No fewer than 400 migrants died between January and March 2023 while attempting to cross the Central Mediterranean, according to latest report by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
The Central Mediterranean route – stretching overseas from North Africa to Italy and, to a lesser degree, Malta – is the world’s most dangerous maritime crossing.
IOM, in a statement on Wednesday, stated that the figure was the deadliest in the first quarter on record since 2017.
Although, the UN agency in its Missing Migrants Projects had documented 441 deaths during this period, noting that the true figure is likely to be higher.
Investigations continue into several reports of so-called invisible shipwrecks – cases where boats are reported missing but there are no records of survivors or search and rescue (SAR) operations.
According to IOM, the fate of more than 300 people aboard those vessels remains unclear.
IOM said the rise in deaths comes amidst delays in State-led rescue responses and hindrances to SAR operations carried out by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).
“The persisting humanitarian crisis in the Central Mediterranean is intolerable.
“With more than 20,000 deaths recorded on this route since 2014, I fear that these deaths have been normalised.
States must respond. Delays and gaps in State-led SAR are costing human lives,” IOM Director General, António Vitorino, said.
Delays in State-led rescues were cited as a factor in at least six incidents in the Central Mediterranean, leading to at least 127 fatalities, while the complete absence of response in a seventh case, claimed at least 73 lives.
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