IOM says refugee death toll nears 7,200 in 2016
The number of refugees feared to have died this year has approached the figure of 7,200, showing more than a 20-percent increase compared to 2015, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The organization said on Friday that 7,189 refugees had either died or remained missing on the routes taken by asylum-seekers around the world.
The IOM said on average 20 refugees die each day.
Another 200 to 300 people could perish by the end of the year if the trend continues, the Geneva-based IOM warned.
The perilous sea routes across the Mediterranean remain by far the world's deadliest, the IOM said, adding that half of those deaths are related to the routes across the Mediterranean.
As of late Thursday, the IOM said 4,812 people had lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea trying to reach the European countries of Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Spain since the beginning of 2016.
The IOM said this number was likely already outdated, pointing to information it had received on Friday indicating that another 88 people were feared missing after a boat carrying 114 was reported sunk off the coast of Zawiya in Libya.
In 2015, 3,567 people had died trying to cross the Mediterranean.
The surge this year in the refugees’ death toll comes amid a drop by more than half in the number of refugees who arrived on the European continent, falling from 883,393 in 2015 to only 357,249 this year, the IOM said.
There has been a surge in the number of refugees dying along the routes in northern and southern Africa, Central and Latin America and at the United States-Mexico border, the IOM said.
The refugees’ deaths are due to unworthy sea vessels, accidents and attacks, in addition to the lack of medicine, shelter, food and water during their journey.
The IOM said the death toll is most probably much higher as many incidents go unrecorded.
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