an Estimated dog 2.275 refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean last year, showing the united nations refugee agency UNHCR’s report for the year 2018.
This is despite the fact that fewer and fewer are trying to cross the sea to Europe. A total of arrived 139.300 people to Spain, Italy and Greece last year. The majority came via the sea. It is the lowest in five years, and to compare with just over 172.000 people in 2017 and just over a million year of crisis in 2015.
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kill reduces the is the situation continued to be grim. The proportion of deaths per survivors has increased from 269 in the crisis year 2015 to one of the 71 (2016), one of 55 (2017), and last year the proportion was one of 51.
Most, 1,100 people, of last year’s fatalities, had traveled in boats from Libya. On at least ten occasions drowned over 50 people.
” If we look at them as coming from Libya trying to reach Europe, it is one of the 14 who have died. It is very high. In 2017, it was a one in 38. So dödsfrekvensen has become higher, ” says Didzis Melbiksis, spokesperson for the UNHCR in northern Europe.
over the western Mediterranean to Spain, where the increase in the number of deaths from 202 in 2017 to 777 in the last year. UNHCR tracks to Spain this year will be the main ankomstlandet.
Didzis Melbiksis points out that not only is the number of båtflyktingar on the Mediterranean sea, which greatly reduced, but also the total number of asylum seekers in Europe.
” the Situation is quite manageable. It is a question of political will. Survived we 2015, we can handle it here, ” he says.
According to the report, is a major problem that people get stuck on the ships out at sea without the possibility to go to port.
– It can go days or even weeks before countries will agree on the date of receipt. It is dangerous for people who may be physically vulnerable be passed around in the Mediterranean, ” says Didzis Melbiksis.
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is the vessels from non-governmental organizations (NGO:s) are prevented from intervening or leave of the distressed.
– There must be more order. When you have rescued people, there must be a more coordinated system for receiving them. There must be a clarity in how the people should be distributed between different countries, regardless of whether they are migrants or refugees.
Among last year’s positive signs are that several countries agreed to evacuate the people who have been in custody in the camps in Tripoli, Libya, says Didzis Melbiksis.
– Nearly 2.500 people were saved in that way.
