Over 9,000 Migrants Have Died Trying To Reach Spain Since 1988 - IOM

At least 9,100 people have lost their lives trying to reach Spain since the first shipwreck on migration routes was documented in November 1988, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th June, 2021) At least 9,100 people have lost their lives trying to reach Spain since the first shipwreck on migration routes was documented in November 1988, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday.

"More than 9,100 people are known to have died on irregular migration routes to Spain since 1988," the IOM said.

The deaths of 3,602 people have been recorded from 2014-2020 alone: 2,216 occurred on the western Mediterranean route and 1,386 on the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands. However, the real number remains unknown since many deaths and disappearances have never been registered, especially when they occur in remote areas or at sea, the UN agency noted.

The organization has demographic data of only one-third of the 3,602 victims: 711 men, 255 women, and 82 children.

The cause of 91% of these deaths was drowning, with only 28% of the bodies recovered.

The IOM recommends creating an agency for the families of those who disappeared, even though Spain has what the organization says is a solid legal and institutional framework for migration governance.

Since 2014, the IOM's Missing Migrants Project has documented the death and disappearance of more than 42,000 people on migration routes around the world, which took the total of such cases since 1996 to at least 85,000.

In May, Spain saw an unprecedented number of migrants swimming around border barriers installed in the sea to cross into its north African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco.