© AFPRefugees wait to disembark in the port of Catania, on the island of Sicily on March 21, 2017 from the ship "Aquarius" following a rescue operation in the Mediterranean sea, where some 946 refugees have been rescued.
Refugee and migrants aid groups sounded the alarm over the latest report by the United Nations warning that the death rate for the migration crisis in the Mediterranean Sea has reached its highest level since 2015. One person drowned for every 18 migrants who reached Italy by boat for the first seven months this year, according to data released by the United Nations on Monday.
The death toll is nearly triple the rate during the same period in 2015 and double that from the following year, despite the fact that unauthorized migration along the route has dropped to its lowest level.
"A major factor contributing to the increased death rate is the decreased search and rescue capacity off the Libyan coast this year compared to the same period last year," the United Nations refugee agency said in its report.
Matteo Villa, a migration specialist at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, a research group in Rome, described the situation as "a cautionary tale" for European officials who attempt to justify anti-migration policies by arguing that they want to preserve lives by bringing a halt to illegal smuggling.
"If your objective is to reduce the death rate, then you should be very wary of delegating rescue to the Libyan Coast Guard because they are clearly unable to deal with levels of more than 3,000 departures per month," Villa affirmed.
He went on to note that the rising Mediterranean death rate is attributed, in large part, to an increase in shipwrecks that took place after Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini banned the majority of rescue missions from bringing migrants to Italian ports in June.
Approximately 1,600 migrants died in the Mediterranean in the first seven months of this year, according to the data released by the United Nations.
Reader Comments
What have the insurance companies to say if I pay 5 to 10 thousand USD for a summer vacation ticket on a floating coffin ?
I'm currently on holiday in Samos, Greece, more specifically in the small port town of Pythagorio, which is where, you guessed it, Pythagorus came from. About 100 yards from the internet cafe I'm sitting in is the ruins of the town agora and dotted throughout the neighbourhood are huge ancient stone structures, which perhaps serve as a reminder about the fragility of civilisations. I find it interesting that if you tweak the component parts of the name 'Pythagorous' you come up with the words Pythia and Agora which seems to suggest some sort of channeling cult rather than an actual bloke. I've decided to blow my projected boat trip to Patmos, 'cause every time I've been to the travel shop there's been yet another a price hike: 57 euros for the ferry. You can't visit The Monastery and The Cave of The Apocalypse without taking the tour, which costs 25 euros, then it's X amount to get into the monastary and then X amount to visit the cave, so I've abandoned that particular project.
Anyway, I'm digressing...
The other day I visited the island capital, Samos Town, a port town where there is a huge contingent of refugees/illegal immigrants (depending on the emotion you wish to evoke), It's a shock to the eye, partly because they look so anomalous in the world of trad Greek island culture of little tavernas, orthodox churches, fishing boats and little bakeries, etc, but also because all of the majority African contingent, are wearing brand new trainers, brand new clothes, they all have brand new iPhones, etc, etc, and despite the fact that they're sleeping on benches and in shop doorways, all of them look significantly richer than the native inhabitants of the town. Can anyone explain this to me? 'Cause I can't work that out at all.
Reading non-mainstream books has spoiled my interest in "history".
I think it's probably better to ask a lot of questions rather than shoot first with regard to that.
Here are some: Are there any already existing applications, either naval or military for those giant sized 'refugee dinghis'? If not, who is manufacturing them? Are they all the same make and model? Have they been manufactured to order? If so, who is the client or clients?
Yesterday was pretty eventful on my part of the island. There was a fire on the mountain. Helicopters, army vehicles and water squirter planes all over the joint. It was a bit like being in an episode of Thunderbirds.....[Link]