More than 2,200 people died in Mediterranean in 2024, UN finds
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Figure includes hundreds of children, who make up one in five migrants trying to reach Europe fleeing war and poverty. More than 2,200 people either died or went missing in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe in search of refuge in 2024. The figure, cited in a statement from Regina De Dominicis, the regional director for Europe and central Asia for the UN’s children’s agency, Unicef, was eclipsed on New Year’s Eve when 20 people were reported missing after falling into the sea when a boat started to take in water in rough seas about 20 miles off the coast of Libya.
Despite the waves, seven people, including an eight-year-old Syrian boy, managed to continue the journey on the tilting vessel before being found by an Italian police patrol boat on Tuesday night close to the southern island of Lampedusa. The 6-metre boat had left Zuwara in Libya at 10pm on Monday and started to take in water about five hours later, creating panic and causing 20 passengers to fall overboard, according to witness statements provided by the six adult survivors.
In a separate incident on Monday, two people, including a five-year-old child, died and 17 survived after the vessel they were on broke down off the northern Tunisian coastline during an attempt to reach Europe. De Dominicis said: “The death toll and number of missing persons in the Mediterranean in 2024 have now surpassed 2,200, with nearly 1,700 lives lost on the central Mediterranean route alone.
