At least 2,510 refugees have died while making the perilous
journey to Europe so far this year, the UN refugee agency said, with fears
rising that many more will suffer the same fate.
According to UNHCR, the figure marks an
increase of 25 percent from the same five-month period in 2015, when some 1,855
refugees drowned. In 2015, from January until the end of May, at least 57
people died en route to Europe.
“Thus far 2016 is proving to be
particularly deadly,” William Spindler, a UNHCR spokesman, said. “This
highlights the importance of rescue operations as part of the response to the
movement of refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean, and the need for real,
safer alternatives for people needing international protection.”
The announcement follows the deadliest week
of 2016 for refugees at sea.
Over the past week, a series of shipwrecks
off the Libyan and Italian coasts killed at least 880 people. That number was
included as part of the UNHCR announcement, and marked an increase on previous
estimates of around 700 people.
“According to some, unconfirmed, accounts
the recent increase in numbers is linked to efforts by smugglers to maximize
income before the start of the holy month of Ramadan, in the coming week,”
Spindler said in a statement.
So far this year, at least 203,981 people
have made the journey to Europe, which is a similar number to those who arrived
in the continent last year in the same period.
The International Organization for
Migration (IOM) put the death toll from January to May at 2,443 people.
Both counts are regularly used by human
rights organisations.
The IOM said most of those travelling to
Italy were from Nigeria, Gambia, Senegal, Guinea and the Ivory Coast.
None of the deaths in May happened on the
eastern Mediterranean route between Turkey and Greece, where arrivals have
slowed to a trickle since the EU struck a deal with Ankara to curb the flow.
Analysis by the Euro-Mediterranean Human
Rights Monitor said that during the week of May 23 to May 30, an average of
five refugees drowned per hour as they tried to flee to Europe.
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