- Title: Migrant death toll in Mediterranean tops 1,000 for 6th year - UNHCR
- Date: 1st October 2019
- Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (OCTOBER 1, 2019) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNITED NATIONS OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES (UNHCR) SPOKESWOMAN, LIZ THROSSELL, SAYING: "What the U.N. refugee agency is stressing and is calling for is that there must be expanded, continued searching rescue capacity in the Mediterranean to save lives. We are also calling for the European states who have made some potential signs of progress on discussing ways of disembarking people in a reliable and predictable way. We really would say that this is incredibly important. It is important first of all to have the capacity there to save people's lives, to rescue them from the sea and in this the NGO boats have played an incredibly important role and we really stress once again that they should not be stigmatized or criminalized." MESSINA, ITALY (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 24, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS ON OCEAN VIKING RESCUE VESSEL WAITING TO DISEMBARK MIGRANTS DISEMBARKING VARIOUS OF OFFICIALS AND MIGRANTS ON DOCK OCEAN VIKING RESCUE VESSEL DOCKED AT PORT GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (OCTOBER 1, 2019) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNITED NATIONS OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES (UNHCR) SPOKESWOMAN, LIZ THROSSELL, SAYING: "So, first of all you need the capacity to rescue people who were drifting at sea, whose boats are sinking. But once you have rescued them, you need to get them onto dry land and that is why we are underscoring it is so important that there is agreement that the boats can dock, that they can disembark people and then this people can be distributed across Europe. We do welcome some signs of progress and we would really encourage European states to take this forward." VARIOUS OF NEWS BRIEFING IN PROGRESS UNITED NATIONS FLAG FLYING
- Embargoed: 15th October 2019 14:42
- Keywords: sea rescue Mediterranean Sea IOM rescue operations migrant death toll United Nations refugee agency International Organization for Migration refugees Migrants UNHCR
- Location: KHOMS, LIBYA / GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / MESSINA, ITALY
- City: KHOMS, LIBYA / GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / MESSINA, ITALY
- Country: Switzerland
- Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA004AZ9O6KN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: More than 1,000 migrants have died in the Mediterranean Sea this year, the sixth year in a row that that "bleak milestone" has been reached, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday (October 1).
"The figures do show that we have passed the very sad milestone of 1,000 deaths so far in 2019 and that is the sixth year in a row that we have passed 1,000 deaths," UNHCR spokeswoman Liz Throssell told Reuters.
Throssell added that fewer migrants had attempted the perilous journey across the Mediterranean with over 63,000 in 2019 compared to 141,472 in 2018, adding that the numbers show that "the journeys themselves are much more dangerous".
Throssell also underlined the "incredibly important" played by NGO boats in sea rescue operations.
More than 18,000 people have lost their lives in Mediterranean crossings since 2014, according to figures from both the UNHCR and the website of the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration (IOM).
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