2024-03-06 15:51:03
At least 8,565 people died on migration routes around the world in 2023, the International Organization for Migration announced, making it the deadliest year in a decade.
The United Nations agency said in a statement, “The death toll in 2023 represents a tragic increase of 20 percent compared to 2022, which underscores the urgent need to take action to avoid further loss of life.”
Last year’s total death toll exceeds the previous record set in 2016, when 8,084 migrants were killed.
The International Organization for Migration confirmed that safe and legal migration routes are still few, which forces hundreds of thousands of people every year to undergo this experience in dangerous conditions.
Experience immigration under dangerous conditions
Crossing the Mediterranean remains the deadliest route for migrants, with at least 3,129 deaths and disappearances recorded last year.
Just over half of deaths last year were due to drowning, 9% due to car accidents, and 7% due to violence.
The IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, established in 2014, is an open database that records migrant deaths and disappearances.
Since its implementation, more than 63,000 cases have been recorded around the world, but the real number is much higher.
The statement quoted the Deputy Director-General of the International Organization for Migration, Oguchi Daniels, as saying: “As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Missing Migrants Project, we first remember all those lives that were lost.”
“Each one represents a terrible human tragedy that affects families and communities for years,” he said.
For his part, the Deputy Director-General of the International Organization for Migration stressed that “these horrific numbers collected by the Missing Migrants Project also remind us that we must reaffirm our commitment to make more efforts to ensure safe migration for all, so that in 10 years people will not have to risk their lives in search of their lives.” better future”.
A week ago, the Moroccan authorities said that they had recovered the bodies of eight people who drowned in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea off the Nador province during an attempt to migrate irregularly to Europe and rescued nine others.
Asylum applications are at the highest level
In addition, data from the European Union Asylum Agency showed last Wednesday that asylum requests in the bloc jumped 18% to 1.14 million in 2023, the highest level since the migrant crisis in 2015-2016.
The new data is likely to reignite an already heated debate about immigration and far-right trends ahead of a series of local and national elections across the continent as well as European Parliament elections next June.
According to the agency, Syrians and Afghans remained the largest groups applying for asylum.
In a new shift, Turks constituted the third largest group of applicants and applications from them increased by 82% compared to the previous year.
The agency stated that the number of Palestinians applying for asylum rose to an unprecedented level of 11,600 following the outbreak of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, noting that it is difficult to record their numbers accurately given that the majority of European Union member states do not recognize Palestine as a state.
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