ISSUES
: Our Changing Population
Chapter 2: Global population issues
23
The Mediterranean’s deadliest migration
sea routes
As 400 migrants – including children – are feared to have died after a boat capsized off
Libya, Channel 4 News looks at the desperate journeys migrants are taking to reach Europe.
T
he boat, carrying about 550
migrants in total, flipped 24
hours after leaving the Libyan
coast, according to some of the 150
survivors who were rescued. The
survivors were mostly Sub-Saharan
Africans.
Officials say there has been a marked
rise in the number of people trying to
sail from the north African coast to
Europe, with 8,500 rescued from the
sea since Friday say the UN Refugee
Agency (UNHCR).
With summer approaching, over
500,000 people are waiting to set out
from Libya, according to EU border
agency Frontex. However, migrants
are also using other sea routes to get
to their destinations.
Central Mediterranean
route
This is the name of the migratory
flow coming from northern Africa
towards Italy and Malta through the
Mediterranean Sea. For years, this
route has been an important entry
point for irregular migrants to the EU,
and in 2008, nearly 40,000 of them
were detected.
These were mainly nationals from
Tunisia, Nigeria, Somalia and Eritrea.
However, this movement stopped
almost completely in 2009 after the
Italian Government signed a bilateral
agreement with Libya.
This changed in 2011, when the
eruption of civil unrest in Tunisia and
Libya created a massive spike in the
number of migrants to more than
64,000 along this route.
With the collapse of the Gaddafi
regime in August 2011, the migratory
pressure dropped almost entirely, and
detections in 2012 remained very low.
But the following year saw a second
peak in the departures from Libya.
The dramatic conditions of the
overcrowded boats used by the
migrants were particularly visible in
October 2013, when 366 migrants lost
their lives near Lampedusa when their
boat suddenly capsized.
In 2014, detections in the Central
Mediterranean area reached a
staggering level. More than 170,000
migrants arrived in Italy alone. Many
migrants have come from Libya,
where the lack of rule of law and basic
law enforcement allow smuggling
networks to thrive.
Syrians and Eritreans were the top
two nationalities to have travelled to
Italy by sea, but numerous Africans
coming from Sub-Saharan regions
also use this route.
The increasing number of migrants
departing from northern Africa also
led to an increase in the number
of people who perished at sea.
According to UNHCR, in 2014 some
3,500 migrants lost their lives while
crossing the Mediterranean.
Apulia and Calabria route
This route refers to irregular migration
coming from Turkey and Egypt
and also includes the migratory
movements betweenGreece and Italy.
The types of the vessels detected in
the Ionian Sea are different from the
ones used on other maritime borders
– the smugglers tend to use yachts
rather than fishing boats.
The smugglers on board the sailing
boats are the only people visible
while navigating and are sometimes
accompanied by women in order to
avoid attracting the attention of the
patrolling authorities. All migrants
tend to be hidden below deck
in overcrowded conditions with
insufficient ventilation.
Smuggling networks from Egypt, on
the other hand, typically make use
of larger ‘mother ships.’ Rather than
setting off from Egypt in fishing boats,
the new method sees bigger vessels
carrying larger numbers of migrants,
towing fishing boats behind them.
Once close enough to shore, the
migrants are transferred to the fishing
boats for the remainder of the journey
while the mother ship returns to port.
The main nationalities using this route
include Syrians, but also Afghans,
Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.
In 2014, the smugglers started using
much larger boats from Turkey –
decommissioned cargo vessels
departing mainly from the Turkish port
of Mersin towards Italy. The profits the
smugglers make using this method
are staggering considering that on
average the Syrians are charged
about £5,000 each for the service.
With freighters frequently filled with
as many as 600 people, the revenue
of the smugglers runs into the
millions. Travelling this way not only
circumvents the considerable danger
of capsizing in a small boat in rough
seas: it also avoids having to go to
Libya.
The new route from Turkey is not
without dangers however. The engines
of the old ships are often highly
unreliable. The danger of shipwreck
is greatly increased by the smugglers’
habit of switchingoff the freighter’sAIS
(the Automatic Identification System)
to make the boat electronically
invisible to the authorities but also to
other boats and vessels navigating on
the Mediterranean Sea.
On numerous occasions, the crew
would set the vessels on autopilot
and either abandon the boat or hide
among other passengers to avoid
arrest.
15 April 2015
Ö
Ö
The above information is
reprinted with kind permission
from Channel 4 News. Please
visit
for
further information.
© Channel 4 2015
