UN: Over 3,000 Africans Died, Missing While Crossing to Europe in 2021

No fewer than 3,000 refugees, migrants and asylum seekers died or went missing last year while trying to reach Europe through the Mediterranean and Atlantic sea routes, a United Nations refugee agency report has shown.

The UN, which noted that last year’s number of casualties was the highest toll in recent years, lamented that the number had continued to rise, even as the record of those that died or got missing along land routes was not included.

Thousands of Africans take long, perilous journeys to Europe each year often traversing the Sahara desert and leaving the North African shores on small, inflatable boats fleeing hardship or seeking a better life.

Last year, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) reported 3,077 people as dead or missing, nearly double the 2020 toll, a Reuters report stated.

“We are seeing the increases soar,” UNHCR’s Shabia Mantoo told a news briefing, describing it as “alarming.”

UNHCR began releasing consolidated tolls in 2019 and the number of lives lost has risen each year.

So far in 2022, 553 are reported dead or missing and consistent with previous years, most have died on the Central Mediterranean route, the data showed.

The tolls do not include those lost along land routes such as through the punishing Sahara Desert nor those lost in smuggler-run detention centres where survivors have reported sexual violence and forced marriage and labour.