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Sea migration routes to Europe becoming deadlier, IOM warns
More than 1,100 people have drowned at Europe's maritime borders so far this year, more than double the number from the same period last year
81 people in Malta's search-and-rescue zone on Tuesday. When the Maltese authorities finally launched a rescue this morning, 24 hours after first being alerted to them, they found three people dead
MORE people have died on maritime migration routes into Europe in the first six months of this year than in the same period of 2020, according to research by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
At least 1,146 people have drowned so far this year, which represents “a substantial increase compared with the fatalities recorded in the same period in 2020 (513) and 2019 (674),” says the IOM report published on Tuesday.
The vast majority of the deaths (896) occurred in the Mediterranean Sea, while at least 250 people died in the Atlantic Ocean while trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands and six others during attempts to cross the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece.
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