The United Nations Agency for Refugees (UNHCR) identified 90 migrants among those dead or missing in the Central Mediterranean in June. This is equivalent to three people a day, although this figure is likely underestimated as it is based on information collected by personnel present during disembarkation operations on the Italian coasts.
According to data collected by UNHCR staff in the field in June, the number of deaths and the number of persons missing reached 90, equivalent to three per day.
This figure is an underestimation, stresses the UN agency, because it is based only on the information collected by the personnel present during disembarking operations in Italy.
The majority of the victims are those who left on a boat from Bodrum, Turkey.
66 official number of reported deaths, 24 still missing
Among the victims, 12 bodies were identified by the Sea Watch NGO plane called Seabird to the north of Tripoli. The bodies were recovered by the NGO ships Geo Barents and Ocean Viking during the second weekend of the month.
On 17 June 54 survivors disembarked on the isle of Lampedusa. They had survived a shipwreck of a wooden boat coming from Zuwarah, in Libya. Ten bodies suffocated below deck due to the explosion of a petrol tank.
On the same day, 11 survivors from a shipwreck in the Ionian Sea off the southern Italian coastline were disembarked in Roccella Jonica, in Calabria, including one dead body. After the engine exploded, the boat that had left from Bodrum, Turkey, capsized at 110 nautical miles from the Italian coast. The survivors resisted for four days at sea before being rescued. A total of 41 bodies were recovered, while 24 persons are still missing.
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Majority of arrivals registered in Lampedusa
According to the UNHCR, the total number of people who arrived on the Italian coasts in June was slightly under 4,700. This figure aligns with that of the previous month (4,976).
In January, February, March, and April, the number of arrivals was 2,258, 2,301, 6,857, and 4,721, respectively. The people arriving on the Italian coast in June had departed from Libya, Tunisia, and Turkey.
However, in June, Libya was the primary country of departure for sea arrivals in Italy, accounting for 66% of the total number of arrivals.
A total of 61% of those who arrived in June disembarked in Lampedusa. Other ports that registered arrivals included Roccella Ionica, Genoa, Augusta, and Catania.
Since the beginning of the year, the main nationalities of those arriving have been: Bangladesh (21%), Syria (15%), Tunisia (13%), Guinea (8%), Egypt (6%), Pakistan (4%), The Gambia (3%), Mali (3%), Sudan (3%), and the Ivory Coast (3%).
Also read: Almost 95,000 migrants passed through Lampedusa over a year