Death on the Border: Summer 2017, Fatalities are Up
Migrant fatalities recorded on the US-Mexico border, 2014-2017
A new briefing from the Berlin-based Missing Migrants Project (MMP) at International Office for Migration’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre shows that migrants crossing the United States-Mexico border are dying at a faster rate in 2017 than in past years.
Reported MMP’s Julia Black this week: “Some 232 migrant fatalities have been recorded in the first seven months of 2017, an increase of 17 per cent compared with the 204 deaths recorded between January and July 2016.”
Black added: “Fifty bodies were recorded as discovered in July, the most recorded in any month so far this year,” explaining that these remains were located across the border region. “Nine were recorded in various locations along the Río Grande
Fifteen more were recovered in Arizona’s Pima County, a notoriously dangerous crossing, where seasonal temperatures regularly soar well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit between May and September. So far in 2017, 96 bodies have been recovered in Pima County.
KJ
Note the increasing deaths in the summer months as the conditions in the desert are extreme and dangerous.
KJ