- The Missing Migrants Program of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) detailed that the route with the most victims is the one that goes from Cuba to the United States with 142
At least 291 migrants have disappeared or died so far in 2024 on dangerous Caribbean sea routes, prompting increased international protection efforts, the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Missing Migrants Program said Friday, August 30.
Data from the program indicate that as of August 30, at least 291 migrants have disappeared or died in 2024. This represents an 18% increase compared to the 247 that were recorded in all of 2023.
The route with the most victims is the one from Cuba to the United States with 142, followed by the one from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico with 91, the route to the Canary Islands with 15 and the one from Haiti to the Dominican Republic with 1, according to the initiative’s data.
The regional monitor for the Americas of the Missing Migrants Project, Edwin Viales, said this Friday in a working session with organizations that make up a network on the subject, that the dangerous natural and climatic conditions of these routes in the Caribbean, coupled with forced disappearances caused by traffickers, cause the boats to disappear without a trace.
The outlook is not encouraging. Now more than ever, coordinated international efforts are needed in the Caribbean to save lives,” Viales said.
Viales explained that these routes are not only used by migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean in their quest to reach the United States, as cases of shipwrecks or disappearances of boats carrying African people have been detected.
One of these cases was recorded on August 6 when the remains of 14 people from Senegal and Mauritania were found in a small-scale vessel off the coast of the Dominican Republic.
According to Viales, “these types of transcontinental shipwrecks are on the rise,” since on April 13 another vessel was detected in Brazil with the remains of 9 people from Mauritania and Mali.
70 deaths between 2021 and 2022
In addition, there is evidence of 3 similar cases between 2021 and 2022 with a total of 70 deaths on boats found in Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, and Grenada.
In 2023, there were also two discoveries of shipwrecks with, possibly, African migrants in Honduras and near Turks and Caicos.
Viales added that in 2023 there was also a complaint from key informants about 105 missing persons on the route between San Andrés and the border area between Honduras and Nicaragua.
Two cases of forced disappearance by migrant trafficking groups and two cases of shipwrecks are suspected.
At this Friday’s session, the IOM presented three initiatives on migration in the Caribbean: “One by the Cuban newspaper The Touchwhich collects information on the dead and missing; the “Route of Life” in the Dominican Republic, which aims to raise awareness and educate about the risk of irregular routes; and a project by the HIAS organization to assist and support Caribbean countries.
With information from EFE
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2024-08-31 12:10:11
