国际英语新闻:Spotlight: Journey has become more desperate for migrants across Mediterranean

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Compared with 2015 when the European migrant crisis started, the journey has become even more desperate for migrants to cross the Mediterranean Sea and settle in Europe due to polices in countries of both origin and destination.

A United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report entitled "Desperate Journeys" was released earlier Wednesday, with numbers, trends and root causes of migrants' trips across the Mediterranean in 2018.

It registered 139,300 refugees and migrant arrivals at European shores in 2018, the lowest number in five years.

Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams, UNHCR's New York-based communication officer, said this is more of an indication that it has become harder for people to flee and find safe access to asylum, rather than that there are fewer problems for people to flee from.

RISING DEATH TOLL

The report showed a sharp increase in the number of deaths at sea. An estimated 2,275 people, or six a day, died or went missing crossing the Mediterranean in 2018, making it the world's deadliest sea crossing.

Shifts in policy by some European states left large numbers of people stranded at sea for days on end, waiting for permission to dock. Moreover, NGO boats and their crews faced growing restrictions on their search and rescue operations, the report said.

On routes from Libya to Europe, one person died at sea for every 14 who arrived in Europe, which marks a sharp rise from 2017.

Meanwhile, for the first time in recent years, Spain became the primary entry point to Europe through the enclaves in Ceuta and Melilla. In total, 58,600 people successfully crossed the perilous western Mediterranean, while the death toll nearly quadrupled from 202 in 2017 to 777.

Ghedini-Williams underscored a very high frequency of unaccompanied or separated children on these journeys.

"Of the arrivals to Spain, about 5,500 were children traveling on their own. It shows the level of hopelessness that families are feeling that they are continuing to send their children alone on these very perilous journeys," she said.

RUNNING OUT OF OPTIONS

Ghedini-Williams cited the limited capacity of rescue and search operations, blockages at home and on the sea, and decreasing hospitality in European countries as a few of the many obstacles that the migrants face.

She singled out Libya when speaking of domestic restrictive measures, saying the UNHCR is "dealing with not only lack of capacity of rescue and search missions at sea, but actual blockages of these missions ... by NGOs and other bodies (of Libya)."

In addition, she said because of prolonged or prohibited disembarkation, a lot of asylum seekers and potential refugees or migrants are being returned to Libya "where they're being detained in facilities that have absolutely deplorable conditions."

On the other end of the journeys, Ghedini-Williams said rather than more options and chances for migrants to seek a safe and dignified form of movement in 2015, "we are seeing more blockages, more discouraging policies in place."

She said many countries that used to emphasize family reunification are now denying migrants opportunities to be reunified with their families as well as community-based sponsorship and labor programs.

"We're really underlining to the EU the need for regional and coordinated mechanism for the processing of asylum seekers, as well as fair and shared responsibility of caring for those who are fleeing violence and persecution," she said.

Only about 23,400 refugees and migrants arrived in Italy in 2018, a fivefold decrease compared to the previous year, and "that's more of a reflection of the deterrent and unwelcoming policies and communal sentiment that people (migrants) are facing," Ghedini-Williams said.

Greece received some 32,500 sea arrivals compared to 30,000 in 2017, but saw a near threefold increase in the number of people arriving via its land border with Turkey.

Elsewhere in Europe, Bosnia and Herzegovina recorded some 24,000 arrivals as refugees and migrants transited through the Western Balkans; Cyprus received several boats carrying Syrian refugees from Lebanon while Britain witnessed small numbers crossing from France towards the end of 2018.