Nearly 6,000 immigrants have died at the frontiers of Europe since 1988 as they were seeking refuge in other countries. Of these, 1,883 people alone died in the channel known as the Sicilian channel between Libya, Tunisia, Malta and Italy, according to internet blog Fortress Europe, who has a team of writers compiling a database of deaths using articles appearing on various newspapers.

The figures, which were released yesterday, show that at least 5,742 people died since 1988 along the European frontiers. Among them 1,844 were missing at sea.

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

The figures show that in the Mediterranean Sea, and through the Atlantic Ocean towards Spain, 4,560 immigrants died. In the Sicily channel 1,883 people died along the routes from Libya and Tunisia to Malta and Italy, including 1,099 who are still missing.

More than 1,600 people died sailing from Mauritania, Morocco and Algeria towards Spain, through the Gibraltar strait or off the Canary Islands. 358 of these are still missing.

Nearly 450 people died in the Aegean Sea, between Turkey and Greece, including 208 who are still missing and 474 people died in the Adriatic Sea, between Albania, Montenegro and Italy, including 136 who are still missing.

With regard to stowaways in the trucks or hidden in the containers loaded on the cargo vessels, 370 people were found dead in Albania, France, Germany, Greece, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Spain and Hungary

In the desert, 146 persons died dehydrated while trying to cross the Sahara towards the Mediterranean Sea, from Sudan to Libya as from Western Africa to Algeria through Mali and Niger, Fortress Europe reported.

Eighty-eight people died along the Turkish Greek border. Moreover, 51 people drowned crossing rivers delimiting the frontier between Croatia and Bosnia, Turkey and Greece, Slovakia and Austria and Slovenia and Italy.

Thirty-four people froze to death in their tracks through the icy mountains at the border in Turkey, Greece and Slovakia, while 20 people died under the trains in The Channel tunnel trying to reach England.