Luxembourg, 09/07/2015(Agence Europe) - On Thursday 9 July, in a press release, the NGO, Amnesty International, highlighted the positive effects of the Mediterranean Sea rescue missions that are being carried out with the Frontex agency, following the sinkings last April. Amnesty International has observed a strong decrease in the number of deaths of migrants attempting to make the crossing over the past two months.
The NGO says that this decrease in the number of deaths highlights to what extent these search and rescue missions at sea are important. Before the introduction of these emergency measures decided on 23 April during the Special Summit on Immigration, the death rate stood at 1 in16. It has now fallen to 1 in 427 over the course of the past two months, pointed out the NGO, when “search and rescue operations at sea” were increased. 99 people have, nonetheless, died since the end of April, highlighted the NGO.
The significant fall in the number of fatal crossings has occurred at a time when the number of people attempting to get into the EU has not, paradoxically, ceased to increase since the end of April, explains Amnesty.
The NGO says that the consequences are “obvious”, we need “more resources for search and rescue missions” and for operations in this connection not to be scaled down. During the first months of 2015, 1,721 people died trying to cross the Mediterranean, explained Amnesty, almost 1,200 of these died in a single week in April.
On 23 April, European leaders decided to triple the resources for the Triton operation and extend its scope of operations. Triton took over from the Italian Mare Nostrum operation. (Solenn Paulic)