LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – The Mediterranean Sea is increasingly becoming a cemetery: statistics show that the number of drowned migrants has reached 2,571 since the beginning of the year. These statistics show a 60% increase in deaths. This number includes only official data and the real numbers are believed to be much higher. Between January and July alone, the Tunisian authorities recovered 901 immigrants from the Tunisian coast. The latest episode occurred in recent days, when a boat sank and all the people on board lost their lives. This despite Malta, Italy and Tunisia having all been informed by Frontex of the danger they found themselves in. “Deaths in the Mediterranean are on the rise”, warns the non-governmental organization Medicines sans Frontiers, which condemns the European Union for “choosing to protect borders instead of saving human lives, which are lost at the rate of 8 people every day”. The International Organization for Migration noted that the number of deaths so far is much higher than last year’s 1,417 victims. According to the 3 October Committee, established after the 2013 tragedy near Lampedusa, in the last 10 years at least 60,000 people have drowned along the routes leading to Europe, of which over 27,000 in the Mediterranean, and thousands more are missing.
foto: Agenzia Fotogramma
(ITALPRESS).
