Numerous incidents of migrant boats capsizing or migrants being seized trying to reach safe harbour have been recorded in the past week. Many were fleeing conflict zones or poor economic conditions, but not all have survived the difficult journey to safe harbour.
Spanish Regions
Over the weekend (7-8 November 2020), more than 20 boats were intercepted, either rescued at sea or having reached Spain’s Canary Islands, carrying over 1,600 migrants from African countries. This follows a sharp increase in the number of migrants making the journey, as the Canary Islands are 60 miles off the coast of North Africa. The Spanish government reports more than 11,000 arrivals in the Canary Islands over the past year, a huge increase in comparison to the 2,557 arrivals in the same period a year before. The large majority from this weekend arrived in Gran Canaria, Tenerife and El Hierro, and one person who tragically died was recovered by rescuers. According to the International Migrant Association (IOM), at least 414 people are known to have died along this route so far this year, almost double the figure of 210 deaths during the entirety of 2019.
Two other autonomous Spanish enclaves on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, Melilla and Ceuta, also reported migrant deaths last week. Moroccans are one in ten of the migrants who successfully cross into Melilla, and eight of ten of those who make it to Ceuta. On 6 November 2020, it was reported that four Moroccan migrants died trying to reach Melilla via a sewer tunnel. Three of the men had died by the time they were discovered, and the fourth later died in hospital. Moroccon authorities are launching an investigation into the incident.
Migrants attempt to enter Melilla and Ceuta by sea or by scaling barbed wire border fences, making it a difficult and dangerous trek. From January 2020 to October 2020, approximately 2,000 migrants managed to enter the enclaves by land or sea, around 72% of them in Melilla. This, however, is a decline in successful crossings, as in 2019 there were 70% more arrivals in the same period. This may be because of overcrowding inside refuge centres in Melilla, the UNHCR and IOM report.
Fleeing conflict
Forced displacement is one of the primary reasons that see increases in migration, as many people are fleeing conflict zones or war torn countries.
More than 40 migrants fleeing violence in Mozambique are feared dead after a boat sank in the Indian Ocean, just north of Cabo Delgado’s provincial capital Pemba. At least 70 people were on board when the boat sank on 29 October 2020, many of whom were children. Only two children are reported to have survived.
According to IOM, tens of thousands have sought refuge from Mozambique’s three year Islamist insurgency, which has seen over 660 attacks since 2017 and 2,000 people killed. Overall, more than 400,000 people have been displaced from Cabo Delgado province, one of the country’s poorest regions. In the past three weeks alone, more than 13,000 people have fled the region. The government of Mozambique has struggled to effectively deal with the conflict, with insurgents now controlling a strategic port close to Mozambique’s natural gas fields.
Mozambique is just one conflict ridden country that has seen a significant amount of its population flee and attempt to seek refuge elsewhere.
The UNHCR’S 2019 review found that 79.5 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of violence, persecution, conflict or human rights violations. From this, 40% were children below 18 years of age.
There were 2 million new claims to asylum, but only 107,800 refugees were resettled in 26 countries. Syrians constitute the largest forcibly displaced population worldwide, with 13.2 million people displaced, including 6.6 million refugees. Turkey currently hosts the most worldwide, with 92% of their 3.9 million refugees coming from Syria.
On 6 November, Czech police authorities intercepted a Turkish truck carrying 48 migrants presumed to be from Syria. 47 men and one woman were found, who said they were Syrian and trying to reach Germany or the Netherlands. Stopped on the motorway, customs officers detected them after an X-ray scan of the truck.
This is not an isolated incident, but is part of a wave of recent truck discoveries. On 4 November 2020, Italian police discovered four migrants hidden in the back of a lorry travelling from Slovenia to the north of Italy. This came a day after a smuggler and six migrants were stopped in Italy’s Friuli Venezia Giulia region. Earlier this month, a group of migrants were freed after being found trapped in a truck with little air to breath on a motorway in western Germany.
As the decade-long conflict continues to cause destruction in Syria, the number of refugees trying to find safety will be persistent.
Many have reached a breaking point. Also on 6 November 2020, a Syrian refugee tragically set himself ablaze outside of the UN refugee agency in the Bir Hassan area of Beirut. The UNHCR’s Lebanese Twitter account tweeted news of the incident, and that the victim was “rescued immediately and taken to hospital, where he is receiving necessary medical care.” The identity of the man remains private. Shortly after the incident occured, a group of Syrian refugees gathered in front of the UNHCR office and called for improved living conditions. The country hosts 1.5 million Syrians, as a neighbour to Syria. As Lebanon has experienced an economic crisis over the last year, Covid-19, and a deadly port blast this August which left over 300,000 people internally displaced, the conditions for Syrian refugees continues to be in desperate need of help. At least 34 of the 200 people killed in the blast were refugees.
Covid-19 affects
The global pandemic has also affected migrants and the ability to find safe routes to other countries. Lockdowns and travel restrictions implemented in many countries have restricted mobility and in some countries closed borders entirely. Many countries have suspended their refugee resettlement programs whilst trying to manage the virus. The UK has suspended its Refugee Resettlement Scheme, currently the only safe and legal way for refugees to enter the country, since 12 March 2020. There were plans for more than 600 refugees to arrive in the UK that were blocked, according to Refugee Action. One Syrian family, who spoke to the Independent, were due to come to the UK in March but were told a few days before that they can no longer do so and are subsequently stuck in Lebanon with little hope of leaving. They are in a difficult financial situation, having sold everything thinking that they were moving to the UK, only to be abandoned at the last minute. The UNHCR reports that at least 11 of the 23 resettlement countries have begun receiving refugees again, but the UK is not one of them.
See IOHR’s Bayt UK HERE