45,000 migrants risked perilous journey in 2013

Wednesday,January 29, 2014

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GENEVA: Some 45,000 migrants braved the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to seek refuge in Europe in 2013, the International Organisation for Migration said on Tuesday.

Most of the migrants were fleeing war or abuses in Syria, Eritrea and Somalia, said the inter-governmental organisation. While the figure was down from 2011, when 63,000 undertook the journey, it was a sharp jump from the 13,000 recorded in 2012.

“What these figures tell us is that in 2013, there were more people fleeing wars and dictatorial regimes,” IOM spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume told reporters. The overwhelming majority of migrants headed to the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Sicily while a smaller proportion went to Malta. Some 11,300 of those who crossed last year were from war-torn Syria, while 9,800 came from Eritrea, whose regime repeatedly faces international condemnation of its human rights record.

And 3,200 were from Somalia, which has been gripped by violence for decades. The risks of crossing the Mediterranean in rickety and overloaded smugglers’ boats were underlined last October when 336 migrants died in a shipwreck off Lampedusa, most of them Eritreans.

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