More than 2,000 migrant deaths in 2015

Over 2,000 migrants died this year on their perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe, confirming this as the world's most dangerous migrant route, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday. The IOM warned that the situation was worsening.

188,000 migrants were rescued this year trying to cross the Mediterranean, according to the IOM. Migrants arrived in Greece and Italy by boat in roughly equal numbers, but nearly all the deaths in 2015 occurred on the route from Libya to the Italian island of Sicily. The IOM stated that traffickers taking people to Italy tended to use more unseaworthy vessels, which lead to a higher death toll.

Last week alone, nineteen people lost their lives in the Channel of Sicily. On Monday, 550 migrants rescued from the Mediterranean over the weekend arrived in Sicily aboard a ship operated by the aid organization Doctors Without Borders.

"It is unacceptable that in the 21 century people fleeing from conflict, persecution, misery and land degradation must endure such terrible experiences in their home countries, not to mention en route, and then die on Europe's doorstep," said IOM Director General William Lacy Swig.

IOM spokesman Itayi Virri told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that increased EU efforts to rescue migrants at sea meant "a lot of people have been saved who otherwise would have lost their lives." According to the IOM, the expanded EU sea patrol mission Triton led to a significant reduction of death rates at sea, but more needed to be done.

das/jil (AFP, dpa)