At least 17 Ukrainians have died trying to escape the war, according to the UN

MADRID, 25 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

At least 17 Ukrainians have died while trying to escape the war unleashed in their country by the Russian invasion in February, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which has taken stock of the tragedies associated with migration to Europe and also within of the borders of the continent.

The United Nations estimates that there are more than 7.7 million Ukrainian refugees scattered across Europe, the result of the most sudden exodus since World War II.

The count of Ukrainian victims, which the IOM does not detail, is part of a report in which the UN agency estimates that more than 29,000 migrants and refugees have died since 2014. It fears that the real number is higher, in the to the extent that there are cases that are not even known.

Since the beginning of 2021 alone, at least 5,684 people have perished, of which 2,836 correspond to the central Mediterranean. This route already accumulates more deaths than those verified between 2019 and 2020, when the IOM confirmed 2,262 deaths.

For the organization, another focus that highlights the upturn in migration is the route that connects West Africa with the Canary Islands, unprecedented since records exist. At least 1,532 people have died in the period analyzed, according to the IOM, which however recalls that the NGO Walking Borders estimates that there were more than 4,000 deaths in 2021 alone, based on its own balances and taking into account dozens of "invisible" boats, which disappear without a trace.

The deaths have also risen on the land border between Turkey and Greece (126), in the Western Balkans (69), in the English Channel (53) and on the borders of Belarus with EU countries (23), according to the IOM, which detects structural flaws in Europe's policies.

For the report's author, Julia Black, these figures "are yet another dire reminder that more legal and safe pathways for migration are desperately needed." In fact, at least 252 people have died as a result of hot pushbacks since the beginning of last year, mostly in the Mediterranean.

Experts have been able to confirm more than 50 nationalities among the victims of migration, but lack information on the origin of more than 17,000 people who have died since 2014, despite the fact that the IOM considers it a key detail to understand the entire context.

In the case of the Mediterranean, the nationality of 7 percent of the migrants and refugees who died in areas already close to the European coast is hardly known. The figure rises to 30 percent if those who died in waters closer to North Africa are examined.

In general terms, Syria leads the list of origin of the deceased migrants since 2014, above Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali and Sudan.