More than 4,400 immigrants have died at the frontiers of Europe between 1988 and 2005, with 1,769 people alone dying in the Sicilian channel between Libya, Tunisia, Malta and Italy.

According to internet blog Fortress Europe, whose team of writers compiled a database of deaths using articles from Italian, English, French and Spanish newspapers, 4,468 immigrants died at the frontiers of Europe from 1988 to 2005, 1,949 of them in the last three years. Over 1,000 bodies have not been recovered.

The blog’s data cover not only deaths at sea but include immigrants who died while crossing deserts and mountain ranges.

The compiled data show that the most common factor of death is drowning in Mediterranean waters. Between 1988 and 2005, at least 3,342 people died, 2,080 of them in the last four years. A total of 1,117 bodies – one out of three – were never recovered.

There are four hot spots in the Mediterranean Sea. One of them is the Sicilian Channel, the route from Libya and Tunisia towards Malta, Lampedusa and the coast of Sicily.

A second route is from Western Africa and from the Maghreb, where immigrants move from Morocco towards Spain, crossing Gibraltar or in the direction of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

Then there are those who emigrate by sea from the Middle East across the Aegean Sea to go from Turkey to Greece. The fourth hot spot is in the Adriatic, between Albania and Montenegro on one side and Italy on the other.

Fortress Europe said that fatalities did not only occur in Mediterranean waters. Immigrants also travelled on land and at times by aircraft.

Since 1995, according to their research, 213 people who were travelling towards the European seaports – hidden in trucks or inside containers held in cargo ships – died of asphyxia or crushing.

Cases were reported in Albania, France, Germany, Greece, England, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Spain and Hungary.

The worst accident recorded was on 18 June 2000, when 58 bodies were found in an empty refrigerator-truck in Dover, England. Twenty people died after falling on the Channel Tunnel’s tracks or were electrocuted climbing the electric fences of the French terminal. In rare, but remarkable cases, they hid themselves in the trailer compartments of aircraft flying to Europe: five people died in this way, said Fortress Europe.

More statistics compiled by the blog’s team show that 133 died of dehydration trying to cross the Sahara towards Mediterranean areas – leaving Libya or Western Africa, and passing through Mali or Niger.

Fortress Europe said that at least 77 people lost their lives in the minefields on the north-eastern edge between Greece and Turkey, and 33 were frozen to death or starved while crossing the mountains that mark the borders of Greece, Turkey, Italy and Slovakia.

Fifty-one people drowned while crossing the rivers which are natural borders between Croatia and Bosnia, Turkey and Greece, Slovakia and Austria and Slovenia and Italy.

Fortress Europe statistics

• 1,769 people died in the Sicilian channel between Libya, Tunisia, Malta and Italy, including 976 missing;

• 472 people died in the Adriatic Sea between Albania, Montenegro and Italy, including 136 missing;

• 396 people died in the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, including 164 missing;

• 1,067 people died between Morocco and Spain, through the Straits of Gibraltar or off the Canary islands, including 234 missing;

• A total of 361 people were found dead in Albania, France, Germany, Greece, Turkey, UK, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Spain and Hungary;

• At least 560 people were killed during the xenophobic riots in the northwestern Libyan city of Zawiyah that erupted in September 2000;

• 133 people died of dehydration trying to cross the Sahara towards the Mediterranean sea, from Sudan to Libya or from Western Africa to Algeria through Mali and Niger;

• 88 people died in the minefields along the Turkish Greek border;

• 51 people drowned crossing rivers delineatng the frontier between Croatia and Bosnia, Turkey and Greece, Slovakia and Austria and Slovenia and Italy.