At least 2,013 people died in the Central Mediterranean trying to cross the sea to reach Europe in 2023, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
The figure is likely under-representative of the true number, since “the fragile iron boats fleeing Tunisia have probably caused so many shipwrecks that have gone unreported,” IOM spokesperson Flavio Di Giacomo said on X (formerly Twitter).
Many migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa depart from the Tunisian city of Sfax, trying to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Though Sfax and Lampedusa are only 188 kilometres apart, that portion of the sea is extremely dangerous, due to the presence of many shoals, particularly close to the Tunisian islands of Kerkennah which overlook the city of Sfax, EURACTIV learned during a mission on the central Mediterranean.
The iron boats on which many migrants depart are extremely overcrowded, creating a high risk for shipwrecks and deaths.
41 migrants missing after new Mediterranean shipwreck
Forty-one migrants including three children are feared dead after being shipwrecked last week in the Mediterranean, UN agencies said, citing four survivors brought to the Italian island of Lampedusa Wednesday (9 August).
Departure numbers have also increased from Libya in 2023, both from the Tripolitan and Cyrenaic coasts.
According to Italian interior ministry data, seen by EURACTIV, as of 22 August, 105,483 people arrived at the Italian coasts, crossing the Mediterranean Sea. For the same period, they were 51,328 in 2022 and 35,480 in 2021.
In a report sent to the media on 11 August, the EU border agency Frontex declared that the “Central Mediterranean remains the most active route into the EU this year, with over 89,000 detections reported by national authorities in the first seven months of 2023”.
“This is the highest total on this route for this period since 2017,” the agency added.
The Italian coastguard is closing cooperating with NGOs boat in saving people at sea, particularly in the so-called ‘Tunisian corridor’, assigning them multiple rescues.
As EURACTIV reported, this procedure is forbidden by an Italian decree on NGOs, approved in January, which states that private NGO vessels can perform only one rescue and then go to the assigned port of disembarkation.
Italian coastguard violates PM Meloni's decree on NGOs operating at sea
The Italian coastguard has assigned successive rescues to NGOs in international waters between Tunisia and Sicily in recent weeks, violating an Italian governmental decree which stipulates only one rescue can be performed before disembarkation.
On 12 August, the SOS Mediterranee NGO boat Ocean Viking performed 15 rescues in the Central Mediterranean in a span of 48 hours, saving 623 people in total.
Afterwards, they disembarked 369 people in Sicily (Porto Empedocle) and the rest to the port of Civitavecchia (central Italy), roughly three days of navigation from the rescues’ areas.
[Edited by Benjamin Fox/Nathalie Weatherald]
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Source: euractiv.com
