GENEVA, OCTOBER 2 – Over 1,000 refugees and migrants have died or gone missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea so far this year, the sixth year in a row that this “bleak milestone” has been reached, according to UNHCR.
A shipwreck off the coast of Morocco at the weekend claimed at least 12 lives, although the final death toll could be as high as 40. Nearly 300 people have died this year on the Western Mediterranean route from Morocco towards Spain.
However, the majority of deaths – some 65 per cent– have occurred in the Central Mediterranean as people attempted to reach Italy or Malta from Libya. More than 18,000 people have lost their lives in the Mediterranean since 2014, remarked the UN refugee agency.
Europeans want protections for refugees, but with limits and conditions.
A study of public views on asylum and refugee policies in eight EU Member States has found that Europeans are most likely to support policies that prioritize conditional and limited protection for asylum-seekers and refugees. Researchers at the European University Institute and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy found similar preferences for protection with limits and conditions in all eight countries surveyed. Commenting on the findings, co-author Martin Ruhs of the EUI’s Migration Policy Centre said: “Policy makers should take note that people across Europe are more united than divided on this issue”. Asylum policy will be on the agenda at a meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg next week.(@OnuItalia)