EUROPE-MIGRANTS/UNHCR Mediterranean refugee and migrant numbers pass 300,000 in 2015

Record ID: 142151

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/UNHCR Mediterranean refugee and migrant numbers pass 300,000 in 2015
  • Date: 28th August 2015
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (AUGUST 28, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS JOURNALISTS VARIOUS OF NEWS BRIEFING ONGOING (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNHCR SPOKESPERSON, MELISSA FLEMING, SAYING: "The number of refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean this year has now exceeded 300,000. That includes 200,000 people landing in Greece and 110,000 in Italy. This represents a large increase from last year, when about 219,000 people crossed the Mediterranean during the whole of 2014." JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNHCR SPOKESPERSON, MELISSA FLEMING, SAYING: "This points obviously to the continued movement of cramming large numbers of people onto boats. The Libya route across the Mediterranean is still active and the way people are being packed onto boats is causing their deaths." JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNHCR SPOKESPERSON, MELISSA FLEMING, SAYING: "We reiterate our call on European countries to approach the refugee and the migrant crisis in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation and provide those seeking safety in Europe, safe, legal alternatives to these dangerous, irregular journeys. These legal avenues we've been repeating them over and over again and I would like to again repeat them now. They already exist but they are way too few for the numbers of people." NEWS BRIEFING ONGOING
  • Embargoed: 12th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7OKXYWVP0NVUSLK1T23M1FQNP
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The number of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe has passed 300,000 this year, up from 219,000 in the whole of 2014, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday (August 28).
    More than 2,500 people have died making the crossing this year, not including about 200 who are feared to have drowned off Libya on Thursday. That compares with 3,500 who died or went missing in the Mediterranean in 2014.
    "This points obviously to the continued movement of cramming large numbers of people onto boats. The Libya route across the Mediterranean is still active and the way people are being packed onto boats is causing their deaths," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told a regular U.N. briefing.
    In one incident on Thursday, 51 people suffocated in the hold of a boat, and survivors said they had been beaten to force them into the hold and then had to pay money to smugglers just to come out of the hold to breathe, Fleming said.
    One of the survivors, an Iraqi orthopaedic surgeon, said he had paid 3,000 euros ($3,385) to come up onto the top deck with his wife and two-year-old son.
    Last week, 49 people died in another boat's hold after inhaling poisonous fumes, and on Wednesday 21 people are thought to have died after a dinghy with 145 on board got into difficulty, Fleming said.
    The European search and rescue operation FRONTEX had saved tens of thousands of lives this year, but EU countries must do more to act together to deal with the problem, which UNHCR has repeatedly said would be manageable with the right action.
    Fleming said there were legal alternatives to the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean - resettlement and humanitarian admission, with eased visa rules and family reunification.
    "We reiterate our call on European countries to approach the refugee and the migrant crisis in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation and provide those seeking safety in Europe, safe, legal alternatives to these dangerous, irregular journeys. These legal avenues we've been repeating them over and over again and I would like to again repeat them now," she said.
    "They already exist but they are way too few for the numbers of people," she added.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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