According to the United Nations, 1,874 people died in the first half of this year trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. The last time the numbers were this high was six years ago.
In the first half of this year, more migrants died on the escape routes across the Mediterranean than at any time since 2017. In all, at least 1,874 people were killed or missing in the first six months of the year, according to data from the UN Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Missing Migrants Project. Last year there were 1108 people in the same period.
In 2017, 2278 migrants died
“Business Insider” had previously reported, citing the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), that 1,859 refugees had died in the Mediterranean in the first six months of this year. According to the Missing Migrants Project, at least 2,278 migrants died on the three Mediterranean routes in 2017, compared to 2,946 in 2016.
At least 27,633 people have died trying to reach EU countries via the Mediterranean since 2014. The IOM emphasizes that the real numbers are likely to be higher. Presumably boats went down too, no trace of which was ever found.
The biggest accident so far this year was the sinking of a completely overcrowded boat off the coast of Greece in May. Based on estimates of the number of people who were on the boat, authorities believe the number of fatalities was in the hundreds.