- Russia mulls ban on 'childless propaganda'
- Blackwater founder probed by Venezuela over anti-Maduro campaign
- Crypto CEO and Bankman-Fried ex Caroline Ellison gets two-year sentence
- Hezbollah announces death of commander after strike on south Beirut
- Tatum hungry for more after breakthrough Celtics success
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs sued for alleged 2001 rape
- Biden pleads for democracy in emotional UN farewell
- New York area port prepares for possible US strike disruption
- Rodri 'irreplaceable' but Guardiola confident Man City will still compete
- Brook 'relieved' as maiden ODI hundred sets up first win as England captain
- Dior's arrows and Amazons as Saint Laurent revives its master
- Mbappe strikes again as Madrid hold off Alaves
- Nkunku hits Chelsea hat-trick, Man City edge into League Cup last 16
- Amnesty calls for commission to probe Kenya protest deaths
- Bolivian government rejects Morales ultimatum for cabinet reshuffle
- US Congress calls on Novo Nordisk to lower drug prices
- Stock markets advance on China stimulus
- Russia 'can only be forced into peace," Zelensky tells UN
- Hundred hero Brook keeps England alive in Australia ODI series
- Biden pleads for democracy in final UN address
- Brook's hundred sees England beat Australia in 3rd ODI
- Alarm grows as Israel and Hezbollah exchange intense fire
- NFL legend Favre reveals Parkinson's diagnosis
- Biden urges world to 'stop arming generals' in Sudan
- Defying experts, Trump vows tariff-driven US economic boom
- Stokes open to England white-ball return
- No peak oil demand 'on the horizon', phaseout a 'fantasy': OPEC
- Sri Lanka's new leftist leader dissolves parliament, calls snap polls
- England scrum-half Mitchell to see specialist on neck injury
- Under-pressure Masood to lead Pakistan in England Tests
- Storm Helene on track to hit Florida as major hurricane
- IOC should reinstate Russia as soon it obeys rules: Samaranch
- Dior unleashes arrows and Amazons at Paris Fashion Week
- San Siro loses 2027 Champions League final due to uncertain future
- Canada's Trudeau faces no-confidence vote
- AI research uncovers 300 ancient etchings in Peru's Nazca desert
- Brazil's Lula calls Security Council makeup 'unacceptable'
- Alarm grows as Israel launches new 'extensive' strikes on Lebanon
- Carey blasts Australia to 304-7 against England in 3rd ODI
- Biden warns against clinging to power in UN farewell
- Alarm grows as Israel launches new strikes on Lebanon
- Biden warns at UN against 'full-scale war' over Lebanon
- 'Monumental step' as Thai king signs same-sex marriage into law
- French lake still riddled with bombs 80 years after World War II
- Alberta Ferretti quits as creative director at brand she founded
- Two killed in Mexico as Hurricane John weakens to tropical storm
- Multiple arrests after US woman uses machine-assisted suicide in Switzerland
- Dubois will next fight Joshua or Usyk, 'whoever pays me the most'
- Stock markets surge on China stimulus
- Lopetegui ready to learn from mistakes as Liverpool loom in League Cup
Over 3,000 Europe-bound migrants lost at sea in 2021: UN
More than 3,000 people died in the Mediterranean and Atlantic while trying to reach Europe last year -- double the toll from 2020, the United Nations said Friday.
A fresh report from the UN refugee agency demanded urgent action to combat surging deaths among refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants trying to reach Europe.
Last year, a total of 3,077 people were lost while trying to cross the Mediterranean and Atlantic routes to the continent, the report showed, up from 1,544 in 2020.
"Alarmingly, since the beginning of the year, an additional 478 people have also died or gone missing at sea," UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo told reporters in Geneva.
The report showed that for 2021, 1,924 people were reported dead or missing on the Central and Western Mediterranean routes, while another 1,153 perished on the North African maritime route to the Canary Islands.
"Most of the sea crossings took place in packed, unseaworthy, inflatable boats, many of which capsized or were deflated leading to the loss of life," Mantoo said.
The sea journey from countries on the West African coast such as Mauritania and Senegal to the Canary Islands was particularly perilous, she said, pointing out that the crossing could take up to 10 days.
"Many boats drifted off course or otherwise went missing without trace in these waters," she said.
- 'Litany of abuses' -
The increase in deaths at sea came amid a surge in the number of crossings.
The UNHCR report showed that 53,323 migrants arrived by boat in Italy last year -- an 83-percent-hike over 2020.
And 23,042 arrived in the Canary Islands, nearly the same number as a year earlier, it said.
The report also noted a 61-percent hike in departures from Tunisia compared to 2020, while departures from conflict-torn Libya shot up 150 percent.
They took the Central Mediterranean route, which is the world's deadliest.
More than 17,000 people have died or gone missing along this route since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Sea crossings are meanwhile not the only dangers perilous parts of many migrants' journeys.
The UNHCR cautioned that land routes were also "highly dangerous".
"Even greater numbers may have died on journeys through the Sahara desert and remote border areas, in detention centres, or while in the captivity of smugglers or traffickers," Mantoo said.
Migrants along all of these routes face a "litany of abuses", she said, pointing to "extrajudicial killings, unlawful and arbitrary detention, sexual and gender-based violence, forced labour, slavery (and) forced marriage."
UNHCR warned that the coronavirus pandemic and related border closures had complicated movement further and had forced more desperate refugees and migrants to turn to smugglers to make their perilous journeys.
It also said political instability, conflict and climate change could increase such dangerous displacement going forward.
Alongside the release of its report, the UN refugee agency launched an appeal for $163.5 million to help provide protection and solutions for refugees and others travelling along the dangerous routes to Europe.
"UNHCR is appealing for support to help provide meaningful alternatives to these dangerous journeys and prevent people from becoming victims of traffickers," Mantoo said.
D.Schneider--BTB