Ruven Menikdiwela, Director of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in New York, has disclosed that between January and September 24, 2023, over 2,500 people seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Europe have died or gone missing.

This marks a significant increase from the 1,680 people who died or were missing during the same period in 2022, Menikdiwela told the U.N. Security Council.

She added that the UNHCR estimates that over 102,000 refugees and migrants from Tunisia, which is a 260% increase from last year, and over 45,000 from Libya tried to cross the central Mediterranean to Europe between January and August.

Menikdiwela disclosed that the high departure rates from Tunisia “result from the perception of insecurity among refugee communities, following incidents of racially motivated attacks and hate speech, as well as collective expulsions from Libya and Algeria.”

UNHCR faces restrictions in Libya where it has registered 50,000 refugees and asylum seekers and “the conditions of thousands of refugees and migrants in both official and unofficial detention facilities…remain of grave concern,” she said.

About 31,000 people were rescued at sea or intercepted, and disembarked in Tunisia while 10,600 disembarked in Libya, Menikdiwela said.

She also said that about 186,000 migrants and refugees arrived in southern Europe so far this year, the vast majority in Italy.

Of the 186,000 who had crossed the Mediterranean and made it to southern Europe, over 130,000, arrived in Italy; an increase of 83% compared to the same period in 2022, she said.

Other countries where people who had crossed the Mediterranean had landed included Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Malta.

The UNHCR figures were similar to those presented by Par Liljert, Director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Liljert also highlighted “the dire conditions facing migrants and refugees” seeking to cross the Mediterranean.

“Recent IOM data demonstrates that from January to September 2023, more than 187,000 individuals crossed the Mediterranean in pursuit of a better future and the promise of safety,” Liljert told the Security Council.

“Tragically, during this same period, IOM recorded 2,778 deaths, with 2,093 of them occurring along the treacherous central Mediterranean route,” he said.

“Yet, despite its clear dangers, in 2023, there has been an increase in arrivals to Greece along this route of over 300 percent, while the number of arrivals in Spain has remained steady, primarily through the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands as compared to the numbers recorded at the same time last year.”
Par Liljert

IOM also witnessed a significant increase in arrivals to Italy, with 130,000 so far this year compared with some 70,000 in 2022.

“No End In Sight”

Menikdiwela said that the UN refugee agency saw “no end in sight” to the lives lost at sea and on land routes to Europe, which are similarly dangerous.

The UNHCR official told the council how the land journey from sub-Saharan African countries to sea crossing departure points on the Tunisian and Libyan coasts “remains one of the world’s most dangerous”.

“Lives are also lost on land, away from public attention,” Menikdiwela said.

The migrants and refugees “risk death and gross human rights violations at every step”, she said.