IOM:  1146 Illegal Europe-Bound Immigrants Died This Year in Sea

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced today, Wednesday, that the number of illegal immigrants who died in the sea on their way to the northern European coast doubled this year.

The organization asked countries to take urgent measurements to solve this problem.

It issued a statement that said that 1146 illegal immigrants died throughout the first six months of 2021.

This number equals two folds of last year's figure when 513  illegal immigrants died in the Mediterranean Sea, meanwhile, 674 immigrants died in 2019.

The IOM pointed out that the civil groups working in search and rescue face obstacles as their boats are still standing in the European ports due to administrative decisions to confiscate these boats along with criminal procedures against crews of the boats.

The IOM report warns that the increase in the toll of death came at the time when the African and European boats doubled their operations to intercept rickety ships that transfer the illegal immigrants.

For years Italy and other member-states of the European Union (EU) have funded and trained Libyan Coast Guards to prevent the traffickers from smuggling additional numbers of illegal immigrants or refugees to Europe by sea.

Nearly 70 million people around the world, half of them children, fled persecution and conflict, sought asylum, or were internally displaced in 2017, and those numbers are rising every year.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian commitment of nations, once a norm, has given way to nativism. Xenophobia — fear and exclusion of the “outsider” — has gathered force in America, Europe, Australia, and elsewhere, with populist politicians preying on anti-immigrant fears. The host countries who have opened their arms — most of them, developing nations — feel abandoned by the international community.

The United Nations, humanitarian agencies, the private sector, and civil society face enormous hurdles in making positive contributions to the refugee system. The authoritarian regimes responsible for displacing people are not held accountable, and prohibitions in international law are outdated and ignored. The refugee system’s financial requirements are not close to being met. At the United Nations, the power of the Security Council veto hinders action.