A report published by the International Organization for Migration´s Missing Migrants Project in October 2022 “documented more than 3,400 deaths on migration routes to and within Europe in 2021, the highest number of recorded fatalities in any year since 2016. This is due in large part to the increase in the number of lives lost on sea routes to Europe compared to prior years, particularly on the Central Mediterranean route, with more than 1,500 deaths and disappearances documented in 2021, and on the Western Africa-Atlantic route to the Spanish Canary Islands, with more than 1,100 deaths documented. 2021 was also marked by increases in deaths on many other European routes compared to prior years, notably on the Turkey-Greece land border, the English Channel crossing, at Belarus-European Union (EU) borders and on the Western Balkans route.” [1]
The report provided an overview of deaths recorded by MMP and concluded that “thousands of lives were lost en route to and within Europe in 2021. With more than 3,400 deaths documented by MMP in 2021, routes to and in Europe have claimed more than 27,000 lives since data collection began in 2014, of whom more than 18,000 are missing and presumed dead. This has profound effects not only on those who lost their lives in the absence of safe legal migration routes, but on the countless families who may never know the fate of their lost loved ones, and on the many communities that are tasked with the consequences of managing these thousands of human remains.” [2]
Source: IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, accessed 24 October 2022. Note: Not included in this chart are another 355 individuals with known countries of origin, and another 23,716 whose countries of origin are listed as unknown or mixed. [2]
Ultimately, the International Organization for Migration “calls on States in Europe and beyond to take urgent and concrete action to save lives and reduce deaths during migration journeys. States must uphold the right to life for all people by preventing further deaths and disappearances. This should include prioritizing search and rescue on land and at sea, including ending the criminalization of non-governmental actors providing humanitarian assistance to migrants in distress. Ultimately, to end migrant deaths, States must review the impact of their migration policies to ensure safe migration, and to minimize any risk of migrants dying or going missing.”
References:
[1] Missing Migrants Project, Annual Regional Overview, https://missingmigrants.iom.int/sites/g/files/tmzbdl601/files/publication/file/MMP%20annual%20regional%20overview%202021%20Europe.pdf, January – December 2021, 6.
[2] International Organization for Migration, More than 5,000 Deaths Recorded on European Migration Routes since 2021: IOM, https://www.iom.int/news/more-5000-deaths-recorded-european-migration-routes-2021-iom, 25 October 2022.
Christos Kassimeris, PhD
Professor Christos Kassimeris heads the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at European University Cyprus and is coordinator of the BA in European Politics and Communication. Before joining European University Cyprus, he was teaching European Integration Politics and International Relations of the Mediterranean for three years at the University of Reading. He is the author of European Football in Black and White: Tackling Racism in Football (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007), Greece and the American Embrace: Greek Foreign Policy Towards Turkey, the US and the Western Alliance (I.B. Tauris Academic Studies, 2009) and Football Comes Home: Symbolic Identities in European Football (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2010), editor of Anti-racism in European Football: Fair Play for All (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009), The Marketing of War in the Age of Neo-Militarism (Routledge, 2011) and The Politics of Education: Challenging Multiculturalism (Routledge, 2011), and has several publications in political science journals. He is also Visiting Research Fellow at the University of De Montfort.
