UN companies urge Security Council to cease ‘mass graves for migrants’ | EUROtoday

“The scale of this tragedy, its impact on survivors, families and communities and the frequency with which we witness deaths in transit constitute an intolerable and utterly soluble, humanitarian crisis,” mentioned Pär Liljert, director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Office to the UN, referring to one of many world’s most threatening routes for migrants and refugees, as they try to achieve nations of the European Union.

In 2023, IOM recorded 8,542 migrant deaths globally – the best because it started gathering this information in 2014 – with 37 per cent of those deaths occurring within the Mediterranean, he mentioned.

Echoing that message, Sivanka Dhanapala, who directs the New York workplace of the UN refugee company, UNCHR, advised the Council the tragedies of lives misplaced on sea and land routes proceed “with no end in sight”.

He mentioned UNHCR has registered greater than 350,000 refugees and asylum-seekers to this point this yr, a lot of them Sudanese refugees, searching for safety in North Africa.

Between January and August, over 134,000 refugees and migrants departed by sea from North and West Africa in direction of Europe, a 24 per cent drop from final yr.

As of 17 September, the IOM Missing Migrants Project reported that 1,450 folks had been accounted as useless or lacking in the course of the crossing, a 44 per cent drop from 2023, he mentioned, including that in Libya, over 97,000 Sudanese refugees have arrived within the final yr, with 300 to 400 folks proceed to reach every day because the current battle in Sudan has triggered many to flee.

While numbers could also be dropping, issues stay, he continued.

Dearth of safety, security and refuge

Mr. Dhanapala mentioned there was no enchancment in entry to safety alongside key routes alongside a rise in challenges regarding entry to territory and asylum, evidenced by a rise in interceptions and collective expulsions.

A UN refugee company report highlights main gaps in entry to safety and humanitarian help alongside the routes and folks transferring are dealing with excessive dangers of deaths, gender-based violence, kidnapping for ransom, trafficking, theft and different bodily violence, he mentioned, citing a brand new joint report by UNHCR, IOM and the Mixed Migration Centre.

To treatment this dire scenario, he provided a set of suggestions, together with that human rights safeguards should be upheld, strengthening entry to safety, prosecuting smugglers and elevated search-and-rescue at sea.

“Saving lives at sea and providing humanitarian assistance is one of the most basic obligations of humanityand those performing rescue operations or helping in good faith should not be penalised for doing so,” he mentioned, including that efforts should centre on inclusion, resettlement and complementary pathways for refugees and migrants whereas addressing the basis causes.

IOM: Conflict amongst essential drivers

IOM’s Mr. Liljert mentioned the first drivers are financial causes (44 per cent), conflict and battle (29 per cent) and the will to flee from private or focused violence (26 per cent), in keeping with the company’s displacement monitoring matrix (DTM) information from 2023 and 2024.

Compounding these hardships is the devastation brought on by disasters, exacerbated by local weather change, in addition to challenges in host nations, he mentioned, pointing to Libya for example.

Almost 70 per cent of migrants IOM interviewed in Libya in June and July acknowledged that top meals costs had been the primary shock skilled previous to leaving the nation whereas 63 per cent cited low or decreased every day wages.

At the identical time, a UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission in Libya discovered that the nation just isn’t thought of a secure place for disembarkation, with studies of rights violations, together with detention, torture and trafficking.

Ever extra harmful routes

Mr. Liljert mentioned migrants are pursuing much more harmful pathways to achieve Europe as is obvious within the sharp enhance of arrivals on the Western African Atlantic route.

The worldwide group shouldn’t enable the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea to “continue becoming mass graves for migrants”, he cautioned, calling for guaranteeing search-and-rescue operations have a stronger deal with saving lives.

“We must move beyond reactive measures…with a holistic approach that tackles the adverse drivers of irregular migration,” he mentioned, strongly encouraging the growth of humanitarian pathways for these seeking secure refuge, together with non permanent safety permits, non-public sponsorships and household reunification, amongst others.

“By adopting these measures,” he mentioned, “we can not only reduce the immense human suffering associated with irregular migration, but also create sustainable, long-term solutions that promote peace, stability and shared responsibility.”