IOM: 441 Migrants Died Crossing Central Mediterranean in Q1

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported 441 migrant deaths along the dangerous sea route between northern Africa and Europe's southern shores in the first quarter of 2023.

IOM showed in its new report that the death toll in 2017 passed 742, while 446 were recorded in the first three months of 2015.

Commenting on the report, IOM Director General Antonio Vitorino said: "The persisting humanitarian crisis in the central Mediterranean is intolerable."

"With more than 20,000 deaths recorded on this route since 2014, I fear that these deaths have been normalized,'' Vitorino added.

 "States must respond. Delays and gaps in state-led SAR [search-and-rescue areas] are costing human lives."

The UN body tallied higher numbers of people dead or missing in the Mediterranean in six other quarters since 2017, with the most documented in the second quarter of 2018, at 1,430.

It also noted that the true number of lives lost among migrants who set out on smugglers' unseaworthy rubber dinghies or decrepit fishing boats is unknown because the bodies of people who perish at sea often are never recovered.