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By Staff Writers, teleSUR
teleSUR
Thursday, Dec 11, 2014
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| African migrants are seen seated in a boat after being rescued by the Libyan navy following their boat suffering engine failure. | Photo: Reuters |
The International Organization for Migration noted a worrying surge in the number of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.
The U.N. refugee agency warned Wednesday that the international community was failing in its response to the growing number of people making risky sea journeys in search of asylum or migration.
The agency revealed that since the beginning of the year an unprecedented 348,000 traveled across the sea to safer lands, or lost their lives in the attempt.
Antonio Guterres, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, accused certain governments of prioritizing their desire to shut out asylum-seekers over their responsibility for their welfare.
“This is a mistake, and precisely the wrong reaction for an era in which record numbers of people are fleeing wars,” Guterres said. “Policies must be designed in a way that human lives do not end up becoming collateral damage.”
Further underlining the migration crisis, another leading migration organization said that a spike in drownings of Middle Eastern and North African refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe has caused the number of migrants killed while trying to flee their home countries to more than double this year.
Addressing a United Nations briefing in New York, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration explained that nearly 5,000 migrants searching for better lives had been killed this year, compared to 2,376 last year. Of the 2014 toll, 3,000 drowned in the Mediterranean passage to Europe from North Africa.
Migrants, often overloaded on unseaworthy crafts run by criminal gangs, are lured to board via social media and can pay more than US$2,000 per person, according to the representative.
"We know that across Africa, there are Facebook pages where smugglers advertise," delegate Leonard Doyle said.
He continued that a significant proportion of the deceased migrants were Syrians, Iraqis and Palestinians, so frantic about the violence in their own countries that they risked the dangerous journey to Europe.
On Sunday, Spanish authorities called off a search Sunday for 20 migrants sailing across the Mediterranean from Morocco who fell from their vessel when engines cut out and fights erupted.
Also, the British government recently came under fire for plans to halt rescues of drowning refugees and migrants as they cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, which it hopes will deter immigration.
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