By Hafsa Mursal
UN officials estimate that 1,600 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean this year alone, with Europe as the main gateway for migrants trying to enter the continent, with the help of smugglers.
The death toll is higher than last year, but there is no big difference in number when compared.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that 23,000 people have died since 2014 while trying to cross the Mediterranean in poor quality or plastic boats, bringing the death toll to more than 5,000 in the year 2016.
During the same seven-year period, about 166 people died on the English-French Island on the English Channel.
Last week alone, 85 people died in the sea between Italy and Libya in two separate accidents there, according to Flavio di Giacomo, IOM spokesman in Italy.
He said the reason the media’s attention was about the accident between the UK and France that killed at least 30 migrants was the proximity, and that such incidents had previously taken place only on outside the borders of Europe.
