Number of people trying to cross Mediterranean rises by a third in 2016

The number of people who have died trying to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean in 2016 is one-third higher than in any other year, the United Nations said Friday.

More than 90 refugees and migrants were feared dead after the two latest boat sinkings between Libya and Sicily on Thursday, the UN reported, bringing to more than 5,000 the number of people killed in 2016 as they attempted the journey, compared with the 3,771 deaths recorded last year.

“This is the worst annual death toll ever seen,” William Spindler, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, told reporters in Geneva, adding that 14 people, on average, drowned in the Mediterranean every day this year.

At least 55 people and perhaps as many as 70 are believed to have drowned when a rubber dinghy crammed with 120 to 140 people collapsed on Thursday, tumbling passengers into the icy water. In a second episode, 40 people are missing after a second boat sank.

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The sinkings came on a day when coast guards brought ashore 264 people after rescuing them from two other vessels, Mr Spindler said.

The soaring toll has starkly underlined the increasingly perilous conditions faced by refugees and migrants fleeing war, hunger and economic hardship, as the number of deaths has risen even though the number of people making the trip has plunged.

As of Wednesday, 358,403 people had made it to Europe after crossing the Mediterranean this year, down from more than a million last year. The rising fatality figure attested to the declining sea worthiness of the boats provided by traffickers and to changes in their tactics, Mr Spindler said.

Rubber dinghies that are meant to carry 20 to 30 people are habitually packed with more than 100, he noted. To avoid detection, smugglers have also resorted to mass embarkations and to sending larger numbers of people at the same time, making the work of coast guards and rescue vessels more difficult.

New York Times