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Rabat – UN refugee agency UNHCR has expressed its deep concern as another boat packed with refugees sank amid bad weather. The 130 unfortunate people lost add to a mounting death toll, with 453 people having drowned in the Mediterranean since the start of 2021.
Every year thousands of refugees fleeing conflict and hunger drown in the Mediterranean as they venture to Europe to claim their human rights as refugees, embedded in international law.
The immense loss of life on Europe’s southern borders has claimed more than 15,935 lives between 2015 and 2019 alone, according to data from Statista and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Horrific living conditions in Libya push migrants and refugees to attempt the perilous crossing to Europe, with many perishing on Europe’s southern maritime borders.
The UNHCR highlighted that “In Libya, migrants and refugees continue to be subjected to arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, exploitation and violence, conditions that push them to take risky journeys,” in its press release on Friday, April 23.
The UNHCR and the IOM are calling for “urgent steps to end avoidable loss of lives at sea,” as European migration policies continue to lead to tragic deaths.
Europe’s southern maritime border has been declared the deadliest migration route in the world. Europe’s inhumane immigration policy continues to purposely use the dangerous nature as an active deterrent aimed at discouraging refugees from claiming their legal right to asylum in Europe.
Europeans protested en masse in 2020 following the Black Lives Matter movement that emerged following the death of George Floyd in the US. Still, black and brown lives seem to matter less in Europe when they attempt to claim their legal right to asylum on the richest continent on Earth.
European nations continue to push brutal immigration policies with a death toll that every year exceeds that of the number of deaths due to US police shootings of minorities.
In response, the UNHCR and IOM are calling for a “reactivation of search and rescue operations,” which are currently limited as part of Europe’s controversial and deadly refugee deterrent strategy.
The two organizations further emphasize the need for “enhanced coordination with all rescue actors, ending returns to unsafe ports, and establishing a safe and predictable disembarkation mechanism.”
