AzilSrbija AzilSrbija
Edited: APC Photo : REUTERS
Geneva, January 30 – During the year 2018, six lives are lost each day in the attempt to cross the Mediterranean according to the latest report “The Wanderer’s Roads”, published today by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
It is estimated that 2,275 people died or disappeared crossing the Mediterranean in 2018, despite the sharp drop in the number of arrivals to European shores.
In total, 139,300 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe, the lowest number recorded in the last five years, the UNHCR said in a statement.
The report said that, due to policy changes in some European countries, there were numerous incidents in which a large number of people stayed at sea for days, awaiting landing permits.
Boats of non-governmental organizations and their crew were faced with increasing restrictions in search and rescue operations.
On roads from Libya to Europe, for every 14 people who arrived in Europe, one died at sea, which is a sharp increase in comparison to 2017.
More than a thousand people had been returned to Libya, where they have been facing terrible conditions in detention centers.
For many, coming to Europe was their last stopover in the nightmare where they faced torture, rape and sexual assault, and threats to be kidnapped and held for ransom.
The report also lists significant changes to the paths used by refugees and migrants.
For the first time in the past few years, Spain has become the main point of entry into Europe – about 8,000 people arrived with an additional 54,800 people who successfully crossed the dangerous Western Mediterranean.
As a result, the number of those killed in the western Mediterranean almost quadrupled from 202 in 2017, to 777.
In 2018, 23,400 refugees and migrants arrived in Italy, which is five times less than in the previous year.
Approximately 32,500 people arrived in Greece by sea, compared to 30,000 in 2017, but there was a triple increase in the number of people who reached its borders with Turkey.
In other parts of Europe, Bosnia and Herzegovina recorded 24,000 refugee and migrant arrivals through the Western Balkans.
Cyprus has accepted several boats that transported Syrian refugees from Lebanon, while a small number of people from France arrived in the UK by the end of the year, according to the UNHCR statement.
At the same time, the report notes that as a source of hope, several states have committed themselves to the resettlement of people rescued in the middle of the Mediterranean. Countries also promised thousands of resettlement sites to evacuate refugees from Libya.
