Almost 160,000 migrants tried to cross the Mediterranean to Europe last year. Over ten thousand people have died or gone missing on the route in the last five years.
13:36•Updated 14:10
At least 45 people have died and dozens are still missing in a boat accident off the coast of Calabria, southern Italy.
The accident happened in the province of Crotone, when a boat carrying Somali, Pakistani and Afghan migrants was wrecked on a rocky coast due to stormy weather.
According to the Italian authorities, the ship had set off from Turkey.
According to the Italian news agency Adnkronos (you will be redirected to another service) there were more than 180 passengers on the boat. The boat split in two in the accident.
– No one should have to witness something like this. Bodies are still washed ashore. Among the dead are women and children, the mayor of the nearby town of Cutro Antonio Ceraso said to Adnkronos.
More migrants are arriving across the Mediterranean all the time
According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR (you will switch to another service) in 2022, 159,410 people arrived in Europe across the Mediterranean. The figure is the highest since 2017.
In the past five years, 10,852 people have been killed or disappeared on the route.
This makes the route one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world.
Although the number of migrants arriving is increasing, it is still far from 2015, when more than one million migrants crossed the Mediterranean.
Prime Minister Meloni: We will prevent the boats from leaving
Prime Minister of Italy, representing the far-right Italian Brotherhood party Giorgia Meloni offered his condolences for the accident.
At the same time, he accused people smugglers of criminal activity.
– It is criminal to launch a 20-meter-long boat with 200 passengers in stormy weather, he said In the press release of the Italian Prime Minister’s Office. (you switch to another service)
Meloni promised that the government would continue to work to ensure that boats carrying migrants would never be able to set off for Italy.
Human rights organizations have criticized (you go to another service)the government’s line, which according to them has made it difficult to rescue migrants in distress at sea.
Melon’s government has refused to accept ships carrying migrants rescued from the sea, which has caught them to continue their journey to, for example, France (you switch to another service).
More on the topic:
EU leaders want to strengthen their external borders against illegal immigration, but many member states would not pay for border fences out of the common pocket
Finnish doctor Aino Pennanen helps migrants in the Mediterranean whose entry to Europe the pre-favorite of the Italian elections would like to prevent
Italy does not want to let rescue ships into port, the government says it will make immigration more difficult – according to the researcher, the measures have little effect
The number of migrants who came to Europe via the central Mediterranean and the Balkans has increased drastically, but it is still not close to the crisis years
Finnish doctor Aino Pennanen helps migrants in the Mediterranean whose entry to Europe the pre-favorite of the Italian elections would like to prevent