IOM's Director General says the numbers dying off Europe's coasts are shocking and unacceptable, UNHCR calls it an escalating crisis
In a press release issued on September 15th, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned of an escalating crisis in the Mediterranean Sea.
This week has been one of the deadliest ever seen in terms of the numbers of refugees and migrants losing their lives in the Mediterranean during attempts to reach Europe by boat.
According to the UNHCR, between 650 and 850 people are dead or missing, although the figures are constantly being revised upwards.
As widely reported by news media, as many as 500 migrants were drowned in one incident alone when their vessel was deliberately rammed and sunk by people-traffickers.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) called it an evil act.
"If survivors' reports are confirmed, this will be the worst shipwreck of migrants in years, not an accidental tragedy, but the apparent deliberate drowning of migrants by criminal gangs who extort money for their desperate journeys," an IOM spokesman said.
The IOM reported on September 16th that the death toll off Europe's shores so far in 2014 is already approaching 3,000, four times the total figure for the whole of 2013.
"The numbers dying off Europe's coasts are shocking and unacceptable," IOM's Director General William Lacy Swing said. "These are women, children and men who only hope for a more dignified life. The risks they take reflect their desperation and we cannot keep abandoning them to their fate."
UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie said: "We all need to wake up to the scale of this crisis. There is a direct link between the conflicts in Syria and elsewhere and the rise in deaths at sea in the Mediterranean. We have to understand what drives people to take the fearful step of risking their children's lives on crowded, unsafe vessels; it is the overwhelming desire to find refuge. It is also part of a bigger problem – the soaring numbers of people displaced by conflicts around the world today, which now stands at over 51 million. Unless we address the root causes of these conflicts the numbers of refugees dying or unable to find protection will continue to rise."
The UNHCR said the alarming death toll underlines the need for collective European action to avoid further loss of lives at sea.
Amnesty International has launched a 'S.O.S. Europe' campaign calling on the European Union (EU) and its member states to protect the lives and rights of refugees and migrants, and to ensure access to asylum for those who need it.
"The mounting death toll is a blight on the reputation of the EU and its member states who must urgently act together, now, to ensure that no more men, women and children lose their lives making the perilous journey in their desperate attempt to reach European shores," said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Director at Amnesty International.