By Marco Zoppi

Last October has sadly recorded two¹ shipwrecks in the Sicilian Channel which claimed the lives of at least 373 migrants that were trying to reach the shores of the Italian tiny island of Lampedusa. The death toll is even destined to grow, since some 180 migrants are still lost at sea. Lampedusa is one of the gateways to Europe, together with Greece’s eastern border as well as Spain’s Melilla and Canary Islands. Places which became bitterly known due to perilous sea crossings, since as many as 19,300 people had never arrived alive to their oversea destination, the European Union. In the sole Sicilian channel, more than 7,000 migrants either died (1847) or are still registered as missing (5218) since 1994.

In the aftermath of the two latest harsh episodes of this chapter of human tragedy’s book, which is yet also a chapter on human being’s courageousness, dignity and hope, my article is meant to reflects on a number of facts, in order to argue that things are currently getting worse for migrants. Namely, there is a considerable increase of risks connected to the sea crossing in the Sicilian Channel.

Firstly, I looked at sea crossing statistics². It is not pleasant at all to work on calculations about those who have endangered their lives trying to achieve better life conditions: escaping political regimes, civil wars, religious persecution, poverty in their original countries. Nevertheless, these figures may represent a valid step towards the demarcation of problems and the elaboration of viable solutions.

I accessed available data since 2002 on deaths reported in the Sicilian channel and I have subsequently divided them into three temporal groups, made up of four years each:

With reference to the side chart, it is important to note a number of things. Firstly, figures for 2013 only includes ascertained deaths, in a hopeful wait for more rescuing of alive migrants at sea. If we include into the count migrants who are still believed missing, at the beginning of December we would basically have the same amount of perished migrants as for the period 2006-2009.

Secondly, there is a marked disproportion between the overall period 2002-2013 and previous years. Although I have no detailed year-par-year data for 1994-2001, the total number of fatalities/missing migrants corresponding is reported to be 842. Therefore, the
period between 2002-09 has seen a +457% fatalities increment in respect to the previous eight years. Obviously, these data do not make much sense if total migrant arrivals are not considered also. Let’s analyse it within a more comprehensive chart^3.

Read the Full Report: EU and Migrants

Marco Zoppi
WardheerNews contributor
Email:marcozoppi@hotmail.it