More than 2,200 people died or went missing trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea last year, the The United Nations says. With more European countries supporting success far-right policies aimed at excluding migrantsexperts warn that even more lives could be lost in 2025 without real change.
As revelers rang in the new year across the globe, grim news emerged from the Mediterranean: A small boat traveling from Libya had sunk near the Italian island of Lampedusa, leaving just seven people alive, including an eight-year-old child whose mother was among more than 20 people reported missing.
It is a very common story in the area, where countless ships carry migrants trying to cross the waters to Europe. Many do not complete their journey. Nearly 1,700 people were killed or went missing in 2024 along the central Mediterranean route, which stretches from North Africa to Italy and Malta.
The deaths come after a year of growing crackdowns on civilian lifeboats in the Mediterranean, as well as an effort by Italy's hardline government to remove asylum seekers to Albania.
Michael Gordon, a researcher at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ont., said non-governmental organizations that conduct search and rescue operations have become an “easy scapegoat” for authorities who are overwhelmed by the flow of migrants.
“The result of this crime (is) … there are fewer assets out at sea helping migrants in distress. And as a result, people will continue to die,” he said in an interview by CBC News.
more than 31,000 migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations agency.
The death toll in 2024 includes “hundreds of children, who make up one in five people who migrate through the Mediterranean Sea,” Regina De Dominicis , UNICEF regional director for Europe and Central Asia and special coordinator for the refugee and migration response in Europe, said in report Last week. “Most are fleeing from violent conflict and poverty.”
'Widespread crime' of civilian rescue boats
Growing anti-immigration sentiment is making these crossings more dangerous, according to experts and human rights groups.
In 2023, Italy made it illegal for search and rescue NGOs to carry out more than one rescue at a time, meaning ships would have to ignore any other distress calls they received, or risk a hefty fine and keep their ships.
In November, the German non-governmental organization Sea-Watch filed criminal complaint against Italian authorities over a shipwreck in September that killed 21 people, alleging that he had notified the Italian coastguard of a boat in distress but that a rescue vessel had not been dispatched put in for two days.
Italian authorities also regularly designate distant ports for NGO rescue ships. Last month, SOS Méditerranée, an international rescue organization, shared on social media that it was had to travel more than 1,600 kilometers for several days to bring 162 survivors to safety after Italian authorities ignored complaints for a closer port of entry.
“We are being punished for simply fulfilling our legal duty to save lives,” said Juan Matias Gil, a representative with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders, in report after his rescue ship issued a 60-day detention order in August.
This “widespread criminalization” of unnecessary civilian rescue operations is putting lives at risk, said researcher Gordon, who also works with Wilfrid Laurier University's International Migration Research Centre.
“I think this is also very much linked to the rise of far-right governments in Europe.”
Immigrants come in large numbers in Italy
The policies of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was elected in 2022 on an anti-immigration platform, brought results to her government in 2024. Just over 66,000 migrants arrived in Italy by boat last year , down about 60 percent from the country's 157,000 arrivals in 2023 The Ministry of the Interior reports.
The number of deaths and disappearances in the Mediterranean – already a lower estimate, as many boats disappear without a trace during the crossing – fell by about 28 percent in in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to IOM data.
“The fact that there are fewer people coming in does not mean that we have fewer risks,” Nicola Dell'Arciprete, UNICEF's country coordinator for migration and refugee response in Italy, told CBC News .
Dell'Arciprete has worked with children who have fled war, extreme poverty or political upheaval. Many come without parents or guardians.
“They are really running from a nightmare,” he said. “The factors that push people towards Europe are not changing much.”
Reducing migrant deaths requires more investment in reception centres, emergency plans for high arrival times, safer and legal routes for immigration and strengthened search and rescue operations, Dell'Arciprete said, adding that it is the question of whether there is “political will. move along those lines.”
This year, European countries will be evaluating their regulations to plan for implementing the new thing European Union Agreement on Asylum and Migration. The deal, the first update to Europe's asylum laws in two decades, was agreed in 2024 but will not see full implementation until 2026.
The EU pays countries to control migrants
Italy and the EU have focused heavily on countries of origin for migration control. The EU delivered ten million euros of aid to him Tunisia in 2023 to boost border controls and stop migrant boats from leaving its shores, he wrote 7.4 billion euro contract ($11 billion Cdn) to strengthen “stability” in Egypt, with a focus on migration control.
Meloni played a key role in securing the Tunisia deal, which is now largely credited with the drop in migrant arrivals in 2024, along with a similar agreement with Italy Italy did to Libya in 2017.
Human rights groups have said that migrants found at sea who have been returned to Libya are being subjected to torture and abuse in arbitrary detention.
Nevertheless, Italy's immigration policies have received praise from other European leaders, such as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who in September recommended “amazing progress” in Italy.
Italy's latest tactic to reduce migration collapsed last fall, when Meloni struck a deal with Albania that would see up to 36,000 asylum seekers sent directly to the country outside the EU each year. a year to wait for deportation, only to be denied by the Italian courts. verifying the movement of migrants.
The plan is now on hold due to disagreements about what constitutes a safe country, although Meloni promised in December to continue with the project.
Experts say that without meaningful change, accidents in the Mediterranean will continue.
“Until we strengthen the search and rescue operations, until we create safe and legal routes for children to travel to Europe, we are going to see more people die,” said Dell'Arciprete. “And yes that's a simple fact.”
At least 59 migrants have died after a boat capsized off the coast of Italy with up to 200 people on board. Many of the dead were children. The tragedy has drawn the issue of irregular and dangerous migration routes back into the spotlight.
