AFRICA INTERNATIONAL (PEOPLES DISPATCH)

UN: More Than 2,500 People Lost or Dead Crossing Mediterranean Thus Far in 2023

18 October 2023
Godfred Meba
69 Comments
        

Read Time: 2 minutes

According to a September 29 article by Al Jazeera, the United Nations has said that more than 2,500 migrants and refugees have gone missing or lost their lives trying to cross into Europe across the Mediterranean in in 2023. This is a nearly 50 percent increase in the number of refugees missing or dead compared to the same period in 2022, based on the figures in the article.

“We continue to bear witness to the tragedies of lives lost at sea and on land routes with no end in sight,” said Ruven Menikdiwela, the director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in New York.

She pointed to incidents of racism in and expulsions from North African countries as well as other oppressions experienced “in a broader context of deterioration in the security situations of several countries neighboring North Africa,” which has led to an increase in the number of refugees making their way to Europe. According to Menikdiwela, about 186,000 migrants arrived in southern Europe by sea from January to September 24, 2023. Al Jazeera reported that 83 percent of them landed in Italy. Europe, which has one of the world’s highest standards of living, continues to be a destination of choice for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Africa. However, European countries, also known colloquially as “Fortress Europe,” have made migrating to the continent more difficult. Partly as a result, the people attempting to reach there “risk death and gross human rights violations at every step,” said Menikdiwela, according to Al Jazeera

By Saurav Sarkar

Author Bio: Saurav Sarkar is a freelance writer and editor who covers political activism and labor movements. They live in Long Island, New York, and have also lived in New York City, New Delhi, London, and Washington, D.C. Follow them on Twitter @sauravthewriter and at sauravsarkar.com.

Credit Line: from the Globetrotter News Service


        

69 thoughts on “UN: More Than 2,500 People Lost or Dead Crossing Mediterranean Thus Far in 2023”

  2. AquaSculpt contains 100% natural and safe ingredients. It is therefore completely safe, effective, and natural. AquaSculpt is used daily by thousands of people. There have been no reported side effects.

    Reply

  69. What struck me most was how the article frames the Mediterranean route as not just “dangerous” in abstraction, but as a place where lives—real people with hopes, families, stories—are being lost because of the decisions they feel forced into. The piece makes it clear that beyond conflict and poverty many are responding to “no other choice,” and that makes the risk all the more urgent.

    I also appreciated how the article doesn’t shy away from the structural issues: the lack of safe legal pathways, the role of smuggling networks, inadequate rescue infrastructure—and how all these factors combine to turn migration into a perilous gamble. That kind of context is essential because it reminds us this is less about “illegal migration” in the cliché sense, and far more about desperation meeting opportunity—and failing catastrophically.

    One thing I came away thinking: reading statistics like “2,500 dead or missing” is heartbreaking, but behind it are probably many more unrecorded cases. The article hints at that, and it feels like we need to grasp both the numbers and the human stories they represent. The tragedy of each crossing carries implications: for policy, for humanitarian aid, and for how we talk about migration globally.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *