International organization for Migration (IOM) has disclosed that the tragic shipwreck off the coast of Libya and othet fatalities have claimed morr 20,000 lives.
In a statement released by the body, “Last month and more than a dozen other recent fatalities elsewhere have pushed the death toll in the Mediterranean Sea to 20,014 since 2014,”
“The disappearance and presumed drowning of at least 91 people reported missing aboard a dingy north of Garabulli, Libya, on February 9 is the latest in a series of so called ‘ghost boats’ that have vanished en route to Europe, claiming hundreds of lives,” Director of IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre, Frank Laczko said.
“Two thirds of the fatalities we have recorded are people lost at sea without a trace. The fact that we have reached this grim new milestone reinforces IOM’s position that there is an urgent need for increased comprehensive SAR capacity in the Mediterranean,” he added.
In addition to the tragedy off the coast of Libya, the bodies of three young men washed up on a beach in Tunisia last week.
They are likely linked to a ship carrying 18 people that departed from Algeria on 14th February, the fate of which remains unclear.
With no end in sight to the tragedy unfolding on the Mediterranean, IOM reiterates that improved and expanded safe legal pathways for migrants and refugees are urgently needed.
