UN: African routes twice as deadly for migrants as the Mediterranean

Increasingly migrants and refugees in Africa head north towards the Mediterranean and Europe, crossing dangerous routes in the Sahara where criminal organisations subject them to slavery, organ harvesting, rape, kidnapping for ransom and other abuses, the United Nations and other agencies said.

A report released Friday by the UN agencies for refugees and the migration and the Mixed Migration Centre research group estimates that land routes in Africa are twice as deadly as sea routes across the Mediterranean, which is the deadliest sea route in the world for migrants. migrants.

According to the report, new conflicts and instability in countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Sudan have led to an increase in the number of journeys to the Mediterranean. But Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Guinea were the main countries of origin for migrants.

The report’s release comes as many European and other politicians, in an important election year, have stirred or gathered support for anti-immigration sentiment. However, conflict, economic disputes, repression and the impact of climate change in many developing countries have fueled the migrant flow across borders, risking physical abuse and death.

“Refugees and migrants are increasingly passing through areas where insurgent groups, militias and other criminals operate, and where human trafficking, kidnapping for ransom, forced labour and sexual exploitation are rife.“, according to a summary of the report, which follows up on a similar study conducted four years ago.

The authors admit that there are no comprehensive statistics on deaths on African land routes. But the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has cited a more than threefold increase in the number of refugees and asylum seekers in Tunisia – a key transit country for migrants. migrants which aim to reach Europe—between 2020 and 2023.

The report was intended to highlight the dangers of land routes leading to the Mediterranean, which was crossed by more than 72,000 migrants and refugees in the first half of this year, and where 785 people have died or disappeared in those six months, according to UNHCR figures.

The UN International Organization for Migration reported earlier this year that more than 3,100 people died crossing the Mediterranean Sea last year.

The authors of the report, which was based on testimony from more than 31,000 people, said international action has been inadequate and noted “huge lagoons“in protecting and helping people who make the dangerous journey.