5,022 refugee drownings in Mediterranean in 2016

According to the UN refugee agency, 2016 was the deadliest year ever for refugees in the Mediterranean. At this point we can skip the irrelevant distinctions between immigrants & refugees.

The total number of refugee arrivals in 2016 was 361,018: on the Libya to Italy route, there were 180,746 arrivals & on the Turkey to Greece route, there were 173,446 arrivals. For some reason, they are not including, as they used to, the Morocco to Spain refugees who numbered 6,826. Despite Spain’s crackdown on admitting refugees, we know it remains a frequented route for African refugees because today 1,100 of them rushed the razor-wire fences to cross into the Spanish territory of Ceuta & were beaten back by both Moroccan & Spanish border guards. 800 were arrested.

The number of people, including children, who died crossing in 2016 was 5,022, the overwhelming majority of them African refugees from the North African coast.

Compare that to 1,015,078 total arrivals in 2015–nearly three times the number of refugees in 2016. The number of people who drowned was 3,771. Of those who drowned, 2,966 were from the North African coast & 804 were on the Turkey to Greece route.

All those drownings in 2016 whilst Frontex, the EU border patrol, has sophisticated high-tech surveillance & monitoring systems & several European & NATO navies have fleets in both the Aegean & Mediterranean seas.

We can consider the Mediterranean Sea a crime scene.