Mediterranean boat capsizing: deadliest incident on record
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
UNHCR has now interviewed most of the survivors of Saturday's boat tragedy in the Mediterranean. According to the survivors, their boat departed from Tripoli in Libya on Saturday morning with some 850 people on board, including many children. Among those on board were some 350 Eritreans, as well as people from Syria, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Ivory Coast and Ethiopia.
Only 28 people are known to have survived the shipwreck, including a young man from Bangladesh who was transported by helicopter to a hospital in Catania, Sicily, on Sunday, and 27 people who were disembarked later by the Italian Coast Guard in Catania. From available information and the various accounts we've had, UNHCR now believes the number of fatalities to have been over 800, making this the deadliest incident in the Mediterranean we have ever recorded.
ADDITIONAL: Summary of spoken comments by Volker Türk, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection (made in reference to the EU Joint Foreign and Home Affairs Council 10-point action plan on migration of 20 April 2015)
UNHCR welcomes the EU responsibility-sharing measures contained in the plan, such as asylum processing, relocation, and resettlement, which provide a welcome starting point for this response. UNHCR would also urge that such measures be expanded to further strengthen the asylum and protection component of the plan, including:
- Developing a robust search and rescue operation, along the lines of Mare Nostrum, which places an emphasis on saving thousands of lives;
- Making a firm commitment to receive a significant number of refugees for resettlement;
- Providing legal alternatives, such as enhanced family reunification, private sponsorship schemes, and work and study visas, so that persons in need of international protection do not need to resort to such dangerous voyages;
- Including a system of support for those countries receiving the most arrivals (Italy and Greece), and;
- Distributing responsibility for arrivals to avoid the current situation where a few countries are receiving most asylum-seekers, mainly Germany and Sweden, including through a comprehensive application of Dublin III and an intra-EU pilot relocation project for Syrians.
Media contacts:
- In Geneva, Adrian Edwards: +41 79 557 9120, [email protected]
- In Geneva, William Spindler: +41 79 217 3011, [email protected]
- In Rome, Federico Fossi: +39 349 0843461, [email protected]
- In Catania, Barbara Molinario: +39 338 546 2932, [email protected]
- In Catania, Carlotta Sami: +39 335 679 4746, [email protected]
- In Valetta, Fabrizio Ellul: +356 9969 0081, [email protected]
- In London, Andrej Majecic: +44 20 7484 5891, [email protected]
- In Paris, Philippe Leclerc: +44 144 43 48 50, [email protected]
- See also Media page
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Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees covering the period 1 July 2015 - 30 June 2016
22 Aug 2016 ... ... While there was initially an outpouring of sympathy for the tragedy unfolding on Europe’s shores, ... in the number of refugees and migrants undertaking the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean. ...... -
Presentation by the Director, Regional Bureau for Europe
8 Mar 2023 ... For the second straight year, my remarks from this podium are framed by tragedy and sadness. Last ... by EU Member States in June, and the EU Action Plan for the Central Mediterranean in November. ...... -
UNHCR Global Appeal 2014-2015 - Ensuring protection for people of concern
1 Dec 2013 ... ... TO RESORT TO THESE PERILOUS JOURNEYS. THIS TRAGEDY SHOULD SERVE AS A WAKE-UP CALL” Rescue ... (with particular focus on the Caribbean, the East and Horn of Africa and the Mediterranean). ...... -
715th meeting summary record
23 Nov 2018 ... ... It had been a tragedy for the villagers who had had to leave their ancestral grounds. The Government ... Finally, countries affected by mixed migratory and refugee flows along the Mediterranean, including ...... -
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Alliance against Trafficking in Persons. Keynote address by Volker Türk Assistant High Commissioner for Protection. Vienna, 6-7 July 2015
6 Jul 2015 ... ... increase in refugees being smuggled across the Mediterranean Sea or Europe’s eastern borders. ... and hope in the face of tragedy, loss, and despair to so many refugees in need of protection. ...... -
Summary record A/AC.96/SR/750
24 Mar 2023 ... ... The tragedy facing Pakistan was a reminder of the distressing consequences of climate change for ... Syria and in the central and western Mediterranean remained top priorities for Italy, as did ...... -
Keynote speech: 22nd Conference of the OSCE Alliance against Trafficking in Persons
4 Apr 2022 ... ... This is why we have redoubled efforts along the routes leading to and across the Mediterranean to ... to quote the UN Secretary General: “for predators and human traffickers, war is not a tragedy. ...... -
UNHCR Global Report 2009 - High Commissioner's foreword
1 Jun 2010 ... A spate of involuntary returns in 2009 in the Mediterranean, the Horn of Africa and south-east Asia, ... The year promises to be a challenging and interesting one – and, we hope, free of tragedy. ...... -
High Commissioner's Opening Statement to the 62nd Session of ExCom
3 Oct 2011 ... ... Tens of thousands of refugees and migrants fled by boat across the Mediterranean, many of them ... wish to express once more our heartfelt sympathy with the people of Japan for this terrible tragedy. ......