The United
Nations has released new estimates showing that more than 10,000
refugees died attempting to cross the Mediterranean waters into
Europe since 2014.
“You've
now had since the start of 2014 - when this phenomenon of rising
numbers across the Mediterranean happened - 10,000 deaths. That
threshold has been crossed just in the last few days,” UN
Refugee Agency spokesman Adrian Edwards said Tuesday.
The UN
official said the number has been rising rapidly in the past few
months, meaning that a new record could be set by the number of
refugees dying while attempting to cross the Mediterranean. “This
is clearly an appalling number of deaths that have occurred in the
Mediterranean, just on Europe's borders just in the past couple of
years,” Edwards said, calling on the international community to
put more efforts at finding a solution to the crisis.
He said the
“extremely worrying dynamic” of the deaths of refugees
should remind the world that there must be a “viable alternative
and regular means of dealing with these movements.”
“They're
happening, they're not stopping, they need a solution to prevent
further lives being lost,” he said, adding that 2,814 people
have died since the start of 2016 in the Mediterranean waters.
Meanwhile,
the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday that the
toll in 2016 was already one thousand higher than the same period
last year.
More than a
million managed to reach Europe, mostly through the Mediterranean, in
2015, creating the worst refugee crisis for the continent in decades.
In a bid to reduce the flow, the European Union signed a deal in
March with Turkey to deport refugees from Greece. However, the IOM
said a total of 206,400 refugees had arrived in Europe since the
start of the year, mainly landing in Greece and Italy.
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