Two Years on from Lampedusa Tragedy, Reflecting on Mediterranean Deaths
Tomorrow, October3, Italy’s Mediterranean island of Lampedusa will observe the second anniversary of a tragedy that took the lives of 368 migrants. Most of those who died had fled Eritrea and were attempting to sail to Europe via Libya. In sheer numbers, that tragedy has been surpassed several times in the 730 days since rescuers brought survivors to Lampedusa, whose name has become synonymous with the fatal passage of migrants from Africa and the Middle East seeking new lives in Europe. Single day death tolls of 400 or more fatalities have occurred several times in each of the last two years. The International Organization for Migration’s research unit today calculates that in the two years since the October 2013 tragedy, another 6,584 migrants have perished in the Mediterranean.
Unfortunately, deaths of migrants seeking to get to Europe by crossing the Mediterranean have been on the rise in 2015.
KJ