\n\tBut experts have said refugees and migrants continue to face deadly \nrisks and warned against interpreting the number as a positive \ndevelopment, Al Jazeera News reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tIn January 2019, 216 people died, 243 in 2018; 254 in 2017; 370 in \n2016; 82 in 2015 and 12 in 2014, according to the International \nOrganization for Migration (IOM).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\t“The numbers of people drowning has dropped but there is no cause for \ncelebration,” Maria Serrano, Amnesty International’s senior campaigner \non migration, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tShe said thousands of migrants and refugees remain “trapped” in \ndetention centers in Libya and suffer abuse including torture, extortion\n and sexual violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tThey are unable to attempt the crossing, while those who do manage to \nescape are often “intercepted” by the Libyan coastguard, which receives \ntraining and equipment from the European Union as the bloc attempts to \nstop migration to Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tIn January, the Libyan coastguard intercepted about 1,000 people and \nreturned them, according to UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\t“People are exposed to the same dangers,” Serrano said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tThere are more than 630,000 migrants and refugees in Libya, and 6,000 in official detention centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tJudith Sunderland, associate director for Europe and Central Asia at \nHuman Rights Watch, said the lower number of deaths could also be \nattributed in part to search and rescue efforts by NGOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\t“You have more NGOs performing search-and-rescue operations in the \ncentral Mediterranean right now than in years past,” she told Al \nJazeera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\t“In January 2019, for example, major rescue organizations like SOS \nMediterranee, Sea-Watch, and Open Arms were blocked in ports because of \njudicial or administrative proceedings. So I think a main lesson here is\n that if European governments really care about saving lives in the \nMediterranean, they shouldn’t obstruct or criminalize civilian rescue \ngroups.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tSOS Mediterranee operates Ocean Viking, a rescue ship, along with Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tBetween January 24 and 26, 407 people were rescued by the ship, including 132 aged below 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tThe Malta navy picked up scores of others and took them to the small island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\t“It is very difficult to accurately count the number of people who are \ndrowning in the Mediterranean,” an MSF spokesperson told Al Jazeera. “A \nLibyan coastguard official estimated in an interview with Der Spiegel in\n August 2019, that half of the boats departing from Libya sink \nundetected and without survivors.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tAs well as widely reported abuse at detention centers in Libya, the \nconflict there threatens to endanger migrants and refugees further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\t“It was illegal to return survivors rescued at sea to Libya before the \nfighting, and it remains illegal today,” said the MSF spokesperson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tWhile most refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean tend to \ncome from Libya, via the Central Mediterranean route, almost all of \nthose who died in January lost their lives on the Eastern Mediterranean \nroute \u2014 attempting to cross from Turkey to Greece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\t“The death toll in the Eastern Mediterranean is very alarming. Of the \noverall total dead in the Mediterranean, 63 died attempting to cross \nfrom Turkey to Greece in one month. In all of 2019, a total of 71 died \nin the Eastern Mediterranean. So a big question is, why are so many more\n people dying in the Eastern Mediterranean?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tThe EU-Turkey deal in March 2016 effectively closed the Eastern \nMediterranean route, but more people have recently been attempting to \ncross from Turkey, which hosts the world’s largest refugee population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tIn 2019, at least 1,866 people died while attempting to cross the \nMediterranean, a 23 percent drop from the year before and the lowest \nsince 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the first month of 2020, at least 70 people drowned in the Mediterranean while attempting the perilous journey to Europe, the lowest level since 2014, the start of the refugee crisis. But experts have said refugees and migrants continue to face deadly risks and warned against interpreting the number as a positive development, Al […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,4,7],"tags":[639,1007,1006],"yoast_head":"\n