Rescue workers carry the body of a dead person after a boat with 35 migrants from the Maghreb region capsized in the beach of Orzola, in the Canary Island of Lanzarote, Spain, November 25, 2020. REUTERS/Borja Suarez/File Photo
More than 3,000 refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers died or went missing last year while attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean and Atlantic water routes, according to a United Nations refugee agency report released on Friday.
UNHCR’s Shabia Mantoo told a news briefing in Geneva the 2021 figure represented nearly twice the number of lives lost in the previous year.
“We are seeing the increases soar,” she said. “It’s alarming.”
