TRIPOLI, Sept 17 (Al Jazeera): Refugees and migrants are dying in the Mediterranean at a quicker rate than last year, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has reported, as rights groups raise alarm over abusive conditions in Libya - now the main country of departure.
While fewer refugees have drowned so far in 2017 compared with the same period a year ago, the number of arrivals has fallen drastically - meaning that those who do set off from the Libyan coast have a greater chance of dying.
At least 2,550 refugees and migrants died from January 1 to September 13, 2017, compared with 3,262 from the same period in 2016, the IOM said - a drop of 22 percent.
However, arrivals to Europe have fallen much more sharply from 293,806 to 128,863 - a year-on-year decrease of 57 per cent.
At this year's rate, one refugee dies for every 50 who make it to Europe. Last year, one person died for every 90 who safely reached Europe.
"The rate of deaths for migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean was almost twice as high in 2017 than in 2016," the IOM said in a recent report.
"Despite considerable policy and media attention and increased search and rescue efforts by a range of actors, the death toll in the Mediterranean has continued to rise … The rate of death increased from 1.2 per cent in the first half of 2016, to 2.1 per cent in the first half of 2017.
Part of this rise is due to the greater proportion of migrants now taking the most dangerous route - that across the Central Mediterranean
"Although fewer migrants crossed the Mediterranean in 2017, a higher percentage of those on this journey perished."
The Central Mediterranean journey, from Libya to Malta or Italy, is now the most active refugee route for refugees.
In March last year, two events slowed the flow of Europe-bound refugees migrating from Turkey and Greece.
First, a string of countries effectively shut the Balkan route which allowed refugees to travel by land from Greece to Western Europe. The EU-Turkey deal also came into effect, pushing hopeful asylum seekers in Greece back to Turkey and closing the Aegean route. Most of those affected were from the Middle East and Asia.
Those attempting to travel to Europe now from Libya are mostly African, Moroccan or Bangladeshi.
"Part of this rise [in the death rate] is due to the greater proportion of migrants now taking the most dangerous route - that across the Central Mediterranean," the IOM report stated.
Smugglers have also made the journey increasingly dangerous, forgoing boats for rubber dinghies, using less fuel and preventing refugees from carrying much drinking water, rights groups told Al Jazeera.
Refugees dying at higher rate in Mediterranean
FE Team | Published: September 18, 2017 00:37:41 | Updated: October 15, 2017 19:48:21
TRIPOLI: Sudanese migrants at a detention centre in Tripoli on Thursday.— Reuters
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