UNHCR - New Mediterranean boat tragedy may be biggest ever, urgent action is needed now
UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres today expressed his shock at the latest boat capsizing on the Mediterranean, and the hundreds of lives reported to have been lost.
As of a short time ago, according to information from the Maltese authorities, only around 50 of the 700 reported to be aboard, had been rescued.
Should these numbers be confirmed, the incident - which happened overnight - will be the largest loss of life from any incident on the Mediterranean involving refugees and migrants. It follows an incident only last week in which 400 lives were lost. The Lampedusa disaster of October 2013 saw almost 600 lives lost in two separate incidents.
Available information is that the boat overturned shortly before midnight on Saturday, in Libyan waters, some 180 kilometers south of Italy's Lampedusa. Italian and Maltese naval vessels and merchant ships have been among the approximately 20 vessels, along with several helicopters, that are engaged in the rescue operation being coordinated by the Italian authorities.
UNHCR is currently awaiting confirmation on where the survivors are being taken.
"This disaster confirms how urgent it is to restore a robust rescue-at-sea operation and establish credible legal avenues to reach Europe. Otherwise people seeking safety will continue to perish at sea," said António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. "But it also points to the need for a comprehensive European approach to address the root causes that drive so many people to this tragic end. I hope the EU will rise to the occasion, fully assuming a decisive role to prevent future such tragedies."
UNHCR has been advocating for an urgent response from the European Union to deal with the challenges faced by the thousands of people risking their lives to find safety in Europe. A comprehensive set of proposals has been shared by UNHCR, including a more robust search-and-rescue operation as well as credible legal avenue to reach safety - such as resettlement, humanitarian visas, and enhanced family reunification.
So far in 2015, more than 35,000 asylum seekers and migrants have arrived by boat in southern Europe and - if today's toll is confirmed - some 1600 have died. In 2014, around 219,000 people crossed the Mediterranean, and 3,500 lives were lost.
News contacts:
UNHCR Headquarters, Switzerland
- Adrian Edwards: +41 79 557 9120
- Melissa Fleming: +41 79 557 9122
- William Spindler: +41 79 217 3011
UNHCR Rome
- Federico Fossi: +39 349 0843461
- Barbara Molinario: +39 06 802 123 33
UNHCR Malta
- Fabrizio Ellul: +356 9969 0081
Your search for « mediterranean migrants » matched 1204 results. Only the first 1,000 results are displayed. Displaying page 1 of 112 pages.
-
Press Coverage of the Refugee and Migrant Crisis in the EU: A Content Analysis of Five European Countries
Dec 2015 ... Press Coverage of the Refugee and Migrant Crisis in the EU: A Content Analysis of Five European Countries In 2014, more than 200,000 refugees and migrants fled for safety across the Mediterranean Sea. ...... -
Press Coverage of the Refugee and Migrant Crisis in the EU: A Content Analysis of Five European Countries
Dec 2015 ... Press Coverage of the Refugee and Migrant Crisis in the EU: A Content Analysis of Five European Countries In 2014, more than 200,000 refugees and migrants fled for safety across the Mediterranean Sea. ...... -
Regional Refugee & Migrant Response Plan for Europe - (January-December 2016) - 19 January 2016
19 Jan 2016 ... January - December 2016 REGIONAL REFUGEE AND MIGRANT RESPONSE PLAN FOR EUROPE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN AND WESTERN BALKANS ROUTE 2 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ADRA Adventist Development and Relief Agency ...... -
Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan for Europe - January - December 2016 (Revision of May 2016)
28 Jun 2016 ... REGIONAL REFUGEE AND MIGRANT RESPONSE PLAN FOR EUROPE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN AND WESTERN BALKANS ROUTE January to December 2016 (Revision May 2016) 1 Cover image: Two young girls walk through a ...... -
Desperate Journeys. Refugees and migrants entering and crossing Europe via the Mediterranean and Western Balkans routes
27 Feb 2017 ... Most refugees and migrants entered the European Union (EU) through three primary routes: the Central Mediterranean route from North Africa to Italy, the Eastern Mediterranean route from Turkey to ...... -
Mediterranean Crisis 2015 at six months: refugee and migrant numbers highest on record
1 Jul 2015 ... Data received from Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain charts a 83 per cent increase in refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean from January to June - 137,000 compared to 75,000 in the same period ...... -
Update: Major tragedy in the Mediterranean confirmed, 300 migrants and refugees are missing
11 Feb 2015 ... scale of the tragedy in the Mediterranean after Monday's rescue attempts by the Italian Coast Guard. ... They were among migrants and refugees mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa who had left the coast of Libya ...... -
UNHCR warns over Mediterranean rescue capacity
30 Sep 2018 ... search and rescue capacity on the Central Mediterranean and disembarkation in places of safety, has ... talking about people’s lives. Refugees and migrants cannot be continually put at risk while ...... -
Remarks to the UN General Assembly plenary meeting, "Global awareness of the tragedies of irregular migrants in the Mediterranean basin, with specific emphasis on Syrian asylum seekers"
7 Apr 2017 ... Although the number of arrivals in Europe did decrease in the past year by nearly two-thirds overall, people - both migrants and refugees - continue to cross the Mediterranean and, tragically, ......