Refugees and migrants suffer brutality and abuses along the routes towards the Mediterranean. Many fall prey to traffickers and smugglers and are extorted, raped, and sometimes killed or left to die. Many of them flee violence and persecution and have dire and urgent protection needs. It is critical that they receive life-saving support and protection in the countries to which they initially flee.
Since 2014 more than 19,000 deaths and disappearances occured in the Central and Western Mediterranean, and no less than 1,064 deaths were recorded in 2020 alone. According to UNHCR, between January and October this year, 48,980 people arrived by sea to Italy, of which 72.7% were men, 19.9% children, and 7.4% women. As of 20 October, 1,293 deaths and missing people were registered in the Central and Western Mediterranean for the year 2021.
For further information:
- IOM Missing Migrants Project
- UNHCR, Italy weekly snapshot (11 Oct – 17 Oct 2021)
- UNHCR, Mediterranean Situation
- UNHCR, Europe – Dead and Missing at Sea
- UNHCR, As Sub-Saharan crises force more to flee, UNHCR calls for stronger Mediterranean route response, 27 January 2021
- UNHCR, The sea route to Europe: The Mediterranean passage in the age of refugees (2015)
- Caritas Internationalis,“The moment of shame must be followed by a moment of action. Enough human tragedies consumed in total”
- Vatican News, 125 Europe-bound children rescued off Libyan coast
- Vatican News, Prayer vigils for victims of the latest shipwreck off Libya
- Vatican News, 11 July: Day of Prayer for migrants who died in the Mediterranean
- AgenSir, Migranti: Unhcr, 500 vittime nel 2021 (+200%). Oltre 10.400 gli arrivi (+170%)
- UNICEF, Migranti: 125 bambini, di cui 114 non accompagnati, salvati al largo della Libia
