and gaps in state-led SAR [search and rescue] are costing human lives.”
The IOM said that, while 441 migrant deaths were documented in the quarter, the true number of casualties in the Central Mediterranean is likely much higher.
The organization said it was investigating “several reports of invisible shipwrecks,” instances where boats are reported missing but there isn’t a record of any survivors. “The fates of more than 300 people aboard those vessels remain unclear,” the IOM said.
The organization said that some 3,000 migrants reached Italy over the Easter weekend, bringing the total number of people arriving to the EU country this year to 31,192 – about four times the 7,900 rescued in the same period last year.
Amid conflicts, repression or the consequences of the climate crisis in their home countries, people from across Africa, the Middle East and Asia hoping for a better life in the EU try to reach the bloc every year, often under very dangerous conditions.
GNA