Thursday, March 28

The death toll of refugees trying to reach Spain doubles in 2021 | Migration


It is estimated that 12 people a day, more than 4,400 in total, died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain in 2021, more than double the total of the previous year.

The 4,404 refugees who died included 205 children, according to Caminando Fronteras. In a report released Monday, the NGO noted that the number of deaths was double the 2,170 deaths and disappearances registered in 2020.

“It’s horrible,” said Helena Maleno, who directs Caminando Fronteras. “These are the worst numbers we have seen since we started counting in 2007.”

The report established a direct link between the sharp increase in the number of deaths and European efforts to curb migration in the Mediterranean. As a result, refugees have increasingly turned towards the treacherous Canary Islands route, one of the most dangerous crossings to Europe, setting off in unstable boats that are often unfit to face the fierce currents of the Atlantic.

Until December 28 of last year, 22,200 migrants landed on the coasts of the Canary Islands, according to the Spanish government. Caminando Fronteras estimated that 4,016 people died or disappeared along the route, suggesting that for approximately every six people arriving in the Spanish archipelago, one person dies or disappears.

Figures compiled by Caminando Fronteras are based on the work it does to answer calls for help from migrants or their families and alert the coast guard and maritime rescue services. The NGO also registers missing boats and works with family members to identify the missing and dead.

“The 4,404 is the minimum number,” Maleno said. “The truth is that there could be more victims than we are aware of.” Ships heading to Spain often disappear without a trace, which partly explains why the bodies of the 95% of those who died or disappeared were never recovered.

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The people who were lost trying to reach Spain came from 21 countries, from the Ivory Coast to Sri Lanka, many fleeing the armed conflict or the consequences of climate change.

Those who arrive in Spain, particularly via the Canary Islands route, are often haunted by the journey. “The waves were taller than the boat,” one survivor told Caminando Fronteras after a trip in which 15 of the 58 people on board were lost. “The waves swept people away, dragging them out of the boat,” they said.

Another Malian man described spending days lost at sea as food and water supplies dwindled and nearly all of the 59 people on board succumbed to starvation.

After 19 days adrift, rescuers found him and two others barely alive. He had spent much of the journey force-feeding a boy who also managed to survive. “I would open his mouth to feed him a piece of cookie with the little water that was left and tell him to swallow,” he said. “He looked dead.”

On Monday, Caminando Fronteras called on the Spanish government to take urgent action to address the surge in deaths, noting that it has been more than three decades since a body appeared off the coast of Andalusia, in what is believed to be the first death. known. of a refugee bound for Spain.

“In those 34 years the idea that people can die crossing a border has become something that people have accepted as normal,” Maleno said. “It is not normal.”

The International Organization for Migration has described 2021 as the deadliest for migration routes to and within Europe since 2018. At least 1,315 people have died at the crossing of the central Mediterranean, while at least 41 have lost their lives at the land border between Turkey and Greece.

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In November, 27 refugees, including a pregnant woman and three children, drowned in the English Channel while trying to cross from France into the UK.


www.theguardian.com

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