A boat carrying 300 illegal migrants was intercepted by French naval patrols in the Mediterranean.
The report warns of the risks migrants face on these journeys, including kidnapping and organ harvesting.
The report said routes from West and East Africa north across the Sahara desert are twice as dangerous as the central Mediterranean route, where more than 800 people are believed to have died this year. Conflicts in the arid Sahel region, Sudan, climate change and growing ethnic discrimination are all driving factors for migration.
The report is based on a survey of more than 30,000 migrants in the period 2020-2023. According to Mr. Vincent Cochetel, Special Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in charge of the Western and Central Mediterranean region, and co-author of the report, migrants, whether alive, dead or sick while making this journey, have all been abandoned in the desert. About 18% of respondents said they feared being kidnapped, while the number of people worried about sexual violence (accounting for an increasing number (15%).
The report also found that the number of people risking their lives trying to reach the southern Mediterranean has increased since four years ago, with UNHCR data in Tunisia showing a more than 200% increase in arrivals in 2023 compared to 2020.
Source
Comment (0)