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More than 2,200 people died or went missing in the Mediterranean during 2024 while trying to reach Europe in search of asylum.
The figure, cited in a statement by Regina De Dominicis, regional director for Europe and Central Asia for the UN children's agency Unicef, was eclipsed on New Year's Eve when 20 people were reported missing after falling into the sea. when a boat began to capsize in rough seas about 20 miles off the coast of Libya.
The 6-meter boat had left Zuwara in Libya at 10 p.m. on Monday and began taking on water about 5 hours later, creating panic and causing 20 passengers to fall overboard, according to witness statements given by six of them. adult survivors.
In a separate incident on Monday, two people, including a 5-year-old child, died and 17 survived after the boat they were on capsized off the northern coast of Tunisia while trying to reach Europe.
De Dominicis said that “the number of deaths and the number of missing persons in the Mediterranean in 2024 has now exceeded 2,200, with almost 1,700 lives lost in the central Mediterranean route alone.
" This includes hundreds of children, who make up 1 in 5 of all people migrating through the Mediterranean. Most are fleeing violent conflict and poverty ," she said.
In December, an 11-year-old girl, wearing a simple life jacket and clinging to a rubber tube, was rescued in Lampedusa. She told rescuers that she had spent 3 days at sea after the ship sank.
A month ago, German NGO Sea-Watch filed a criminal complaint with prosecutors in Sicily accusing the Italian coast guard of negligence and multiple murders over a shipwreck in Lampedusa that killed 21 people.
At least four boats have capsized in the central Mediterranean since Tuesday, according to Alarm Phone, an organization that runs a hotline for people in distress at sea.
Italy is one of the main landing points for people trying to reach Europe, with the central Mediterranean route considered one of the most dangerous in the world. The UN's International Organization for Migration has recorded at least 25,500 deaths and disappearances while crossing the Mediterranean since 2014. Most of the deaths or disappearances are attributed to boats departing from Tunisia or Libya.
People still attempt the high-risk journey, despite agreements reached between Italy and the EU with Tunisia and Libya to stop the departure of migrant boats.
According to the Italian interior ministry, 66,317 people managed to reach Italy in 2024, less than half the number in 2023. The hard-line policies of Giorgia Meloni's government are at least partly to blame for the decrease.
The Libya deal essentially pushes people back into detention camps where they face torture and other abuse. Shocking abuse of migrants in Tunisia was reported by the Guardian in September.
A €670m (£556m) deal to transport 3,000 people intercepted in Italian waters each month to Albania, where their asylum claims would be examined, came into effect in October and is also supposed to act as a deterrent. But the plan has so far been unsuccessful due to legal issues.
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