The International Organization for Migration, IOM, in a piece titled: Migrant Arrivals by Sea in Italy Top 170,000 in 2014 observed that Nigeria accounted for 9,000 migrants out of the 170,100 that arrived Italy by sea in 2014. While most migrants from troubled spots in Africa make the dangerous sea trips as a result of crises in their countries, those from Nigeria often point at poverty which VF found not to be as pervasive as they claim. It is believed that more than 70 percent of Nigerians live below the national poverty line; but most illegal migrants are from countries in sub-Saharan Africa like Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Gambia and Ghana.

In 2014 the number of people travelling irregularly into Europe clinched 280,000 people; in 2015 it rose to 1.8 million in 2015. “From January to September 2016 the number is about 420,000, we are expecting that the number will rise to 800,000 before the end of the year, “Within this number people coming people coming from Nigeria in 2012 was 800, in 2013 the number was 2,900, in 2014 the number was 8,700 in 2015 the number was 23,000. “And between January and September 2016 the number is 22, 500,” he said. While expressing worry that all these people were passing to Italy through boat on Mediterranean he said that in 2016 3,700 people have drown in Mediterranean Sea, one in 50 people will drown.


Italy - IOM reports an estimated 204,311 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2016 through 30 May, arriving in Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Spain.


After a surge in reported shipwrecks and other incidents at sea during the past eight days, estimated deaths through 30 May this year have risen to 2,443 on all Mediterranean routes - a 34 percent increase over the first five months of 2015.
A week ago, when IOM briefed on the situation on the Mediterranean, we reported that confirmed fatalities were running 24 percent fewer than last year’s total through all of May. That estimate -1,828 on all known migrant routes - was less than half of the final total for 2015, which came to 3,770.

For the first three weeks of May 2016, IOM estimated just 13 fatalities in three incidents. None of them occurred on the eastern Mediterranean route between Turkey and Greece, where through the first four months of the year, nearly 400 migrants and refugees drowned. We saw this as a hopeful trend.

The events of this past week - with at least 1,000 deaths – have obviously changed our assessment. The past eight days marks one of the deadliest periods yet in the migration crisis, which is now in its fourth year.
Some important benchmarks to note include:
• Over 13,000 migrants were rescued in the Channel of Sicily between Monday 23 May to Sunday 29 May, bringing the total rescued through May 2016 to 47,600 men, women and children.
• Despite the increase of arrivals recorded in this period, the number of migrants who have arrived in Italy this year is almost precisely the same as during this period last year (47,463 as of 31 May 2015).



The worst incident occurred last Thursday and involved an engineless wooden boat with over 550 people on board. The vessel was being towed by another smuggling boat, which had an estimated 800 people on board. After several hours, the smaller boat began to take on water.

According to testimonies gathered by IOM from survivors in Italy, the captain of the towing boat then cut the tow line. The second vessel continued to take on water and eventually capsized. Initial reports indicate most of the migrants aboard drowned, with just 87 survivors. The migrants included many Eritreans, but there were also Ethiopians and Sudanese on board.
IOM staff interviewed one survivor, Stefanos, a young Eritrean: “There were many women and boys in the hold. We were taking on water, but we had a pump that helped us to push the water out.

When the pump ran out of fuel, we asked for more fuel to the captain of the first boat, who said no. At this point there was nothing left to do: the water was everywhere and we slowly started to sink. There were between about 35 women and 40 children next to me: they all died,” he said.

Another deadly incident, reported by IOM last Friday, occurred on Wednesday, May 25. After having met survivors, IOM staff report that the number of confirmed fatalities now is 250—not the 100 initially estimated. Other survivors, rescued last Thursday by the vessel “Reina Sofia” - which recovered 45 bodies – testified that their boat was carrying some 350 people. About 280 of those remain missing.
Federico Soda, Director of the IOM Coordination Office for the Mediterranean in Rome noted:

The increase in numbers of arrivals is attributable, in part, to better weather, and in part to the use of bigger wooden boats that can carry more people than the rubber boats usually used. Smugglers put over 700 migrants in the wooden boats, whereas the rubber ones generally carry only 100 to 120 people. During the last few days we have had major accidents involving unsafe wooden boats. This also explains the increase in the number of migrants dead or missing: one accident can result in hundreds of fatalities.”
In the case of the incident that caused 500 deaths, the boat went out without an engine. Survivors reported they did not want to leave in such conditions, but were forced aboard by the smugglers.

“This is a humanitarian emergency in the desert and at sea where thousands of people are dying. For the moment, the number of arrivals is the same as last year, but the number of deaths registered this year is already higher compared to the same period in 2015. Without the outstanding work of the many rescue ships patrolling the Channel of Sicily, the death toll would have been even higher,” Soda added.


“The rescue operations are indispensable and must continue - we commend all those involved in these life- saving efforts. But these operations are not in and of themselves a solution. We must come together to change irregular, dangerous and costly migration to migration that is legal, safe and orderly.”

Meanwhile in Greece, on 27 May a boat with 64 migrants issued a distress call while navigating south of Crete. The Greek Coast Guard, along with two fishing vessels, managed to transfer the migrants to the Port of Siteia. On 28 May, IOM personnel in Crete visited Siteia. Among those rescued were 13 people from Afghanistan: (6 male; 7 female), 17 from Iran (13 male; 4 female), 28 from Iraq (14 male; 14 female), 5 from Syria (2 male; 3 female) and from 1 from Pakistan (1 boy). There were also two pregnant women. The migrants included a 9-month old Iraqi baby and a 71-year old Iraqi woman, travelling alone. According to the migrants, they were forced to pay to the smugglers between $5,000 and $7,500 for their passage.

A 40 year old Iraqi man told IOM: “Before the war our life in Iraq was wonderful. I owned a supermarket, a truck and I had a beautiful house. Now I have nothing. I sold everything to save my family and myself. In 2014 I managed to send my 3 children and my wife in Glasgow. I paid $25,000 for each one of them to travel on a false passport from Turkey by air. I missed them so much I decided after two years to leave Iraq. Meanwhile the situation with terrorists has been deteriorated. We are not safe. Every night I see the terrorists 300 meters away from my house. Our lives are constantly at risk.”

“I found a smuggler in Iraq who transferred me to Istanbul, Turkey. In Istanbul it is very easy to find smuggler. Every coffee shop is full of smugglers. They ask you “Where do you want to go? Germany?” They send you to Germany. Turkish police and smugglers work together. Turkish policemen ask for bribes from the migrants in order to let them leave without documents. From Istanbul, the smugglers took us to the Dalamar district of Marmaris. I spent 10 days in a house, along with other migrants. We were locked in a house.”

“After 10 days, they transferred us to the port. We saw the ship at midnight. The smuggler asked if we wanted to get on board. It seemed to be seaworthy and I paid $5,000 to go to Italy and then on to Scotland to find my family. The Turkish police oversaw the whole operation. They assisted us to get on board and they escorted us 200 meters away from the coast, and then they turned back!”
“On the ship the smugglers took our mobiles and locked us inside for the most of the journey. They were on the upper deck, where they were driving and smoking marihuana. They didn’t let us see them. They just shouted at us: “Shut up! Shut up!” They didn’t give us food or water for 36 hours. There was no toilet on our deck.”

“The ship was decent, but the weather was rough. Water came into the hold from the waves. Everyone was crying, vomiting and some lost conscious couple of times. We were scared and thought we were dying. At this point we called the Coast Guard and asked them to rescue us.”

“Now I want to go to my family more than anything else. I can’t wait for six months until the asylum procedure ends. I have money. I will pay someone to take me to my family. I sold everything, just to be with them. I will go. I don’t care if I live or die during the journey. Six months is too long.”
Separately a 28 year-old woman from Baghdad, traveling with her infant, told IOM: “I left Iraq with my 9-month old son, without my husband knowing. I only informed my parents, who supported me in this. I decided to do it that way, because in Iraq there is no freedom for women. I was really depressed by my husband. I wasn’t allowed to do anything without his consent. Women are human beings, and they should be equally treated with men. I left Iraq without a plan. I only knew that I wanted to leave.”
“Our journey was really bad. The baby and I were on the lower deck with four more persons in a cabin a little bigger than a telephone booth. The weather was bad. We thought we were dying. Big waves were hitting the ship. My son was constantly crying and vomiting. I was also scared. No one helped me.”
“We were so disappointed to hear that we are in Greece. Our destination was Italy. I contacted my parents and they told me to go back to Iraq. But I am not listening to them. I made my own decision. I want to live free, without being patronized. I will try to go to the Netherlands or to Germany, despite the fact that I have no one to look after us in Europe.”

According to IOM 2017:
525 migrant deaths
In the Mediterranean in 2017
788 deaths
recorded worldwide in 2017


7,559 deaths
Recorded worldwide in 2016
Published 17:30 CET 13 March 2017


Recorded dead and missing migrants in the Mediterranean by migrants’ region of origin, 2015 35% 32% 22% 10% 1% Unavailable/Unknown (1,324) Western, Central and Southern Africa (1,218) Middle East and South Asia (847) Horn of Africa (359) North Africa (22) Source: IOM Missing Migrants Project. Data obtained from local authorities, IOM field offices and media reports



Rates of identification of recovered migrant remains in available regions, available years Area Share of remains identified Time frame Source Europe Mediterranean States (Italy, Greece, Malta, Spain, Gibralter) 35% 1990‒2013 Deaths at the Borders Database, VU University Amsterdam Rhodes Island, Greece 74% 2015 and first two months of 2016 National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Thrace region, Greece 25% 2010‒2015 Dr Pavlidis, Laboratory of Forensic Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace October 2013 Lampedusa Shipwrecks +50% – LABANOF, University of Milan Southern Arizonaa 66% 1990‒2013 Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner Webb County, Texasb 58% Mid-2013–mid-2015 Webb County Medical Examiner Notes: (a) Southern Arizona – PCOME has covered an estimated 95 per cent of migrant death investigations in Arizona since 2003.

Population characteristics of the Deaths at the Borders Database for Southern European Union, 1990–2013 Count % of total Sex Male 2,282 71.6 Female 404 12.7 Unknown 502 15.7 Origin North African 572 17.9 Sub-Saharan African 751 23.6 Middle East 156 4.9 Asia 192 6.0 Balkan 214 6.7 Unknown 1,303 40.9 Age Under 10 65 2.0 10 to 19 years 190 6.0 20 to 29 years 1,239 38.9 30 to 39 years 467 14.6 40 to 49 years 112 3.5 50 years and over 49 1.5 Unknown 1,066 33.4 N = 3,188
Source: T. Last (2015), Deaths at the Borders: Database for Southern Europe.

In Italy, forensic experts from the Forensic Anthropology and Odontology Laboratory of the University of Milan (LABANOF) examined all unidentified bodies that had been brought to the Milan morgue between 1995 and 2008;51 62 per cent out of the total of 454 were identified over a 14-year period; 47.2 per cent were thought to be foreign immigrants (Cattaneo et al., 2010:167). Separately, around half of 387 bodies of refugees and migrants that were brought to shore from shipwrecks off Lampedusa in October 2013 were visually and definitively identified by relatives and fellow passengers in the 12 months after the tragedy. Fewer than 20 have since been identified by forensic experts (see Text box 7). 52 In Yemen, the SHS, a local NGO working with UNHCR, searched for and collected the bodies of those washed ashore from shipwrecks in the Gulf of Aden; their personal details were recorded and the bodies were buried in a special cemetery; prayers were said (see Text box 2 for more on burial of migrants in Yemen).53 Little is known about the dead, although most are believed to be from Ethiopia and Somalia. Recorded cases show the lack of information; for example, on 19 October 2014, six bodies were recorded as having been recovered. In each case, the entry read:

Nationality unknown — gender male — Age Unknown — cause of death drowning — death place Bin Sinaa — Shabwa governorate — burial place Al-hamra Cemetery — dead date 17/10/2014.


Recorded dead and missing migrants by region, 1 January 2014–31 May 2016 Region Year 2014 2015 2016 Total Mediterranean 425 1,827 2,515 4,767 South-East Asia 312 678 60 1,050 Horn of Africa 132 86 235 453 South-East Africa 268 10 24 302 North Africa and Sahara 56 28 98 182 United States‒Mexico border* 54 44 69 167 Central America 60 25 25 110 Caribbean 18 47 11 76 Europe 8 20 23 51 Middle East 0 0 34 34 Other 1 15 10 26 Total 1,334 2,780 3,104 7,218

Source: IOM Missing Migrants Project. Data obtained from local authorities (coast guards, sheriff’s offices, medical examiners), interviews with survivors provided by IOM field offices, UNHCR, Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat (RMMS), NGOs, and media reports.




By
Kingsmond Ehimare, for Niaijaoption.com