Mediterranean migrant crisis reaches gruesome milestone
New figures show more than 1,000 more people lost their lives in 2016 crossing the Mediterranean to seek refuge in Europe than in 2015. Developing a safe and legal passage to those making the journey and ensuring safe resettlement of those refugees arriving in Ireland must be a priority for our political leaders in 2017.
Commenting today (22.12.2016) Brian Killoran, CEO of the Immigrant Council of Ireland, said: “Recently released figures reveal the number of people missing and dead in the Mediterranean region this year now stands at 4,742 compared with 2015’s death toll of 3,665. This represents nearly a 50% increase in deaths since 2014 and makes the Mediterranean crossing by far the deadliest sea route for migrants in the world. If an improvement of the response to the crisis is measured in terms of a reduction of a loss of life of men, women and children in the Mediterranean, then it’s clear that such ‘push back’ measures as the EU-Turkey deal have been a failure.
“Our European leaders have a pressing responsibility to develop safe and legal routes into the continent to curb this increasing list of fatalities. Until we provide safe passage to those making this journey, men, women and children will continue to lose their lives.
“The Immigrant Council of Ireland has called upon the Irish public to continue to make their voices heard and to demand that the Irish and EU member state governments formulate a sustainable, human-rights-based response to this tragic loss of life.”
Mr Killoran added, “A total of 354,804 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2016 during 2016 (up until 13 December), arriving mostly in Greece and Italy.
“We have seen first-hand the makeshift camps in France and Greece and the desperate circumstances in which thousands of migrants are living, often having fled persecution, war and destruction. The families living here could be our brothers, sisters, friends or cousins. We have a moral duty to provide safe passage and sanctuary.
“In recent weeks Minister Fitzgerald has taken welcome steps to increase the number of refugees arriving into the country. The release of these figures underlines just how desperate their journey has been and must serve to remind us of the compassion required to assist their integration.
“We welcome Minister Katherine Zappone’s recent commitments to provide refugee children a special designation to ensure their arrival complies with international regulations and the practical effort to secure specific funds for Tusla to cope with the migrant children. We look forward to these commitments being built on and commit the Immigrant Council to working closely with all relevant agencies in support of this essential humanitarian response.”
Note to editors
Full data and further information on the number of fatalities in the Mediterranean is available from the UN Migration Agency at: http://migration.iom.int/europe/.
ENDS