After an arduous and perilous journey, the search and rescue ship "Geo Barents" operated by Doctors Without Borders, docked in the port of Palermo, Italy, with 367 irregular migrants on board. While the Greek authorities managed to rescue 20 others, 7 remained missing.
The migrants were boarding wooden boats and rubber boats to cross the Mediterranean, among them 172 minors, all coming from Libya.
According to Italian Interior Ministry statistics, more than 53,000 migrants have arrived at Italian ports as of last Thursday, which is double the number of migrants who arrived in Italy in 2020.
This comes at a time when data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees indicated that the number of migrants who died or went missing while trying to reach Europe reached about 1,300 illegal immigrants.
53,000 migrants have arrived on the Italian coast since the beginning of the year (Reuters)
rescue and search
The Greek authorities, in turn, were able to rescue 20 migrants off the coast of the island of Chios in eastern Greece, after the sinking of a speedy rubber boat carrying them from Turkey.
At the same time, rescue teams began searching for 7 migrants who are still missing at sea with the support of the Frontex Agency for the Protection of the European Union's borders. They used a helicopter and two coast guard ships, as well as private boats, in search of survivors.
Greece was a major transit point for refugees and migrants seeking to enter the European Union between 2015 and 2016.
However, the number of arrivals has decreased significantly over the past two years due to the tightening of beach control procedures.
Many irregular migrants come from countries in the Middle East and Africa (Reuters)
Conflicts and repercussions
The worsening economic conditions, conflicts and wars in several countries in the Middle East have forced many to search for irregular ways to migrate to more stable countries.
According to some statistics circulated by countries and institutions regarding the number of regular immigrants, the number of immigrants in Germany in October alone amounted to about 4,898 irregular immigrants.
The German authorities say that this number represents more than half of the number of arrivals to Germany this year, noting that no less than 6,100 immigrants from Middle Eastern countries arrived in Germany through what they called the new immigration route from Belarus through Poland.
Immigration boats, sometimes called death boats, reflect the danger to which migrants can be exposed.
According to the estimates of the International Organization for Migration, there are about 554 migrants who died at sea in 2020. This size in the number of victims is much lower than in previous years. In 2015, for example, the number of people who died in migrant boats reached more than 3000 people.