With a new and large-scale boat tragedy reported on
the
Mediterranean
, UNHCR is today appealing afresh to
governments across the region to prioritize the saving of lives, including by
urgently expanding and upgrading search and rescue capacities.
The latest incident involves the capsizing of a
double-deck boat on Monday in waters about 120 kilometres south of Lampedusa.
142 people have been rescued and 8 bodies recovered. But some 400 others said
by survivors to have been aboard are feared lost.
“I was deeply shocked when hearing the news that
another boat, an overcrowded boat capsized in the
Mediterranean
and where four hundred people died. This
only demonstrates how important it is to have a robust rescue-at-sea mechanism
in the central
Mediterranean
,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees
António Guterres. “Unfortunately Mare Nostrum was never replaced by an
equivalent capacity to rescue people, and at the same time the legal avenues
for those who need protection to be able to come
Europe
.”
The Mare Nostrum Operation was a major search and
rescue effort on the
Mediterranean
established by
Italy
following the Lampedusa disasters of
October 2013 in which hundreds of lives were lost in two boat incidents. It was
ended in December 2014.
The
Mediterranean
has emerged in recent years as the most dangerous of
the world’s four major sea routes in use by refugees and migrants. The other
three main routes involve the Bahamas & Caribbean, the Red Sea & Gulf
of Aden, and the
Bay
of Bengal
. In
2014, 219,000 refugees and migrants crossed the
Mediterranean
, and at least 3500 lives were lost.
So far in 2015, some 31,500 people are known to have
made crossings to
Italy
and
Greece
– the first and second largest countries
of arrival respectively. And numbers have recently been picking up further.
According to the Italian Coast Guard more than 8,500 people have been rescued
from several dozen boats and rubber dinghies since 10 April. If the 400 deaths
are confirmed from the latest incident the death toll so far this year will
have reached 900.
High Commissioner Guterres, who is currently on
mission in
Beirut
, said: “I am here in
Lebanon
and we know that Syrians are more and
more risking their lives to have access to European territories. But for all
those in need of protection it is very important to increase the number of
resettlement opportunities, humanitarian admission opportunities, to have a
more flexible visa policy, to have enhanced family reunification programmes,
and again I repeat to have an effective mechanism to rescue people at sea in
the central
Mediterranean
."
UNHCR has been advocating for a comprehensive and
urgent response from the European Union and
Member
States
to deal with the challenges posed by the
thousands of refugees and migrants who risk their lives trying to reach
Europe
. UNHCR has shared specific proposals,
including establishing a European robust search and rescue operation, a
possible EU scheme to compensate shipping companies involved in rescuing people
at sea, increasing credible legal alternatives to dangerous voyages – such as
resettlement, humanitarian visas, and other innovative solutions – and a pilot
relocation programme for Syrians refugees arriving to Italy and Greece.