Geneva (EFE).- At least 1,807 migrants have died or disappeared on Mediterranean routes trying to reach Europe from North Africa or the Middle East, according to figures updated to date by the United Nations International Organization for Migration ( OIM), which it is feared could increase rapidly with the arrival of summer and the increase in crossings.
According to the figures that this body updates practically daily through its Missing Migrants Project statistics website, the central route (from North Africa to Italy or Malta) remains the most dangerous route, with 1,064 dead or missing on these first six months of the year.
At least 99 died in the Western Mediterranean, a route that usually has Spain as its destination, and the eastern route (Greece, Turkey), which in other years registers fewer accidents than the other two, has registered at least 644 deaths or disappearances, including 596 victims of the shipwreck on June 15 off the Greek coast.
At least 74 of the victims were children.
The IOM notes that at least 74 of the victims so far this year in the Mediterranean have been children.
The organization has registered 103,510 attempts to cross this route in 2023: more than 43,000 were intercepted at sea, and 59,000 arrived irregularly on the European coast.
The Missing Migrants Project tries to count the victims of global migratory routes since 2014, concluding that at least 56,771 migrants have died or disappeared in these nine years in the world trying to reach their destinations, almost half of them (27,565) in the Mediterranean, By far the most dangerous route.
At the current rate, 2023 could be one of the deadliest in the Mediterranean since these statistics were compiled: in half a year the figures for 2020 (1,449 victims) have been exceeded and we are close to those of 2021 (2,062 ) and 2022 (2,406).
The year with the most victims recorded by the IOM in the Mediterranean was 2016, with 5,136 dead or missing.