GENEVA – The United Nations and its partners say more migrants and refugees in Africa are heading north to the Mediterranean and Europe, crossing dangerous routes in the Sahara, where criminal gangs subject them to slavery, organ removal, rape , kidnapping for ransom and other abuses.
A report released Friday by the UN migration and refugee agencies and the Joint Migration Center research group estimated that land routes in Africa are twice as deadly as sea routes through the Mediterranean. deadliest for migrants in the world.
The report states that new conflicts and instability in countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Sudan are causing the increase in the number of trips towards the Mediterranean. But Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Guinea were the main countries of origin for migrants.
It comes at a time when many politicians in Europe and the rest of the world, in an important election year, have incited or gained support from anti-immigrant sentiment. But conflict, economic strife, repression and the impact of climate change in many countries in the developing world have nevertheless fueled the flow of migrants across borders – with the risk of physical abuse and death.
“Refugees and migrants increasingly cross into areas where insurgent groups, militias and other criminal actors operate, and where human trafficking, kidnapping for ransom, forced labor and sexual exploitation are rife,” according to a summary of the report, which follows a similar study four years ago.
The authors admit that there are no comprehensive statistics on deaths on land routes in Africa. But the refugee agency UNHCR cited more than tripling the number of refugees and asylum seekers in Tunisia – a key transit country for migrants hoping to reach Europe – between 2020 and 2023.
The report aimed to highlight the dangers of land routes leading to the Mediterranean, which was crossed by more than 72,000 migrants and refugees in the first half of this year and where 785 people died or went missing during those six months, according to UNHCR. figures.
UNHCR special envoy Vincent Cochetel, citing reports from some migrants and refugees who survived, said some smugglers dump sick people from pickup trucks transporting them across the desert, or do not return to rescue others who fall.
“Everyone who crossed the Sahara can tell you about people they know who died in the desert, while you interview people on Lampedusa: not many people will tell you about people they know who…died at sea,” he said, alluding to an Italian island in the Mediterranean.
The UN International Organization for Migration reported at the beginning of this year that more than 3,100 people died crossing the Mediterranean last year.
The authors of the report, which included testimonies from more than 31,000 people, stated that international action has been inadequate and pointed to “huge gaps” in the protection and help of people making this dangerous journey.
“In total, 1,180 people are known to have died while crossing the Sahara Desert in the period from January 2020 to May 2024, but the number is believed to be much higher,” he said.
The risk of sexual violence, abduction and death was reported by higher percentages of migrants questioned for the report compared to previously in 2020, and Algeria, Libya and Ethiopia were considered by respondents to be the most dangerous.
The teams recorded hundreds of cases of organ removal – a practice that has been happening for years, Cochetel said. Sometimes migrants agree to these removals as a way to earn money.
“But most of the time, people are drugged and the organ is removed without their consent: they wake up and a kidney is missing,” he said.
Libya has emerged as a main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. In March, authorities discovered a mass grave containing the bodies of at least 65 migrants in the deserts of western Libya.
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