1988 - 2008: at least 13,341 deaths at the borders of Europe
f e - 04.01.2009 09:43
13,341 people have died since 1988 along the european frontiers. Among them 5,131 were missing in the sea. (these are only deaths that were recorded by press agencies, the real number is not known but is certanly higher.)
In the Mediterranean sea, and through the Atlantic Ocean towards Spain, 9,409 migrants died. In the Sicily channel 3,128 people died along the routes from Libya, Egypt and Tunisia to Malta and Italy, including 2,051 missing; 125 other people drowned sailing from Algeria to Sardinia. Along the routes from Mauritania, Morocco and Algeria towards Spain, through the Gibraltar strait or off Canary islands, at least 4,349 people died, including 2,215 who were missing. Then 1.066 people died in the Egean sea, between Turkey and Greece, including 592 missing, and 603 people died in the Adriatic sea, between Albania, Montenegro and Italy, including 220 missing. And at least 624 people were drowned trying to reach French island of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean. But the sea is not only crossed aboard makeshift boats. Sailing hidden inside registered ferries and cargo vessels 152 men died asphyxiated or drowned.
Sahara is a dangerous obliged passage in order to arrive to the sea. People cross it on trucks as on off-road vehicle along the tracks between Sudan, Chad, Niger and Mali from one side and Libya and Algeria on the other one. Here at least 1,677 people have died since 1996. But according to the survivors, nearly every travel counts its victims. So the number of the victims could be higher and higher. The data includes also the victims of the collective deportations practiced by Tripoli, Algeri and Rabat Governments, accustomed to abandon groups of hundreds migrants in open desert border areas.
In Libya serious migrants abuses are also recorded. There is not any official data, but in 2006 Human rights watch and Afvic accused Tripoli of arbitrary arrests, beatings and tortures in the migrants detention centers, three of which are financed by Italy. In september 2000 in Zawiyah, in the north-west of the Country, at least 560 foreigners were killed during racist putsches
Travelling stowaways in the trucks 352 people were found dead. And 208 migrants drowned crossing border rivers, the majority in the Oder-Neisse, between Poland and Germany; in the Evros, between Turkey and Greece; the Sava, between Hroatia and Bosnia; and the Morava between Slovakia and Czech Republic. Then 112 other people froze to death in their tracks through the icy mountains frontiers, especially in Turkey and Greece. In the Greek border with Turkey there are still mine-fields along Evros river. Here at least 92 people died over the mines trying to enter Grece.
207 migrants were shot dead by border police: 35 of them were killed in Ceuta and Melilla Spanish enclaves in Morocco, 50 ones in The Gambia, 55 in Egypt and 32 in the eastern Turkey, along the Iranian and the Iraqi borders. But few people were also killed by French, German, Spanish and Swiss policemen . And others died in Morocco and Libya. Then 41 men were found dead hidden in the undercarriage of the planes, and 27 people died in Calais, or under the trains in The Channel tunnel trying to reach England, while other 12 people died under other trains in different borders and 2 drowned crossing the Channel
 http://fortresseurope.blogspot.com/2006/01/fortress-europe.html
See also:
http://www.noborder.org/dead.php
Fortress Europe
Homepage: http://fortresseurope.blogspot.com/2006/01/fortress-europe.html
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