Migrant deaths in the Mediterranean could reach 30,000 this year if the current rate continues, the International Organisation for Migration said today.
IOM spokesman Joe Millman told reporters in Geneva that the 2015 death toll now is more than 30 times last year’s total at this date, when just 56 deaths of migrants had been reported in the Mediterranean. "IOM now fears the 2014 total of 3,279 migrant [deaths] on the Mediterranean may be surpassed this year in a matter of weeks, and could well top 30,000 by the end of the year, based on the current death toll. It could actually be even higher."
More than 1,700 migrants are believed to have died so far in 2015. The United Nations believes that the sinking of a boat with 700 to 900 people aboard was one of the deadliest sea tragedies ever recorded.
The Tunisian captain of the boat survived and has been accused in Italy of reckless multiple homicide. Prosecutors there allege Mohammed Ali Malek, 27, steered his heavily overloaded boat into collision with a merchant vessel coming to its rescue. The smuggler captain, Tunisian Mohammed Ali Alek, steered his heavily overloaded boat into collision with a Porthugese ship that went to the rescue, prosecutors in Italy say. His first mate, 25-year-old Syrian Mahmud Bikhit, also survived and faces unspecified charges.
About 350 on board were believed to be Eritreans, with refugees from other nations including Syria, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia and Bangladesh.
Out of all the passengers, only 28 people were rescued. 24 dead bodies were yesterday brought to Malta and will be buried on Thursday.
The BBC reported today that the UN refuge agency has now interviewed most of the survivors.
The EU yesterday agreed on a ten-point package to try to ease the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. They include an increase in the financial resources of Frontex, the border agency runs the EU's Mediterranean rescue service Triton, and an extension of Triton's operational area. There will also be a new campaign to destroy traffickers' boats.