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365 drown in Mediterranean in last 3 days

November 19, 2016 at 1:17 pm

At least 365 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean in the last three days after six boats sank, the International Migration Organisation (IOM) said yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference held in Geneva, IOM spokesman Leonard Doyle said that this number brings the death toll so far this year to 4,636, already – 1,000 more than in 2015.

“We are seeing really tragic scenes of rubber rafts going under the seas in the middle of winter in the Mediterranean,” he said, noting that migrants, mainly from West Africa, are taking to the sea from Libya in an attempt to reach Italy and mainland Europe, where they have little hope of being granted asylum.

He also said that there have been some 343,589 arrivals in Europe so far this year versus 728,926 last year, according to IOM figures.

“The migrants who are passing are primarily, sadly for them, going to end up as rejected asylum seekers, as the vast majority of them have their claims rejected. So they would possibly fall into the category of economic migrants,” he said.

The route between Turkey and Greece has been “effectively sealed off” since a deal between the European Union and Turkey last March, Doyle said.

The Turkish navy said that the number of illegal migrants declined by 87 per cent after the Turkish-EU deal.