Geneva - IOM released of
“Fatal Journeys: Tracking Lives Lost During Migration,” the world’s most comprehensive
tally to date of migrant fatalities across land and sea.
With a count
surpassing 40,000 victims since 2000, IOM calls on all the world’s governments
to address what it describes as “an epidemic of crime and victimization.”
“Our message is
blunt: migrants are dying who need not,” said IOM Director General William Lacy
Swing, “It is time to do more than count the number of victims. It is time to
engage the world to stop this violence against desperate migrants.”
The research behind
“Fatal Journeys,” which runs to over 200 pages, began with the October 2013
tragedy when over 400 migrants died in two shipwrecks near the Italian island
of Lampedusa.
The report, compiled
under IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, indicates Europe is the world’s most
dangerous destination for “irregular” migration, costing the lives of over
3,000 migrants this year.
Calculations based on
incidents compiled by The Migrants Files, a joint project conducted under the
aegis of Journalism++ , suggests over 22,000 migrants have died trying to reach
Europe since 2000, mainly on treacherous routes across the Mediterranean Sea.
Besides counting
fatalities, the Missing Migrants Project is part of a broader effort to use
social media to engage communities around the world.
With this month’s
Malta shipwreck tragedy, IOM offices worldwide received calls and emails from
family members across Europe and the Middle East seeking news about their
missing relatives, many of whom are now feared dead.
Going forward, the
Missing Migrants Project will lend a powerful voice of deterrence to keep
future victims from embarking on these dangerous journeys.
“People are already
looking for information about missing migrants on Facebook. We know as well
that people are trafficked around the world using Facebook and other social
media,” says IOM spokesperson Leonard Doyle.
“We want to turn
#MissingMigrants into a powerful voice to warn future migrants against taking
these high risk journeys. It is not doing it with a poster or a radio spot, but
with the most persuasive means out there - the voices of survivors and the
family members of missing migrants,” he adds.
”Fatal Journeys”
notes that since 2000 nearly 6,000 more migrant deaths occurred along the
U.S.-Mexico border and another 3,000 deaths from such diverse migration routes
as Africa’s Sahara Desert and the waters of the Indian Ocean.
The true number of
fatalities is likely to be considerably higher. “Fatal Journeys” uses
statistical data compiled by governments and other agencies, as well as NGOs
and media sources, but collecting data on migrant deaths has never been a
priority for most governments around the world.
“Although vast sums
of money are spent collecting migration and border control data, very few
agencies collect and publish data on migrant deaths,” says IOM Head of Research
Frank Laczko.
Many deaths occur in
remote regions of the world and are never recorded. No organization at the
global level is currently responsible for systematically monitoring the number
of deaths which occur.
According to Laczko,
data tends to be scattered, with a range of organizations involved in tracking
fatalities. Some experts now believe that for every dead body discovered, there
are at least two others that are never recovered.
IOM believes the
publication of “Fatal Journeys” will begin to provide some clarity to what many
consider to be a growing epidemic of crime against migrants. It represents an
initial step towards a more comprehensive accounting of what is happening to
the victims and a wake-up call for governments.
“The paradox is that
a time when one in seven people around the world are migrants, we are seeing an
extraordinarily harsh response to migration in the developed world,” says IOM
Director General Swing.
“Limited
opportunities for safe and regular migration drive would-be migrants into the
hands of smugglers, feeding an unscrupulous trade that threatens the lives of
desperate people. We need to put an end to this cycle. Undocumented migrants
are not criminals. They are human beings in need of protection and assistance,
and deserving respect,” he adds.
To download “Fatal
Journeys,” please go to: http://www.iom.int/files/live/sites/iom/files/pbn/docs/Fatal-Journeys-Tracking-Lives-Lost-during-Migration-2014.pdf
For more statistical
data from The Migrant Files, please go to: https://www.detective.io/detective/the-migrants-files/
For more information
on “Fatal Journeys,” please contact IOM HQ:
Frank Laczko, Tel:
+41 22 717 94 16, Mobile: +41 079 352 6438, Email: flaczko@m.int;
Leonard Doyle Tel:
+41 79 285 71 23, Email: ldoyle@iom.int;
Christiane Berthiaume
Tel: +41 79 285 4366, Email: cberthiaume@iom.int;
Joel Millman, Tel: 41
22 717 9486, Tel. 41 79 103 87 20, Email: jmillman@iom.int
Or Flavio di Giacomo
at IOM Rome, Tel: +39 347 089 8996, Email: fdigiacomo@iom.int
29/09/2014
