The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has revealed that the number of migrants and asylum seekers arriving in Italy by sea in 2014 reached a total of 170,100 by year end 2014.
That is about four times the number registered in 2013, when the Italian authorities recorded 42,925 arrivals.
The figures, provided by the Italian Ministry of Interior, show that despite the dangerous sea conditions, migrants continued to cross the Mediterranean during the winter, when arrivals usually decrease.
“In December 2013 2,701 migrants and asylum seekers were registered, compared to 6,732 in December 2014,” said Federico Soda, IOM Chief of Mission in Italy. “These figures suggest that the flows are linked to the deteriorating multiple and complex humanitarian crises near Europe’s external borders, including the war in Syria and the unrest caused by the political instability in Libya. Many of these people are fleeing war, persecution and totalitarian regimes,” he added.
Syria remains the top sending country with 42,323 migrants arriving in Italy in 2014, followed by Eritrea (34,329). Other important sending countries were Mali (9,938), Nigeria (9,000), Gambia (8,707), Palestine (6,082) and Somalia (5,756). The number of Syrians arriving in December totalled 3,202, a slight increase from the 2,950 arriving in November.
Through 2014 most migrants arrived from Libya and some from Egypt. But in recent months new arrivals mainly came from Turkey. These new flows were comprised mostly by Syrian refugees trying to reach Southern Italy on larger cargo ships provided by unscrupulous smugglers demanding USD 4000 – USD 6,000 from each migrant.
“The emergency is not in the number of people involved, but the conditions in which migrants arrive and in the humanitarian and operational consequences,” said Soda. “If we put these numbers in perspective, we’ll see that Turkey is hosting about 1.8 million Syrian refugees, and Lebanon (a very small country of 4 million people) is dealing with over one million.”
“This is not a crisis of an excess of migrants reaching Europe and overburdening the continent – an area with a population of about 500 million people. It is an emergency in the sense that more migrants now need protection, aid and safe migration channels,” he added.
IOM estimates that over 3,200 migrants died at sea trying to reach Italy in 2014, an unprecedented number of victims. Thousands of lives were also saved: 85,000 by the Italian Navy Mare Nostrum operation, more than 35,000 by the Italian Coast Guard, and over 40,000 by a total of 237 commercial ships, contacted by the Italian authorities to provide support in emergency situations.
“It is urgent to respond collectively to these migratory flows,” said Soda. “This issue can only be managed by the EU as a whole: migration challenges in Europe have reached a scale and complexity that can only be addressed by cooperation and collective action.”
“For this reason IOM is calling for the establishment of a political process where a comprehensive range of concrete actions to improve migration governance are taken jointly by countries of origin, transit and destination, together with all concerned actors, to prevent further loss of life.”
African Eye News.com
