A recent spate of Mediterranean Sea tragedies along all three migratory routes has lifted the toll of confirmed fatalities in 2019 to 994 men, women and children, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) revealed on Tuesday. An incident off Morocco this past weekend remains not fully accounted for. IOM is trying to confirm reports of as many as 40 migrants lost in that shipwreck, IOM spokesperson Joel Millman said at a United Nations briefing here Tuesday. Fatalities this year will thus top 1,000, and 2019 will mark the sixth straight year IOM has recorded at least 1,000 deaths in the waters separating Europe from Africa and the Middle East. IOMs Missing Migrants Project reported earlier that as of Sept. 29 this year, 659 migrants or refugees had perished on the Central Mediterranean route linking the coasts of Africa to Italian territorial waters. That is almost two-thirds of the total number of Mediterranean deaths recorded in 2019. Another 66 victims had been reported on the Mediterraneans eastern route, linking Turkey and Syrian coasts to waters off Greece and Cyprus. IOM reported another 269 deaths in the waters between North Africa and Spain. At least 18,000 people have lost their lives in Mediterranean crossings since 2014, according to the UNs International Organization for Migration.
