More than 6,000 refugees died on the sea route to Spain in 2023

– International news – Tasnim News Agency According to “Spiegel” weekly newspaper, according to the investigations of an aid organization, more than 6600 people fled to Spain lost their lives last year.

Accordingly, significantly more people died fleeing to Spain across the Mediterranean in 2023 than last year. Most of the deaths occurred on a particular route.

According to aid organization Caminando Fronteras, 6,618 people died last year trying to reach Spain by boat. According to the aid organization, this is more than twice as many as in 2022, when the organization counted 2,390 deaths. In 2021, there were more than 4,000 victims on the route.

The figure presented for victims in 2023 represents a record high since the aid organization began collecting data in 2006. Is. These statistics are based on the information of migrant families and rescue statistics. Figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) are significantly lower. In the past, the international organization has also stated that its own data understates the true number of deaths.

Even if you use the IOM figures, the route between Africa and Spain’s Canary Islands is still one. It is one of the deadliest refugee routes in the world. Refugees often spend days in unseaworthy boats without food or adequate necessities. For example, the roughly 1,600-kilometer crossing from Senegal to the Canary Islands takes about a week in often rough weather and sea conditions.

Spain’s interior ministry says more than 55,000 migrants arrived by boat last year. submitted. Most of these were recorded across the Atlantic Ocean. This means that the number of refugees who entered the country illegally increased by 82% in 2023. This is the highest annual value since 2018. At that time, 64,298 refugees were counted who entered the country illegally.

This significant increase is primarily due to the fact that more people have entered the Canary Islands. According to the data, 39,910 migrants arrived on the islands off the northwest coast of Africa last year, an increase of more than 154 percent since 2022 and more than the previous record of 2006. Since there is more control in the Mediterranean Sea, immigration through the Canary Islands has increased and has become more important in recent years. The past has increased compared to 2022. According to the information, this value has increased by 19.1% to 15,435 people. However, the number of people arriving in the Spanish regions of Ceuta and Melilla dropped by around 46 percent to 1,234.

Melilla and Ceuta share the EU’s only land border with Africa. Therefore, these areas are regularly the destination of people hoping for a better life in Europe.

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