Record-breaking disembarkment in the first month of 2014

Record-breaking disembarkment in the first month of 2014: 5.6 thousands already landed in Italia

Within the same time frame in 2013, they were only 476 of them.

Form the beginning of the year up to March the 4th, 2014, 5.6 thousand of foreigners disembarked in Itlay, 94% of whom set off from Libya and 98% landed of Sicilian shores. They are mainly from Mali, Gambia, Somalia, Senegal, Syria and Eritrea. They however account for half of the arrivals. The range of nationalities of the new arrivees is therefore much wider. From January the 1st, 2013 to March the 4th, 2013, only 476; i.e. one twelfth of the figure for the same period of the beginning of this year. The exponential increase of last winter’s disembarkment may be due, in part, to the clement temperature, peculiarly mild.
By March the 4th, 2014, the Italian CDAs, CARAs and CPSAs were taking care of 10 thousands new arrives: 3.9 thousands in Catania (Mineo); 1.5-1.6 thousands in Crotone and Bari; and 469 in the Identification and Expulsion Centres.

Tragedies in the Mediterranean

News agencies counted 20 thousand death in the space of the last 20 years. However more than 1800 died in the strait of Sicily only for the year 2011. The recent tragedies of 2013 may well replicate such figure for the year in course. The International Organisation for Migration estimates the number of death to revolve around 25 thousands from 1993 to today, with an increase in the last two years.

Considering the “ghost travels”, death at sea are “relatively few” in Italy compared to disembarked: one death for every 75 passengers for the Tunisian route but one for every 17 for the Libyan route. But these figures do not take account of daily tragedies regarding persons, families and communities. It is worth noting that unauthorized entries by sea account for about one tenth of irregular arrivals in Italy and proves to be negligible when compared to the migratory phenomenon itself, 5 million people in Italy. To put it differently, the question of disembarkation is to be understood in terms of “security” and to be considered of the utmost importance as human lives are at stake. In the same manner, considering (also) security, the much bigger phenomenon of irregular stay ought to be contextualised; those that survived the tragedies at sea represent a modest minority of irregular arrivals in Italy (and Europe), and a very small share of the 5 million migrants in total: families, youngsters, workers, employers, regular migrants, unemployed, and others in difficulty, stricken by the crisis.